103-578: The Battle of the Frogs was a frog-related incident in the Connecticut Colony town of Windham in 1754. On a summer night in June or July, the people of Windham were awakened by a mysterious loud noise whose source they could not identify. The French and Indian War had recently broken out and, fearing an attack, a scouting party was sent out to investigate. By the morning, it was discovered that
206-422: A lekking amongst the frogs. On a summer night in June or July 1754, the townspeople of Windham were awakened by an unusual, cacophonous noise, and were unable to identify the source of the sound. The odd noise seemed to emanate from above and some people heard voices in the noise, thought to be the demands of the supposed attacking force or threats against prominent men in their community. Some accounts claim that
309-545: A ballad mention there had been a severe drought the summer of the incident, drastically reducing the water level in the mill pond. While no newspapers appear to have written about the incident at the time, news of the Windham community's frog scare spread throughout the Connecticut Colony . The earliest surviving document mentioning the incident was a July 1754 letter from Abel Stiles to his nephew Ezra Stiles , who later became president of Yale College . The elder Stiles quoted
412-653: A democratic government, earning Connecticut the nickname "The Constitution State." Prior to European settlement, the land that would become Connecticut was home to the Wappinger Confederacy along the western coast and the Niantics on the eastern coast. Further inland were the Pequot , who pushed the Niantic to the coast and would become the most important tribe in relations with colonists. Also present were
515-600: A female. With no coordination of calls, it must have been a God-awful noise, and I think this is what the villagers heard." At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1925, Allan Forbes reported on the encampments of soldiers from the French Army during the French and Indian War. One such encampment was near Windham and during his tour of the area, Forbes was told by locals that
618-573: A formal explanation of this decision, the United States Declaration of Independence which was approved on July 4 and published soon thereafter. The Congress moved to Baltimore in the winter of 1776–77 to avoid capture by British forces who were advancing on Philadelphia. Henry Fite's tavern was the largest building in Baltimore at the time and provided a comfortable location of sufficient size for Congress to meet. Its site at
721-414: A frog vignette. The vignette, prominently featured in the lower right-hand corner of the notes, depicts a frog sitting on top of another upturned and dead frog. The bank included the vignette in its $ 1, $ 2, $ 3, $ 5, and $ 10 denominations until the 1870s. Theron Brown, a poet of Windham, wrote the following verse mentioning the banknotes: I pause to nurse a quaint remembrance here, The bank and I were born
824-849: A great number of them . Sassacus was able to escape to the Mohawks , who immediately killed him and his party, sending his scalp to Boston. With the Pequots vanquished the Treaty of Hartford was signed between Connecticut, the Mohegans, and the Narragansett, granting the Connecticut settlers the exclusive right to the former Pequot land and dissolving the Pequot as both a political and cultural entity, with surviving Pequots made to assimilate into
927-483: A group of men from the Bay Colony to the river to see Connecticut for themselves. They returned with accounts of plentiful beaver, hemp, and graphite. A year later, Oldham would lead a group of settlers to found the town of Wethersfield . By 1635, Massachusetts' English population had grown immensely and it was clear there was not enough land for the settlers. Particularly eager to leave the crowded Bay colony were
1030-501: A land purchase of 20 acres along the river from Wopigwooit, the Grand Sachem of the Pequot in 1633. The Dutch would establish a trading post named Kivett's Point and a redoubt named Fort Good Hope , the future sites of Saybrook and Hartford respectively. In 1631, a group of sachems from the Connecticut valley led by Wahquimacut visited Plymouth Colony and Boston, asking both colonies to send settlers to Connecticut to fight
1133-467: A local alcoholic concoction. The opera contains numerous ethnic stereotypes , including an "Injun" war dance, a German character named Lim Burger, African American characters who are enslaved by Dyer, dancing gypsies, and an English lord with a speech disorder . An updated production of The Frogs of Windham debuted in 1983 for the sesquicentennial of Willimantic's incorporation. The Sesquicentennial Fine Arts Committee used state and city grants to finance
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#17327722736201236-508: A part of the town's folklore. The pond, formerly known as Follett's Pond, was renamed Frog Pond. A town seal featuring the silhouette of a bullfrog was adopted. According to folklorist Richard Dorson , Windham's adoption of the frog as a symbol was a form of boosterism with the town turning the tale to their advantage and using it to distinguish themselves from other communities. Windham produced postcards depicting gigantic frogs or "worthies in nightdress" conversing with frogs. Dorson says that
1339-523: A passage from Ovid 's Metamorphoses referring to the Lycian peasants who had been transformed into frogs before mentioning Windham and the bullfrogs: If the late tragical tidings from Windham deserve credits, as doubtless it doth, it will then concern the gentlemen of your jurisperitian order to be fortified against the dreadfull croaks of the Tauranaon Legions... but pray whence it is that
