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The city of Hartford was founded
in 1636 when a group of Puritans from the Massachusetts
Bay Colony settled on the west side of the Connecticut
River just north of a Dutch trading outpost. The Dutch
eventually abandoned the area, perhaps due to the
arrival of the English. The settlement was named Hartford
to honor Hertferd, England. Being outside the jurisdiction
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the leaders of Hartford
drafted their Fundamental Orders that asserted the
people’s right to be self-governed – a precursor to
the US Constitution.
Hartford began to grow as its
importance as a trading center developed. Its proximity
to the Connecticut River permitted shipping of goods
to and from Europe and the West Indies. But it was
the presence of these river captains that gave birth
to Hartford’s trademark industry. In an era when ships
were prey to fire, storms, and pirates, captains began
to work with the merchants to share the risk of their
voyages. This practice led to the founding of the
Hartford Fire Insurance Company in 1810. Hartford
soon became the country’s richest city and is still
known as the insurance capital of America with companies
such as Aetna, Travelers, and the Hartford headquartered
there.
One of Hartford’s most celebrated
residents of the 19th century was Samuel Clemens.
Mark Twain moved his family to the Nook Farm area
of Hartford in 1871. He spent much of his wife’s inheritance
on a magnificent gothic mansion on land near the home
of fellow author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Only guided
tours of the house are permitted, so we obediently
moved from room to room while the tour guide recited
all the salient information. It was a profound experience
to stand in Twain’s drawing room where he worked on
such works as Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi,
the Prince and the Pauper, and a Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s Court. We lingered a little after
the group moved on to imagine Twain sitting at his
desk writing some of the greatest stories in American
literature or shooting a rack at the billiard table
while waiting for inspiration to come. While the Twain
house is a must-see, we were equally captivated by
the adjacent museum. In particular, the exhibit on
Tom Sawyer shows just how controversial Twain’s classic
had been and continues to be today
We spent the rest of our time
walking around the downtown area popping into the
occasional watering hole. Eventually we came to Bushnell
Park near the State Capitol building. We took a spin
on the famous hand-carved wooden carousel, one of
only a handful in the country. We stumbled upon a
great Mexican restaurant across from the XL Center
that served guacamole made fresh right at your table.
J has a weakness for guacamole and this restaurant
may be her most lasting memory from our visit to Hartford.
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The Clemens Family House
Mark Twain's study
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
Connecticut State Capitol
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