Aspinock Memories
Putnam’s rich history - Cady Copp and Boxcar museum
By Terri Pearsall, 
AHS Museum Curator
July 4th marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America.  The country has many celebrations scheduled throughout the year and especially this July 4th.  250 years ago, Putnam had not been incorporated as a town.  
In 1776, the area that is now Putnam was still Killingly, Pomfret, and Woodstock.  Putnam was incorporated in 1855.  The town fathers had wanted the area to be named Aspinock, which is the Indian name for the area of water from the great falls (Cargill Falls) to Long Island Sound.  But the legislature in Hartford rejected the petition two times using the name Aspinock.  So, they petitioned again using the name “Putnam” after General Israel Putnam, the famous Revolutionary War General of the Bunker Hill Battle.  Although he was from Brooklyn, the legislature accepted the petition and Putnam was incorporated. 
Putnam has a rich history.  The Quinebaug River was a source of power for several mills which provided jobs for local citizens (mostly women and children) leading to the immigration of Irish, Scottish, Italian, Polish, and Franco-American families.  The mills provided everything for their workers: houses, stores, social clubs, etc.  At one point, 60 trains a day went through Putnam.  Travelers going to Boston from New York City went through Putnam to get to their destination. Putnam was a hub of activity with many hotels, restaurants and a couple of theatres downtown.
On Sept. 26, 1972, The Aspinock Historical Society was founded to preserve the history of Putnam.  Since then, the Society has conducted tours of the town, had strawberry socials and many programs on the history of the town.  The Aspinock Historical Society now has three museums.  The largest museum is in the Municipal Complex,  2nd floor featuring displays of Putnam’s history, a research lab and an archives storage space. It is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tues. – Thurs. The Cady Copp Cottage on Rt. 21 is open by appointment only and the Gertrude Warner Boxcar Children Museum on South Main Street is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from May– mid October.
The Cady Copp Cottage
In 1992, Mrs. Barbara Peckham donated the Cady Copp Cottage (one of the oldest houses in Northeast CT) in memory of her husband, Fenner H. Peckham, Jr., to the Aspinock Historical Society. The Cady Copp Cottage constructed c.1745 sat in a busy area on Rt.21 (Liberty Highway) in Putnam (then Killingly).  Its front door was only a few feet from a road which led to the Killingly common and militia training ground. 
The Common is a field now abutting Rt. 21; the old road is a path through woods and forms part of a private drive. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 based on its architectural and historical significance.  Its modest size, square design, and corner fireplaces have few comparatives, and it retains its original rural setting of old stone walls marking field and livestock pens.  Perhaps its most remarkable attribute is its relative lack of modernization.  The house was last occupied in the 1920s.  It has never been fitted with modern utilities, and the grounds have not been altered.
This house was a common form in the 18th century, but not many have survived.  It is essentially square in plan (32 feet x 32 feet).  The ground floor is divided into four main rooms, each with a corner fireplace set into the large chimney stack.  The front entrance is enclosed within a portico which extrudes from the south side of the house.  A small pantry extends off the northeast corner of the house, opening into the kitchen, which has a bake oven in its fireplace. There is a hand pump in the pantry connected by a pipe to the 18th century well just outside the kitchen door.
The Cady-Copp Homestead was designated a State Archaeological Preserve in 2005.  The history of the Cady-Copp house begins on April 17, 1745, when Joseph Cady, Esq. deeded to Perley Howe, clerk and newly called minister of the local Congregational society in Killingly.  Joseph Cady was a prosperous and influential person.  He was a Justice of Peace, the captain of the local militia company, and one of the founders of a Library Association established in 1739. The house was sold several times and in 1776 was sold to David Copp.  In 1872 it was sold out of the Copp family and bought and sold by other families until the Aspinock Historical Society acquired the property.
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 11, 2026, Aspinock Historical Society and the Recreation Department will be conducting tours of the cottage in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of America.  If you would like to take a tour of the cottage, you must register with the Recreation Department at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  A bus will be leaving the Municipal Complex every half hour and transporting people to the cottage and back to the municipal building.  Please do not drive out there individually.
Renovations have included the sill, the roof, the parlor, the path into the site and more. Work in the future will include more entrance road work and more. 
The Gertrude Warner Boxcar Children Museum
On July 3, 2004, The Gertrude Warner Boxcar Children Museum had its grand opening.  Gertrude Chandler Warner lived her whole life in Putnam, Connecticut.  Even as a little girl, she always loved reading and writing.  Her favorite book was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and she authored her own first book at age nine.  
In 1918 so many Putnam citizens had left to fight in WWI that there was a teacher shortage and Gertrude was asked to teach first grade.  She was a teacher for 32 years teaching generations to read and to appreciate nature and music.  Most importantly, she taught each child to respect each other.
She grew up at 42 South Main St., right across the street from the bustling train station.  The comings and goings of the many mail and passenger trains fascinated her.  She has always thought it would be fun to keep house in a caboose.  In 1942 she wrote the versions of The Boxcar Children that we all know about Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny and their adventures in an abandoned boxcar.
Gertrude made The Boxcar Children exciting, and she used words and sentences that are easy to understand.  She wanted all children to get hooked on reading.  She wrote 19 Boxcar mysteries in all.  Now other authors continue her mystery adventure series for today’s children.
The museum contains photos and information about Ms. Warner.  Original Signed books, pupils’ silhouettes and personal letters are featured in the museum.  Her father’s desk, at which Gertrude often wrote, is also a featured item in the museum.  The Boxcar is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from May to mid-October. 
The museum began with a 1936 New Haven boxcar craned into place and upgrades, renovations and repairs , many funded by the Putnam Area Foundation, ensued including temperature control, a ramp, and a pavilion dedicated to boxcar organizer and society president Fred Hedenberg. A 5-foot wide concrete walkway is on the agenda and should be finished within a month.
All information in this article was taken from the archives at the Aspinock Historical Society Museum.
Aspinock Memories graces the pages of the Putnam Town Crier to keep Putnam’s history alive.

