A HISTORY OF THE EAST CANAAN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF CHRIST
By Mrs. David Carlson (written 1967)
1967 marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Second Ecclesiastical Society of Canaan, Connecticut, on October 2, 1767. In 1769 the East Canaan Congregational Church was formed with the exodus of a group of members from the First Ecclesiastical Society of Canaan. It seems fitting that we take a journey into the past and pay our respects to those who began and continued our church.
On January 3, 1737 and 1738 at New London Courthouse, a group of hardy
English pioneers bought lands in an area of wilderness known only as the “Western lands,” inhabited by Indians and a few Dutch families. It is believed that the Daighton family, of Dutch descent, settled in this area in early 1722. These Dutch had bought lands from the Indians and by county grants, and were required to exchange these early deeds for a certain amount of property when the town was settled in 1738. The first deed of land was sold to David Lawrence on January 4,
1737. Thus, the sixtieth town to be settled in Connecticut was named Canaan in May, 1738, and incorporated in October of 1739.
