• Cigar History: 1878-1915   Connecticut grew a lot of tobacco for cigars from the eighteenth century through the 1970s in Manchester, and into the Twenty-First century in other Connecticut towns. This web site describes the history of cigars and tobacco growing.

• Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism   The mission of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism is to preserve and promote Connecticut's cultural and tourism assets in order to enhance the quality of life and economic vitality of the State. The Historic Preservation and Museum Division functions under state and federal law as Connecticut's State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). The division administers a range of federal and state programs that identify, register and protect the buildings, sites, structures, districts and objects that comprise Connecticut's cultural heritage.

• Connecticut Firemen's Historical Society Museum   The Fire Museum is housed in a retired 1901 fire station with a unique atmosphere that saw the transition from hand drawn to horse drawn, then to motorized apparatus. In addition to a working Gamewell Fire Alarm System, our collection includes hundreds of fine examples of early American craftsmanship related to firefighting such as glassware, lighting, leather making, photography, textiles and paintings.

• Connecticut Historical Society   The Connecticut Historical Society's web site, having searched on "Manchester CT". Many Manchester photos and descriptions are available.

• connecticuthistory.org   Stories of Connecticut places, events, people, including primary source documents.

• Connecticut State Historian   The Office of the Connecticut State Historian's Home Page.

• Connecticut State Library   The Connecticut State Library's Home Page

• Connecticut Towns and Their Establishment   Source: The Connecticut State Library

• Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation   The Conecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is dedicated to protecting and nourishing the vitality of Connecticut's significant buildings and landscapes.

• Hockanum River Watershed Association   The Hockanum River was central to the founding of Manchester, providing a source of power to the original factories and mills. The Hockanum River Watershed Association is dedicated to the preservation and protection of the watershed area's green belt, hiking trails and water quality in the towns making up the Watershed.

• Museum of CT Glass   A future museum with two buildings in Coventry, CT, dedicated to education about and preservation of antique glass.

• New England Civil War Museum   This museum is located right in Vernon, Connecticut, "inside the longest continuously used Civil War veterans hall in the United States, 1890-present...It is devoted to the fighting men of the War of the Rebellion." The Manchester Historical Society receommends visiting both the web site and the museum.

• Railroad Museum of New England   Web site of the Naugatuck Railroad, a heritage railway operated by the volunteers of the Railroad Museum of New England, featuring not only scenic train rides but also restoration of railway equipment by the Museum's team of volunteers.

• Rogers Company History   A history of the Rogers Company, founded in Manchester by Peter Rogers in 1832, and greatly expanded over the years.

• Tankerhoosen River Watershed   The Tankerhoosen River is made up of two primary streams - one arising in Tolland and the other in Bolton. It ends where it joins the Hockanum River in Talcottville where the water flows to the Connecticut River in East Hartford. The purpose of this website is to be a resource for information about the area for both those living here and those who enjoy hiking and exploring the area.

• Thomas J. Dodd Research Center   The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center contains a wide variety of archival materials available for research. The Center will also consider permanently storing files of our or other Societies.
> On clicking the above link you'll be at a page which contains a comprehensive list, with descriptions, of all archive and special collections available at the Dodd Research Center.
> On clicking Dodd Research Center Home you'll be at the Dodd Center home page, where the primary list of collections is presented, and from which more individualized searches can be initiated.

• Tankerhoosen River Watershed   The Tankerhoosen River is made up of two primary streams - one arising in Tolland and the other in Bolton. It ends where it joins the Hockanum River in Talcottville, from which the water flows to the Connecticut River in East Hartford. The purpose of this website is to be a resource for information about the area for both those living here and those who enjoy hiking and exploring the area.

• "Tour America's Treasures" blog (Manchester Historical Society section)  A blog site inviting people to tour historic Connecticut structures that received funds from “Save America’s Treasures.” Our History Center (the former Cheney Machine Shop) was the beneficiary of a large grant from Save America’s Treasures. The link will take you directly to the Society's entry in the blog.

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Connecticut Census Information For...

1790    1800    1810    1820    1830    1840    1850    1860    1870    1880    1890    1900    1910    1920    1930    1940    1950    1960    1970    1980    1990    2000
Source: The Connecticut State Library   Please Note: Census data files are large, sometimes VERY large! Not only do you need a high-speed Internet connection, you may have to wait several minutes for the file to open.

> Information on Connecticut from the 2010 census is not currently on the Connecticut State Library web site. Most parts of the 2010 Census are now available online from the US Census Bureau. Please see this page: http://2010.census.gov/2010census.

