James T Powers - Seeking the Past Blog

Early Guilford, Ct. and the English Civil War

11/22/2014

Wednesday evening, the 19th of November, I had the honor of being the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Guilford Keeping Society. The Keeping Society is one of five historical organizations in Guilford and operates the 1776 Thomas Griswold House and the early 1800's Medad Stone Tavern. They are a dedicated and important force in the community for preserving local history and a sense of ...place.
My topic was Early Guilford and the English Civil War, a little known but fascinating page in the history of the town founded in 1639. When Guilford was settled initially the possibility that the leaders of the Puritan Movement and Parliament might have sought refuge there and in Saybrook if the King had pursued further sanctions against them was a significant possibility. When the Civil War broke out in 1642, the option of fleeing to the Connecticut shore became a last resort and never happened.
It was a great evening and I was happy to contribute to the Keeping Society's mission to raise awareness of the town's history and its importance to early American history.

October 05th, 2014

10/5/2014

Update on my current manuscript, Seeing the Past; Lessons from a Yankee Millright

The Wallingford Perfectionists

I've been spending a bit of time lately writing about the Wallingford Branch of the Onieda Community that existed from 1851 until 1878 where the Masonic Home and Hospital is now in that town. A communalistic, utopian, and religious society dedicated to trying to create God's Heaven on Earth, the community known as Perfectionists was highly successful fixture in town for almost three decades before selling their property to the Masons and consolidating themselves with a larger community in Onieda, New York.
Controversial for their communistic views on property and their system of complex marriage, they were also known for their high ethical standards and overall work ethic and economic success and thus welcomed in the town as good citizens. Among the industries they developed at the Wallingford community were a printing business, silk manufacturing, and a flatware factory that was moved to Onieda and became the world famous company of that name. They also farmed the land that consisted of over 300 acres and helped to create the pond known as Community Lake that existed until the dam was destroyed in flooding during the 1980's.
As a boy growing up in Wallingford, my brother and our friends spent long, magical hours in the woods and fields that had once been their farm including a hill they had named Mount Tom. There was always something spiritually magnetic about those woods, and our trips through them always brought us eventually to a massive pine that towered over the woods, we called it Big Tree. Now as I think back on those boyhood adventures I realized that that tree was there when the Community was there, that even then it must have been a tree of considerable size and certainly noticed by the members of the family, as they called themselves, as they too walked the woods that were part of their home.
I'm sure the tree is long gone now, no doubt a victim of the Mason's expansive development of the property over the last 30 years. But maybe, just maybe, it escaped and still stands, a silent sentinel to time and place, linking the laughter of children with the voices and prayers of the Perfectionists. A living link with the past and a monument to memory.

July 26th, 2014

7/26/2014

I am currently working on a new book about how it is important for us to connect with the past titled Seeing the Past; Lessons from a Yankee Millright. Seeing the Past is about how our lives are the product of those who have come before us and by examining their lives and the times in which they lived it is possible to draw lessons for our own. Though often hidden, these lessons of history are always around us as we go about our daily lives, simply waiting to be discovered no matter where we live.

In Seeing the Past I follow the lives of a 19th Century millright by the name of Milo Todd and his ancestors and examine,through their life struggles, how the past can come alive to connect with us across time and place. The result is a deeper sense of place and thus a deeper understanding of who we were, are, and will be.

December 13th, 2013

12/13/2013

December 13, 2013.

Went to North Branford yesterday evening for a reading of Saving the Farm at the Atwater Library, hosted by the Totoket Historical Society, the town's historical organization. It was a small but enthusiastic crowd and they heartily embraced the message in the book. It turns out their community is facing a similar problem that caused the Dudley Farm to be saved to begin with. The oldest house in North Branford, the 17th century Doody House is threatened with development and they are trying to rally the community to make sure the house and hopefully the property will be saved. For further information, go to their website www.totokethistoricalsociety.org. They can use your help.

