Hartland is one of the towns sold by the State to the inhabitants of Hartford and Windsor. The first proprietors’ meeting was held in Hartford in 1733. The first person who lived in the town was John Kendall, who being in debt, fled from Granby, and to get out of the way of his creditors, located himself in Hartland Hollow, on the west bank of the branch of the Farmington river; here he made himself a hut with slabs which floated down the stream from Granville, Mass. This was in 1753. While here Kendall’s wife bore a pair of twin daughters, the first white children born in the town. Kendall stayed in the town about one year. In 1755, Simon Baxter came into this town. He was considered a person of suspicious character. In the Revolution he joined the army of Burgoyne, and finally died at Halifax.
Hartland was incorporated as a town in 1761, at which time it belonged to Litchfield County. In 1768, the Rev. Sterling Graves was ordained, being the first minister in the town. He was ordained in the open air, on a knoll about a mile south of the present Congregational church in East Hartland. The first meeting house was erected in 1770. In West Hartland, the first minister was the Rev. Nathaniel Gaylord, who settled there about 1782. Mr. Gaylord is still living, and preaches occasionally.