1442-453: A resolution recommending that any colony with a government that was not inclined toward independence should form one that was. On May 15, they adopted a more radical preamble to this resolution, drafted by John Adams , which advised throwing off oaths of allegiance and suppressing the authority of the Crown in any colonial government that still derived its authority from the Crown. That same day,
1545-428: A ring around the stockades to kill anyone attempting to escape. The Indian allies formed a second ring to catch anyone who managed to escape the first. Hundreds of Pequots died, many of the women and children. Their spirits broken, many of the Pequot attempted to flee west. Mason, accompanied by Israel Stoughton pursued a group of three hundred Pequots to a swamp near modern Fairfield , where they killed and captured
1648-596: A significant donation to the college, it was renamed Yale College in his honor. The Connecticut Courant , the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States, was founded in Hartford in 1764. Connecticut was a staunch supporter of the American Revolution, with a fifth of the state's male population serving in the war. Jonathan Trumbull was the only colonial governor to support
1751-744: A state of what he called an "open and avowed rebellion ". As a result, the king refused to receive the petition. Georgia had not participated in the First Continental Congress and did not initially send delegates to the Second. But with the Revolutionary War escalating, the residents of St. John's Parish in present-day Liberty County sent Lyman Hall to the gathering in Philadelphia on their behalf. He participated in debates but did not vote, as he did not represent
1854-449: A strange battle between some Lawyers and Bull-Frogs, set forth in a new song written by a jolly farmer of New England." The final verse of the ballad reads, "Lawyers, I say, now from this day, be honest in your dealing. And never more increase your store, while you the poor are killing." Another ballad, called "The Frogs of Windham" and attributed to Arion, was based on Peters' account. A third ballad entitled "The Bull-Frog Fright: A Ballad of
1957-471: A wide variety of house forms. They generally reflected the dominant English heritage and architectural tradition. 41°43′05″N 72°45′05″W / 41.71803°N 72.75146°W / 41.71803; -72.75146 Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress was the late 18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of
2060-560: A year of debate, and sent it to the states for ratification . Approval by all 13 states was required for the establishment of the constitution. Jefferson's proposal for a Senate to represent the states and a House to represent the people was rejected, but a similar proposal was adopted later in the United States Constitution . One issue of debate was large states wanting a larger say, nullified by small states who feared tyranny. The small states prevailed, and each state
2163-728: Is called Croaking and the town seal includes a frog in its design. Historical recitations of the tale are given on the village green in the Windham Center Historic District , especially on significant anniversaries of the battle. In 2005, the Windham Area Arts Collaborative commissioned local artists to decorate about a dozen copies of the frog sculptures from the Frog Bridge. Willimantic has hosted frog jumping contests . The Windham Bank, chartered in 1832, produced banknotes with
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#17327722736202266-921: The American Revolution and the Revolutionary War , which established American independence from the British Empire . The Congress constituted a new federation that it first named the United Colonies of North America , and in 1776, renamed the United States of America . The Congress began convening in Philadelphia , on May 10, 1775, with representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies, after the Battles of Lexington and Concord . The Second Continental Congress succeeded
2369-585: The First Anglo-Dutch War . The war's outbreak enabled Connecticut to seize Fort Good Hope in 1653. After the restoration of the Stuart monarchy , many in Connecticut feared their colony's Puritanism and lack of a royal charter would lead to Charles II curtailing the colony's self government. Governor John Winthrop Jr. was sent to England in 1662 where he successfully obtained a charter. The charter granted Connecticut extensive liberties, with
2472-707: The First Continental Congress , which had met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, also in Philadelphia. The Second Congress functioned as the de facto federation government at the outset of the Revolutionary War by raising militias, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and writing petitions such as the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and the Olive Branch Petition . All 13 colonies were represented by
2575-697: The Intolerable Acts . They also created the Continental Association to establish a coordinated protest of these acts, boycotting British goods in protest to them. The Second Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775, to plan further responses if the British government did not repeal or modify the acts; however, the American Revolutionary War had started by that time with the Battles of Lexington and Concord , and
2678-629: The Massachusetts Bay Colony led by Thomas Hooker . The English would secure their control of the region in the Pequot War . Over the course of the colony's history it would absorb the neighboring New Haven and Saybrook colonies. The colony was part of the briefly-lived Dominion of New England . The colony's founding document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut has been called the first written constitution of
