The Local History Archives holds historical documentary and cultural heritage materials about Lyme, Connecticut from the 17th century to the present, especially for the present area of the Town of Lyme. Brief descriptions of the collections are grouped under the following headings:
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Genealogy Collection
William Beebe Genealogy: The papers, correspondence, and genealogical research of William Beebe include more than two hundred fifty Lyme families from the 18th into the 20th century including his own Beebe and Royce families. His work includes many families in the northeast area of the town and often includes property boundary sketches. Beebee (1915-2001) served as Town of Lyme first selectman and treasurer, the town’s Connecticut General Assembly representative and organist for the Lyme Congregational Church.
Elizebeth Plimpton Genealogical Papers: Elizebeth Bull Plimpton (1921-1994) was Lyme municipal historian 1987-1993. Her papers hold her own and collected genealogical research on more than two hundred families of 17th – 19th century Saybrook Colony and the town of Lyme. She co-authored and work on Saybrook Colony’s first settlers and Lyme. Vital Statistics of Saybrook with Verne Hall.
Edith Raymond Genealogical Papers: The collection contains a variety of material with genealogical information on southeastern Connecticut and Lyme families including the Raymond and Bill families. The collection includes transcribed bible and church records and headstone inscriptions (Lyme, East Haddam, and selected other SE CT towns). Raymond was a professional genealogist from Guilford, CT, known for her work on New Haven Colony first and eastern Connecticut after she married Laurence Raymond of Lyme, CT. She worked actively with the Connecticut and national DAR organizations.
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Institutional Records
First Congregational Church of Lyme Records: The records relate to the period from the establishment of the Third Society of Lyme and its meeting house in 1726, the relocation of the meeting house to the Hamburg section of Lyme (1814), and the designation of the congregation as the First Congregational Church of Lyme at the time of the separation of the towns of Old Lyme and Lyme (1855). The records include the treasurer’s books (1789-1871, 1912-1927) and church council minutes (1815-1904 and 1927-1946). Papers of the Rev. Enoch Fitch Burr, pastor for more than 50 years, 1870s architectural detail drawings for an unfinished neo-Gothic church to replace the 1814 church, and miscellaneous photos and reports from the late 1900s are included. William Marvin’s printed address for the 200th anniversary provides an excellent historical background.
Grassy Hill Congregational Church Records: The organization of the church as a strict Congregational Church grew out of the Great Awakening in the 18th-century. These records include the Grassy Hill Congregational Society Minutes (1879-1918), Record of the Grassy Hill Christian Endeavor Society (1895-1913), legal documents for disbanding of the Grassy Hill Ecclesiastical Society in 1934, the transfer of assets to the Grassy Hill Congregational Church, “A Brief History” with historical lists of members and ministers, and miscellaneous mid-20th century financial papers. The reprint of an address by Bruce Stark in 1996 on the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the church provides an excellent overview and historical background.
Lyme Grange Fair Association (Hamburg Fair): The Association was established in 1899 “… to promote the interests of agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and the household arts.” Records include a full set of Fair premium books beginning in 1913, premium books for 1950s horse shows, original minute books (1903-1968), posters, fair income/expense records of the 1950s, and 100th anniversary (2001) commemorative documents and ephemera. There are news clippings and photographs through the 20th century.
Lyme Grange #147 Records: The Lyme Grange received its charter from the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry in 1896. The records include a set of original minute books (1896-1971), a copy of the Roll Book, manuscripts of lectures given at Grange meetings, memorials, and personal reminiscences. Other items include literature, degree certificates and awards, news clippings and photographs.
Ladies Benevolent Society (LBS) Records (1842-2012): Minute books start in 1852 for the “Two Mite” society and change to “Ladies Benevolent Society” in 1896. The minutes cover the Society’s meetings and the projects undertaken to benefit primarily the First Congregational Church of Lyme, called the Hamburg Church. The society disbanded in 2012.
