Day on the Cruise: 79
From: Kingston City Marina, Kingston, NY
To: Kingston City Marina, Kingston, NY
Statute Miles: 0.0 SM
Time: 0.0 Hrs
Cumulative Miles: 1,874.5 SM
On Board: Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut
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| Blue circle is Kingston, NY. Collinsville is shown |
Today we drove 2 hours to the East over to Collinsville, CT to look at the town where my Great, Great Grandfather lived. It was a beautiful ride through the rural countryside of upstate New York and Connecticut. We took back roads and went through beautiful small towns. The experience was exhilarating as the countryside was so beautiful. It reminded me of rural middle Tennessee as well as the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina. I will remember this day for a long time.
Collinsville is a small town on the Farmington River near Hartford. It was founded or chartered as they say up here, in the 1700's. The town was named for Samuel Collins who started the Collins Company along the River to manufacture axes, machetes and anything else of metal with a blade. He harnessed the River's water power for making his machinery work. Much of the old manufacturing facilities are still in tact along the River. There are old stone and brick works that are very impressive for the day.
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| Old Collins Manufacturing Co. |
My Great, Great Grandfather worked for the Collins Co. He was involved with the start up of the Collins Saving Society in 1853, a bank that was initially housed in the Collins Manufacturing offices until it was moved to a separate building on Main Street in the town of Collinsville. The Grandfather was Vice President of the Bank and then was its Treasurer in the last half of the 19th Century.
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| Collinsville Savings Society Bank |
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| Collinsville Savings Society Bank |
When we got to town, we found a place to eat lunch at LaSalle's in an old building on Main Street. It seemed to be the place to be as it was very crowded. It reminded me of an old general store where everyone meets. Inside were big wooden tables and stacks of board games for playing. I could visualize cold winter nights with snow piled up and families in there eating and playing games.
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| LaSalle's where we enjoyed lunch |
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| Looking up Main Street in Collinsville, CT |
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| Main Street |
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| Side Street in Collinsville, CT |
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| Looking down Main Street toward Collins Manufacturing and the Farmington River |
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| Old house in Collinsville |
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| Neighborhood scene in Collinsville |
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| The iconic white church in Collinsville without its full steeple |
Next we visited the History Museum across the street. The lady there took us upstairs to the Library and produced a historical booklet published by the bank that had some words about The Grandfather. She showed us pictures of his house and showed us a lithograph map of the town in the late 1800's that featured his house. She also showed us some handwritten notes about the family. We bought a copy of the lithograph and a history book on Collinsville.
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| History Museum in Collinsville |
Next we walked up the street to the original Bank Building and the bank is still in business. We went into the bank and introduced ourselves. This has now become a branch. They were kind enough to give us a copy of the Bank History that we viewed at the Historical Museum. We heard that they had old pictures of former officers, but they looked for them and apparently did not have any.
We drove across the River to find the site of The Grandfather's home place. The lady at the museum told us that the house itself had burned down in the last 10 years or more. We saw two sites where the house might have been, but nothing definitive.
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| A color lithograph of Great, Great Grandfather's home in Collinsville, CT |
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| Black and white photograph of The Grandfather's house |
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| Possible site of the house today |
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| Another possible site of the old home place. Note the ditch lilies in bloom!!!! |
Did I feel like I had been to this place before? It is hard to say. One of the things I love is the orange lilies that grow wild along the road. I call them ditch lilies. There are millions of them up in this area, and I must have gotten my love of these from somewhere?
I love the architecture in these little towns, Collinsville included. I love the small town atmosphere like I saw in Collinsville. Finally, I love the heavy industrial look in buildings like I saw in the Collins Co. Works along the River. Have I been here before? Where did I get my affinity for these things????
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| Old Collins Manufacturing Co. Works |
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| Stone Building of the Collins Manufacturing Co. Along the Farmington River |
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| Old stone works of the Collins Manufacturing Co. |
It was a great day, and we are so glad we got to see Collinsville. Thanks to my cousin Pam for nudging me to go see the place!
After arriving back in Kingston, NY, we did Docktails with our Looper friends. What a great group. Ron from the Tug Adagio read the latest on the Erie Canal as we were breaking up. The first part from Locks E-2 to E-8 will open back up tomorrow, as will another section. The kicker is Lock 12 where the dam is heavily damaged. No word on that. They are still "surveying".
I did get some encouragement today from some people who live on Lake Michigan that you can travel the Lake well into September if you need to. This makes us inclined to continue on if we can get into the Canal in another week or 10 days. Here's hoping.
Tomorrow is a huge 4th of July celebration here in Kingston along the wall. They will shoot fireworks off the bridge right here at he marina. The Looper group is getting together to eat dinner tomorrow evening with everyone bringing a dish. Should be fun! Already tonight town folk are walking along the wall talking to us boaters. People are feeding ducks bread from the wall. More and more boats are arriving. It is a festive atmosphere to be sure.
Thanks for Reading!
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