Upriver History: On Nov. 3, 1817, Enfield's town meeting chose its officers
Voters took a freeman's oath then; the town's election notice still calls them electors.
ENFIELD - On Nov. 3, 1817, Enfield's annual town meeting chose the people who would run the town for the coming year, according to the meeting record reprinted in the 1900 History of Enfield, Connecticut, edited by Francis Olcott Allen.
Voters named Henry Terry moderator, Elam O. Potter clerk and William Dixon treasurer, and elected Potter, Abner Meacham and John Olmsted selectmen. They also filled a long roster of other posts: grand jurors, tythingmen, listers, fence viewers, key keepers, sealers of weights and measures, gaugers, haywards and more than a dozen surveyors of highways.
The meeting set a tax of 2 cents on the dollar on the 1817 list for current expenses, told the selectmen to hand out the town's scrapers one to each district, and adjourned until the freemen's meeting the next April, the record shows.
Becoming a voter then meant taking an oath. At two freemen's meetings in September 1817, new freemen "took the freemans Oath," the clerk wrote. By 1822 the records describe an "Electors meeting" on the first Monday in April instead, where new voters took the oath of electors.
The old wording survives. The town's notice of the Nov. 3, 2026, state election warns "the electors of the Town of Enfield" to meet at their polling places on Tuesday.
Sources: The History of Enfield, Connecticut, vol. 1 (1900), ed. Francis Olcott Allen, 'Town Meetings,' pp. 508-510, 517-518, Internet Archive scan; Town of Enfield, Notice of November 3, 2026, State Election.
How this story was made: AI tools helped research and draft this story, working from the sources cited and linked above. It was fact-checked against those sources, and our editor, Joshua Allen, reviewed and approved it before publication. See an error? Email upriverdaily@gmail.com.