Stephen Hosmer

The site of Hosmer's sawmill on Trout Brook on North Main Street in West Hartford, Conn.

Stephen Hosmer (1645 - November 4, 1693) was the founder of the first settlement in West Hartford. Son of Thomas Hosmer and Frances Bushnell, a member of Reverend Thomas Hooker's original company in Hartford, he was sent in 1679 to run a house and a new sawmill about half a mile north of what is now West Hartford Center. As part of Thomas Hosmer's 300 acres of land north of the Center, the sawmill was located on Trout Brook west of North Main Street. Although Stephen returned to Hartford to live, he held 310 acres in West Hartford, a house and part of the new sawmill, most of which he left to his son, Captain Thomas Hosmer. After Hosmer died on November 4, 1693 in Hartford, his heirs held much of the land until the 1760's and 1770's. For example, one of his descendants, Stephen Hosmer, the father of the famous Revolutionary surgeon Timothy Hosmer, had a house on land that had originally belonged to the Hosmer settlers.

Inded, the mill pond still exists and a grinding stone from a later gristmill is the front doorstep of the house at 175 North Main Street.

Children

• Hannah Hosmer - m. Stephen Post
• Mary Hosmer (Dec. 17, 1671 - 1684) - died young.
• Dorothy Hosmer - m. Joseph Skinner
• Thomas Hosmer - m. Ann Prentiss
• Stephen Hosmer (d. 1673) - died young.
• Stephen Hosmer - m. Sarah Long
• Esther Hosmer - m. Nathaniel Pitkin
• Sarah Hosmer (Oct. 16, 1681 - 1685) - died young.
• Deborah Hosmer - m. Richard Olmsted
• Clemence Hosmer - m. Nehemiah Olmsted
• Mary Hosmer - m. (1) Nicholas Olmsted (2) John Goodwin