Back to Introduction and Lesson at a Glance
Through this lesson plan, students will learn about industrialization and how it impacted immigration and settlement patterns.
Where I Live: Connecticut, chapter 7, pages 51 – 60
For more about Norwich, read “Uncas, the Mohegan Tribe and the Founding of Norwich” and “The Mohegans and the New Nation.”
https://whereilivect.org/the-mohegan-tribe-and-the-founding-of-norwich/
https://whereilivect.org/the-mohegan-tribe-and-the-new-nation/
See additional resources below. These will provide you with the background you need for this lesson.
Begin with an in-class conversation about the towns and cities in our state that grew from manufacturing companies. Discuss how mills were built near rivers and streams (waterpower), and how communities were founded around factories (mills).
Here are some questions to help guide the discussion.
Next, show the students the For Students Lesson Taftville materials provided. Have them look closely and answer the questions provided in the classroom discussion. Some prompts are provided below.
What do you see in the photograph?
Where was this village built?
Why do you think it was built near the water?
Where is the largest building? What do you think it was built for?
Is it used for the same things it was built for?
This activity is adapted from the Inquiry Lesson Plan available elsewhere on WhereILiveCT.org (link below).
“Are children better prepared for adulthood by working or going to school?”
After the students have completed Inquiry Activity 2:
Based on the answers students generated in Inquiry Activity 2, they will form an ultimate conclusion to the inquiry by answering the question: “Would you want your child to learn ‘on the job’?” They submit their answer by filling in one of the two following prompts and putting their letter in the Bossperson’s mailbox. The teacher will tally the letters.
Dear Bossperson,
Please consider admittance of my child _______________ for employment at the Taftville Mill. It is my greatest hope that at Taftville my child will gain……
Dear Bossperson,
I am writing to request the immediate withdrawal of my child _________________ from the Taftville Mill. I had hoped s/he would have gained___________ but now I realize the truth. Unfortunately, my child has experienced nothing but: _____________________
Have students compare and contrast life as a millworker with life in a rural town or a maritime village etc. (based on other lesson plans in this series) based on these criteria:
I want to meet people
I want to have fun
I want to work outdoors
I want to make money
I want a clean environment
I want to feel useful
and/or other criteria you choose to add
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
A few of these activities are adapted from 10 Ways to Get Kids Excited About Preservation by Emily Potter, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2013.
HISTORY
Change, Continuity, and Context
HIST 3.4, 3.5. Supporting question:
Causation and Argumentation
HIST 3.11Supporting question:
GEOGRAPHY
Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movement
GEO 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 Supporting questions:
The illustrated children’s book Mill by David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1989) explains how New England mills were planned, constructed, and operated.
The Taftville/Ponemah Mill Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, U.S. Dept of the Interior.
Nomination, National Register of Historic Places, Bruce Clouette, Ph.D., listed 1978.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/9d867937-ee3d-4e13-9177-13027a624489
Library of Congress, photos from 1958, exterior and interior
https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ct0092.photos/?sp=1
To see photos of Ponemah mill converted to apartments, go to
https://www.ponemahmills.com/the-lofts-at-ponemah-mills-taftville-ct/
http://www.gncbengineers.com/adaptive-reuse-of-ponemah-mills-in-progress
For more information on mills and waterpower, see this primary source magazine article at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_52/April_1898/The_Electric_Transmission_of_Water_Power
This is a lesson plan about Ivoryton was created prior to the new state frameworks and is for older students but it provides some additional background information:
To find out more about mills, factories, and company towns across the state, go to https://cttrust.org/cttrust/page/making-places-historic-mills-of-connecticut
http://www.norwichhistoricalsociety.org/about/
Connecticut Explored
https://www.ctexplored.org/life-in-a-mill-town/
https://www.ctexplored.org/the-cheney-company-housing-auction-of-1937/
https://www.ctexplored.org/site-lines-making-places/
See the last section of this story for a short discussion about adapting Cheney Silk Mills in Manchester to apartments:
https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticut-architecture-explored/
Connecticut History.org
https://connecticuthistory.org/an-orderly-decent-government-significant-events-developments-1866-1887/
https://connecticuthistory.org/norwichs-volcanic-past/
https://connecticuthistory.org/from-kiln-to-collection-norwich-pottery-and-its-makers/
Source: John D. Nolan, History of Taftville, Connecticut