Southington, Connecticut
Hartford county. Southington was taken from Farmington in 1779. There are some elevations in the town, particularly in the eastern part, but the soil is generally very good for all kinds of grain and the pasturage of cattle. It is watered by the Quinnepiack, and the Farmington canal passes through it. It contains a neat village, 18 miles S.W. from Hartford and 21 N. from New Haven. Population, 1830, 1,844.
The inhabitants are generally engaged in agriculture; yet several kinds of manufactures receive considerable attention. Peck's patent for machines for making tin ware, a most valuable invention, is exclusively owned in this town, and the business of making them is extensively carried on by Peck & Co., whose manufactory supplies almost the whole United States and the British provinces. The manufacture of water cement is very extensively carried on in this town, and furnishes a supply for the wants of the vicinity, and some for distant markets. There is an establishment for the manufacture of lasts, which are turned out by a machine: this is effected by having a model of the shape wanted, inserted into the apparatus connected with the machinery. Besides the above, there is a brass foundry; and several other establishments for manufacturing various articles, such as saws of different kinds, tin ware, combs, spoons, clocks, brushes, &c., are in operation, more or less extensively, at different times, according to the demands of the market. Copper has been discovered, in several places, in the range of mountains on the eastern border of the town.
