Why Is There A New Middletown In Ohio?

Modified from a Middlesex County Historical Society notice.
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Look at a map of northern Ohio and you will see towns by the name of New Middletown, Middlefield, Saybrook, Windsor, Montville, Andover, Vernon, Hartford, Norwalk, Kent, Salem, Manchester, Clinton, and Litchfield. There are two towns named after men from Middletown – Stow (after Joshua Stow) and Shalersville, (after Nathaniel Shaler). This is not a coincidence. Soon after the Revolutionary War, people from Middletown and from other towns throughout Connecticut headed over the mountains to the Western Reserve of Connecticut to seek new opportunities. The Western Reserve eventually became part of the current state of Ohio.

Richard Buel, Professor of History Emeritus at Wesleyan University, has written a new book, The Peopling of New Connecticut, about the western movement in the 19th century; Buel will be giving the Arthur M Schultz Memorial Lecture to the Middlesex Historical Society on Tuesday, at 7PM, in the Hubbard Room of Russell Library.

The lecture will be preceded by a business meeting of the Society at 6:30 pm, also in the Hubbard Room of the Russell Library. (There is also a Hubbard, Ohio!)

Professor Buel is a graduate of Amherst College and received his PhD. in History from Harvard University. He taught at Wesleyan from 1962 to 2002, during which time he published five books, the best known of which was co-authored with Joy Buel and is entitled "The Way of Duty." Since retirement he has worked on five books, the last of which is the subject of his remarks.

The program is free and open to the public and the Hubbard Room is handicapped accessible.