Lyme Town Government Collection:
Annual Financial Reports extending from 1885 to the present. The collection holds a variety of records and papers transferred from the Town to the Lyme Public Hall (Local History Archives), mainly 19th to mid-20th century for preservation such as registers (draftees, able-bodied men, licenses for physicians, dogs, and bees), overseer and indenture contracts, Connecticut School Fund accounts, interesting property records, legals; orders to the town for a variety of services rendered; minutes for 19th c. school districts and establishment of the library (1914); and photographs.
Public Hall Association Records (1886-1958) and reorganization as Lyme Public Hall 1984-92: This social and fraternal association, founded in 1886 by Lyme residents, was the predecessor to the present Lyme Public Hall Association. The records include the first Constitution and By-laws, land acquisition in Hamburg for the Hall, construction, Directors’ minutes and treasurer’s accounts, and arrangements with the fire company for use and renovation of the Hall (1956). In 1958, the association dissolved and sold the building to the Town of Lyme for the amount of the outstanding mortgage. There is ephemera for the many activities held over the years — dances, lectures, theater productions, dinners.
Pleasant Valley Association:The PVA formed in 1991 to stop a gravel pit that threatened environmental degradation along Beaver Brook in Lyme. This collection includes PVA newsletters, newspaper clippings, photographs, correspondence between PVA members and proponents of the gravel pit, as well as official papers produced by the Town of Lyme’s Inland Wetlands Commission.
Woodbridge Lodge No. 80, Knights of Pythias: The Knights of Pythias formed as an international, non-sectarian fraternal order in 1864. Woodbridge Lodge No. 80, operated in Salem, CT., from 1922 through 1945. Lyme participants included members of the Bogue, Brockway, Daniels, Jewett, Harding, Mazer, Plimpton, Stark, and Tooker families. Membership and financial records are available, along with minutes, correspondence, pamphlets, and illustrated catalogs selling Pythian regalia.
Newspapers
The Lyme Public Hall Newspaper Collection contains more than one thousand clippings from several southeastern Connecticut newspapers from the late 19th century to the present, the bulk from the mid-period of the 20th century from The Deep River New Era, Pictorial Gazette, the New London Day, Connecticut Valley Advertiser. Local subjects are obituaries, news, and features about people, events, public issues, and other aspects of community life in Lyme, economic and social history especially.
Main Street News Collection: The Main Street News of Essex, CT produced bi-annual supplements, “Lyme: Hometown Series”(1993-2002). They contain informative feature articles and historical photographs on Lyme history, farms, stores, churches, organizations, traditional and current community events, people and their projects, many written by Stanley Schuler.
Newsletter Collection: Newsletters and bulletins of Lyme civic, non-profit, and volunteer organizations collected from 1996 forward: Lyme Ambulance Association, Lyme Land Conservation Trust, Lyme Heritage (Town Historian Newsletter), the Pleasant Valley Association, Lyme political party Town Committees. The Lyme Public Hall newsletter is archived in the Lyme Public Hall Records.
Putnam Newspaper Collection: Elizabeth Huey Putnam and her mother Dora Warner collected extensive news clippings about Lyme and Hadlyme from regional newspapers (Deep River New Era, New London Day, Pictorial Gazette) spanning the 20th century. They had a special interest in artists, authors, musicians, and other notable figures who lived in Lyme, local association and organization events, churches, ferries, fishing, historic houses, mills, steamships, stores, World War I and II, and a large collection of obituaries.
“Hamburg” Collection: contains the weekly, published “Hamburg” columns from the New London Day, written by Lyme resident and postmistress, Margaret Reynolds from 1948 to 1961. They contain updates and brief news items by name about Lyme notable and ordinary citizens, family visits and travel, illnesses, and death, community events and meetings.
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Special Collections
Artifacts: The Artifact Collection holds a variety of small objects—decorative, commemorative, honorary and utilitarian—which have historical significance for Lyme’s cultural history and community life. They are associated with the one-room schools, Connecticut River navigation, shad fishing, business, farm life, and agriculture, social organizations, domestic arts, and the Hamburg Fair.
Audiovisuals: The collection consists of videos and slide show documentaries created by the Lyme Public Hall Association of Lyme farms (Tiffany, Sankow and Harding); panel discussions between Lyme residents at Lyme Public Hall meetings about the history of community organizations, farming, one-room schools, the hurricane of 1938; and interviews by Lyme School children of town officials and teachers in the 1980s. There is a 1976 Hamburg Bicentennial parade filmed by Julia Smith.
