New Hartford, Connecticut
Litchfield county. This town was first settled in 1733. It lies 20 miles N.W. from Hartford and 11 N.E. from Litchfield. Population, 1830, 1,766. The surface of the town is hilly and mountainous. The lands are best adapted for grazing. It is watered by Farmington river and other streams, on which are several mills.
"In the eastern part of this town there is a rough and mountainous district, formerly designated Satan's Kingdom; and the few inhabitants who lived there were in a measure shut out from the rest of mankind. An inhabitant of the town invited one of his neighbors, who lived within the limits of this district, to go and hear Mr. Marsh, the first minister who was settled in the town. He was prevailed upon to go to church in the forenoon. In the course of his prayer, Mr. March, among other things, prayed that Satan's kingdom might be destroyed. It appears that the inhabitant of this district took the expression in a literal and tangible sense, having probably never heard the expression used but in reference to the district wherein he resided. Being asked to go to meeting in the afternoon, he refused, stating that Mr. Marsh had insulted him; 'for blast him,' said he, 'when he prayed for the destruction of Satan's kingdom, he very well knew all my interests lay there.'"
