What is the history of Newtown, Connecticut?
The town of Newtown, originally known as Quanneapague, was purchased from the Pohtatuck Indians in 1705. Settled from Stratford and incorporated in 1711, Newtown was a stronghold of Tory sentiment during the early Revolutionary War. French General Rochambeau and his troops encamped here in 1781 on their way to the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, which ended the Revolution. An important crossroads throughout its early history, the village of Hawleyville briefly emerged as a railroad center and the town’s population grew to over 4,000 circa 1881. In the following decades, the population dwindled to a low of 2,635 in 1930 before again growing. Newtown covers an area of approximately 60 square miles. Towns that border Newtown are Bethel, Bridgewater, Easton, Monroe, Oxford, Redding and Southbury. Local industry has included the manufacture of furniture, tea bags, combs, fire hose, folding boxes, buttons, and hats, as well as farming and mica and feldspar mining. The game of Scrabble was devel
