Canal Towns: Southington

The town of Southington featured several locks and important resources for the construction of the entire line. In November 1825, the canal commissioners formally established the 11-mile section of the canal that terminated "a little southerly from the centre of the town of Cheshire," following a meeting in Southington. Southington was designated to receive two of the Farmington Canal Company's 14 lock houses, with proposals for their construction sought in February 1829. The town also possessed an "inexhaustible quantity" of natural hydraulic lime which was manufactured locally and used in the masonry for aqueducts, culverts, and locks along the canal.

By September 1828, the canal was navigable from New Haven harbor north to the feeder from the Eight Mile River in Southington, located above Barns' Mills. This allowed commerce to begin flowing; three boats soon passed up to Southington carrying lumber for the new Presbyterian Church, and boats like the Pioneer and Oliver Wolcott transported local goods such as wood, butter, cider, and apples south to New Haven. Southington was also a point of departure for passenger excursions. In July 1830, Asa Barnes advertised a trip on the canal boat Washington from "Copp's basin Southington" to New Haven.

Southington was frequently mentioned in connection with accidents and deliberate sabotage. In September 1838, during a severe storm, the packet boat Fawn "grounded in a shallow basin near Southington". That same night, a lock-tender named Harrison tragically drowned at a Southington lock while attempting to assist the boat's passage in the dark; Professor Shepherd of Yale College fell into the canal near the same spot but was unharmed. The area was also a target for vandalism. In August 1838, a break occurred near Southington during a dry season, raising suspicions of "foul play". In October 1845, a major breach at the "culvert over Ten Mile River" (an embankment in neighboring Cheshire, but often identified with Southington in reports) was explicitly blamed on "the work of design," noting a watchman had been unfaithful. Just a month later, in November 1845, another breach "in the vicinity of Southington" occurred, again attributed to a "scoundrel".