Hebron

HEBRON Settlement of the area soon to be named Hebron began in 1704 on land deeded by the Indian sachem Joshua in 1676. The Town was incorporated in 1708. It was nicknamed "Pump Town" from a log cannon, made similar to a wooden water pump, which blew up when fired to celebrate the capture of the fortress of Louisbourg in 1758, a notable English victory in the French and Indian War. Anglican minister Samuel Peters, run out of town in 1774 because of his Tory sympathies, later wrote a history of Connecticut that contained a list of the puritanical "blue laws" attributed to New Haven. His nephew, John S. Peters, also born here, served as Governor of Connecticut 1831-1833. Judge Sylvester Gilbert, prominent congressman and legislator, opened a law school here in 1810. Famed evangelist Lorenzo Dow lived here 1817-1820. The Missionary Society of Connecticut, oldest in the Nation, was founded here in 1798. (Continued on other side) HEBRON (Continued from other side) Though chiefly agricultural since its founding, Hebron had several silk, cotton, and paper mills and an iron furnace in the 19th century. Ams-Sterling automobiles were manufactured here briefly. The Old Town Hall, built in 1838, survived the fire of 1882 that destroyed much of the colonial Hebron center. Included in Hebron town limits are Amston (formerly Turnerville), once a thriving mill area, and Gilead, which grew up around the Congregational Church founded there in 1748. The size of the Town was reduced in 1803, when a portion was taken to form a part of Marlborough, and again in 1848 for the incorporation of Andover. Migration westward and the industrial revolution of the 19th century brought a decline in local population that reached its lowest point in the 1930's. Since World War II and especially since 1960 many people who commute to work in the Hartford area have settled in Hebron.