History of Franklin, Connecticut, USA

Franklin, New London, Connecticut, USA
In 1663, one John Ayer of Haverhill, Massachusetts, bought approximately 300 acres of land from the Indians, - as much, according to legend, as he could walk around in a day. His was the first permanent settlement in the area and this land has never been out of the Ayer name, having been passed in direct male descent from father to son for ten generations. Two more generations are in waiting.

Whether the said John Ayer at some time returned for his family is not certainly known but in due time some of them came to him. He had been in trouble with the Indians in Massachusetts but seems to have had no problems with the few he encountered in Connecticut. His cabin stood near the rock with the plaque bearing his name at Ayer's Gap, placed there by descendants many years later. The mountains around him harbored rattlesnakes and he is said to have brought in hogs to exterminate them.

Like Rome, Franklin, then West Farms, was established on seven hills: Hearthstone, Center or Middle, Pleasure, Meetinghouse, Blue, Little Lebanon and Portipaug/ Pautipaug. Her territory originally embraced also the western half of what became Sprague and the eastern part of New Concord which became Bozrah...
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