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Leffingwell House HistoryChristopher LeffingwellPatriotChristopher Leffingwell, a colonel in the Connecticut militia, served the state and nation well in the American Revolution. His duties included raiding British held Long Island and guard duty along the seacoast. Leffingwell's most important contribution to the cause of the new nation, however, was a deputy commissary to the Continental Army. Food, arms, and clothing from Connecticut enabled the army to survive and to win the war. Leffingwell's own mill provided paper for bullet cartridges. Connecticut earned its nickname as the "Provisions State" thanks to the efforts of Christopher Leffingwell and other in the commissary. Merchant to ManufacturerA merchant, Christopher Leffingwell traded with the West Indies and Europe. In the 1760s, at the end of the French and Indian War, Great Britain was determined to recover the cost of the war by enforcing trade regulations, collecting custom duties, and imposing new taxes. Widespread protests culminated in the American Revolution a decade later. Christopher Leffingwell was a leader in the move to assert economic independence. The colonists' strategy was to replace expensive imported goods with items made in America. In 1766, Christopher Leffingwell established both a pottery kiln and a paper mill. His later enterprises included stocking manufacture on knitting machines, Connecticut's first chocolate mill, and a fulling mill for finishing woolen cloth. Christopher and Cocoa
Christopher Leffingwell was on the cutting edge when it came to figuring out new and better ways to make money. For example, he was part of the "Committee of Correspondence" during the Revolutionary War. This meant that he got a heads-up on what kinds of supplies people were ordering -- and one of the surprising "hot items" was cocoa. When Christopher Leffingwell learned this, he added a cocoa-nut grinding mill to his enterprises. In fact, between the years 1766 and 1770, Christopher Leffingwell and his brother, Elisha, started a full mill, a dye house, a grist mill and a chocolate mill. Cocoa was big business. By 1773, the English colonists were importing cocoa from Central and South America at more than 320 tons a year. During the Revolutionary War, cocoa was considered a necessity for the troops. So much so, that in 1777 it was considered reseved for the military and manufactureers were not allowed to export it for sale out of Massachusetts. People drank cocoa with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cocoa was believed to have medicinal qualities; including alleviating asthma. |
