Today’s blog post comes to us from Bill Basel, Head of Adult Services.

Cheshire was a farming community for most of its history and from its settlement in 1694.  Until 1953, there was no long-established local newspaper.  As a result, today there is no ‘paper of record’ to consult for the day-to-day events that occurred in the distant past.  The Cheshire Newspaper Articles Collection was developed by the Cheshire Library in an effort to partially fill this archival gap.

The collection is drawn from various state and national newspaper sources that occasionally printed articles about Cheshire and its residents over the years.  Many articles are very brief or are legal notices that include residents’ names.  Other articles’ subjects include the Academy, Crime and Punishment, the Farmington Canal, Fires and Disasters, Railroads, the Reformatory, and Town events. Though the Cheshire Newspaper Articles Collection does not include all events that occurred in town, (and in some cases there are gaps of many years between articles), genealogists will find these articles valuable because they can place an ancestor in a location at a certain time. History lovers will be interested in learning about long forgotten episodes that took place in town.

The Collection consists of seven binders of newspaper articles.  The articles are located on the library’s Lower Level and are available for public use. You may access our online index to the Articles Collection on the CPL website.  Go to the eResources page and select Cheshire History.  Copies of the articles may be requested by email through a form on the Cheshire History page.

Cheshire was originally know as “Ye Fresh Meadows”

Call the library’s Reference Department at 203-272-2245, ext. 4, with any questions.