Bolton Connecticut
A Place That Time Forgot? by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, June 1999) The recent state documentation of the Revolutionary Road and campsite in Bolton has uncovered a map, never before published, which shows Bolton’s main roads several years before the Revolutionary War. It clearly shows the road from Hartford … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, April 1999) This past month, the Bolton library provided me with a five-volume collection of letters to and from the Marquis de Lafayette. From these letters, I could verify that Lafayette was in Bolton on five occasions, and that General James Mitchell Varnam and … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, February 1999) In colonial times, Bolton residents maintained the town roads in front of their houses just as today people who live in cities must clear the snow from their sidewalks. The main road through Bolton in those days was the one we now … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, October 1998) Connecticut has a unique history of government. In 1636 Thomas Hooker led the first Connecticut settlers from Massachusetts through Bolton to finally settle in Hartford. Finding themselves without a charter, they established a set of laws, the Fundamental Orders. At their first … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, June 1998) This past month I uncovered a baffling bit of Bolton’s history—baffling because its importance makes it difficult to understand why it has been forgotten. I found the record of General Washington’s visit to Bolton in “Washington’s Travels in New England: A Chronological … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, April 1998.) Abraham Lincoln said that we cannot escape history—sometimes I wonder if I’m being pursued by it. At a post-Christmas party, I was introduced to Mike Foley, owner of the Foley Baker organ company located at 1212 Boston Turnpike in Bolton. Mike told … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, October 1997) The first route in Bolton was the Mohegan Indian trail along the Hop River that went through the Notch. The early settlement road entered Bolton through Bailey Road, and Brandy Street, and exited on Center Road. During the Revolution this road was … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in Bolton Community News, August 1997) Bolton Notch mountain forms the watershed divide for three rivers, and at its top, suspended some 60 feet above the Bolton Notch shopping center, there is a pond. A well-worn path wends its way around the pond lined with thin bands of high-bush … Read more
Historic Legislation, 1997 by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, February 1997) State Representative Pam Sawyer will soon introduce a bill to identify the location of the original historic route, military encampments and historic homes in Connecticut that existed during the American Revolution, and list the route with the National Register … Read more
by Hans DePold, town historian (Published in the Bolton Community News, December 1996) It’s time to set the record straight! It’s time to admit that it was we who shocked the French, and not the other way around. When the French army of Rochambeau came to fight for American independence, its soldiers sported more ribbons … Read more