In 1634, Oldham and nine others known collectively as the “Ten Adventurers,” permanently settled in Connecticut after the Massachusetts’ General Court granted them permission to purchase land they called Watertown–a six mile stretch moving in a north-south direction, a five mile tract directly to the river’s west, and a 3-mile stretch to the east–from the Wongunk who called it Pyquag, “cleared land.” Renamed Wethersfield in 1637, “Ye Most Auncient Towne,” is arguably Connecticut’s first settlement. 

The initial ten settlers built homesteads mostly on Broad Street’s eastern side near the meadow where the Wongunk taught them to cultivate beans, squash, peas, and maize. In 1635, a second round of migration occurred thereby increasing the settlement’s population. More homes were erected on Broad Street and what would later be called Main Street running the length of the inner village all the way to the cove that flowed into the river. Decimated by small pox, the Wongunk began to disappear. 

By 1645, farming opportunities had expanded and 125 families had moved to Wethersfield, which consisted officially of the inner village to the immediate west of the Connecticut River, and sister villages called Glastonbury to the east, Stepney (later renamed Rocky Hill) to the south, and Newington further west. The men and women who made up its population had much land with which to work, and theirs would be the first generation of farmers, the founders of Wethersfield. They included names such as Hubbard, Abbot, Chester, and Foote. The population increased consistently, but subsistence farming continued. Life remained uncertain and unpredictable.