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Academy
names new 
head coach
It was as Woodstock Academy athletic director Sean Saucier described, “kind of organic.”
The Centaurs boys’ basketball team did not have a person to coach the program in summer basketball and Tourtellotte High head coach Greg Guillot offered to help out.
A couple of weeks later and Guillot is the new head coach of the Centaurs boys’ high school basketball program.
Woodstock Academy was left without a boys’ high school basketball coach when Donte Adams decided to depart at the end of the school year.
 “Donte has been an important part of our community for four seasons now and I think it’s been great to see him grow as a coach but there is always a time for transition and it was time for Donte to move on to something new and exciting for him. I thank him for contributions to the program and wish him well,” Saucier said.
Guillot is in charge of security at Thompson Schools and was asked to take over the boys’ basketball program a couple of years ago.
He led the Tigers to a 15-11 record in their first campaign and dealt with a rebuild last year with three freshmen starting. He was not slated to coach the Tigers this summer as a parent has taken on those duties.
However, the town of Thompson took over the program when Putnam decided to no longer do so.
It hosts schools from Northeastern Connecticut including Woodstock Academy and some Massachusetts border schools with eight boys’ teams and seven girls’ teams participating.
Guillot was still working with the summer program as a whole when he got wind of the Woodstock Academy situation.
“Woodstock Academy was going to back out because Donte had left and I called Sean and told him that I was not coaching the (Tourtellotte) summer team so I told him I could coach Woodstock Academy this summer so they could play,” Guillot said.
In that short period of time, Guillot also decided to tell Tourtellotte High athletic director Deb Spinelli that he was stepping aside as head coach of the Tourtellotte boys’ program.
He had also grown fond of the Centaur players that he was working with.
“The boys started to play well together. It’s a young team, a bunch of little hard scrappers on defense and some offensive threats,” Guillot said.
Saucier, meanwhile, was beating the bushes for a new head coach.
“I called Sean and said, if you still need someone and can’t find anyone, let me know,” Guillot said.
The two met early last week and came to an agreement.
“It’s kind of grown over the past couple of weeks and it got to the point of ‘well, what do you think? I think he really likes our kids and he was intrigued after getting to know them through the summer league. I don’t think either of us saw it coming but it felt right,” Saucier said.
Guillot is no stranger to Woodstock Academy. He assisted Brian Murphy with the baseball program for five years. 
But it wasn’t on his radar to return. Until recently.
“We’ve had the same eight or nine kids playing this summer and it’s a different team from a year ago. But I think they like each other and they play hard and it looks like they have been together for awhile but it’s kind of a mixture between a couple of kids who got some varsity time here and there and some junior varsity players who were role players on varsity. They are gelling together defensively and offensively, we have some work to do there but we do have some pretty good shooters,” Guillot said.
The Centaurs finished 11-11 last high school season but lost 10 players to graduation.
The change is the second major development in the sport of basketball at Woodstock Academy since the beginning of summer.
Late in June, the school announced the addition of an elite prep basketball program that will be coached by Tom Espinosa and Josh Scraba.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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Honoring, celebrating
Putnam's role in birth of USA
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — As part of the country’s 250th celebration, the town of Putnam dedicated its America Semiquincentennial Plaque in Rotary Park. 
It says: “Many colonists living in this area, now known as Putnam, actively resisted British rule. When the British closed the port of Boston in 1774 following the Boston Tea Party, men from northeastern Connecticut, including the town’s namesake, Israel Putnam, helped supply the city by walking sheep to Boston. At the time, present-day Putnam was part of the towns of Killingly and Pomfret.
In 1774, local patriots erected a Liberty Pole on Killingly Hill, now Putnam Heights. In January 1775, they purchased the nearby common as a training ground for their militia. After the Lexington Alarm on April 19, 1775, local militia members marched to Massachusetts in defense of colonial rights.
At the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, Israel Putnam is traditionally credited with urging the troops, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, residents here proudly supported the new nation. Some served in the militia and the Colonial army; others supplied food, weapons and materials; women made clothing and knit socks for the soldiers.
From this community came determined patriots who helped secure the birth of a new nation, The United States of America.”
Mayor Barney Seney thanked the forefathers for what they did 250 years ago. He also thanked the Putnam 250th committee, led by Selectman Gloria Marion, which worked for more than a year on the town’s commemorations. Also receiving special thanks were the Putnam Lions Club, the Albert Breault VFW Post 1523, the Aspinock Historical Society, James Callaghan (Putnam Rec director), Margaret Weaver (Killingly town historian) and many more. The plaque was sponsored by the town of Putnam, the Putnam Rotary Club and the Putnam Lions. The committee invited residents to visit the Cady Copp Cottage between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. July 11. Reserve a spot on the bus by calling the Recreation Department.
Putnam Poet Laureate Aubrey Waz-Grant read her poem “The Small Mundanities” drawing parallels between her Nana’s (born on July 4) memories and a country that’s “two and one half Nana’s old.” From the flagship to the mundane. (poem below)
In her remarks, read by Marion, State Senator Mae Flexer said America’s story has always been built by people working together to create something greater than themselves.” 
State Rep Christ Stewart said, thinking about how does that work, 250 years of history? “It’s the people; it’s the generations before you, the generations to come.” He talked about all the pieces to greatness in the “greatest country.” He urged everyone, no matter where you are, no matter what profession to know “you have a piece of the greatness of this country.”
Committee members Jeanne Benoit and Weaver both spoke about what it might have been like “standing where  you are today” in 1770s and then the plaque was proudly unveiled.
The Small Mundanities
By Aubrey Waz-Grant
My grandmother was born on the Fourth of July.
When she was little,
her mother told her all the fireworks, flags, and festivities were for her.
I think there is something so beautiful in the childish delusion that an entire city,
perhaps an entire nation,
could stop and decorate just for you.

