05/24/2026
This Memorial Day weekend, as we honor those who served our country, it feels like the right moment to share a piece of Wolcottville history we recently uncovered, and it goes back further than most of us realized.
Our town is named for George Wolcott, who built his sawmill here in the 1830s and gave Wolcottville its name. But the Wolcott family story starts long before Indiana. It starts in 1630, when a Puritan named Henry Wolcott left Somerset, England, sailed across the Atlantic on the Mary and John, and helped found Windsor, Connecticut, the first English settlement in that colony. He became one of the colony's earliest leaders, serving in Connecticut's first General Assembly.
From that same family came Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later Governor of Connecticut.
So when George Wolcott built his mill on the Indiana frontier, he carried a family name already woven into the founding of our nation. George and Oliver weren't father and son or in a direct line, but they shared the same immigrant ancestor, Henry Wolcott of Windsor. The same family tree that helped settle colonial Connecticut and sign the Declaration of Independence eventually put down roots right here in northern Indiana.
As America approaches its 250th birthday in 2026, that's a thread worth being proud of. Not every small town can trace its name back to the founding era of this country, but Wolcottville can.
We dug into the full story, including Henry Wolcott's journey from England, the founding of Windsor, and how the family line connects to our town, in a new article in The Wolcottville Gazette.
Happy Memorial Day weekend, Wolcottville. We have a lot of history to be proud of. 🇺🇸
Read it here: https://www.wolcottville.com/gazette/a-founding-family