2781-726: The New England Confederation to mutually defend the colonies against the Dutch, French, and Indians. Before leaving for England, Fenwick, along with Hopkins, would serve as Connecticut's first commissioners to the Confederation. Connecticut's membership in the Confederation also meant it sent troops to fight in King Philip's War , though Connecticut itself was minimally impacted. Like its fellow Puritan colonies, Connecticut would welcome Cromwell's victory in
2884-537: The Nipmunks and Mohicans , though these two tribes largely lived in the neighboring states of Massachusetts and New York respectively. The first European to visit Connecticut was Dutch explorer Adriaen Block , who sailed up the Connecticut River with his yacht Onrust . Accordingly, as the first Europeans to explore Connecticut, the Dutch claimed the land as part of New Netherland and negotiated
2987-479: The Olive Branch Petition to King George III affirming the colonies' loyalty to the crown and imploring the king to prevent further conflict. However, by the time British Colonial Secretary Lord Dartmouth received the petition, King George III had already issued a proclamation on August 23, 1775 , in response to the Battle of Bunker Hill , declaring elements of Britain's continental American possessions to be in
3090-487: The Virginia Convention instructed its delegation in Philadelphia to propose a resolution that called for a declaration of independence, the formation of foreign alliances, and a confederation of the states. The resolution of independence was delayed for several weeks, as advocates of independence consolidated support in their home governments. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee offered a resolution before
3193-545: The Willimantic Enterprise newspaper, wrote the opera in the 1880s with his son Burton. It was published and copyrighted in 1891. The operetta includes a romantic subplot in which Colonel Dyer tries to marry off his daughter to a "weak-minded English youth". Meanwhile, a farm boy who is in love with the daughter plots to have the English lord captured by Mohegan Indians. The frogs are not introduced until
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3296-490: The Willimantic River and that they "filled a road forty yards wide for four miles in length," entered Windham around midnight, and were several hours in their passage. In his account, the residents of Windham fled naked from their beds with "worse shrieking than that of the frogs", fearing an earthquake or the "dissolution of nature". Peters relates that the men retreated a half mile and upon their return, heard from
3399-641: The divine right of kings in the New World , but recognized the necessity of proving their credibility in the Old World . Congress formally adopted the resolution of independence , but only after creating three overlapping committees to draft the Declaration, a Model Treaty , and the Articles of Confederation . The Declaration announced the states' entry into the international system; the model treaty
3502-596: The patriots . Nathan Hale , the first American spy, also hailed from the colony. The original colonies along the Connecticut River and in New Haven were established by separatist Puritans who were connected with the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies. They held Calvinist religious beliefs similar to the English Puritans, but they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from
3605-529: The "enemy's camp" voices uttering the words "Wight, Hilderken, Dier, Tete." They only discovered that their attackers were frogs after three men were sent to negotiate. According to an 1890 review of Peters' account in American Notes and Queries , his prejudices "led him to connive at the dismemberment of Connecticut". Peters, who had Tory sympathies, was forced to leave the country in 1774. The Notes and Queries review noted that Peters had exaggerated
3708-455: The 17th century and developed with greater diversity and an increased focus on production for distant markets, especially the British colonies in the Caribbean . The American Revolution cut off imports from Britain and stimulated a manufacturing sector that made heavy use of the entrepreneurship and mechanical skills of the people. In the second half of the 18th century, difficulties arose from
3811-546: The 1984 book Legendary Connecticut , suggested incorporating frogs into the design. Willimantic residents also offered suggestions for the bridge. One returned from Serbia with a travel brochure for the Dragon Bridge in Slovenia, which has dragons at either end that, according to local legend, are supposed to wag their tails when virgins walk across. In response to the suggestion, Margaret P. Reich, executive director of
3914-563: The Congress was called upon to take charge of the war effort. For the first few months of the Revolutionary War, the patriots carried on their struggle in a largely ad-hoc and uncoordinated manner. Even so, they had numerous successes, seizing numerous British arsenals, driving royal officials out of several colonies, and launching the Siege of Boston in order to prevent the movement by land of British troops stationed there. On June 14, 1775,
4017-413: The Congress, declaring the colonies independent. He urged Congress to resolve "to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances" and to prepare a plan of confederation for the newly independent states. Lee argued that independence was the only way to ensure a foreign alliance since no European monarchs would deal with America if they remained Britain's colonies. American leaders had rejected
