Shelton or Huntington, Whats in a Name?
WHEN it came to naming towns, settlers in Connecticut played it pretty safe. They simply named most of them for the communities they had left behind in England (Greenwich, Manchester, Oxford), some for biblical places (Bethlehem, Goshen), and a few for heroes of the new world (Washington, Madison). Most likely, the theory was that if a place got a nice name, it would last forever. And then there is Shelton. In a way, Shelton is Connecticut’s what’s-in-a-name town. Or perhaps that should be what’s-in-two-names town. In any case, it is the only town, out of 169 in the state, to change its name from that of one man to another, from a leading patriot of the 18th century named Huntington, to a leading industrialist of the 19th century named Shelton. For most of this century, the town has been coping with the name problem it inflicted on itself. And particularly in the past few decades, many residents have opted to say they are from Huntington — the town’s first settlement area, which still