Books and Pamphlets: The book collection contains published works about Lyme and neighboring towns and books by Lyme authors—histories, monographs, biographies, memoirs, pictorials, scholarly journals, and guides for reference and interpretation. There are also a number of family genealogies.
Lyme Public Hall Exhibit Records: The Association has produced a series of exhibits held at the Lyme Public Hall over the Independence Day holiday since 1997 about Lyme and Lyme heritage. The records contain the planning and research papers and module contents (labels, text, photographs). Lyme subjects treated from a historical perspective have been farm life, dairies, mills, river and maritime life, one-room schools, artists and craftspersons, quilts and textiles, foodways and kitchen equipment, architectural styles, lending libraries, the ancient cemeteries and gravestone carvers, and East Saybrook and Lyme in the 1600s (the settlers, Indian—Colonist relations, government organization).
Maps: The 19th and 20th-century maps of the Lyme, CT area and lower Connecticut River Valley vary in form: hand-drawn, printed, topographical, geodesic, and aerial. They show canal, railroad, ferry, steamship, and electric train routes; civil defense and school districts; roads, householders, historic houses, mills, and Indian tribes. Special items include original 19th and early 20th-century school maps on rollers from the Brockway/Joshuatown one-room school, an original volume of F. W. Beers “Atlas of New London County” 1868, a copy of an 1850 map of Lyme/Old Lyme before the 1855 separation from Old Lyme, and an 1828 bound school atlas.
Oral Histories: This collection contains taped and transcribed interviews with forty-five Lyme, CT residents (1988-2010) by Lyme Public Hall volunteers. Topics include: personal and family histories about their life in Lyme; livelihoods (farming and fishing, business); neighborhoods; historic houses; schooling, community institutions, and membership; Hamburg Fair; artists, town characters, immigrants; the 1938 hurricane, and saving the historic Lyme Public Hall building.
Photographs: This large collection holds valuable visual, historical documentation of individuals, families, buildings, the cultural history and the natural environment of Lyme, CT. The photographs are primarily original but also scanned copies of photos donated by individuals who wanted to retain the originals. There are a wide variety of formats – tintype, daguerreotype, carte de visite, cabinet card, glass plate negative, 35 mm slide, print, and digital. The majority of original prints are black and white but the collection is growing in color digital photos, especially for special studies undertaken by the Archives: Historic Lyme Houses and Architectural Styles; Lyme Quilts and Needle Arts; Carved Gravestones (from eight 18th century Lyme cemeteries).
Other small collections within the Photograph Collection hold photographs by Winifred Webster (Hamburg Fair, farmer personalities and landmark structures); CDV, cabinet cards and glass negative prints of the Bill, Pierson, Sterling and Warner families; and glass negative prints with views of Sterling City, Bill Hill, Ely’s Ferry and Hadlyme areas.
Post Cards: The collection holds more than 300 early 20th-century postcards, an important visual source about the landmarks, environment, and geography of Lyme, CT. There are scenes from all sections of town—Lyme, Hamburg and Hamburg Cove, Hadlyme, North Plain, Joshuatown, Brockway Ferry and Selden Island.
The majority of cards carry black and white photographs, many of them the work of Lyme photographers Gilbert Sterling (1872-1942), Clarence R. and Clarence E. Brockway. Formats are pre- and post-1907, private and postal service issue, show the names of local storekeepers as publishers (Reynolds, Czikowsky, Brockway), and the imprint of foreign printers. There are also color art and lithographed cards.
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Manuscripts
Manuscript Collection: holds memoirs, diaries, correspondence, personal and business account books, scrapbooks, research notes, essays, certificates, one-room school material, and ephemera from the 19th and 20th centuries. Of special interest is the original petition by six proprietors to establish a “Common Field” (also known as Six Mile Island and Ely Meadows) along with the hand-written “Record of the Common Field of Lyme” with minutes, regulations, and management practices of the proprietors’ from 1748 to 1855.
