July 4, 1776: The Adoption of the Declaration of Independence
- Maria O'Donnell
- Jun 24
- 15 min read
Valley towns educate, celebrate, reflect
By Maria G. O’Donnell
Staff Writer
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with Certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Perhaps the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States of America. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, and adopted and approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the Declaration declared the colonies’ independence from Great Britain.
Not only that, but it established a new concept of government: “…to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Our country went to war (American Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783) to liberate itself from Britain’s attempts to impose control over the colonies. In 1783, the United States was established as an independent, sovereign nation with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, where Britain acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies.
America’s birthday at 250 years is also referred to as its semiquincentennial and it has been celebrated across the country, all throughout the year. Valley towns have been busy with multiple activities, from readings of the Declaration, to historical lectures, to plays and reenactments, to grand festivals with fireworks or parades. They have commemorated this historic event in ways as unique as their towns.
Following is a sampling of thoughts and activities from each Valley town. (Some submissions have been edited for length)
AVON
Avon Historical Society President Terri Wilson
OUR TOWN’S CONTRIBUTION DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Residents of Avon, then Northington, developed a strong revolutionary voice starting when the Stamp Act of 1765 was enacted. When it was repealed in 1766 there was “public rejoicing on account of the repeal of the Stamp Act,” according to the May 19th entry in the journal of Rev. Rufus Hawley, Northington’s colonial minister. It was clear that residents were well informed of the activities by the British Parliament. When the events at Lexington and Concord occurred nine years later in 1775, Northington’s men, young and old, joined the cause for liberty. At least 80 men from Northington served during the War. Their names are now on a permanent Honor Roll plaque that will be installed in the History Room of the Avon Free Public Library later this year. Their service records and brief biographies are recorded in a booklet and archived in the History Room and available on the Avon Historical Society’s website. One year ago, we had no idea there could be this many people from such a small community as Northington who would serve. We are proud and pleased to bring their stories to life especially for descendants, historians and researchers. Among the many events we have had so far during this commemoration (and there have been quite a lot), the dedication of the Honor Roll on May 17, 2026 was the most meaningful and important. Without the bravery and sacrifice they made, we would not be commemorating this country’s independence. We thank them and all those who stood for independence and liberty because we are still the land of the free and home of the brave.
July Events
America at 250: Reflections on the American Experience Through the Lens of Film
Thursdays, July 9, 16 and 23: An 8-Film Discussion Series – July and August – with virtual discussion with Bob Kagan. Register through Avon Library’s website: www.avonctlibrary.info
Now through August: Avon’s America 250 exhibit entitled From Nutmeg Grievances to Nationhood: Avon’s Revolutionary Voice in the History Corner of the Library.
250 Star-Spangled Seconds: An Audio Time Capsule
Saturday, July 4: 250 seconds = 4 minutes, 10 seconds. Share your thoughts on this 250th commemoration in 250 seconds for an AVON TALKS Podcast to be produced and published later in the year. Open to all ages. Join us from 1:00-4:00 p.m. in the Avon History Museum. RSVP at: info@avonhistoricalsociety.org
Listen Up at 2:00 p.m.!
Saturday, July 4: Avon’s church bells will ring 13 times for the 13 colonies as part of the America 250 National Commemoration.
Avon 250 Bike Parade
Tuesday, July 7: Decorate your bike and join in the fun, open to all ages. Start at 5:30 p.m. at Pine Grove School; end at 6:00 p.m. with a concert at Sycamore Hills. Free to enter, games and giveaways. (Rain date Friday, July 9) RSVP at: www.avonrec.com
A Community Reading of the Declaration of Independence: Meet the Connecticut Signers
Wednesday, July 8: Bring the family for this special event on the 250th anniversary of the first public reading of the document. 7:00 p.m. at the Avon Senior Center. No RSVP needed. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Summer Lecture Series with Prof. Matt Warshauer
Thursdays, July 9, 16 and 23: Three America 250-themed presentations held at the Avon Library and West Avon Congregational Church. Each starting at 6:30pm. Topics: When the CT River Divided the Revolution; CT’s Declaration of Independence; The American Revolution Wasn’t Fueled by Water! Rum, Cider and the Punch of Independence. Details and RSVP on the Avon Library website: www.avonctlibrary.info
Sign Like a Founder!
Monday, July 27: Family event in Children’s Library from 11:00-11:30 a.m. Local history teacher will bring the Declaration of Independence to life for children. There will be an opportunity for each child to sign a life size copy of the Declaration and go home with their own keepsake copy too.
