Great Nation-State – True tale of Connecticut's two oldest towns
- Today Magazine Online
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
• Connecticut's Oldest Municipality Birthed Oldest Farmington Valley Town
• News-Commentary – Great State Intel • History Highlights • Valley Intel
By Bruce William Deckert
Editor-in-Chief
Today Magazine Online
As the United States prepares for a massive 250th birthday party this Fourth of July, let's play a Did You Know game.
ESPN's signature SportsCenter news-and-highlight show has featured a segment titled Did You Know — let's convert this popular segment into a Did You Know game connected to Connecticut history.
Here we go: Did you know that Connecticut's oldest municipality and one of its key spin-off towns predate the nation's Independence Day by a collective 249 years? And that the spin-off town possesses its own age-related distinction in the Constitution State? And a further question: Has any media outlet ever before noted this noteworthy factoid?
The first two questions in the preceding paragraph are essentially answerable and are cold hard facts, according to CT.gov, the state's official website. Meanwhile, the third appears to be unanswerable. So common sense prescribes addressing those two answerable queries — shall we?
Connecticut's oldest municipality is Windsor. The town was settled in 1633 and named in 1637 after the market town in England that is the site of Windsor Castle, a historic residence of the British royal family.
What about the spin-off town that owns an age-related distinction in the Constitution State? The definitive answer — Simsbury, nestled in Connecticut's Farmington Valley. Simsbury's distinction: This suburban-and-bucolic locale northwest of Hartford, the state's capital city, was established in 1670 and remains the Valley's oldest town.
• Simsbury – A Short History
Indeed, once upon a time, in a colony called Connecticut, a town was founded. That time was May 12, 1670, and that town was Simmsbury — yes, with a double-m.
If you surmise that this old colonial town has become the Simsbury of today — with a single m — you are precisely right and historically correct. And if you calculate that Simsbury is celebrating its 356th anniversary in 2026, the same year that the United States of America marks anniversary No. 250, you are also mathematically correct.
Joshua Holcomb and John Case, the region’s first constable, formally petitioned the colony to establish Simsbury — initially part of Windsor — as an official entity.
Simsbury’s original boundaries encompassed the present-day towns of Granby (founded 1786) and Canton (1806). This distinctive area — a fertile valley defined by the Farmington River after making its peculiar bend north, just west of the Metacomet Ridge — was inhabited by the Massacoe Indians when the first English settlers arrived.
Those settlers called the domain the Massacoh Plantation. But the origin of Simsbury’s name isn’t exactly known since records of the town’s first decade were lost in a 1680 fire. The nomenclature might be derived from the town of Symondsbury in the county of Dorset, England — some early residents came from Dorset — or Simsbury could be the namesake of Simon "Sim" Wolcott, one of the nascent town’s notable men.
For the record, there are five core towns in the Farmington Valley. Besides Simsbury, Granby and Canton: Farmington (founded 1645) is the oldest and Avon (1830, a Farmington spinoff) is the youngest.
In 1831, William Bickford was granted a patent for a safety fuse that revolutionized the use of explosives, and thus began the history of Simsbury as a company town that carries through to this day. The present-day Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Company on Hopmeadow Street is the ancestor of the town-based firm that has changed names over the years while maintaining a reputation for innovation.
A century-plus after Bickford sowed the seeds of a fertile commercial enterprise in town, a teenager from Georgia spent two formative summers working in Simsbury in 1944 and 1947 — and seeds sown here helped shape America’s civil-rights movement, for that teenager was Martin Luther King Jr.
For years, stories circulated about MLK’s visits to town, and in 2010 a group of Simsbury High students produced an award-winning documentary that presented the fruits of their investigative work which proved that King’s tenure in Simsbury not only occurred but also deeply impacted his view of equality and civil rights.
On his seminary application, he wrote, “My call to the ministry … came about in the summer of 1944 [in Simsbury] when I felt an inescapable urge to serve society.”
Countless Simsbury residents have likewise served society and their town with distinction and imperfect flair — given the skills and imperfections common to humanity across the planet — for 350 years. +
• Sources — ConnecticutHistory.org • CT.gov • Simsbury-CT.gov • Simsbury Historical Society website: SimsburyHistory.org • Google search resources
• This article is an updated and enhanced version of a cover story that first appeared in the June 2020 edition of our monthly Today Magazine, in conjunction with coverage of Simsbury's 350th anniversary in May 2020
Related Today News
• Hometown Hero – Civil War heroics merited Medal of Honor
• Ice Harvesting – Cool currency of bygone pre-fridge time
• Birthday Bash – Reborn museum ready for America 250
• History Jubilee – Historical society celebrates 50 years
• Center Stage – Resolving town center controversy
Today Magazine editor-in-chief Bruce Deckert is a multi-award-winning journalist who believes all people merit awards when we leverage our various God-given gifts for good — he previously served as an editor in diverse roles at ESPN Digital Media
Featuring community news that matters nationwide, Today Magazine Online aims to record Connecticut's underreported upside — covering the heart of the Farmington Valley and beyond
Today Publishing produces Today Magazine Online and Today Magazine
• 5 Farmington Valley Towns • 1 Aim — Exceptional Community Journalism
• Avon • Canton • Farmington • Granby • Simsbury • Connecticut • USA
Comments