4120-401: The Dutch, a threat ignored by Holmes. Holmes proceeded a few miles up river and constructed a trading post on the modern site of Windsor . Hearing of the English activities, New Netherland governor Wouter Van Twiller dispatched 70 men to dislodge the English. The Dutch would find the English well prepared to defend themselves and left, seeking to avoid bloodshed. Meanwhile, John Oldham led
4223-474: The Dutch. Connecticut sent a force of ninety men, led by John Mason . The force was joined by sixty Mohegans led by Uncas and came to Saybrook where a group of Massachusetts men led by Underhill joined them. On May 26, 1637, the group, encamped outside a fortified Pequot village on the Mystic River , launched a surprise attack at dawn. The English charged into the village, set it on fire, and formed
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4326-556: The English state church. They had immigrated to New England during the Great Migration . In the middle of the 18th century, the government restricted voting rights with a property qualification and a church membership requirement. Congregationalism was the established church in the colony by the time of the American War of Independence until it was disestablished in 1818. The economy began with subsistence farming in
4429-475: The French had begun hunting frogs after they pitched their tents. From the stories he was told, he concluded that they didn't have much else to eat. One person suggested that the legend of the mass exodus of frogs from the pond was due to them trying to escape the soldiers. The Battle of the Frogs was commemorated in song and verse. Residents of Windham adopted the bullfrog as a symbol, incorporating it into their banknotes, and their town seal. The original plans for
4532-484: The Fundamental Orders were established, the nearby New Haven colony organized its own government. When Fort Good Hope was constructed, the Dutch specified in their treaty with the Pequot that the trading post was to be open to all tribes. Ignoring this, the Pequot attacked a rival tribe attempting to trade. The Dutch retaliated by kidnapping the sachem of the Pequot, Tatobem and holding him for ransom. After
4635-578: The Olden Time" had forty-four stanzas and was published in 1851. In 1857, William Lawton Weaver compiled the 48-page pamphlet The Battle of the frogs, at Windham, 1758: with various accounts and three of the most popular ballads on the subject . It was published by James Walden in Willimantic. The pamphlet includes the accounts of Samuel Peters, the three ballads, and the account of Abner Follett. In his introduction, Weaver offers his own analysis of
4738-404: The Pequot paid the ransom, the Dutch gave them Tatobem's corpse. The Pequot retaliated for this by attacking an English ship, believing it to be Dutch. The ship's captain, John Stone, and his crew were killed by the Pequot. A Pequot envoy was sent to Massachusetts to explain the misunderstanding. The envoy told the English about the mistaken identity of the ship. When asked to turn over the killers,
4841-459: The Pequot. Massachusetts governor John Winthrop rejected the proposal but Edward Winslow , governor of Plymouth was more open, traveling to Connecticut in person in 1632. Winslow, along with William Bradford would later travel to Boston to convince the leaders of Massachusetts Bay to join Plymouth in constructing a trading post on the Connecticut River before the Dutch could. Winthrop rejected
4944-417: The Pequot. The Pequot also claimed to be unable to distinguish the Dutch from the English. Disbelieving these claims and seeing there were no women or children among the Pequot, Endecott attacked, beginning the war. The Pequot responded by besieging Saybrook and attacking Wethersfield, where they would kill nine and take two women hostage. The women were daughters of William Swaine and would later be rescued by
5047-527: The Saybrook Colony was established at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Considerable amounts of emigrants from Massachusetts also settled in the recently established town of Wethersfield. Plymouth's settlement of Windsor also found itself swamped by settlers from Dorchester who took over the settlement. The issue was resolved when the Dorchester settlers agreed to pay the Plymouth settlers for
5150-560: The Second Continental Congress voted to create the Continental Army out of the militia units around Boston , and the next day unanimously approved a motion naming George Washington of Virginia as its commanding general. On July 6, 1775, Congress approved a Declaration of Causes outlining the rationale and necessity for taking up arms in the Thirteen Colonies . Two days later, delegates signed
5253-519: The Willimantic town hall, built in the late 19th century, called for the entrance to be guarded by two frogs. During a 1902 visit by President Theodore Roosevelt , a banner commemorating the Battle of the Frogs was displayed. Sometime before 1919, an archway over the road from Willimantic to Windham included two large bullfrogs dressed in green and white uniforms. High school class rings are also sometimes embossed with frogs. A local high school newspaper
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#17327722736205356-614: The Windham Public Library distributes a booklet with one of the ballads devoted to the battle and "places book plates with the frog emblem in its volumes". Many of the accounts of the Battle of the Frogs are quasi-historical, often embellishing or exaggerating aspects of the incident. The most popular account of the Battle of the Frogs is probably that of the Reverend Samuel Peters , a Loyalist from nearby Hebron who wrote an exaggerated version of
