Thank you Laurie Lamarre for sharing this info:
For the next several weeks, #CTSHPO60 will shift the spotlight to Litchfield County and today, CT State Historic Preservation Office celebrates #Barkhamsted. The Barkhamsted Lighthouse Archaeological Preserve features the remains of a rural 18th and 19th century community of Native Americans, European Americans, and possibly African Americans. The archaeological remains include abandoned house foundations, discarded ceramics and tools, lost coins, coat buttons as well as gravestones marking the residents’ final resting places. The preserve tells a fascinating story of a group of “materially poor, ethnically diverse, occasionally maligned settlers eking out an existence on what ultimately were the social and economic margins of 18th and 19th century Connecticut.” The site was established in 1740 by James Chaugham, a Native American, and a European American from Windsor named Mary (aka Molly) Barber. The two raised eight children at the Lighthouse site, many of whom stayed and raised their own children. Although the community seemed to grow for a period, it was abandoned by 1869.
For more information on the preserve see: http://www.iaismuseum.org/research-and-collections/preserve-booklets/preserve-booklet-barkhamsted-lighthouse.pdf