Our History

America was gripped in the throes of the most sanguinary of civil wars. In the state capital the streets resounded to the tread of martial feet. Anxious crowds of women and children gathered to read the daily bulletins of casualties from southern battlefields. Men everywhere questioned whether the nation, so tested, could "long endure."

But in the minds and hearts of a small group of Hartford residents the spirit of hope burned brightly - hope for survival and the future, faith in the God of their ancestors. Some were descendants of the original Plymouth colonists who had transplanted their religious beliefs from England to Massachusetts and then to Connecticut. In the midst of bitter strife between the states, they planned an edifice which should be a beacon and a haven for future generations.