Avon, Connecticut’s First Century: Visionaries and Victims

Avon, Connecticut, has had a long history of people who challenged conventions and persevered through tragedy. There was the clock peddler’s encounter with Abraham Lincoln, a suffragist’s political showdown with her cousin Eleanor Roosevelt and a man who betrayed his brother-in-law, Thomas Edison. Before the Heublein Tower, art patron Daniel Wadsworth built the first of three viewing towers on Avon Mountain. Following the courage of local abolitionist David Bartlett, Black Civil War soldier Leverett Holden fought for emancipation. Shocking events included one of the first murder cases in America to test the insanity defense, homicides at a house doomed for bloodshed and the horrific factory fire that shattered the lives of immigrant families. Scott Lewis reveals the stories of the visionaries and victims who shaped the town of Avon’s future.

A resident of Avon, Connecticut, Scott Lewis is on the board of the Avon Land Trust and has given several presentations on the town’s history. In addition to serving as treasurer of the land trust, he builds and maintains hiking trails in Avon. A descendant of signer Josiah Bartlett from New Hampshire, Scott serves as treasurer-general for the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, a national genealogy society. Prior to his retirement in 2023, Scott was a senior vice president at the insurance company The Hartford, where he served as controller and chief accounting officer from 2013 to 2023.