5459-656: The Windham Regional Planning Agency, said "we'd like to create a similar urban legend , but with frogs—and probably not involving virgins." Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony , originally known as the Connecticut River Colony , was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut . It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritan congregation of settlers from
5562-516: The Windhamites Eliphalet Dyer and Jedidiah Elderkin figure prominently and are portrayed as "bumbling idiots and comic cowards". Elements from Peters' account of the Battle of the Frogs were incorporated into later ballads and retellings. In his version, the frogs were located about five miles from Windham in "an artificial pond three miles square". He writes that the frogs, having found the water dried up, hopped their way towards
5665-462: The account of Sinda, "wife of Jack, body servant to Colonel Eliphalet Dyer ": Well it was in June, I think, and the weather was very hot, and Master had drawn off the Pond to fix the dam. When he came home he did not think of nothin'—by and by when it became cool there began to be a rumble, rumble, rumble in the air, and it grew louder and louder and louder , and seemed to be like drums beating in
5768-470: The accounts and speculates as to the cause of the disturbance. He describes the events as having occurred after midnight in June or July of 1758 on a foggy night. According to Weaver, the incident took place during the French and Indian War and Colonel Eliphalet Dyer had recently raised a regiment for an expedition against Crown Point under Israel Putnam . Ellen Douglas Larned, in the second volume of her 1880 History of Windham County, Connecticut , relays
5871-432: The air. Well, it was in the old French War, when our men had gone to Belle Isle or Canada to fight the French and Indians, and some guessed it was the Injuns having a powwow or war dance on Chewink Plain, and we should all be killed in the morning. But Master and Colonel Elderkin and Mr. Gray mounted their horses and rode to the top of Mullein Hill, and as the pond was a little over there beyond they found out what it was—and
5974-411: The back of his carriage. References to the incident continued into the 19th century. David Hillhouse, writing of his first experience attending an opera in New York in 1826, was initially displeased by the " gibberish and squall, reminding me forcibly of the—battle of the frogs at Windham in ancient days". Meanwhile, the Windham community adopted the frog as an emblem as the battle became memorialized as
6077-400: The bridge. Designed by artist Leo Jensen, the lazily perched frogs pay homage to the Battle of the Frogs and are named Manny, Willy, Windy and Swifty. William H. Grover, who was asked to create designs for the bridge, initially produced a Victorian theme with spools to represent Willimantic as the home of the American Thread Company. Windham Planning Commission chair David E. Philips, who wrote
6180-417: The bullfrogs were making advertisement calls . The bullfrogs, faced with a shrinking shoreline and being pushed together as they lost physical territory, may have shifted their mating strategy and begun lekking in a situation Herrick likened to a mosh pit . With so many males in a small pond, Herrick speculates that "all the males gave up on having any territory at all and focused strictly on at least getting
6283-446: The charter had vanished, safely hidden away in a nearby oak tree. The tree, which became known as the Charter Oak would endure as a symbol of Connecticut for generations. Andros replaced Puritan officials with Anglicans and imposed heavy taxes. His salary of £1,200 exceeded the entire annual expenditure of Massachusetts' former government. When James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution , Andros initially attempted to suppress
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#17327722736206386-419: The civil war. The new English government, however, would soon cause issues for Connecticut. The Confederation negotiated the Treaty of Hartford defining the border between New Netherland and the English colonies, but the government in England refused to ratify it. Tensions with the Dutch would be inflamed by the Navigation Act 1651 , restricting foreign trade with the colonies. These tensions would culminate in
6489-500: The croaking of a Bull Frogg should so Balshazzarise a Lawyer?—& how Dyarful ye alarm made by these audacious longwinded Croakers! Windham became the "laughing-stock of the colonies" and its residents suffered ridicule. William Weaver wrote in 1857 that Windhamites could not travel far from home without hearing something about bullfrogs. Ballads were written about the incident, while "rhyme and dogerel [ sic ] circulated freely". He wrote that "Long and obstinately [fought]
6592-551: The entire colony. That changed after July 1775, when a provincial Congress decided to send delegates to the Continental Congress and to adopt a ban on trade with Britain. The Continental Congress had no explicit legal authority from the British to govern, but it assumed all the functions of a national government, including appointing ambassadors, signing treaties, raising armies, appointing generals, obtaining loans from Europe, issuing paper money called " Continentals ", and disbursing funds. Congress had no authority to levy taxes and
6695-413: The envoy claimed all but two of the killers had died of a recent smallpox epidemic and they lacked the authority to turn over the two survivors. The Pequot further claimed the killing was justified as Stone had captured two Pequots and mistreated them. When John Gallup was sailing to Long Island he spotted a pinnace belonging to John Oldham, its deck covered with Indians. When Gallup attempted to board
