A Brief History of Farmington from Woodruff Genealogy by Susan Emma (Woodruff) Abbott

FARMINGTON, settled in 1640 as Tunxis Plantation, later called Farmingtown, then Farmington, was incorporated as a town* in 1645. Its first inhabitants were mainly the overflow population from Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor. Through the years, as the outlying sections became settled and the distances to the church became too great for convenience, new parishes were established or "set-off", and these eventually split off to form new towns. Woodruffs resided in all of these, particularly in Southington, Plainville and Avon.

Briefly, all of the present towns of Avon, Bristol, Burlington, New Britain, Plainville and Southington were originally within the bounds of Farmington, as were portions of Berlin and Wolcott. Farmington was one of the largest towns in Connecticut, in the early days second only to Windsor. Farmington today is a most interesting and a beautiful town, has many well-preserved old houses, a fine museum, and is well worth visiting.

The map shows in shaded area Farmington as it is today, the heavy line indicating its original extent.

In 1828 the Farmington Canal, northward from New Haven, was completed and later extended to Northampton, Mass. This aided the development of the Farmington River Valley, and operated with some success until it was superseded by the New Haven & Northampton railroad in 1847, now the "Canal Road" of the N.Y.N.H. & H. RR.

* A Connecticut town has little resemblance to what is called a township in other parts of the country, as it is a self-governing part of a county,the latter being relatively unimportant. It is not further subdivided into precincts or sections, a system not used in New England. Such a town often includes more than one center of population and,except in the larger ones in recent times, is administered by an elected "board of selectmen", who are subject to the will of the "town meeting", where all resident voters may attend, speak their mind, and vote.

Following is a brief account of how and when the several offspring of Farmington were begun.

AVON, called at first Northington, North Parish or Nod, was established as a parish ca 1745, incorporated as a town in 1830.

BERLIN was incorporated as a town in 1785, but in 1712 a church had been organized at Kensington, as the 2d Parish of Farmington, which is in present Berlin. The first settlement was at the Great Swamp in 1686. Kensington had earlier been divided by the separation from it of New Britain in 1754 and Worthington, to the east, in 1774.

BRISTOL was in 1744 called the New Cambridge Parish of Farmington and in 1785 was incorporated as a town.

BURLINGTON, in the northwest part of Farmington, was organized in 1774 as the Parish of West Britain and set off from Bristol as a town in 1806.

NEW BRITAIN, settled about 1690, organized as a parish of Farmington in 1754, cut off from Berlin as a separate town in 1850, incorporated as a city 1870.

PLAINVILLE remained a part of Farmington, known before 1830 as the Great Plain, until incorporated as a town in 1869.

SOUTHINGTON was first settled in 1696, organized in 1724 as the South Society (i.e., church) of Farmington, and incorporated as a town in 1779.