Description

You can count on one hand the number of historic house plaques in Mystic with a woman’s name on them. Caroline Townsend Clift’s house at 192 High St. is one of them. Caroline married into the Clift family, who were very prominent in 19th century Mystic. Her husband, Horace, served as first selectman in Groton and was a longstand ing deacon at the Union Baptist Church. His brother, Lemuel, was the judge of probate in Mystic for 23 years. Their father, Capt. Amos Clift, built many of the buildings in early 19th-century Mystic, including Portersville Academy, the village’s first school. Caroline spent all her adult life in Mystic, from the age of 22, when she married Horace in 1881, until her death in 1937. Yet her roots were southern. She was born in Bovina, Mississippi, on a 1,400-acre cotton plantation run by her father and grandfather. Between them they owned 70 slaves. Mississippi was the second state to secede from the union leading up to the Civil War. The Townsend’s plantation was 6 miles east of Vicksburg and it was in the direct path of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s army as it marched to capture the city in 1863. 

Mystic River Historical Society Vice President Marilyn Comrie will recount the story of what happened to the Townsends as Union forces invaded and how Caroline wound up in Connecticut. 

Doors opening at 7:00pm for refreshments and the program beginning at 7:30pm. 

All membership meeting programs are free for MRHS members and are open to the public with a suggested donation of $5.