Bookshops, Drive-ins and Jive: State by State Trivia- Connecticut

A chance to learn a little bit about each of the states in the nation.

The Connecticut State Seal is adorned with a trio of grape vines. Appearing below the the grape vines is a banner with the state motto: "Sustinet Qui Transtulit" (Latin for He who is transplanted still sustains). "Sigillum Reipublicae Connecticutensis" is Latin for Seal of the State of Connecticut.

Connecticut-Constitution State

Connecticut was the 5^th state in the USA; it became a state on January 9, 1788
Constitution was first adopted in 1638
Capital-Hartford
State Motto-"Qui transtulit sustinet" - He Who Transplanted Still Sustains
State Flower- Mountain Laurel
State Mineral- Garnet
State Bird- American Robin
State Tree- White Oak
State Animal- Sperm Whale
Major Industries - agriculture, industry (especially insurance), tourism
Presidential Birth Place- George Walker Bush was born in New Haven on July 6, 1946 and was the 43rd President, serving from 2001 to 2009

Origin of the Name Connecticut
The state is named after the Connecticut River, which was named quinnitukqut by the Mohegans who lived in the eastern upper Thames valley. In their Algonquian language, the word means “long river place” or “beside the long tidal river.”

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/31100/how-all-50-states-got-their-names#ixzz2SiVZ1WBe
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Connecticut's official state flag was adopted in 1897. The flag features a gold- and silver-rimmed shield picturing three grapevines. On a gold- and brown-rimmed white ribbon under the shield is the state's motto, "QUI TRANSTULIT SUSTINET," which means "He Who Transplanted Still Sustains." The grapevines represent the early English settlers (and their settlements) in Connecticut.

All statistics compiled from the enchanted learning site

How did Connecticut get its shape?

"The area that is today called Connecticut was previously part of Massachusetts -- or more specifically, it was part of the Plymouth Colony. Its existence as a separate entity evolved over time. Connecticut's evolution began in the 1630s when members of the Plymouth Colony established trading posts and small settlements along the rivers in the region. Those were created at some risk, since the area was populated by the Pequot Indians. The conflicts between the colonists and the Pequot culminated in the Pequot War, which ended in 1637 with the defeat of the Pequot. Colonists from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies poured into the newly won land. Their settlements began along Long Island Sound and spread up along the rivers that flow through the region into the Sound. In effect, they were creating the shape of Connecticut."

"Within two years of the Pequot War, the residents of Hartford drew up the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, and in 1642, the de facto existence of Connecticut as a separate colony was accepted by the colonists in Massachusetts, which dispatched surveyors to locate the border between Connecticut and Massachusetts. From the point of view of the colonists in Massachusetts, their fellow Puritans who created Connecticut were furthering their mission to create a New Jerusalem. From the point of view of the colonists in Connecticut, Massachusetts drew the border eight miles too far south."

"But what was the southern border of Massachusetts, which had recently formed by the merger of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies? The Plymouth Colony's charter put its southern border at 40º N latitude. That turned out to be the latitude of Philadelphia. The Massachusetts Bay Colony's charter described its southern border at a line due west from a point "three English miles to the southward to the southernmost part of the said Bay called Massachusetts." Massachusetts argued for a line due west from a point 3 miles south of the town of Plymouth. Connecticut opted for a line due west from a point 3 miles to the south of the southernmost reach of the Charles River."
"Ultimately, Massachusetts accepted Connecticut's approach but not the river, since the Charles is not the southernmost waterway leading into Massachusetts Bay. The Bay's southernmost tributary is the Neponset River. This negotiation was prolonged by the fact that the towns of Enfield. Somers, Suffield, and Woodstock, which existed well before Connecticut, were located in the disputed zone. Finally, in 1804, the two sides agreed that, as compensation to Massachusetts for losing those towns, Connecticut would partition Congamond Lakes, farther west. This is why there is a notch in the northern border of Connecticut."
"Connecticut's northern border also contains a very slight dip, east of the notch. This dip reflects a final concession to Massachusetts. Connecticut agreed to let the boundary follow the crest of the hills at the point where the Connecticut River crosses the border. Today the gesture may seem minor, but in an era when the Connecticut River and its riverbanks were vital to the region's prosperity, the more geographically natural boundary was significant."