6798-595: The fight between the frogs to that of the Kilkenny cats . The author "Shepherd Tom" also wrote of the Battle of the Frogs. His version of the tale was included in Jonnycake Papers , his 1880 folk tale collection. Most versions of the story conclude that a drought caused the pond to dry up and that the bullfrogs fought each other, resulting in many deaths. Other explanations that have been offered include an outbreak of disease. Herpetologist Susan Z. Herrick, who grew up in Windham and has spent over 3,000 hours making field recordings of wild bullfrogs, has speculated that
6901-446: The first legislative session in New Haven to create a college for the colony, with Saybrook as the site and Abraham Pierson as the first rector. Pierson would run the college from his home in Killingworth until his death in 1707, when it was finally moved to Saybrook. Saybrook would soon prove to be too remote and New Haven was able to beat out other communities for the site of the college in 1716. Two years later, when Elihu Yale made
7004-401: The hometown of settler Samuel Stone . In May 1638 Thomas Hooker delivered a sermon on civil government. Inspired by this sermon the settlers sought to create a constitution for the colony. The resulting document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, was likely mostly drafted by Roger Ludlow , the only trained lawyer in the colonies. The document was adopted in January 1639 and formally united
7107-449: The incident in his inaccurate and spiteful General History of Connecticut (1781). Peters was disgraced for his Loyalist sympathies and fled to England in 1774 where he published his embittered history, which was nicknamed The Lying History in Connecticut. In addition to naming one of his ancestors as the founder of Yale, Peters invented animals, claimed that a river was "solid", and fabricated non-existent Blue Laws . In Peters' account,
7210-403: The island he claimed it not for Connecticut but for himself. The Duke of York would ascend to the throne as King James II and VII. As one of his first acts, he would consolidate the English colonies from West Jersey to Maine into the Dominion of New England . Sir Edmund Andros would be appointed governor of the new united colony. Andros demanded that Connecticut hand over its charter as it
7313-416: The issue of Hooker's congregation's desire for removal to Connecticut was raised in the General Court . Opponents of the removal countered with a proposal that settlers instead settle Agawam and Merrimack . Both sites proved unsatisfactory, but removal was nonetheless delayed for two years. Despite the refusal of Thomas Hooker's request for removal, settlers continued to pour into the valley. In May 1635
7416-479: The land appropriated. Finally in 1636 the arrival of a new group of settlers allowed Hooker's congregation to sell their homes and set off on the journey to Connecticut on the May 31. Hooker's group of around a hundred settlers and as many cattle soon arrived at the Connecticut River and established the town of Newtown near the Dutch fort. This name would not last however, as it was soon renamed Hartford after Hertford ,
7519-495: The last half of the third act as a "mysterious noise" that Dyer is convinced is a message from God that he should allow his daughter to marry the person she loves. One of Dyer's captains then arrives and announces that the noise was merely a "throng of combative frogs". The Frogs of Windham was performed throughout Connecticut in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The opera's "Frog Ballet" was reported to have "caused much merriment" and its drinking song "Good Old Windham Flip" honored
7622-432: The names "Dyer" and "Elderkin" were heard, the names of two of the village's lawyers and colonels. The resulting noise was so great that a kind of mass hysteria set in, with some convinced that Armageddon was upon them and others believing that they might be under attack. The French and Indian War had recently broken out, and in anticipation of an attack by the French, Wabanakis , or Algonquins , an armed scouting party
7725-437: The news. Word did get out, and the colonists overthrew the dominion casting its government as crypto-Catholic supports of James II and themselves as loyal to the new Protestant monarchs of William III and Mary II . The dominion's short-lived experiment in centralized government ended and Connecticut, along with all the other colonies, had its charter restored. In 1701 New Haven was designated co-capital with Hartford. At
7828-472: The offer, calling Connecticut "not fit to meddle with" citing hostile Indians and the difficulty of moving large ships into the Connecticut River. Despite the Bay Colony's refusal to join the venture, Plymouth sent a bark led by William Holmes to establish a trading post on the Connecticut. Besides the English settlers, they took some of the original sachems of the area to prove the validity of their claim. As they passed Fort Good Hope they were threatened by
7931-561: The orchestration that the score had previously lacked. The Windham Theatre Guild revived the work in 1992. The operetta's 82-page piano score is held by the Library of Congress . The Thread City Crossing, commonly known as the Frog Bridge, is a bridge in Willimantic that spans the Willimantic River. The bridge was completed in 2000 and features four 11-foot (3.4 m) tall copper frogs atop giant concrete spools at each corner of
8034-572: The other tribes. With the outbreak of the English Civil War , English support for the Saybrook Colony dried up. The colony's governor, George Fenwick negotiated a deal to sell the colony to Connecticut in 1644. Fenwick would return to England and serve with distinction under Oliver Cromwell . Inspired by the successes of colonial cooperation during the Pequot War, Connecticut, along with Massachusetts, Plymouth, and New Haven formed
