Explore Union, CT

The Town of Union was first settled in 1727 and incorporated in 1732 making it the 57th oldest town in Connecticut, but the the last town to be settled east of the Connecticut River, largely because of its rough terrain and poor soil.

The name Union was chosen because the “Union Lands” were a union of East Stafford and existing state lands. While 12,500 acres was sold to 12 proprietors in 1720, the first settler James McNall didn’t arrive until 1727. Lumber was the main industry here with as least seven sawmills. There was also a grist mill and a fulling mill and shoes and axe handles were also made here.

Governor Trumbull, during the revolutionary war, tapped the community as a source of “black lead” or graphite from the Indians. During the Revolutionary War Governor Trumbull tapped this valuable resource for our cannon foundries, likely for the cannon ball molds. Using graphite in the mold as a refractory material resulted in rounder, smoother ammunition that could be fired farther.

The town’s seal and flag is a backward K on a shield. It was created by resident Herbert Muller in celebration of the 80th Old Home Day, a local holiday, in 1986. The backwards K dates back to colonial days, when the colonial government would assign each town a random letter to mark their horses with. While most towns were assigned a regular alphabet letter, Union was assigned a backwards ‘K’ which was unique enough to keep as part of their history.