Editing Woodstock, Connecticut (section)

==History==

===17th century===
In the mid-17th century, [[John Eliot (missionary)|John Eliot]], a [[Puritan]] missionary to the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], established "praying towns", where Native Americans took up Christianity and were expected to renounce their religious ceremonies, traditional dress, and customs. One praying town, called Wabaquasset (Senexet, Wabiquisset), six miles west of the [[Quinebaug River]] in present-day Woodstock, was the largest of the three northeastern Connecticut praying towns.

In 1675, when [[King Philip's War]] broke out, some of the town's Indians, (especially in the southern part of the town) sided with the Mohegans and the English while others sided with the Indians led by Philip, rallying to arms on what is now Curtis Island in present Holland, Massachusetts and Brimfield, Massachusetts. During the war, the praying town became deserted, and the English with their Indian allies marched through Woodstock to present day Thompson in the summer of 1676 burning any crops or stored corn they could find.<ref name="history">[http://www.townofwoodstock.com/history.html] "A Brief History of Woodstock" Web page on the Woodstock, Connecticut official town Web site, accessed July 30, 2006</ref>

In 1682, Massachusetts bought a tract of land, which included Woodstock, from the Mohegans. A group of 13 men from [[Roxbury, Massachusetts]] (home of the Pastorate of Woodstock's earlier visitor, John Eliot), settled the town in 1686 and named it New Roxbury. Judge Samuel Sewall suggested the town change its name to Woodstock in 1690, citing its proximity to [[Oxford, Massachusetts]], and in 1749 the town became part of Connecticut.<ref name=history/> The present name is after [[Woodstock, Oxfordshire|Woodstock]], in England.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Connecticut Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoEyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA335|year=1903|publisher=Connecticut Magazine Company|page=335}}</ref>

===18th and 19th centuries===
A farming town in the 18th century, Woodstock began attracting industry after the [[War of 1812]]. "By 1820, there were 2 distilleries, 2 wheel wrights, an oil mill, fulling mill, carding machines, grist mills, saw mills, a goldsmith, and twine and cotton batting operations. Woodstock Valley was known for its shoe factories," according to the history page at the Woodstock town government Web site.<ref name=history/>

By the middle of the 19th century, industry almost ceased, and Woodstock reverted to a rural state. The town then became a summer destination for wealthy city dwellers from around the East coast of the United States.<ref name=history/>

[[Henry Chandler Bowen|Henry C. Bowen]] was critical to this development. Bowen was a Woodstock native who became wealthy through the dry-goods business and publishing in [[Brooklyn|Brooklyn, New York]]. He also founded the anti-slavery newspaper ''The Independent,'' helped found the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], and headed the lay managers of the famed [[Plymouth Church (Brooklyn, New York)|Plymouth Church]]. Bowen had built a [[Roseland Cottage|home]] in Woodstock and invested heavily in the improvement of his home town. Other lay leaders of Plymouth Church would summer with him, including [[Henry Ward Beecher]], the church's pastor; Frederick Hinrichs, whose descendants still live in Woodstock; the [[Henry Holt (publisher)|Holt]] publishing family; the [[Lewis Tappan|Tappans]]; and [[Albert Lythgoe]], an Egyptologist renowned for pioneering the use of scientific methods in the unearthing of antiquities.

===Fourth of July celebrations===
Bowen hosted [[Independence Day (United States)|July 4]] celebrations in Woodstock at his Roseland Park during the latter part of the 19th century. These festivities attracted as many as 10,000 people who heard speeches, saw fireworks, and drank pink lemonade. Bowen, often called "Mr. Fourth of July," eventually gave Roseland Park, which included a man-made lake, to the community.<ref name="house">[http://www.courant.com/business/hc-roselandcottage0730.artjul30,0,5151290,print.story?coll=hc-headlines-business] Hamilton, Anne M., "Distinguished Digs: Historic Roseland Cottage In Woodstock Wins National Recognition," article, business section, [[The Hartford Courant]], July 30, 2006, Web site accessed July 30, 2006</ref>

Several U.S. Presidents visited Bowen's summer home on Woodstock Hill: [[Ulysses S. Grant]], [[Benjamin Harrison]], and [[Rutherford B. Hayes]], as his guests and speakers for [[Fourth of July]] celebrations. Grant visited while he was a sitting president. Grant spent a night there in spite of the fact that Bowen (a teetotaler) forbade drinking and smoking in his home (Grant was made to smoke his cigars out on the porch, and he drank covertly).<ref name=house/> Hayes arrived for the July 4 celebration of 1883, and gave a speech in support of national education aid.<ref name=Hoogenboom>{{cite book|last=Hooogenboom|first=Ari|title=Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President|year=1995|publisher=University Press of Kansas|location=Lawrence, KS}},</ref> Benjamin Harrison arrived in the first year of his presidency, planting a liberty tree during the 4th of July celebration.<ref name=Sievers>{{cite book|last=Sievers|first=Harry Joseph|title=Benjamin Harrison:Hoosier President|year=1996|publisher=American Political Biography Press|location=Indianapolis}}</ref> Other prominent visitors were [[Henry Ward Beecher]] and [[John C. Fremont]].<ref name=history/>

===Roseland Cottage===
[[Image:Roseland Cottage (Bowen Cottage) - general view.jpg|thumb|[[Historic American Buildings Survey|HABS]] photo of Roseland Cottage (1970).]]
[[File:Roseland Cottage, Woodstock, CT 2020.jpg|thumb|right|Photo of Roseland Cottage (2020).]]
[[Roseland Cottage]], also known as the Pink House or the Bowen House, was a summer home built by wealthy businessman Henry C. Bowen in 1846. This is where Bowen hosted U.S. Presidents for his then-famous Independence Day celebrations at Roseland Park. [[Ulysses S. Grant]] bowled his first strike in the bowling alley located in the carriage barn.<ref name=house/>

The pink-colored house features "tall, angular gables, gingerbread trim, and 21 formal flower gardens outlined by dwarf boxwood hedges," according to a [[Hartford Courant]] article. Roseland is an example of Victorian Gothic Revival style, which can be seen in its pointed gables, scrolled bargeboards, many tall chimneys, and leaded glass windows in diamond shapes. The outside walls, of board and batten wood siding, have been painted 13 different colors over the past 150 years—all shades of pink. As of the summer of 2006, the house was a coral or salmon color. The house still includes the owners' original furniture and knickknacks.<ref name=house/>

Roseland was designed (under Bowen's direction) by architect Joseph C. Wells. The design was influenced by the design books of architectural critic Andrew Jackson Downing.<ref name=house/>

Fine Homebuilding magazine named Roseland one of the 25 most important houses in America in its 2006 Fine Homebuilding Houses Annual Issue.<ref name=house/>

Roseland Cottage was purchased by Historic New England in 1970 and is currently open to the public for tours.<ref name=house/>

===Events===
*'''The Woodstock Fair,''' run by the Woodstock Agricultural Society (established in 1846) has been held since 1860.