8137-648: The removal of references to royalty being the only change required in the aftermath of the American Revolution . The charter also granted Connecticut extensive land claims, defining its borders as the Narragansett Bay , the Pacific Ocean , the southern border of Massachusetts and the 40th parallel north . When representatives of Connecticut traveled to New Haven to show them that they were to be annexed into Connecticut, they initially met strong opposition. This opposition faded in 1664 when New Netherland
8240-472: The residents of Netwown . The founder of Newtown, Thomas Dudley was frequently at odds with Winthrop, including anger at the choice of Boston as the colony's capital and refusal to support the construction of a fort in Boston. Dudley sent one Thomas Hooker, Newtown's pastor to Boston to resolve the latter dispute, but the resentment of Winthrop remained. After Dudley replaced Winthrop as governor in May 1634,
8343-407: The scare was over. Master said he supposed the frogs fought each other for the next day there were thousands of them dead. They croaked some the next night but nothing so bad. William Lawton Weaver wrote that the account of Abner Follett, Jr. was the most credible. The Follett family had owned the pond at the time of the incident and his father, Abner Follett, Sr. had recalled the incident, although he
8446-404: The self same year. I mind its notes, between whose figures poked, Two frogs—so lifelike that they almost croked. The original greenbacks of the native race, That long anticipated Salmon Chase . They blossomed like pond lilies from the mud, Memento of a war that shed no blood. The Battle of the Frogs inspired the comic opera The Frogs of Windham . Nason W. Leavitt, who formerly owned
8549-625: The set and costumes. Kramer Middle School teacher Robert Brouillard called the operetta "a director's nightmare," noting its amateurish libretto and comparing the opera to the fictional musical Springtime for Hitler . Brouillard rewrote the story, which was "riddled with racial and ethnic epithets". The production included antique muskets as props and featured the Windham Community Orchestra as well as choreography by Windham Ballet artistic director Barbara Johnson. University of Connecticut music professor David Maker provided
8652-407: The settlements of Hartford, Windsor, and Wetherfield together and has been called the first written democratic constitution. Under the new constitution, John Haynes was elected governor with Ludlow as deputy governor. Owing to a restriction against governors seeking office in consecutive years, Haynes would alternate the office of governor with Edward Hopkins every year until 1655. Shortly after
8755-442: The ship to investigate, a fight ensued with Gallup victorious. The colonists blamed the Narragansett for the killing, warning Roger Williams to be careful. The Narragansett leaders Canonicus and Miantonomoh were able to reassure the colonist, claiming that the culprits not killed by Gallup were hiding among the Pequot. After this a group of ninety men led by John Endecott and his captains John Underhill and Nathaniel Turner
8858-443: The shortage of good farmland, periodic money problems, and downward price pressures in the export market. In agriculture, there was a shift from grain to animal products. The colonial government attempted to promote various commodities as export items from time to time, such as hemp , potash , and lumber, in order to bolster its economy and improve its balance of trade with Great Britain. Connecticut's domestic architecture included
8961-485: The size of Frog Pond and its distance from the town, noting that a migration of frogs would likely have sought out the Shetucket River , which was closer than the Willimantic. At least three ballads have been written about the Battle of the Frogs. Lebanon residents Stephen and Ebenezer Tilden are credited as the authors of the 1840s ballad "Lawyers and Bull-Frogs". The ballad is introduced as "a true relation of
9064-480: The sound was American bullfrogs , hundreds to thousands of which were found dead in a nearby mill pond. News of Windham's embarrassing "battle" with the frogs spread throughout the colony and became a running joke in the region. Ballads and exaggerated accounts of the incident proliferated. The townspeople adopted the frog as a mascot of the community, creating a town seal with a frog and using frog vignettes on Windham Bank currency. The comic opera The Frogs of Windham
9167-571: The time the Congress adopted the Lee Resolution , which declared independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, and the Congress unanimously agreed to the Declaration of Independence two days later. Congress functioned as the provisional government of the United States of America through March 1, 1781, when congress became what is now often called the Confederation Congress . During this period, it successfully managed
9270-814: The war effort, drafted the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , adopted the first U.S. constitution, secured diplomatic recognition and support from foreign nations, and resolved state land claims west of the Appalachian Mountains . Many of the delegates who attended the Second Congress had also attended the First. They again elected Peyton Randolph as president of the Congress and Charles Thomson as secretary. Notable new arrivals included Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and John Hancock of Massachusetts . Within two weeks, Randolph