> Probably the best way to access the 2010 Census data is through the US Census search engine, the American Factfinder here: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml.

> It does take some instruction to use the database but it contains a wealth of information. Here is an instruction page: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/using_factfinder.xhtml.

• For more detailed, personal information, we suggest you click: www.ancestry.com.

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National Web Sites

• Andersonville Monument to Connecticut POWs   In 1907, Frank W. Cheney and other members of his family attended the dedication of a Civil War statue at Andersonville Prison, honoring Connecticut's prisoners of war. The book "In Memory of the Connecticut Men Who Suffered in Southern Military Prisons 1861-1865" describes the monument and its dedication with text and pictures. Frank's wife, Mary Bushnell Cheney, wrote a chapter of the book ("Notes by a Guest"). F.W. Cheney, also known as Col. Cheney, a Civil War veteran of the 16th Connecticut Volunteers, spoke at the dedication.

• Civil War Information from the National Park Service   The National Park Service provides information about the Civil War, including names of those who fought and died, the battlefields that are now National Parks, and monuments.

• Civil War Veterans Return to Battlefields Film   In this 5½ minute film, Civil War veterans return to fields where they fought, decades after the end of the war. The film is part of the Ken Burns Civil War project, and consists of footage shot between 1913 and 1938.

• Fulton History   Search millions of New York State newspaper pages from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the New York Times, Canton NY & St. Lawrence Plaindealer, and the Utica NY Daily Observer. Even though these are New York state newspapers, they do have articles about events related to Connecticut, and there are pertinent advertisements, for instance, some for Apel's Opera House. The search box is in the upper left when you click the link.

• History of Silk in America   A short history of silk manufacturing in America, beginning with attempts in the 1620s to force planters to plant mulberry trees in Virginia; later other attempts in the South before the attempts were abandoned in order to plant cotton; and then attempts in New England, eventually terminated when a blight killed off most of the trees. After than, silk production shifted from cultivating trees and cocoons as well as manufacturing silk products, to just the latter. Cheney Brothers is specifically mentioned as a firm which went through all phases, until the closing of most of these by the 1950s.

• Latter-day Saints Family History Web Site   Searchable family data provided free through the Mormon Church. Searchable by event (birth, marriage, death) and location.

• Library of Congress "American Memory" Project   American Memory has digitized historical documents, photographs, sound recordings, movies, books, pamphlets, maps, and other resources from the Library of Congress -- more than 100 collections and more than 9 million individual items.
> Click here http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/index.html for lists of all collections, collections by time period, collections containing maps, sheet music, sound recordings, etc., and collections by geographic location in the U.S.
> Click here http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/help/faq.html for Frequently Asked Questions about this site.
> Type  today in history  in the Search box for interesting day-by-day gems from all of the collections.

• National Trust for Historic Preservation   The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to saving historic places and revitalizing America's communities. The Trust was founded in 1949 and provides leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to protect the irreplaceable places that tell America's story.

• New England Civil War Museum   This museum is located right in Vernon, Connecticut, "inside the longest continuously used Civil War veterans hall in the United States, 1890-present...It is devoted to the fighting men of the War of the Rebellion." The Manchester Historical Society receommends visiting both the web site and the museum.

• Society of Industrial Archaeology   The story of Manchester is closely linked with industry; and the mission of the Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA) is to encourage the study, interpretation, and preservation of historically significant industrial sites, structures, artifacts, and technology. This link will point the user to chapters in their region and their web sites.

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Patents & Inventions

• CT State Library "Connecticut Patents" Pages   Search page of the Connecticut State Library's "Connecticut Patents" project, with information on patents awarded from 1800 to 1900. Note that the same inventor may be associated with multiple towns, so restricting the search to just Manchester may not give all the results you're seeking. (The search criteria used are repeated at the bottom of the search results page.)

• US Patent and Trademark Office Web Site   US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), for additional information on specific patents. Note that not all patent information has been digitized as yet, so the information may not be available online. (Use the page's "Issued Patents" items to correlate items to the Connecticut web page's items.)

• Google Patent Search   Google Patent Search's web site, a complement to the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office's web site. As noted on the site's home page, Google and the USPTO have entered into an agreement to make bulk patent and trademark information available to the public at no charge.

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Selected YouTube Videos

Those with an interest in Manchester's history may enjoy the short film clips on YouTube. Hi-speed Internet recommended, as dial-up connections may handle the data very slowly. These videos are by Susan Barlow, your webmaster (SBarlow627@aol.com).

Click on an image to bring up its video.

