Willimantic

Willimantic takes an Indigenous name associated with swift-running water. The river falls sharply before meeting the Natchaug, making the site attractive for water-powered mills. A sawmill and gristmill stood near the junction by 1706, and the small settlement became known as Willimantic Falls.

In the 1820s cotton manufacturers began to use the river's power on a larger scale. Charles Lee erected a stone factory in 1822, and the brothers William, Asa and Seth Jillson built another mill a few years later. By 1836 six cotton mills operated along the falls, drawing new workers and investment to a small village that had once been home to only a few families. Main Street, laid out in the early eighteenth century, connected the growing manufacturing settlements.