9373-586: The western edge of town was beyond easy reach of the British Royal Navy 's ships should they attempt to sail up the harbor and the Patapsco River to shell the town. Congress was again forced to flee Philadelphia at the end of September 1777, as British troops seized and occupied the city ; they moved to York, Pennsylvania , where they continued their work. Congress passed the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777, after more than
9476-493: Was afforded one vote. Another revolved around the issue of western land claims ; states without such claims wanted those with claims to yield them to Congress. As written, western land claims remained in the hands of the individual states. Congress urged the states to give their assent quickly, and most did. The first to ratify was Virginia on December 16, 1777; 12 states had ratified the Articles by February 1779, 14 months into
9579-434: Was designed to establish amity and commerce with other states, and the Articles of Confederation established "a firm league" among the thirteen free and independent states. These three things together constituted an international agreement to set up central institutions for conducting vital domestic and foreign affairs. Congress finally approved the resolution of independence on July 2, 1776. They next turned their attention to
9682-409: Was no longer a separate colony. Governor Robert Treat attempted to delay handing over the charter for several months, but on October 31, 1687, Andros came to Hartford to retrieve the charter in person. Treat proceeded to give a speech well into the evening on the importance of the charter. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind came through the door, blowing out the candles. By the time the candles were relit,
9785-614: Was required to request money, supplies, and troops from the states to support the war effort. Individual states frequently ignored these requests. Congress was moving towards declaring independence from the British Empire in 1776, but many delegates lacked the authority from their home governments to take such drastic action. Advocates of independence moved to have reluctant colonial governments revise instructions to their delegations, or even replace those governments which would not authorize independence. On May 10, 1776, Congress passed
9888-588: Was seized and renamed New York after its proprietor, the Roman Catholic Duke of York . New York's eastern boundary was defined as the Connecticut River, making New Haven within the claims of both New York and Connecticut. Unwilling to be ruled by a Catholic royalist, New Haven relented and agreed to join Connecticut. The aforementioned seizure of New Netherland would also end Connecticut's claims on Long Island , as when Captain John Scott took
9991-503: Was sent from Massachusetts to the Pequot's territory to demand the return of the murderers of both Stone and Oldham. The force first sailed to Block Island, but the Indians evaded them there and the force left with the only casualty inflicted on the villagers being the burning of the island's empty villages. When the forced arrived in Pequot territory, they were told that the murder was committed by none other than Sassacus , grand sachem of
10094-401: Was sent out to determine the strength of their enemies. The scouting party traveled east of the village, over a hill, to Follett's Pond, a mill pond where a large number of bullfrogs ( Lithobates catesbeianus ) were found to be the source of the raucous noise. The next day, the corpses of hundreds if not thousands of bullfrogs were found. The History of Windham County and the introduction to
10197-423: Was simply the anvil chorus of a happy family of frogs". Historian Jeptha Root Simms wrote about the Battle of the Frogs in his 1846 book The American Spy, Or, Freedoms Early Sacrifice . In Simms' retelling of the tale, after Colonel Dyer climbed the hill to the east of Windham, "his courage failed him, and when he would have advanced eastward, his knees smote their fellows with dangerous collision". Simms compared
10300-573: Was summoned back to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses ; Hancock succeeded him as president, and Thomas Jefferson replaced Randolph in the Virginia delegation. The number of participating colonies also grew, as Georgia endorsed the Congress in July 1775 and adopted the continental ban on trade with Britain. The First Continental Congress had sent entreaties to King George III to stop
10403-479: Was the contest, and many thousands of combatants were found dead on both sides of the ditch the next morning." The story persisted over the years and spread to other colonies. The tale followed Windham lawyer Eliphalet Dyer throughout his career. Once, upon his arrival at the Second Continental Congress , he was greeted with laughter. Unbeknownst to him, a dead bullfrog had been dangling from
10506-533: Was written about the Battle of the Frogs. The Thread City Crossing in Willimantic is colloquially known as the " Frog Bridge " for the enormous copper frogs that perch at each corner. Various theories for the behavior of the frogs have been raised. Some sources attest to a severe drought that summer and it has been speculated that the frogs fought among themselves for access to scarce water. Other explanations suggested that there had been an outbreak of disease or
10609-492: Was young. Weaver wrote that "to those who know Mr. F., it is unnecessary to say that nothing exaggerated or savoring of romance would be stated or entertained by him." Follett disputed that there had been a drought or that the pond had dried up. He said that while there had been no migration of frogs from the pond, their outcry was both thunderous and extraordinary. Those who lived closest to the ruckus reported feeling their beds vibrate beneath them. Follett said that "the whole thing
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