About 1740, a young Scots-Irishman named Edward Pattison emigrated from County Tyrone to Connecticut, arriving, according to family tradition, with just 16 cents in his pocket. In what is today the town of Berlin, Pattison established the first tinsmith shop in the American colonies.He cut tin imported from England and beat it into shapes with wooden mallets on wooden patterns.
Photo: View west showing entrance to Maple Cemetery. (Tod Bryant)
Then, he became the prototype of the famed Yankee peddler: "After carefully cleaning his wares so they glittered, he would load up two large baskets, sling them from his shoulders and, traveling on foot, canvass his neighbors ... When the immediate neighborhood was saturated, (he) traveled on horseback so as to extend his territory"
Hogan, Neil, "First American tinsmith and Yankee peddler," The Shanachie, v.23, no. 3, 2012.
Date(s): 1787
Accessibility:
Exterior visible from public road.
The Irish experience has had a profound impact on Connecticut's past, and its narrative spans all periods of the state's history and touches every one of its eight counties and 169 towns.