Vernon
First settled by families from East Windsor in 1716 and originally a part of East Windsor and Bolton, the Town of Vernon was incorporated in 1808 by division of the Town of Bolton. In 1889 the City of Rockville, named from the Rock Mill, was incorporated within the Town of Vernon. Founded on the eve of the Industrial Revolution and endowed with an abundance of water power, Vernon developed into a major center for the manufacture of textiles. Peter Dobson built a cotton-spinning mill at Talcottville in 1809. Power looms were first employed here by the Rock Mill in 1821. In 1841 the New England Company began the manufacture of fine woolens which accelerated the development of the woolen industry here. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, immigrants provided the skilled labor force necessary for the further development of the textile industry.
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Between 1892 and 1904 cloth from Rockville's mills achieved national and international recognition, winning awards in 1892 from the World's Columbian Exposition, at the Paris Exposition in 1900, and being chosen for the inaugural suits of Presidents William McKinley in 1897 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. Central Park, the site of this plaque, was laid out in 1878 and marked the commercial and governmental center of the Town. The Memorial
Building was erected in 1889 and dedicated to the 336 soldiers of Vernon who gave their lives in the Civil War, 1861-1865. The years following the Second World War have brought residential expansion into previously rural Vernon, the permanent closing of the woolen mills in 1952, and the consolidation of the city and town governments into the Town of Vernon on April 1, 1965.
Erected by the Town of Vernon the Vernon Historical Society and the Connecticut Historical Commission 1981
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