Woodstock

John Eliot, Pastor of the First Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Major Daniel Gookin came to Woodstock in 1674 and preached to the Wabaquasset Indians from Eliot Rock.  In 1686, the “Thirteen Goers” (Peter Aspinwall, Thomas Bacon, Henry Bowen, Matthew Davis, John Frizzel, Nathaniel Gary, John Gore, Benjamin Griggs, George Griggs, John Marcy, Ebenezer Morris, Benjamin Sabin and Jonathan Smithers) settled at the same site to establish New Roxbury, the first European settlement in Windham County.  In 1690, Judge Samuel Sewall gave the Town its name after Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England “because of its nearness to Oxford, for the sake of Queen Elizabeth.”  Woodstock seceded from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1749 to become part of the Connecticut Colony.  Captain, later General, Samuel McClellan and 184 men went forth to fight in the Revolutionary War.  General McClellan’s house still stands on the corner of Route 169 and Stone Bridge Road.

The Quasset School, which was moved to the grounds of the Woodstock Elementary School, is an interesting school museum.  Woodstock Academy, established in 1801, is the Town’s designated high school and with its recent expansion has grown into a regional high school.  Roseland Cottage, locally known as the “Pink House”, was built in 1846 as a summer house for Henry C. Bowen.

Woodstock is well known for the Woodstock Fair, one of the oldest agricultural fairs in the country.  It was started in 1858 and is held each Labor Day weekend.