CANTON
Canton Public Library Director and Canton’s America 250 Committee Member Sarah McCusker
We’ve been working on planning America 250 events for about a year and a half now… [with] more of an emphasis on historical programming. I believe pretty strongly in the idea that history is an ongoing thing – it’s not a single point in time – so while we’ve been doing plenty around the Revolutionary War era, we’re trying to look at American history more broadly. We plan to continue throughout the calendar year.
I was particularly proud of a collaborative lecture series that we just finished up. The Farmington Valley public libraries – Avon, Simsbury, Canton, and Farmington – along with the UConn Law Library worked together to plan a series of programs called “Toward A More Perfect Union.” What does “a more perfect union” look like? What have we done in the last 250 years to attempt to reach that lofty goal? Each of our libraries hosted one lecture led by a UConn professor, each on a different topic.
Canton Town Historian Kathy Taylor
Canton was part of West Simsbury until 1806, but many men, who settled in what is now the Town of Canton, responded to the Lexington Alarm in April 1775. Many more served at different times during the War of the Revolution for the next seven to nine years.
Twelve of those men died in service, including Captain John Brown, grandfather of John Brown, the Abolitionist. Two were brothers from the same family, only in their early 20’s.
The Abigail Phelps Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, will be placing DAR flags on the grave sites of American Revolution Soldiers, including over 70 men buried in Canton cemeteries.
On October 18, 1777, General Burgoyne, the British Commander at the Battle of Saratoga, New York, surrendered to American General Horatio Gates. Approximately 5,800 troops, mostly British and Hessian, were marched through Albany and Massachusetts, and spent the winter in Boston. They then marched through Connecticut, including the towns of Enfield, Suffield, Simsbury, and through what is now Canton (near the Dyer Farm/Albany Turnpike), where they camped. Several soldiers died and were buried in the meadow of Dyer Farm; supposedly their bones were found later. They made their way through the Northwest part of Connecticut on their way south to Charlottesville, VA.
Two Hessian soldiers remained in Canton: One particular former Hessian soldier, named John (Johann) George (Georg) Bandell, settled first in Simsbury, and worked as a tailor, and then moved to Canton. It is uncertain if he deserted, while the troops were being marched through the State, but in 1779 he married Sarah Barber, the daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Humphrey) Barber. They had eleven children born in Simsbury. The name of “Bundle Hill” in the Barbourtown section of Canton Center comes from John G. Bandell. Afterward he lived in a house on East Hill Road, on the corner of Bahre Corner, where he later died. Born in 1807 in Germany, he died in 1833, at the age of 77 years old, and is buried in the Canton Center Cemetery. A British deserter, Thomas Sugden, also settled in Canton Center and operated a sawmill on Cherry Brook.
Among many stories, is one about Phebe Humphrey, a teenager, who drove off two Hessian soldiers, members of the “Convention Troops,” who demanded some of her freshly baked bread, thus becoming Canton’s heroine of the Revolution. Her house was where the present-day Northwest Community Bank’s building is located on Route 44, Albany Turnpike. The Canton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which is now folded into the Simsbury Chapter, was named after her.
It was notable that by 1777, Smallpox was breaking out in Canton (West Simsbury), brought back by returning soldiers. Some died, and many were sick for an extended time. Women took over much of the manual labor for their farms and homes, while their men were off fighting or sick. In 1779 and 1780, they endured an early Spring, followed by a frost, which killed all their fruit, and then a long, severe winter with excessively deep snows.
Ongoing Events with Prizes:
Front Door and Porch Decorating Contest
In honor of our country’s 250th anniversary and our town’s 220th anniversary, we invite you to show your community spirit by decorating your front door or porch area. For more information and to register click here. Entry form available until Thursday, July 2.
Collinsville Historical Scavenger Hunt
Follow clues to historical landmarks across town and meet neighbors of all ages as you discover what makes Collinsville special. Solve puzzles, uncover facts, and compete in this interactive event that blends learning, adventure, and community spirit. Information sheets are available at the Canton Historical Museum during museum hours between June 14 and July 5. Return the sheet to be entered into a prize drawing!
Adult Summer Reading Challenge: Read Across America
This summer, the Canton Public Library invites you to explore America! Stop in at the library to pick up your reading log. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, read as many books as you can – each one set in a different state. For every three states you read, you will receive an entry to win a fun end-of-summer prize. Need ideas for what to read? We can help you with that too! Come visit us and get ready for a summer of armchair travel across the country.
July Events
Community Celebration
Thursday, July 2 at 6:30 p.m.: The Stanley Street Big Band takes the stage at Mills Pond Park as part of the Summer Concert Series, and we’re celebrating! Join your friends and neighbors for an evening of great music, food, activities, and community spirit. Visit the Parks and Recreation website for more information. Rain date: Tuesday, July 7.