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Family and Personal Papers
Joseph A. and Martha Caples
Joseph A. Caples Collection:
Joseph Caples (1873-1954) was a life-long resident of Lyme. He was a descendent of Cuff Condol, a slave and freeman who settled in Lyme, CT in the late 18th century. He married Martha Bogue (1913-1941) of Mohegan descent. The collection includes originals of Caples’ hand-written memoir (1949), nine diaries and small notebooks (maintained 1913-1944), and some photographs. Subjects include personal ancestry; friends, neighbors, and visitors from Lyme and out-of-town; his work and income accounts as a farmer, farm laborer, trapper, sheep shearer, and daily living expenses. He served in some official capacities with Grassy Hill Church and School District.
Ely Family Collection: These papers are organized around the lives of the three prominent physicians of Lyme from the Ely family: Dr. Josiah Griffin Ely Sr., Josiah Griffin Ely Jr., and Julian Griffin Ely (1894-1980). There are some 19th-century physician-patient office registers. An impressive account book for the A. P. and Samuel Cullick Ely lumber business at Ely Landing on the Connecticut River in the early 19th century provides an excellent background for Lyme’s trade, economic and geographic/natural resource history. A large scrapbook maintained by Julian Ely’s wife holds clippings, family writings, and memorabilia about Dr. Julian Ely, his family, and the Lyme community in the mid-20th century. Ely family references and connections are found throughout the Archive’s collections.
Gertrude Harding Emerson Collection: “Trudy” (1921-2013) lived her entire life on Bill Hill, Lyme, CT and collected many unpublished manuscripts and news articles about the area. Two oral histories and a video documentary of Ashlawn Farm on Bill Hill area were made with her, the latter using 20th-century photographs of farm life from the Ray Harding family photo album.
Chamberlain Ferry Papers: Chamberlain Ferry (1907-1998), former President of Stanley Works in New Britain retired to Lyme in the area of the Ely landing area in Lyme on the Connecticut River. Contents include his correspondence, manuscripts, and publications in areas of his interests — archaeology and 19th-century history of Ely’s Ferry area, shipping and boating life on the Connecticut River, and the ecological preservation of the surrounding marshes of Lord’s Cove, Lyme opposition to the National Park Service’s Connecticut Historic River Way Project as a threat to private property, community life and the natural environment.
Judy Friday Papers: The history and operational detail in photographic and text form of A Year at Tiffany Farms, 2002, documenting a full year on one of few dairy farms left in Connecticut at the time. Contents include copies of her printed and study digital images, taped interviews with the Jack Tiffany family, farmworkers and related farm and dairy opeations, and business correspondence related to the book’s publication.
Sylvia Daniels Harding Papers (1911-1997): Sylvia was the daughter of Jared Daniel Sr. of Joshuatown Road above Hamburg Cove. She was married to James Ely Harding, Jr. Papers include her personal and many Harding, Ely, and Daniels family papers. Included are her own and her mother’s diaries; photographs and vintage postcards of local sites and community life in late 19th and early 20th century Lyme — domestic life, farming, dairying, shad fishing, fur trapping, and the raw fur business, one-room schools, church, Grange Sylvia’s community work, organization memberships, folk art “needle painting”.
Doris Reynolds Jewett Papers: “Doad” Jewett (1913-2013) wrote her memoir, “Things Remembered” (1991, revised 2006) covering her Reynolds and Noah Harding families in 19th-century Lyme and her own growing up in the early 20th-century. Three oral histories recount personal and community history as does her collection of 19th-century family vintage photographs, tintypes and cartes de visite of her mother’s Harding family and of Lyme residents. Pioneer Boy and How He Became President by William Thayer (1863), is included.
Carol Hardin Kimball Papers:(1935-2002) Research notes and drafts for her contribution to Tidewaters of the Connecticut River, an Explorer’s Guide to Hidden Coves and Marshes by Thomas Morley, 2000. Local subjects include notable persons and families; the history of steamboats, shipbuilding, river commerce, slaves, cemeteries and gravestone carvers, and special geological and ecological features. She was a conservationist and avid kayaker.
