Meet the Connecticut signers!

On July 8, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read in public for the first time. Now, 250 years later, Avon invites you to experience the historic moment together. Join us for an interactive community reading featuring the descendants of Connecticut's four signers of the Declaration - Roger Sherman, William Williams, Samuel Huntington, and Oliver Wolcott.

The event will take place in the Avon Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30 pm

Join us for this 40-minute program featuring a collection of "new" songs and Hymns published in Connecticut during the American Revolution. Featuring Richard Franklin Donohue, tenor and harpsichordist.

This program is being presented as part of the Avon's America 250 celebarations.

Bring your Native American artifacts for identification! Free event, open to the public.

Presented by Institute staff and FOSA volunteers of the Institute of American Indian Studies, Washington, CT and Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA). Paul Wegner, Co-Director; Craig Nelson, Member and Secretary of the Board of Trustees; Nancy Najarian, Collections Volunteer

The Institute will have selected items, from various time periods, on display for viewing.

Details:

Institute and FOSA staff and volunteers will examine and identify objects in 15-min time slots. No appraisals will be made.

Limit 12 items per person – no large collections please

Artifacts should be archaeological materials from New England or North America, preferably the East Coast, such as ceramics, stones, arrowheads, baskets, beaded items, clothing, etc.

Registration required, with a specific time slot, in order to allow for staff and volunteers to inspect and identify the items brought in by the public.

This event will be held at the Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Rd., Avon, CT 06001

This event is part of the Unearthing History Paleo-Indian series sponsored by Avon Historical Society, Avon Free Public Library and Avon Senior Center, in partnership with the Avon Land Trust, Farmington River Watershed Association, and the Institute of American Indian Studies in Washington, CT.

In honor of Black History Month, you are invited to an event on Sunday, February 4 from 1:00-3:00pm entitled “Remembering Connecticut’s Colored Regiments: Film Screenings and Discussion.” Feel free to share this invitation to anyone you feel would be interested in attending. It is open to the public, free of charge, with plenty of parking and seating at the Avon Senior Center. Snow date is Sunday, Feb. 11, same time. This event will feature the screening of one film, and parts of another, that focus on the service of the 29th, 30th and 31st regiments from Connecticut in the Civil War.

There will be a moderated discussion following the screenings led by John Mills, president of Alex Breanne Corporation, Middletown, CT. a non-profit that researches lesser-known stories of the American enslaved. To show the type of research they do, John provided this narrative which is directly related to one of these films. He will explain it in more detail:

On February 14, 1837, in New Bern, NC, a free black woman named Mary Heritage married an enslaved man named Thaddeus Newton, enslaved in North Carolina by Peter and Catherine Custis, relatives of Robert E. Lee. The couple would have children. But because Thaddeus was enslaved, Mary would have to make her own way. Around 1859 Mary moved her family to New York, leaving behind her husband Thaddeus and son Alexander. Mary found her way to abolitionists, most notably Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who helped her raise money towards freeing her husband. She worked as a peddler, washed clothes and sold fruit to soldiers at the start of the Civil War. Mary continued working with other abolitionists, including Henry Highland Garnet and Arthur Tappan, engaged in freeing the enslaved. Mary’s son, Alexander Newton, would marry Olivia Hamilton, daughter of Robert Hamilton, founder of the abolitionist newspaper “The Anglo-African.” Alexander would join the 29th Connecticut Colored Regiment, later writing his biography published in 1910. Another son, Steven Newton, joined the Massachusetts 54th Colored Regiment, dying at the assault on Fort Wagner in July 1863. Mary moved to New Haven, CT in 1860. She and Thaddeus eventually bought a home at 18 Winter Street, New Haven. Her formerly enslaved husband, Thaddeus Newton, died in 1868 while she died in 1904. They are both buried together in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, CT.

John is working on having their gravesites added to the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and the Connecticut Freedom Trail. Their gravestones will be repaired and an honorary sign will be placed at the corner of Goffe and Winter Streets near where their home once stood. The corner is one block from the First AME Bethel Church which is where both Mary and Thaddeus served as officials. One of the films that will be screened is excerpts of their son Alexander Newton’s book Out of the Briars.

A reception will follow the presentation and discussion. All are welcome.

Did you miss this wonderful event? It can be seen on YouTube Via This Link!

Bring your artifacts for identification! Free event, open to the public.

Presented by archaeologists and volunteers of the Institute of American Indian Studies, Washington, CT. Paul Wegner, Co-Director; Craig Nelson, Member and Secretary of the Board of Trustees; Nancy Najarian, Collections Volunteer

The Institute will have selected items, from various periods, on display for viewing.

Details:

Institute staff and volunteers will examine and identify objects in 15-min time slots.  No appraisals will be made.

Limit 12 items per person – no large collections, please

Artifacts should be archaeological materials from New England or North America, preferably the East Coast, such as ceramics, stones, arrowheads, baskets, beaded items, clothing, etc.

Registration is required, with a specific time slot, to allow staff and volunteers to inspect and identify the items brought in by the public.

This event will be held at the Avon Senior Center, 635 West Avon Rd., Avon, CT 06001

This event is part of the Unearthing History Paleo-Indian series sponsored by Avon Historical Society, Avon Free Public Library and Avon Senior Center, in partnership with the Avon Land Trust, Farmington River Watershed Association, and the Institute of American Indian Studies in Washington, CT.