1.   Chimney remains from old Boy Scout camp at Case Mountain recreation area.		2.   Old quarry near the Manchester-Glastonbury town line, in the Case Mountain Recreational Area. The Case Brothers Historic District is the newest Manchester region to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
3.   Bridal Veil Falls in the Highland Park section of Manchester.		4.   How to get to Bridal Veil Falls, also known as Wyllys Falls.
5.   The 1917 Summer house overlooking Upper Case Pond in the Highland Park section of Town is described. Originally a summer house for the Case-Dennison family, the rustic cabin was the scene of elegant parties in the early- to mid-twentieth century.		6.   Twin brothers A. Wells Case and A. Willard Case lived in these mansions on Spring Street, Manchester, now a part of the Case Brothers National Historic District, on the National Register. The first house shown, the yellow and white mansion on the hill, was the home of A. Willard Case. The second house shown, the pink stucco mansion, was the home of A. Wells Case.
7.   Annual walking tour of the Cheney Brothers National Historic Landmark District, 2010.		8.   Cheney Dye House conversion to apartments, corner of Pine and Cooper Hill Streets.
9.   Center Memorial Park in Downtown Manchester. The Manchester Historical Society opposes further encroachment on this historic park.		10.   Our Downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places.
11.   Hilliard Mills Tour: On a November 14, 2010 tour, Peter Bonzani explains about the growth of the mill buildings in Hilliardville, as owners added on to existing woolen mill operations. Peter and his two partners have worked on renovating the mill during the last 4 years. They have donated old-growth lumber to the Manchester Historical Society for re-use in our 1895 Cheney building on the other side of town.		12.   The historic Cheney Homestead was built in 1785. Generations of the Cheney family owned the residence and lived there into the 1960s. The family donated the homestead to the Manchester Historical Society, and it opened as a house museum in 1969. This video shows a November 6, 2010 work party that spruced up the outside and inside of the Homestead.
13.   Walking tour of Hilliardville, 2009, with commentary on re-use of materials in old mills.		14.   Cheney Office Building on the annual walking tour of the Cheney Brothers National Historic Landmark District, 2009.
15.   At the Historical Society's Dec. 3, 2010 Open House, harpists from the nearby MusicMakers Academy performed at the History Center. The windows in this room overlook Forest Street.		16.   Artwork with a historical flair at Manchester's Town Hall. In addition to the large Russell Cheney oil painting in the hearing room at Lincoln Center, there are paintings and drawings in various places throughout the building, including this second-floor conference room. The originals (of the John, Seth, and Russell Cheney artwork) are in the collection of the Manchester Historical Society. Our current town hall was designed in 1926 Frank Farley, grandson of Frank & Susan Cheney.
17.   Annual Cruisin' on Main event in Downtown Manchester brings out the antique cars and their fans. The Downtown Manchester Special Services District sponsors the event on the first Sunday of August.		18.   Our State Archeologist, Nick Bellantoni, tells the legend of the Wolf Den on a Columbus Day walk in eastern Connecticut (not specifically about Manchester, but an interesting story from the 18th century).
19.   June 2009 outdoor art show in Center Memorial Park, Downtown Main Street, Manchester CT. The free art show takes place the day after the big kickoff event in the park -- the free outdoor concert.		20.   B.C. Apel built the Opera House in 1888. It had a furniture store, undertaking parlor, saloon and of course the Opera auditorium for traveling vaudeville shows, community theater, etc. The Central CT Co-op Farmer's Association owns it and they are in the process of creating a farmer's market on the ground floor.
21.   On May 20, 2011, developer and philanthropist Simon Konover spoke at the celebration of the new life of the Cheney Dye House as moderate-income apartments. In attendance were the governor, various town officials and members of the public, in anticipation of the start of rental of the 57 apartments in June 2011.		22.   On December 28, 2008, the Society conducted a walk along the railway of the Cheney Railroad. While the rail's tracks are no longer in place, at one time this was the largest privately-owned passenger and freight railroad in the country. It was also one of the shortest passenger lines, providing service to Cheney workers and families similar to that provided by trolleys of the period.
23.   March 2, 2012 visit to the historic John Olds house, built circa 1776, near the corner of Tolland Turnpike and Slater Street in Manchester. A contractor is disassembling the house to sell and reassemble elsewhere.		24.   Evidence of quarrying before power equipment and heavy trucks! This large rock with drill holes and metal wedges is located along the yellow-red trail. It's on the right side of the trail (as you're going from Glastonbury to Case Mtn.) not too far off the path.