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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. |
