Daily Life in Killingworth

Schools

In 1703, the town voted to build on Meetinghouse Hill a school house sixteen feet square with a chimney. Those living in the northern part of town wanted to have a school near their homes. The town voted at a town meeting on February 26, 1732/3: “Sundry of our northern farmers desireing liberty to sit up a School house on the hig way near wolf meadow was voated and granted.” School Districts were formed and often changed, combined with others, or new ones created. In the eighteenth century, the schools were the Tower Hill, Roast Meat Hill, Meeting House, and Parmelee District  schools. The Tower Hill, Roast Meat Hill, and Parmelee schools were consolidated into the Union District school in 1800. By the mid nineteenth century, the town had eight school districts, each with its own one room schoolhouse. The districts were Center, Southwest, Chestnut Hill, Union, Lane, Pine Orchard, Stone House and Black Rock. The one room schoolhouses were used until 1949. All of the schoolhouses still stand and two, the Union District and Black Rock schools, are owned by the Historical Society.

Town Halls

The first society house was built in 1736. The second society house, later called the “Town House” and then “Town Hall,” was built in 1822 behind the Congregational church. The next town hall was originally the Agricultural Hall built in 1881. It was sold to the Killingworth Grange in 1910. The Grange sold it to the town in 1923. In 1966, the town sold the building, known as the Old Town Hall, to the Congregational Church. The present Town Hall on Route 81 was built around 1830 by Dr. Rufus Turner who purchased the property of Moses and Aaron Wilcox, twin brothers who moved from Killingworth and founded Twinsburg, Ohio.

House built by Dr. Rufus Turner before it became the present Killingworth Town Hall.

Cemeteries

The cemeteries in Killingworth are the Union District (Roast Meat Hill Road); Old Southwest District (River Road); New Southwest District (Green Hill Road); Parker Hill District or Nettleton (North Parker Hill Road); the Old Yard also called Old Pine Orchard (North Chestnut Hill Road); Stone House District (Little City Road); Emmanuel Church Cemetery, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, also called New Pine Orchard (Bunnell Bridge Road); Lane District (Lovers Lane); and Evergreen, private association (Green Hill Road). The oldest cemetery is the Union District Yard, laid out March 22, 1738.

Farming, Mills, and Occupations

The principal occupation in Killingworth was farming, and from the founding of the town the residents were known as “the farmers.” The town, however, grew considerably and contained many small industries. In 1814, the grand list for North Killingworth was $31,645.65, with 212 dwelling houses and three merchant stores. The industries included saw mills, grist mills, shingle mills, flour mills, paper mills, carding mills, feed mills, fulling mills, axe helve or axe handle manufactories, tanneries, blacksmith’s shop, doctor’s office, store, tavern, and meat market. In 1874, L. E. Stevens was a “Dealer in Dry Goods, Groceries, Yankee Notions, &c., and in fact, all Goods kept in a well conducted Country store.” The Redfield store, later the first Killingworth Inn, was located north of the Ely house. There were two iron mills or forges, one on Ironworks Road on the Menunketesuck River and the other in Chatfield Hollow. These forges first made iron from bog iron found in the bogs and swamps. The forge off Ironworks Road was operated by Jared Eliot. After his death of, the business was carried on by his son Dr. Aaron Eliot. The forge was a significant one, and supplied steel for Connecticut and other colonies and for the manufacture of armaments in the Revolution. The forge ceased operation in 1785. There were two paper mills, the Killingworth Manufacturing Company on Green Hill Road and the Elba Paper Mill on Paper Mill Road. In 1835, Abner Lane, an inventor and scientist, founded the A. Lane & Co., Makers of Axe and Pick Axe Handles, which operated two axe handle factories.

With the opening of the Erie Canal and then the railroads, agricultural products from the Midwest were able to reach eastern markets. Throughout New England, the farms with their mostly rocky soils were unable to compete with the lower cost products from the Midwest, and farmers sold their land and moved to the Midwest. The population in Killingworth declined from 1,130 at the time of the split with Clinton to 528 in 1890 to 482 in 1932. The grand list decreased from $306,702 in 1858 to $225,004 in 1883. Around the turn of the century, immigrants from European countries began to move into town, and they bought the farms of the descendants of the original settlers at very low prices. Most continued to farm and operate dairy and chicken farms, mostly at a subsistence level. This influx of new people was responsible for many of the early homesteads being preserved. Those houses that were not purchased were abandoned and fell into ruin, as did all of the mills. Population began to increase in the 1950s and today Killingworth is primarily a residential community.