…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, … Continue reading
Asa Hickok, 1775: “In the fall of the year the men at Ticonderoga were attacked with fever and dysentery and many of them died. My brother Reuben was very sick. (He died two years later.) “I was taken sick with … Continue reading
The Colonists bought smuggled Dutch tea rather than pay for more expensive tea from the East India Company. So in 1767 Parliament passed the Indemnity Act, which lowered the tax on tea consumed in Great Britain and gave the East … Continue reading
“My animals include two cows, a calf, a yoke of oxen, a horse, a two-year old colt, two swine, and thirteen sheep, which I sheared in May. “My neighbors, my father, and my brothers borrow my oxen for work on … Continue reading
“They put the fishnet into the river, but they catched no shad.”—David Hickok, South Britain, Connecticut, April 1771. Shad, a fish in the herring family, was prevalent in early Farmington and the Great River, now known as the Housatonic River, … Continue reading
David Hickok was the older brother of my ancestor Asa Hickok, who settled in Lumberland. David and Asa each had a daughter named Hannah Hickok. David Hickok was involved in at least one skirmish in the French-Indian War. He spoke … Continue reading
Lake George is without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw; formed by a contour of mountains into a basin…finely interspersed with islands, its water limpid as crystal, and the mountain sides covered with rich groves…here and there precipices … Continue reading
Calendar Complications 1582 The Julian Calendar, which the English continued to use from 1582–1752, started the new year on March 25. So December was the tenth month. Parliament declared that the day after September 2, 1752 was to be September … Continue reading
The Stanley-Whitman House on 37 High Street (east of Main Street) in Farmington, Connecticut, is an example of early New England architecture and homes the early Colonists had known in England. A center chimney flanked by parlor and hall with … Continue reading
