Town of Windham history

The post office used the name Batavia from about 1801 to 1803. It probably fell into disuse when the town of Batavia in Genesee County, NY was formed on March 30, 1802.

By the time the American Revolution got underway in the 1770s, Connecticut had many churches, not just one – although the Congregational Church would remain the “established church” until 1818.

In 1819 the county seat was moved from Windham to to the more central Brooklyn.

The word Willimantic is the Algonquin Indian term for “land of the swift running water”. Prior to 1821, the village was known as Willimantic Falls and was a single school district where about twenty families resided.

Even further upstream, at the upper falls (soon to be the site of the Bridge Street Bridge), Charles “Deacon” Lee of Windham built a third cotton mill in 1822.

In 1823 the district voted to build a new schoolhouse, to be located on the south side of the Turnpike Road, and the spot selected was near where the west end of the Willimantic Linen Company’s No.

Willimantic was a one-school district up to 1825, and known as the seventh school district of the Windham School Society.

A forge, foundry, and machine shop were located there — all part of George Spafford’s factory (later renamed the Smith and Winchester Company) set up in 1828 to manufacture paper-making machinery.

In the month of October, 1830, the district voted to build a new schoolhouse, dimensions to be 50 feet in length, and 30 feet in width, to be built of stone and to be located on the lot purchased of Gray, Byrnes, & Smith, on the north side of the River Road opposite Shakel Dam.

Windham Villages, 1832-33 (Above): Windham had several other villages besides Windham Centre during the Early Republic.

By 1833 several central place functions had located along the brook that flowed out of Pigeon Swamp and into the Shetucket, taking advantage of the waterpower.

In the month of April, 1837, Phelps & Spafford sold to Col.

The office remained here until 1843, when public convenience seemed to demand a change of locality, and, Gen.

In 1845, Lawson Ives and Austin Dunham, two Hartford businessmen, went into partnership with William Jillson and John Capen to form the Welles Manufacturing Company, which bought the old Richmond cotton mill on the east end of the city.

By 1849, railroads were adding to the growth of Willimantic.

John Henson, son of Revolutionary War soldier William Henson, was appointed postmaster in 1853.

Besides the two mills, in 1855 North Windham had a Congregational Church, a school, a Post Office, a couple of stores, and around a dozen residences.

Quickly outgrowing the small Jillson mill, Dunham and Ives constructed a new, larger gneiss mill next door in 1857, later known as Mill No.

2. The Company had stockpiled cotton before the Civil War (1861-65) and made big profits during the war, when cotton was scarce in the North.

In 1863 the Company erected its massive gneiss Mill No.

In 1864 the Linen Company began construction of the Model Village (also called Iverton, after Lawson Ives, one of the owners of the Linen Company), an extensive neighborhood of company-owned worker row houses across the street from Mill No.

South Windham in 1869 (above): South Windham was larger than North Windham, but smaller than Windham Centre.

The name of the hamlet was shortened to Windham in 1873.

In 1877 The Willimantic Enterprise newspaper started serving the citizens of Windham and surrounding towns.

In 1889 the Willimantic State Normal School opened its doors. (A “normal school” was a school of higher education which women went to after High School to become teachers.) The course of study was two years long.

The above map shows Willimantic in 1897. (Thomas Flynn, surveyor, “Map of the City of Willimantic, Conn.” [Philadelphia: D. L. Miller and Co., 1897].)

1900 — the side entrance on High Street for the Willimantic Police Department portion of the building.

In 1907 the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother Mercy established a small hospital across from Saint Joseph’s Church.

The grand Capital Theater opened downtown in 1926.

By 1929 the hospital was having a problem with too little space and had to start turning people away.

In 1930, during the height of the depression, $500,000.00 was raised, the Vanderman family donated 12 acres of land, and Windham Memorial Community Hospital (now known as Windham Hospital) was established.

In 1932, Edward Thompson researched the locations of Windham’s earliest farm lots.

Windham Historical Society was organized in 1967 for the purpose of preserving the town’s rich historical past and providing opportunities for members of the public to learn about their heritage.

The town of Windham includes the city of Willimantic, which consolidated with Windham upon the dissolution of the city government in 1983.

The American Thread Company, the largest employer in town, left the area in 1985.