December 04th, 2013

12/4/2013

Upcoming Reading and signing about Saving the Farm; A Journey through Time, Place, and Redemption in North Branford, Ct.

I am looking forward to a book signing and reading of Saving the Farm in North Branford with the Totoket Historical Society at the Atwater Library on December 12 at 7:00 pm.
            North Branford is a special community for me since I conducted an important archeological dig there in the 1990's with my good friend and former town historian Gordon Miller. We worked for a number of years at the Todd-Stevens site in Northford that will be a major focus in a new book I am currently writing .
            The town is in many ways is at the epicenter of the struggle of local communities to retain a sense of their past while balancing the pressures of modern development and sprawl which is what Saving the Farm is
all about. I'm looking forward t sharing the story of saving the past with residents of that community.

July 18th, 2013

7/18/2013

     I have just returned to Prince Edward Island from a trip to Nova Scotia and I was struck by the fact that preserving the past is such an underlying current within the culture of both Canadian provinces. During a visit to the World Heritage Community of Lunenburg, a charming and vibrant seacoast town, it was clear how important it was to the local community that they have embraced their heritage to make it a focal point of the local economy.
     Despite changing times, they have worked to continue to use or repurpose the historic buildings within the town in both new and historic ways allowing visitors to experience the best of the past while enjoying modern amenities. Their focus on the sea-going heritage of the area gives those who visit a real taste of that cultural tradition in food, song, and atmosphere.
     Lunenburg Nova Scotia, is a vivid example of what can happen when a community is determined to save the past for the present and future and in the process make life richer for all.

Midwest Book Review

6/14/2013

I have recently been informed that Saving the Farm has been reviewed and recommended as a "must read" in the Midwest Book Review, the Wisconsin Review, and Internet Bookwatch.

Midwest Review,
Wisconsin Bookwatch,
June 2013, Volume 8, Number 6, Reviewer’s Choice
Category
Internet Bookwatch, June 2013, Volume 23,
Number 6, Reviewer’s Choice
Category

Saving the Farm
James T. Powers
Homebound Publications
PO Box 1442
Pawcatuck, CT 06379 9781938846069, $17.95, www.homeboundpublications.com

"The dominance of agriculture in American life is very much fading. "Saving the Farm: A Journey Through Time, Place, and Redemption" discusses the true-life history of the Dudley Farm in New England, and how it has become a museum of the one-time lifestyle of rural Americans. The Dudley Farm is a milestone preserved to remind future generations may remember the past... and its place in the progression of history. "Saving the Farm" is a must for those curious about the relics of the nineteenth century, very much highly recommended."

Excerpt from the Introduction of Saving the Farm; A Journey through Time, Place, and Redemption

6/10/2013

You know the feeling - that gentle tug of a place
that draws you to it.   You may not at first even be aware of it
or the pull might be instantaneous. What draws you there? Why?
Is it a sight, smell, or a memory from your past that is jarred?
The connection you feel is undeniable as you look around and drink it all in.
You feel comfortable there, like the familiarity of home.
For each of us what attracts us is a matter of personal experience, preference and choice.
But, the message is clear - this place is somehow part of us;
it’s a whisper of who we were, are, or would like to be that draws us in
and gives us pause.

For each of us the experience is a bit different. It might be the solitude and solace
of a place that attracts us or the sense of community and the warmth of friendship.
For others it might be a sense of familiarity.   It may be the special beauty of a place
or the humbling feeling that we are in the midst of something somehow
greater than ourselves that gives us a sense of belonging.
Maybe it’s the simple recognition that where you are represents a
different time and place, a window into another world gone forever.

June 08th, 2013

6/8/2013

Looking forward to a Reading and Signing Event at the Wallingford Public Library Monday, June 10 at 7:00. It means a lot to me to be in Wallingford to discuss and read from Saving the Farm since it is where I grew up and first learned the value of a sense of place.