History of Canton, Connecticut, USA

This rural town in western Hartford County is located on the Farmington River and lies on land originally part of Simsbury. After Canton’s incorporation in 1806, the town’s industries, once dominated by resin, pitch, and turpentine making along with saw and grist mills, diversified.

Canton, a post town in the western part of the county, being 13 miles northwesterly from Hartford, is bounded east on Simsbury, south on Farmington and Burlington, west on New-Hartford and Barkhamstead, and north on Granby. The township is about eight miles in length, north and south, and near four miles in breadth, comprising 19,200 acres. It is considerably broken, being hilly and mountainous. One of the mountainous ranges commencing in the vicinity of New-Haven, near the sound and extending far into the interior of New-England, runs through this town; the mountain here is considerably elevated. The rocks are principally granitic. The prevailing character of the soil is a course gravel, which is hard, dry and stoney...

Canton, Connecticut
Hartford county. First settled, 1740. Incorporated, 1806. Population, 1830, 1,437. Collinsville is the principal village in the town, at which a large amount of axes, of a superior quality, are annually made. It lies 16 miles N.W. by W. from Hartford and 16 N.E. from Litchfield. This village presents a beautiful appearance, and is a noble specimen of individual enterprize. The soil of Canton is coarse and stony, and the surface is hilly. Farmington river passes through its S.W. corner.

Canton, a post-township of Hartford county, Connecticut, 12 miles N. W. of Hartford, intersected by Farmington river. Population, 1980.

CANTON, a township of Hartford co., in the state of Connecticut, 13 m. WNW of Hartford. Its surface is hilly, and its soil unproductive. Pop. 1,736.

CANTON* measures eight miles north and south, with a breadth east and west varying from one and a half miles at the north to three miles at the south. It is bounded north by Barkhamsted and Granby; east, by Simsbury; south, by Avon, Burlington, and New Hartford; and west by New Hartford and Barkhamsted. It has in its territory four post-offices, seven churches, eight school-houses, fifty-five miles of public highway, and about four hundred dwelling-houses. The Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad, and a branch of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, commonly called the Canal Road, pass through the town.

The surface of the territory is much broken by hills. There are Rocky, Rattlesnake, Onion, Crump's, and Wildcat mountains. The valley of the Farmington River in the southwest part of the town is fertile, and Cherry Brook valley, where Canton Centre lies, is noted for its fine farms, though the most valuable agricultural land in the town limits is said to be in the low plain...