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===1819 to the present=== Salem was incorporated as a [[New England town|town]] in 1819 from lands of Colchester, [[Lyme, Connecticut|Lyme]], and Montville.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Connecticut Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoEyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA334|year=1903|publisher=Connecticut Magazine Company|page=334}}</ref> The rocky and craggy land that constituted much of the town kept the population low and new settlement at a minimum. Salem has always been a crossroads town; the old Hartford and New London Turnpike (now [[Connecticut Route 85|Route 85]]) was a [[toll road]], traveled frequently by legislators during the winters of the 19th century when the [[Connecticut River]] was impassable. The Turnpike provided stage coach service until the 1890s. ====Music Vale Seminary==== Salem became a well-known location upon the founding of [[Oramel Whittlesey]]'s [[Music Vale Seminary]] in 1835. Students of the school not only learned music, but also provided self-sustenance through farming, as did most Salem households at the time. Pianos were manufactured up the Hartford and New London Turnpike about two miles (3 km) north from the seminary, at the present location of the firehouse and Maple Shade General Store. The seminary burned down and was rebuilt. However, when Whittlesey died in 1867, it was the beginning of the end for the school; when it burned down again shortly thereafter, it was never rebuilt. Today, all that remains of the seminary is a barn and a state historical marker. ====Early rural electrification in the United States==== Salem is the site of one of the first [[rural electrification]] projects in the country, at the farm of Frederick C. Rawolle Jr. Rawolle was an engineer from [[New York City|New York]] who retired at the age of 32 after he sold to a major manufacturer the patent rights of an explosive device he had invented to fracture [[oil well]]s. His [[net worth]] at this time was approximately $50,000,000, an enormous sum for the time period. He decided to settle in the remote woods of Salem and build a farm, purchasing {{convert|2800|acre|km2}} of land between 1917 and 1924, completely surrounding Mountain Lake and Fairy Lake. This land, once called Paugwonk, had been jointly owned by a [[Niantic people|Niantic]] sachem named Sanhop, a Mohegan named Chappattoe and another kinsman from Uncas. The combined area became known as Fairy Lake Farm, located near the lake of the same name. Carr Pond, which today supplies water to the city of [[New London, Connecticut|New London]], was created by Rawolle in 1920 from Fairy Lake as a means of docking his boat near the turnpike. Rawolle decided to generate his own electricity when he learned that bringing transmission lines to his farm from the city of New London, about {{convert|12|mi|km}} away, would be virtually impossible. At a cost of about one million dollars, extremely expensive at the time for a single project, a [[hydroelectricity|hydroelectric system]] was completed in 1922. Airplanes flying from New York to [[Boston]] used the glimmering lights of Fairy Lake Farm as guidance. Rawolle also opened a store in New London to sell produce from the farm. This endeavor collapsed, however, when the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|stock market crashed in 1929]] and Rawolle lost all of his money. He died in 1954; the large stone mansion he lived in at the farm is still standing at the end of Horse Pond Road, though it is abandoned. ====Hiram Bingham III and IV==== [[Hiram Bingham III]], from Salem, was an adventurer, U.S. senator, and explorer who rediscovered [[Machu Picchu]] in Peru in 1911. He retrieved artifacts for [[Yale University]], which in 2011 returned many items to [[Cusco]], Peru, pursuant to an agreement with the [[Peru]]vian government. His son, [[Hiram Bingham IV]], was the Vice Consul in [[Marseille]], France, during [[World War II]], and rescued thousands of [[Jews]] from death at the [[Nazi concentration camps]]. Much of the Bingham family still lives in Salem and is active in town politics and local issues. Hiram IV died in 1988, and a [[postage stamp|U.S. Postal Stamp]] was issued in his honor on May 30, 2006. In 2011 the Simon Wiesenthal Center produced a film tribute to Hiram ("Harry") Bingham IV concerning his life-saving actions during the war.<ref>"More than 450 supporters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center gathered for the 2011 Humanitarian Award Dinner. The Medal of Valor was awarded posthumously to Sir Winston Churchill, Hiram Bingham IV, and Pope John Paul II...." ''Wall Street Journal'', March 30, 2011</ref>
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