Thatcher Brook’s namesake the topic of Dec. 15 anti-racism discussion

December 9, 2020 | By Jacob Dawson 

In 1997, Waterbury Elementary School was renamed Thatcher Brook Primary School for its proximity to the Thatcher Brook, named after 18th-century figure Partridge Thatcher. The school was renamed as Waterbury and Duxbury schools merged and opened Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury. File photo by Gordon Miller. 

The newly formed Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition is co-hosting a public forum next week to discuss a piece of 240-year-old local history.

Partridge Thatcher, one of Waterbury’s first surveyors in the 1780s, and the namesake of Thatcher Brook, is the topic. The recent revelation that Thatcher owned slaves sparked the anti-racism coalition to co-host a discussion with the Waterbury Library’s Race Conversations series.

Alysia Backman, a member of the group, posted on Front Porch Forum on Nov. 28 announcing the event. “Did you know Partridge Thatcher was a slaveholder?” she wrote. “Let’s come together to discuss how we, as individuals and as a community, react to this information.”

Others were quick to chime in. Patti Tomeny wrote that she “hopes that there is not going to be great upheaval about changing the name of the Thatcher Brook and the Thatcher Brook Primary School.”

“This is the first I have heard of this,” Deb Lowe wrote. “Renaming the school is definitely overreach!”

Representatives of the anti-racism coalition have since said they do not have an official stance on renaming the brook or school.

And still others like Waterbury Historical Society member Paul Willard quoted historical accounts saying Thatcher was a benevolent slaveholder, who raised young African children as if they were his own.

The quick reactions, and subsequent posts in the days that followed, highlight the need for Waterbury residents to have this discussion, said Life LeGeros, who hosts the Race Conversations. 

LeGeros, who works as a professional development coordinator in the education department at the University of Vermont, said he learned about Thatcher after hearing an episode of “Brave Little State” on Vermont Public Radio about Black families who settled Lincoln Hill Road in Hinesburg.

An author profiled in the story, Elise Guyette, said she had compiled a database about early Black families in Vermont, and said anyone could reach out for more information. After connecting this summer, Guyette asked LeGeros if residents knew Thatcher was a slaveholder.

LeGeros said the information caught him off guard, and then brought it to a WAARC meeting. After hashing out different ways to bring Thatcher’s story to the wider public, the idea for the community discussion was planned. “We’re hoping for a discussion, not a debate,” LeGeros said. “And I think part of that is trying to process this information together – trying to understand ‘what are the different impacts of this?’”

LeGeros said he would like the Dec. 15 event to be more focused around the community’s reactions, not a debate over the merits of slavery or how Thatcher actually treated his slaves.

The discussion to be held on Zoom will take place over 90 minutes, with a 45-minute break-out room session where attendees can choose a topic to discuss more in detail. Those rooms will be facilitated by members of WAARC, the majority of whom, LeGeros said, are educators and high school students from Harwood Union’s Rooted Organizing Committee, anti-racism group.

What is known about Partridge Thatcher

LeGeros has researched Thatcher’s story ahead of the discussion event using different texts throughout history that shed some light on Thatcher’s life.

Michael-John Cavallaro, a historian and author in New Milford, Conn., details parts of Thatcher’s life in “The Tales of Old New Milford: Slavery, Crime and Punishment on the Connecticut Frontier.”

First published in 2011, Cavallaro recognized that much of Thatcher’s story is unknown. Cavallaro cites records found in Lebanon, Conn., which show Thatcher being born in August 1714. After becoming the sole male heir in his family at the age of 28, Thatcher bought land and moved to New Milford, where he earned a reputation as a successful miller and craftsman and became the town’s first lawyer.

“History of the Towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882” by Samuel Orcutt, published in 1882, contains the first account of Thatcher’s slaves. Orcutt quotes an undated transcription of Thatcher certifying the marriage of two of his slaves, Jacob and Dinah.

