We have information about a few of our Eastern Connecticut Carvers. For those of you who are new to this subject we hope it will help to familiarize you with some of our heroes from the past and maybe even inspire some of you to join our team. Perhaps some of you genealogists and historians can pass on some new clues to us.

Any questions or inquiries contact Ruth Brown.

The Ones Who Came First

• John Hartshorn(e) (1650-c. 1737)
• Obadiah Wheeler (1673-c.1749)
• Benjamin Collins (1691-1759)

What of the “unnamed carver”?

• The Norwich Ovoid Carver (early 1700’s)
• Glastonbury Lady Carver (1720s-1740s)

Those that taught and those that followed:

• Gershom Bartlett (1723-1798)
• Julius Collins (1728-1758)
• Zerubbabel Collins (1733-1797)
• The Stanclift Carvers
• The Johnsons
  • Thomas Johnson I (1690-1761)
  • (Deacon) Thomas Johnson II (1718-1774)
  • Thomas Johnson III (of Chatham) (1750-1789)
• The Mannings
  • Josiah Manning (1725-1806) and his two sons
  • Rockwell Manning (1760-1806)
  • Frederick Manning (1758-1810)

And what of those that carved in Western Connecticut?

While I had stated these were Eastern Carvers, we do have information on many carvers that lived and worked west of the Connecitcut River, such as the Baldwins, Hills, Gold, Cowles and more. Unfortunately to date none of these have been collected in one place so only various pieces of information so far has been reviewed and studied. Below you’ll find a partial listing of more names of carvers east and west who have worked in Connecticut that we know little about, in the hopes that some genealogist in the audience might happen upon a name or valuable clue that would mean so much to us.