Suffield, Connecticut Suffield, Connecticut Official seal of Suffield, Connecticut Suffield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States.

The town is positioned in the Connecticut River Valley with the town of Enfield neighboring to the east.

In 1900, 3,521 citizens lived in Suffield; as of the 2010 census, the populace was 15,735. The town center is a census-designated place listed as Suffield Depot in U.S.

Bordering Massachusetts, Suffield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts NECTA.

Suffield is only 8 miles (13 km) from Springfield, and is more oriented toward it than toward Connecticut's capital of Hartford, which lies 16 miles (26 km) to the south.

Asaph Leavitt Bissell, graduate of the Yale Medical School, and early Suffield physician "...that the name of the place may be Suffield, it being the southernmost town that either at present is, or like to be in that Countrey, and neere adjoining to the south border of our Patent in those parts." Suffield was incorporated as a town in March 1682. Also on early 17th and 18th century maps, Suffield was also spelled as Suthfield.

Suffield and the encircling area was part of the equivalent lands compromise with Massachusetts in 1716. Suffield's native and adopted sons include Rev.

Sykes; sculptor Olin Levi Warner; Seth Pease, surveyor of the Western Reserve lands in Ohio, most of which were controlled by Suffield financiers and speculators; and Thaddeus Leavitt, inventor of an early cotton gin, merchant and patentee of the Western Reserve lands. Thanks to the town's early eminence and wealth, it boasts an astonishing compilation of early New England architecture. The Kent family, for whom the town's library is named, originated in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and boasted relations to many prominent early New England families, including the Dwight family of Northampton, Massachusetts, the Hooker family of Hartford, the Dudleys of Guilford, Connecticut, and the Leavitts of Suffield. Descendants of Robert Olds, who appeared from Sherborne, Dorset, in 1667, include automotive pioneer Ransom Eli Olds, Copperhead Ohio politician Edson Baldwin Olds, his great-grandson USAAF General Robert Olds, and his son, iconic USAF fighter pilot Robin Olds.

Slavery was common throughout the Connecticut River Valley amid the eighteenth century, and the 1774 Enumeration for the Colony of Connecticut listed 37 slaves in Suffield.

Throughout the Connecticut valley, wealthy merchants, tavern owners and town ministers owned slaves.

When Major John Pynchon originally purchased from the Pequonnocks and Agawam tribes a six-mile tract of land, which he called Stoney Brooke Plantation, he first ordered the assembly of a sawmill, and used two of his slaves, Harry and Roco, for the construction. Suffield's third minister, Reverend Ebenezer Devotion, became minister in 1710, and "sixteen years later the town voted to give him 20 to purchase a slave. Reverend Ebenezer Gay, Devotion's successor, owned six slaves throughout his long term, 1742-1796.

They were Titus, Ginny and Dinah. "Princess", a slave belonging to early Suffield settler, Lieut.

Joshua Leavitt, died November 5, 1732. Some of Leavitt's descendants became ardent abolitionists, including Joshua Leavitt and his cousin Roger Hooker Leavitt, who directed an Underground Railroad station in Charlemont, Massachusetts.

One of the earliest graduates of the Yale Medical School was one of Suffield's earliest physicians.

Bissell moved to Suffield, where he rode horseback to make home calls on patients.

Burbank-Hatheway House, Main Street, Suffield, c.

According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 42.9 square miles (111.2 km2), of which 42.3 square miles (109.5 km2) is territory and 0.69 square miles (1.8 km2), or 1.58%, is water. The town center (Suffield Depot CDP) has a total region of 2.0 square miles (5.1 km2), all of it land.

Suffield is on the west bank of the Connecticut River, 8 miles (13 km) south of the river's biggest city, Springfield, Massachusetts, and 16 miles (26 km) north of Connecticut's capital, Hartford.

Two bridges span the river to the town of Enfield: the Amtrak/Springfield Terminal Railroad Bridge and the Enfield Suffield Veterans Bridge.

The Metacomet Ridge, a mountainous trap modern ridgeline that stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border, runs through the center of Suffield from south to north as West Suffield Mountain.

The town's enhance school system, Suffield Public Schools, includes Spaulding Elementary School, Mc - Alister Intermediate School, Suffield Middle School, and Suffield High School.

Suffield is also the home of Suffield Academy, a private coeducational preliminary school.

Dan Casinghino Suffield Community Party 1995 1997 Defeated for reelection Main Street, a designated historic precinct with the Green, three churches, Suffield Academy and vintage colonial and Victorian homes, typifies a New England town.

Named for the Kent family of Suffield, the Kent Memorial Library is an meaningful research and development office for origin materials, records, and documents from north-central Connecticut.

The town includes 11 historic sites that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Farmington Canal-New Haven and Northampton Canal Roughly from Suffield to New Haven (added 1985) Main St., reflects two architectural styles: the initial 1761 building is a typical colonial home, the 1794 north wing is one of the first examples of the Neoclassical style in the Connecticut River Valley (added September 6, 1975) Suffield Historic District Runs along North and South Main Streets (added 1979) Major General in the United States Air Force and Connecticut Adjutant General Israel Smith (1759 - 1810), served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, a member of the United States Senate and Governor of Vermont; born in Suffield "Town of Suffield Connecticut".

Town of Suffield Connecticut.

"Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Suffield town, Hartford County, Connecticut".

Connecticut Town Origins: Their Names, Boundaries, Early Histories and First Families.

Leavitt's daughter Jane Maria Leavitt, wife of Vermont Congressman Jonathan Hunt was the mother of architect Richard Morris Hunt, painter William Morris Hunt and photographer Leavitt Hunt Famous Sons of Suffield, Historic Suffield, suffield-library.org Suffield Historical Society Family History of Samuel Kent, Suffield Historical Society Genealogical Notes, or Contributions to the Family History of Some of the First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts, Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford, 1856 Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts 2009, Robert H.

Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts 2009, Robert H.

Documentary History of Suffield in the Colony and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1660-1749, Hezekiah Spencer Sheldon, Clark W.

Connecticut, Massachusetts & Rhode Island Tourbook, 2007 version (2007).

Town of Suffield official website Suffield Historical Society Suffield Public Schools Municipalities and communities of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States

Categories:
Suffield, Connecticut - Towns in Hartford County, Connecticut - Populated places on the Connecticut River - Towns in Connecticut - Springfield, Massachusetts urbane region - Greater Hartford