In June 1749, Thatcher wrote that the African children – Jacob judged to be 11 years old, and Dinah, age 10, – had only been in Connecticut “about six weeks.” It is not known how Thatcher came to own Jacob and Dinah, or if they were related, but he wrote they were married after he owned them for three years, meaning they would have been teenagers at the time.

Orcutt again quotes an undated account by Judge David S. Boardman who said Thatcher was married, but did not have children of his own, instead a “large number of [slaves], whom he treated with a kindness enough to put to shame the reproaches of all the abolitionists in New England.” 

Rev. C. C. Parker’s “Early History of Waterbury” published in 1867 notes that in June 1763, then-governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, chartered towns in central Vermont that would later become Waterbury, Bolton, Duxbury and Middlesex. Wentworth chartered the lands to several dozen people in Connecticut and New Jersey, Thatcher being one of them.

For the next 19 years, Thatcher worked as the moderator for the first “town meetings,” collecting money and supplies for an expedition and assembling a survey team. It wasn’t until 1782 that Thatcher first traveled to and surveyed what would become Waterbury only one year later.

“History of Waterbury, Vermont, 1763-1915,” written by Theodore Graham Lewis and published in 1915, says Thatcher was joined on his survey expedition by Isasc Hitchcock, William Daviss and Paul Averill. The team took measurements using degree coordinates and units of “chains” to map the land.

It’s further noted by Lewis that the surveyors built a cabin on the bank of a stream, which they named “Thatcher’s Branch,” likely what today is Thatcher Brook. In 1783, the first settler arrived in Waterbury, James Marsh, who made the surveyors’ cabin his home and grew corn. 

Thatcher is believed to have died in 1786, but no exact date has been confirmed. It was recorded that in 1784,Thatcher wrote a series of wills which freed all of his slaves and bestowed upon them large parcels of land. No evidence has been found to suggest any of the freed slaves settled the land, whether in Waterbury or beyond.

A complicated history

Skip Flanders is a lifelong Waterbury resident and member of the town’s historical society and someone familiar with Thatcher’s story. During an interview Saturday, Flanders recalled walking to school and crossing Thatcher Brook four times a day.

“You learned pretty early on who Partridge Thatcher was,” Flanders said.

After working for the state Department of Environmental Conversation as an engineer for over 40 years, Flanders traveled to New Milford, Conn., in 2014 to try to learn more about Thatcher’s life. Flanders was able to find town meeting records and even Thatcher’s house, which is now a Thai restaurant on U.S. Route 7 there. Cavallaro’s book shows a picture of the house and the adjacent building, believed to be the “slave house.” 

Flanders credits Thatcher with “creating” Waterbury, and said the town wouldn’t be here without his work over 200 years ago. “It was, you know, 25 years of him running meetings in Connecticut, collecting taxes,” Flanders said. 

Flanders said he is excited more people in Waterbury have taken an interest in Thatcher’s life, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions about Thatcher’s slave ownership. “The slavery thing, yes, he was involved in that… but he did other things to help make Waterbury a town,” Flanders said, adding he would likely oppose changing the name of the brook. He doesn’t have as much interest in the elementary school’s name.

State Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury,  is another longtime local resident who was chair of the Waterbury School Board when Waterbury and Duxbury merged school districts in the 1990s. That led to the construction of a middle school in Duxbury along the Crossett Brook for which it was named. At the same time, Waterbury Elementary School was renamed Thatcher Brook Primary School. Wood said the naming of the two schools was based on the nearby brooks, not the people for whom the brooks are named.  

As of Dec. 5, LeGeros said about 40 people had signed up to attend the online discussion titled “What’s in a Name?” scheduled for Dec. 15. 

People can register for the event on the Waterbury Public Library’s website, waterburypubliclibrary.com. The registration link is also on the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition’s website along with background materials LeGeros has put together: waterburyantiracism.com.