Cheshire

Book excerpt: Cheshire was established by farmers in 1694 as a parish of neighboring Wallingford. It is a classic New England town, built around a central green, graced by a white church with a tall, weather vane-topped, sentinel spire. Surrounded by some of the state's main highways of today, the town's location and people have shaped the long and rich history of this proud Connecticut community. Cheshire chronicles the growth of a small, Colonial farm town through the early twentieth century. The book is an album of its prominent citizens and families and of its noteworthy sites and events. Stories from two hundred years of its history come to life on its pages. They include the passage of the Amistad captives through Lock 12 on their way to stand trial in Hartford, the tale of the wandering Leatherman, and rumors of gold buried in the center of town. The book's centerpiece is a collection of the works of E.W. Hazard, early lensman, featuring his photography of Cheshire's parades, celebrations, and streetscapes, some seen here for the first time in print, in what may be the largest assemblage of his craft in one publication.