The town of Wethersfield is the oldest in the state, in terms of an actual English settlement, even though English traders arrived in Windsor months before that (but they only established a trading post at first). Wethersfield was also the first CT town ever attacked by Native Americans. It was in retaliation for an earlier attack on them by Massachusetts Bay Colony soldiers. Wethersfield was also where George Washington met French Commander Rochambeau to discuss how to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. Over its nearly 400-year existence, Wethersfield has achieved many other distinctions, which will be discussed by Martha Smart, the long-time Research Librarian for the Wethersfield Historical Society.

Of the two commercial airports in Connecticut, the smaller of the two gets relatively little mention. Tweed-New Haven Airport, which straddles the New Haven-East Haven border, has been in business for nearly a century, when it was just a dirt landing strip. The history of the airport, and its namesake Jack Tweed, are told by the Director of Photo Archives for the New Haven Museum, Jason Bischoff-Wurstle.

The infamous Yankee Peddlers are credited with originating in Berlin, CT – the same town where the tin industry started in the young United States. In fact, the same two individuals were responsible for starting both. In this episode, we’ll explore how the business model of door-to-door salesmen got its start, along with American consumerism itself, from the Librarian Emeritus of Berlin, Cathy Nelson.