America Takes Toddling Steps

Jul 1, 2006

America grew as new settlements were established. Most often the expansion was for economical reasons. All was regulated by British rule.

Starting a Township

With plans for settlements, as decreed by the English Parliament and Lords of money, neither of which usually ever set one costly shod foot in the New World, America was on the move. And just as one thing often leads to another, in this case one town nearly always led to another town, village, or settlement. All, of which, were also regulated and directed by the English rule.

A new town usually came about when a township, which was regulated to 24,000 acres, found its self with more citizens than space. At other times new opportunities for income, such as a better fishing or planting area, was discovered. In either case, those settlers that wished to move and begin a new settlement would petition the legislature for the right to set up a new township. This being accomplished, another 24,000 acres would be allotted for the new town. And once again, it would all be started over with land portions divvied out for homes, gardens, and such.

Repeatedly, this process happened until the population and townships of Massachusetts flowed over to create Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

Connecticut Towns

Connecticut was the first to contain this overflow from Massachusetts. Around 1633, Pilgrims built a trading post at Windsor on the Connecticut River. Two years later, two groups from the Massachusetts Bay towns of Dorchester and Newton, led by Thomas Hooker, traveled overland and settled Windsor and Saybrook. Along the river, Hartford, Wethersfield and Springfield soon followed.

A second major Connecticut settlement came about a few years later. In 1637, Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport arrived in Boston and carefully surveyed the surrounding territory. With the arrival of spring, they sailed around Cape Cod and established, on Long Island Sound, New Haven.

Maine and New Hampshire

English settlement further north took somewhat longer. Not until midway into the century did settlers from Massachusetts reach the Piscataque at Dover and Portsmouth. Here, they lay the beginnings for Maine and New Hampshire.

America was now doing more than merely creeping and crawling. The New World and its English settlers were beginning to stand on their own two feet.

Sachs, William S. and Ari Hoogenboom. The Enterprising Colonials. Argonaut, Inc., Publishers, Chicago, 1965.

The copyright of the article America Takes Toddling Steps in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish America Takes Toddling Steps in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.