Manchester was settled as a part of Hartford some time after 1672. The Parish of Orford was organized in 1772, and a town incorporated in 1823, named from Manchester England, because of its manufacturing interests. The Pitkin family began the manufacture of glassware in 1783, and in 1794 Samuel Pitkin started to make corduroys and fustians, the first cotton cloth mill in Connecticut, with machinery made by an English mechanic who was familiar with the new methods. Paper-making was an important early industry. In 1838, four Cheney brothers, who for a number of years had been interested in the growing of silkworms, opened a silk factory, one of the first in the U.S., that was still operating into the 1930s at South Manchester.
Edgar L. Heermance, compiler, The Connecticut Guide: What to See and Where to Find It, Connecticut Emergency Relief Commission, Hartford, 1935.