Lay Family Collection: The personal, business, professional, legal and town office papers for three generations of the Lay family 1815 to 1902 — Daniel and David Lay of Lyme and Old Lyme, CT. There are contracts and construction documents for Oliver Lay’s original Stone Mill and Bradbury’s cotton factory; the Lyme-New London Turnpike, New Haven—New London; Stonington Railroad; Western Reserve properties owned by Lyme residents; fishing rights on the Connecticut River (6 Mile Island and Avery Place); and estate settlements for clients and Lay family members. Also papers of Capt. Walter Chadwick and Capt. Daniel Chadwick of Old Lyme are interesting.
Parker Lord Collection: Papers are primarily those of the John Griswold Ely and Richard Lord families of the Brockway and Hadlyme areas of Lyme. from the 19th century, passed down through the family. Also, morinal manifests for the coastal schooner business of Capt. John Heber Ely of Lyme (1859–1863), homeport Lyme. Typed transcription of the diary of Elizabeth Alice Ely Lord (1864-1876) and correspondence (1862) from her husband, Henry Lord Sill Lord during the Civil War. The collection holds the original and transcription of the journal of the “Joshuatown Union Sewing Society” and lending library of Lyme, CT (1859-1863), mission “to dispel ignorance and bigotry” Parker Lord’s research, conservation, and restoration work for Lyme and Hadlyme “ancient” cemeteries are included.
Hiram P. Maxim II Papers: Maxim’s research reports on seventy-five historic Lyme homes (1684 to 1850) for age and original owner/builder; colonial-era Lyme cemeteries, especially the Lord Cemetery on Hamburg Road; a film made by his grandfather, Sir Percy Maxim, “Hamburg and its People”, with rare scenes of the Hamburg Cove area, residents and the Benit Farm on Blood Street in 1926. Hiram Maxim (1935–2008), former Lyme Town Historian (1993-2008)
Polly Murray Papers: Murray (1934-2019) was an early sufferer of what would later be identified as Lyme disease, spurring her to become a prominent activist raising awareness, interfacing with doctors, and creating support networks across the country. This collection contains correspondence, newsletters, research articles, reports, and digitized audio of academic conferences, interviews, and radio programs from 1983-2000.
Pierson Family Papers: Original material from eight generations of the Pierson family of Bill Hill, Lyme, CT — correspondence, hand-made “fishing book” accounts; leases to residents for shad fishing rights in the Connecticut River and shoreline; business papers for lumber and haulage; invoices and receipts for services to the Town. Many photographs include period tintypes, cartes de visite, and cabinet cards.
Plimpton Historical Collection:
Elizebeth Bull Plimpton (1921-1994), Lyme town historian and a descendant of first settlers, collected an encyclopedic range of historical material about Lyme and Old Lyme, CT, strongest for the 19th to mid-20th century — artists, authors, businesses, churches, community organizations, fishing, ferries, geography, historic properties and houses, military and maritime subjects, schools and much more. There are original documents, transcriptions, research notes, manuscripts, journals and ledgers, photographs, and print materials.
Elizabeth Huey Putnam Historical Collection: There are original documents, personal papers, and artifacts about this area and the wider town of Lyme in the mid-19th into the 20th-century. Subjects include Brockway shipbuilding, oakum manufacturing, shad fishing, and quarrying, Connecticut River navigation, World War I, and the Brockway/Joshuatown one-room school. Family materials are for Laplace, Warner, Huey, Putnam, and Sutton. Material about her father, Robert Huey, and shad fishing, is strong. The collection reflects the deep roots of Elizabeth Putnam’s family and her own lifetime (1912-2007) in the Brockway Ferry area of Lyme, CT. Her books, Brockway’s Ferry, Lyme, Connecticut 1991 and a 2002 revised edition with Wendolyn Hill History and Memoir (1991 and the) hold a rich history of the Brockway Ferry, Joshuatown, and Hadlyme areas of Lyme, CT.