What A Glorious CRASH They Made: Musick of Connecticut’s Revolution
July 23: The Canton Public Library is pleased to host Richard Franklin Donohue, tenor and harpsichord, performing a collection of songs published in Connecticut during the American Revolution. Prior to the concert, we will be paying tribute to Canton’s Revolutionary War soldiers. For more information click here.
Canton Honors Revolutionary War Veterans
July 23, Canton Public Library presentation: Canton’s America 250 Committee is taking steps to honor the local men who answered the call to freedom in its earliest days. Historical research has since determined that more than 100 Canton residents served during the American Revolution. Of those soldiers, more than 80 are buried in cemeteries throughout the town, a testament to Canton’s deep-rooted role in the fight for independence. The research effort has been led by Canton’s America 250 Committee, with significant contributions from the Canton Historian Kathy Taylor, members of the Abigail Phelps Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and local cemetery managers. Their work has focused on identifying and documenting Revolutionary War soldiers laid to rest in Canton’s historic burial grounds. Additional financial support has been provided by the Collinsville Fire Department.
This spring, Canton Boy Scout Troop 77, led by Scoutmaster David Orschel, assisted with the project by placing American flags on the identified Revolutionary War gravesites. The Scouts will also record GPS coordinates for each grave, helping to ensure the locations are preserved and accessible for future generations. The collected information will be submitted to FindAGrave.com, creating a permanent digital record of Canton’s Revolutionary War veterans and ensuring their service is remembered as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial celebration. Come learn more about this project at the Canton Public Library on July 23. Click here for more information.
The website for Canton’s events: https://cantonpubliclibrary.org/america-250/
FARMINGTON
Farmington’s Stanley-Whitman House Executive Director and Curator Andy Verzosa
Farmington’s first museum, founded in 1935, Stanley-Whitman House has spent nine decades doing the quiet, steady work of a museum: collecting, preserving, researching, and interpreting the history of this town for the benefit of its inhabitants. That mandate is not incidental. It is written into our founding documents. The Farmington Village Green and Library Association was incorporated in 1901 to serve the inhabitants of Farmington. When Austin D. Barney conveyed the old Whitman House to the Association in 1941, his deed specified that it be used for the collection and exhibition of “Farmingtonia.” And when the Association’s charter was broadened in 1956, it explicitly empowered us to maintain and preserve historical landmarks, including old inactive cemeteries, for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of this town. The village tours, the cemetery walks, and the historic house and garden tours that we offer today are not programming flourishes. They are the direct expression of that charter.
The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is not a departure from that work. It is a culmination of it. As an approved affiliate of the America 250 | CT Commission, administered by CT Humanities, we present our commemorative programming under the FarmingtonCT250 banner. Our circa 1720 National Historic Landmark is itself a primary document. This house was already a generation old when Farmington’s patriots took up the cause of independence. The people who lived here, worshiped here, labored here, and are buried in the cemeteries we walk past on our village tours were the people of the Revolution. That is not a metaphor. It is the literal truth of this place.
The 250th anniversary invites us to celebrate the founding ideals of liberty and self-governance and to examine them honestly, including who was included in that vision and who was not. Farmington holds both of those things at once. This was a community of Congregationalist patriots who signed petitions and bore arms for independence. It was also home to Tunxis Indigenous people whose presence long predated the town’s 1645 founding, and to enslaved individuals whose labor shaped daily life in these very houses. We tell the complete history not as a concession to contemporary concerns, but because incomplete history is inaccurate history.
The Revolutionary War lasted eight years. We are not here for a party. We are here for the duration. We began weaving FarmingtonCT250 programming into our calendar last year and will continue well beyond July 4, 2026, with the same perennial seriousness that has defined this institution for ninety years.
Our programming reflects that commitment. The Ye Olde Lebanon Towne Militia has joined us for encampments both last fall and again this past spring, bringing the material realities of Revolutionary War military life to our grounds. Each November, in partnership with the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, we present a Roll Call of Patriots honoring those from Farmington who served. We held the first of these last November and will present it again this coming November, establishing it as an enduring annual tradition.
Christopher Newell (Passamaquoddy), historian and co-author of If You Lived During the American Revolution, opened our 2026 series in February with a talk centering Indigenous perspectives on the war. In March, tenor and historian Richard Franklin Donohue performed What a Glorious Crash They Made, a lecture-performance exploring patriotic music published in Connecticut during the Revolution. In May, Past Director of Storrowton Village Museum and living history interpreter Dennis Picard led a hearth cooking program on Revolutionary War camp provisions, and historian Dayne Rugh presented A Tale of Two Coats, examining Colonel John Durkee and Connecticut’s role in the conflict.
This past June 20, we hosted the LiberTea Party on the Farmington Village Green, a sold-out community celebration with period music and historical interpretation. We intend it as an annual event going forward.