"During the years that Connecticut was disputing its border with Massachusetts, it was also arguing with New York. This conflict emanated from a charter bestowed upon Connecticut in 1662. King Charles II granted Connecticut all the land bounded on the east by Narragansett Bay, on the north by the Massachusetts Colony, on the south by Long Island Sound, and on the west by, as had become the tradition, the Pacific Ocean."
"It didn't matter that this boundary overlapped Dutch claims, since England and Holland repeatedly went to war over the American territories. But when England ousted Holland for good in 1674, turning its land into Delaware, New Jersey, and New York, Connecticut's Pacific coast border ruffled the feathers of New York."
"The two colonies commissioned a boundary survey in 1683. The problem was providing New York with the agreed upon 20-mile buffer east of the Hudson while at the same time preserving for Connecticut its towns of Greenwich and Stamford. The solutions turned out to be a panhandle."
"To compensate New York for the land claims it released in creating the panhandle, Connecticut gave to New York a strip of land along its western border. This land is known as "The Oblong". It extends from Ridgefield, Connecticut, to the Massachusetts line. It is this strip of land that accounts for the fact that Connecticut's western border is not quite aligned with that of Massachusetts."

"On the east, the border that King Charles II had stipulated in his 1662 Connecticut charter, he un-stipulated in his 1662 Rhode Island charter. To create the colony of Rhode Island, Charles II fixed as its boundary with Connecticut the Pawcatuck River, some 20 miles west of Narragansett Bay, which had been Connecticut's eastern edge. The king now said that the boundary line was to follow the Pawcatuck to its source, then continue due north to the Massachusetts line."
"Boxed in by the powerhouse colonies of New York and Massachusetts. Connecticut turned its attention in the mid-1700s to its western land. The colony backed a corporation called the Susquehanna Company, which commenced to settle Connecticut's land west of New York. Today, we call this land Pennsylvania and even then Pennsylvania called it Pennsylvania. Connecticut entered into yet another dispute. In fact, it entered into a war, know as the Pennamite War, in which the settlers and Pennsylvania's settlers opened fire upon one another in a number of skirmishes.
"Less controversial were Connecticut's efforts to develop its lands further west, in what would eventually become Ohio. Since neither of these regions is considered a part of Connecticut today, what happened?"
"With the onset of the Revolution, the one-time colonies, now states, began to think nationally in addition to locally. The federal government urged those states with extensive colonial land claims to donate those lands to the United States so that more states could be created, more equal in size, and so that the government could use all the land to raise funds to help retire the enormous debt it had acquired during the course of the war. Connecticut relinquished most of its claims but insisted on retaining its claims to the lands that the Susquehanna Company had purchased from the Indians and begun selling to investors, much of which was also claimed by Pennsylvania. The dispute ended up in a special court of arbitration that ruled in favor of Pennsylvania. Connecticut did not immediately accept this decision and the Pennamite War resumed. But the movement toward nationhood was already in motion, and Connecticut ultimately accepted the decision in favor of Pennsylvania."

"Connecticut continued, however, to retain its Western Reserve, land in what is now Ohio. But the investments were not proving profitable, and in 1800, Connecticut released this land, too. Still a shadow of Connecticut's presence remains in Ohio, in the Cleveland-based university named Case Western Reserve."

Like all Americans, Connecticut residents responded to the bombing of Pearl Harbor with shock and anger. Men rushed to enlist and provisions were made for civilian defense, including, for the first time, protection from possible air raids. The economy received a boost as war industries increased production. Workers employed in Connecticut’s factories created an acute housing shortage; commuting increased and as a result Connecticut became more suburban. Many items became hard to get as supplies were routed to troops overseas. Rationing of fuel oil, gas, sugar and meat was imposed and victory gardens were planted. Morale remained high, in part because wartime prosperity contrasted sharply with the Depression of the preceding decade.

Link to Connecticut History Online and World War II for more information