At some point, we grow out of that.
I think that’s a shame.
Nana would have been ninety-seven today,
as the United States turns two hundred and fifty.
For those of you who are bad at math,
that makes our country approximately two and a half grandmothers old.
As someone who held my grandmother’s wrinkled hand each day in the final year of her life,
I can tell you, her ninety-five years lived
is hardly a blink, but somehow also a lifetime.

Nana wasn’t special simply for living ninety-five years.
She filled her time with love and adventure and hot dogs.
(Her favorite food was hot dogs and ice cream.
I wonder if that’s because of her birthday.
I digress.)
Sometimes I fear we distill life down only into the flagship moments:
a wedding day or the birth of a nation
Or a child. 

But my favorite stories Nana told
were of the small mundanities.

I liked to hear her tell me about her mother’s canning cellar,
wall-to-wall with preserved vegetables and fruit.
She told me that she tried to plant a garden
when she bought her house in New Britain,
but the soil was all rock.
She couldn’t coax anything out of it,
so she gave up
and ate Frosted Flakes instead.
I want to know the way the United States would tell these stories,
the similar minutiae that have built the nation
behind the major historical milestones.
I want to hear how the country chose when to pluck the stones from the ground,
rock by rock by rock,
to make room for newly budding shoots,
and when it chose to go inside
and turn on Wheel of Fortune.
I cannot find the Nana I know in her baby photos,
just as I cannot find the United States I know in the musty pages of a history book.

But I’d like to head to the Deary’s parking lot,
where we celebrated Nana’s birthday each year,
and eat onion rings and ice cream
that my brother will later throw up in his bed.
And while we sit and eat,
I want to listen
to the nation and my Nana tell me
her favorite memories.

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caption:
Putnam unveiled a plaque for the USA's 250th anniversary July 4. More photos on page 6 and expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page. Linda Lemmon photo.