Local History

This area, then know as Quanneapague, was purchased from the Pohtatuck Indians in 1705. Settled from Stratford and incorporated in 1711, Newtown was a stronghold of Tory sentiment during the early Revolutionary War. French General Rochambeau and hist troops encamped here in 1781 on their way to the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, which ended the Revolution. An important crossroads throughout its early history, the viallage of Hawleyville briefly emerged as a railroad center and the town’s population grew to over 4,000 circa 1881. In the following decades the population dwindled to a low of 2,635 in 1930 before again growing. Newtown covers an area of 60.38 square miles.

Local industry has included the manufacture of furniture, tea bags, combs, fire hose, folding boxes, buttons, and hats, as well as farming and mica and feldspar mining. The game of Scrabble was developed here by James Brunot.