We are here,
agreeable.
Entwined like
vineyard vines; a village
with commons and
parade ground.
A riverside place
of Puritan roots, whole
tribes cleaned
like fowl and fish
their
proudest names in covert
remembrance
as rivers, and trails.
We are here, agreeable.
Where crossroads
of four corners, so rare
to be perpendicular
among the confluence
of hills.
Grandma Moses vistas; planted
steeples,
barns, and seasonal trees
Elm, Oak, Yew
and Chestnut.
Each rival nature in long years. In-filled
with Evergreens and orchards, and streets
lined with blossoming pear.
Each rival nature in long years. In-filled
with Evergreens and orchards, and streets
lined with blossoming pear.
We are here,
agreeable.
Sans many grandiose
homesteads, inns and means.
Historic traces in pewter, silver, and smiths.
Parks and
buildings ceremoniously christened.
Community beyond
calamities, actual and imaginary,
Indians,
beasts, famine, the great white plague;
a disease or
Other, French, Dutch or Devil,
tornado and
fireworks fire.
We are here,
agreed.
Beyond ‘stretched
to the highest tension’
of trains, of
tracks, of cable, of speech.
An incubator
for Masons, sanitariums, private
and markers declare
Americana: George
passed
through – here.
We are here,
agreed.
Sans dragoman,
yet a King
An Emperor,
Czar, a few godfathers
and Dragons
among an army of partisans
Few foolhardy
in dissent. Bullets in descendant’s
hands; now needles
in young arms. As if
it were the
fittest missionary. Still. Our history
brings hands
to our ears.
and gazebos forsaken,
updated or gone.
Protectors and
poets. Creative bedfellows.
Winds rise. Rain renews.
Agreeable Souls take root.
A stone wall
protects our dead.
Acknowledgement: The History of Wallingford by Charles Stanley
LITHOGRAPHS
"Our Ancestors wrought in a magnanimous spirit of rivalry with Nature, or in kindly fellowship with her When they planted,they chose out her trees of longest life, the Oak, the Chestnut, the Yew, the Elm, trees which it does us good to behold, while we muse on the many generations of our Forefathers whose eyes have reposed within the same leafy bays." HARE'S Guesses at Truth.
Wallingford Settled
Indians, wild beasts, famine, cold, the diseases that lurk along the borders of new settlements, " the French, the Dutch, the devil," and all other calamities, actual and imaginary, that kept their faculties constantly stretched to the highest tension, gave them no time to look backward. Other men retreated from the world to avoid its cares; they fled to the solitude of nature to begin life anew.Purchase of Indian Land:
In 1774, there were but four Indians in Wallingford. When the town was first settled the Indians were very much disliked, and in more than one instance, when the hat or contribution box was carried round in the meeting house for money to christianize Indians, instead of a coin, a bullet was dropped in, as if it were the fittest missionary. Children were often quieted by the cry, "The Indians are coming "!
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| Backes explosion Wallingford May 29, 1952. | Courtesy Wallingford Public Library |
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| Backes explosion Wallingford May 29, 1952. | Courtesy Wallingford Public Library |
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| Mattabesett Trail CT Blue Trail System Begins off Route 68. Has one of several George Washington Route markers. |