Beyond individual programs, the Stanley-Whitman House operates as a museum without walls. Farmington itself is the artifact. Our programming extends into the village through guided historic house tours, open houses, garden tours, cemetery walks, and village tours throughout the season. The landscape, the burial grounds, the historic streetscape, and the Farmingtonians who inhabit them are all part of what we interpret and share with visitors and residents alike. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 4:00 pm, and by appointment. House and garden tours, and our walking tours of the village and its historic landscapes, are available throughout the year.
Much of our Revolutionary War collection is freely accessible through the Connecticut Digital Archive, and we are developing a dedicated online exhibition drawn from those holdings to coincide with July 4th. We are also completing forthcoming publications documenting Farmington’s Revolutionary War patriots, supported by the Society of the Cincinnati, bringing original scholarship to bear on the local record. Videos from recent programs are available on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/@stanleywhitmanhouse.
FARMINGTONCT250 PROGRAMS, 2025-2026
All programs are part of the Stanley-Whitman House FarmingtonCT250 series, presented as an approved affiliate of the America 250 | CT Commission. Programs are ongoing, and new programs are announced regularly at s-wh.org.
SIMSBURY
Simsbury Historical Society Executive Director Jane Spatcher McAlpine
About the Simsbury 250th Celebration CommitteeThe Simsbury 250th Celebration Committee was formed in 2024 to develop events and activities to commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It consists of volunteers and representatives from several community groups, including Abigail Phelps Chapter DAR, American Legion Tomolonis-Hall Post 84, Simsbury Free Library, Simsbury Historical Society, Simsbury VFW Post 1926, Simsbury High School, Simsbury Main Street Partnership, and Simsbury Board of Selectmen among others. The Simsbury Historical Society manages fiduciary responsibilities on behalf of the committee.
Visit simsburyhistory.org/250 or contact us for more information.
July Events
Liberty Tree Dedication Ceremony
July 8, 2026: Join us at 6:00 p.m. for a brief dedication ceremony for Simsbury’s Liberty Tree, an American Elm tree planted in the center circle of the Simsbury Historical Society’s main lot at 10 Phelps Lane. The original Liberty Tree, an elm tree, became a symbol of the Revolution. It was planted in Boston in 1646. Before and during the Revolutionary War period, protesters assembled by the tree in defiance of British rule and taxation. Other cities and towns across the colonies soon started designating their own liberty trees as places for protesters to gather. Loyalists and British soldiers cut down Boston’s stately Liberty Tree in 1775 during the Siege of Boston. Today, cities and towns across the nation are planting liberty trees in recognition of our nation’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and to honor veterans of all conflicts since our nation’s founding. This activity, and many others, are made possible with generous donations of funds and services from several local sponsors. Free admission. Open to the public-- no registration required.
Declaration of Independence Reading and Simsbury Community Band Concert
July 8, 2026: Wear your red, white, and blue and join us in a musical tribute to our nation’s 250th birthday! The evening begins with a reading of the Declaration of Independence at 6:30 p.m., followed by a musical performance by the Simsbury Community Band from 7:00-8:15 p.m. Activities take place on the Simsbury Historical Society grounds in downtown Simsbury. Seating will be provided but feel free to bring lawn chairs and picnic blankets.
A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the Simsbury Community Band was formed in 1973 to provide an opportunity for its members to pursue their musical interests and talents and to provide Simsbury with free concerts. This talented group plays a repertoire of American classics and show tunes to the delight of audiences. Free admission. Open to the public-- no registration required.
Simsbury/Farmington Valley 250th Celebration Parade
July 11, 2026: The parade will step off at noon from the intersection of Owens Brook Boulevard and Hopmeadow Street. Parade participants will include floats, fife and drum, and pipe and drum corps, and color guards in full regalia, reflective of America’s 250th anniversary. Local businesses, community organizations, and several state and local elected officials are expected to participate. The parade will proceed south through downtown Simsbury. It will turn left at Jim Gallagher Way, then turn left again to proceed north on Iron Horse Boulevard. Floats will park on the northbound lane of Iron Horse Boulevard while color guards, dignitaries and bands continue to the grounds of the Simsbury Historical Society.
Events following the parade will continue until 3:00 p.m. on the grounds of the Simsbury Historical Society and will include welcome performances by bands, judging of floats with awards for the most creative float and the float best representing the 250th red-white-blue theme, and food trucks in the parking lot behind Valley Hardware and Plan B Burger Bar.
Scavenger Hunt
Simsbury Free Library, a Simsbury 250 member organization, is sponsoring a scavenger hunt of Simsbury Landmarks July 1 - August 21.