Raymond-Bill Collection: This small collection focuses on the Raymond homestead in Lyme, CT and the family of Hester Wood and James Laurence Raymond Sr. (1828-1914). The Autobiography of a Connecticut Country Girl by Mary Comstock Raymond (1863-1949) provides a unique perspective on life and culture on the Raymond Farms and the Pleasant Valley area. There are also some papers of Caroline Raymond and her husband Edward Lyman Bill Sr., news clippings of events at the Raymond homestead, and documents about the history of the Raymond property.
Reynolds Family Collection: The collection focuses on Ephraim O. Reynolds (1837-1916), his descendants in the Hamburg Cove area of Lyme, their entrepreneurial activities, merchandising, general store, carriage building, and automobile sales and service. An oral history from great-grandson, Leland Reynolds, is rich about the business and town history. A complete set (paper and digital) of the material used in a video and book “Small Enough to Know You, Large Enough to Serve You”, produced by Reynolds Garage for the 150th year anniversary of Reynolds Garage and Marine (2009), is held by the Archives. Photos and business papers of Carl Reynolds about birch oil (Preston, Yantic, and Ledyard) and cider mill (Waterford) enterprises, late 19th century to 1940, is included.
Stark Family Collection: The collection provides an excellent picture of a prominent farm, civic, and political family of Lyme. “Autobiography of J. Warren Stark” (1862-1951) and “Growing Up in the Early 20th Century”, the memoir of his daughter, Jennie Stark (1901-2001), are both important sources of information about family history, town politics, government, community service; farm life and tools; the roles of children and women, Lyme Impressionist artists, women’s service in World War I and II, and Jennie’s teaching career and hooked rug folk-art. The oral histories done with Jennie are available in transcribed form. Copies of 20th century Stark Reunion Programs are available.
John Randall Sterling Papers: John Randall Sterling (1841-1884) is a direct descendant of William who came to Lyme in 1695 (Daniel, Joseph, William, John R.). He married Lizzie Geer Bill, daughter of James A. Bill. Subjects include domestic affairs, marriage, health and illness, life-styles, clothing fashion, and the steamship business on the Connecticut River. There are letters to “his dear and affectionate wife” (1868-1870), account books for his personal shopping business for Lyme residents while freight clerk on the SS “City of Hartford” between Hartford and New York, steamboat ephemera, common school, and high school friendship books and school essays, agricultural award medals for the Bill family, and many cabinet cards of the James A. Bill family and Lyme scenes (from original glass plate negatives by his son Gilbert Sterling).
Sarah Marvin Sterling Collection: This collection holds papers from four Sterling generations who lived in the Sterling Homestead (John Sterling House 1740) on Sterling Hill Road, Lyme, CT. The papers, reaching back to the late 18th century, were in the care of Sarah Marvin Sterling (d.1950). The bulk of the collection is from Sarah’s parents Stephen Parker Sterling (1842-1926) and Annie Warner Sterling and some from their Sarah as well (diaries, poetry). Subjects are the history of family property (especially the Sterling City and Brown Hill areas) and the Sterling grist and sawmill; Stephen’s legislative service, Lyme Grange founding, correspondence with Ohio and Western Reserve family émigrés, Sterling family Cemetery. There late 19th and early 20th c. photos of the house and family from glass negatives, a large collection of cartes de visite (family and community) and cabinet cards (including General Assembly colleagues of Stephen), and documentation of the designs of family-made quilts and stitchery.
Elizabeth Woodward Collection: Woodward (1927-2019) undertook numerous paid and volunteer research positions in public health and environmental hazards, especially pollution, nuclear radiation, energy consumption, and climate change. She worked for environmental organizations, businesses, and government agencies. In her youth, she held an international record for female gliders, soaring for 40,000 ft. She also designed and built an energy efficient model home at 71 Salem Road in Lyme, shown above.
Questions? Need more information? Check in with the Archives.
Our Local History Archives Volunteer Archivist is Julie Hughes
Julie is usually available on Thursdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Carolyn Bacdayan Local History Archive Room at the Lyme Public Library, 482 Hamburg Road, Lyme, CT 06371
Appointments are recommended for convenience: (860) 598-9760 or use our contact form to send an email.
The Archives Reading Room is also open Tuesdays from 2:00-5:00 pm, staffed by local volunteers.