The Old Connecticut Path Illustrates Tolland's Rich Colonial History

There is some history in Tolland.

But the Old Connecticut Path is arguably the most significant piece of it.

On Thursday Jason Newton, a descendant of the Connecticut settlers, is scheduled to deliver a program about the trail.

The program is being sponsored by the Tolland Historical Society and Conserving Tolland. It is slated to run from 7 to 9 p.m. at the lodge at Crandall Park II. There is no admission charge but donations will be accepted.

Coffee and baked goods will be provided.

Newton, has researched the trail extensively.

Roseann Gottier of Conserving Tolland said the trail, which runs along parts of Interstate-84 and parts of Route 74, was basically "a superhighway for native Americans" as well as settlers. It was taken by "the Father of Connecticut" Thomas Hooker when he left Massachusetts and the Puritans in 1636 and headed west to Connecticut.

Hooker helped establish what is regarded by many historians at the first constitution that created a government in the new Colony.

"My ancestor, Rev. Thomas Hooker, and his family walked two weeks through the wilderness to reach their destination. In 1640, another ancestor of mine, Roger Newton, followed the path to Hartford, where he studied for the ministry and met his future wife, Mary Hooker, Thomas Hooker’s daughter," Jason Newton wrote.

Newton also wrote that the path, "has now largely vanished from view. In some places, the path is hidden in plain sight; in other areas, only dim traces remain. Rediscovering the Old Connecticut Path has required exploring woods and forgotten byways to find traces of the Path and confirm the markers described in histories. After 375 years of human settlement and development, places still exist along the path where it is possible to experience the wilderness as it might have appeared to the earliest travelers. The most evocative places are found between Sutton, MA and Tolland."