Spring 2026: Presentations, A House Tour, and the Future...

I have started to give a few presentations based on my long article for Connecticut History Review. Entitled, "To Provision Washington's Army: 1776 and the Norwich Huntington Group." It is a bit of an awkward title but one that just keeps sticking I guess.

Norwich was a key SAFE supply depot, loyalist prison center, admiralty court, and embarkation destination for thousands of Continental army troops during 1776. Most of the troops and supplies stopped in Norwich to take vessels to Manhattan.

Captain Allen Ingraham did the most identified supply "runs" to Manhattan in 1776 based on data from the Joshua Huntington Papers at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. Here he has stated that he will deliver 500 pairs of shoes in two chests to Quartermaster Thomas Mifflin, "danger of the seas...excepted" Source: American Antiquarian Society in Worcester.

As a supply depot it was also a location where farmer/ranchers could deliver their goods to be sold to the Continental army to purchasers, Joshua and Andrew Huntington. Norwich had always served as a major trading hub in eastern CT.

Over one hundred years later, we can still see what market day was like in Norwich's Chelsea Landing area. This picture is circa 1888. Source: The Faith Jennings Collection by Bill Stanley Books

All major river port towns in CT served as depots: Pomfret, Hartford, Danbury, and Middletown to name a few. Ports on the Sound were, of course, vulnerable to British attacks. Danbury, New Haven, Fairfield, Ridgefield, Norwalk, and New London would all be raided and burned at some point during the very long war.

Major General Jabez Huntington's children ran the supply depot while he served in many capacities during the war including the military protection of the state. He was authorized to send out militia troops wherever needed. The stress of protecting Connecticut coastline, among other responsibilities, would take his life early. Someone in his family destroyed his papers.

Major General Jabez Huntington (1719-1786). Tireless supporter of the patriot cause. Owned by the Connecticut State Library Museum

B.F. Huntington's Homestead Re-Visited

The present owners of the old Huntington homestead recently gave me a tour of the place and I was so appreciative. The only way I knew the house still existed was through the kind sleuthing that the Franklin, CT historical society director, Matthew Novastad, did for me a few years back. I had tried to find this house for years and thought it had been torn down. Not the case!

B.F. was the great-grandson of Jabez. He and his extended family lived in Franklin, CT, from 1841 to the 1940s, right on the border of Norwich/Yantic and Bozrah. B.F.'s failure at being an Ohio merchant led him to scurry back to Connectiuct for a life as a farmer/trader. This was a bit of a come down for the proud merchant Huntingtons and yet B.F. outlived all of his six siblings--a back-breaking but bucolic life in Franklin. Please see my previous post on them: https://www.maggiemeahl.com/post/happy-farm-wife-maria-louisa-huntington-huntington-1815-1893

Charles Phelps Huntington "C.P." chiseled his name into the granite back stoop to the farmhouse he purchased for his wayward son, Benjamin Franklin, "B.F." in 1841.

Circa 1893 sketch of Brook Farm house by Huntington Phelps Meech (1877-1963)). Turns out he had the Huntington artistic trait that runs in my family. Meech was a grandson of B.F. and Maria Louisa Huntington. They had gathered on this day for Maria's funeral.

Brook Farm homestead circa 1930s. WPA photo owned by the Connecticut State Library. Notice the lawn chairs.....

The old wooden garden chair survives in an old outbuilding! This is incredible!

Brook Farm homestead today. We think original clapboards are underneath the vinyl siding. The interior was extensively remodeled in the 1960s for a busy growing family.

"All History Is Hidden in the Landscape"--Nathaniel Philbrick

Part of the tour included walking around the perimeter of the homestead. The house has always had a picket fence. It also is unfortunately on a dangerous stretch of road and accidents do occur there. It is the beginning of the breadbasket area of eastern Connecticut where farming still exists: dairy, eggs, cattle, corn, flower nurseries, etc.

I think this is the remnants of a barn foundation. In its heyday, Brook farm had dairy cows, beef cattle, chickens. Potatoes, corn, fruit trees, and even a stab at grape arbors all happened on this land. B.F. had a son B.F. Jr. who would take over the running of the farm in the 1880s. The other sons declined. B.F.'s youngest daughter Minnie married a Lebanon farmer, that is a story for another day!

Evidence of bygone well.

Back to All Things 1776: Two More Engagements

Please come hear me speak on "1776 and Norwich, CT" on Monday, May 18th at the Beverly Public Library at 9:30A.M. It will probably be recorded and put on their YouTube Channel. Then, I will speak again at the Samuel Huntington Homestead Museum on Saturday, August 1, at 1:00 P.M. The address there is: 36 Huntington Road, Scotland, CT.