If you are looking for a man to praise for hard work and achievement in Talcottville in the early years, Peter Dobson would qualify. Peter Dobson built a cotton spinning mill on the Tankerhoosen River in 1809 which laid the foundation for the industrial village of Talcottville, Dobsonville and indeed Vernon itself.

The basis of the new industry was the manufacture of satinet, a wool cloth having a cotton warp which was first manufactured here by Peter Dobson and Delano Abbott in 1812. Over the years the mill was variously called the Ravine Mill, Dobson Mill, Tankerhoosen Mill, and finally burned in 1909, not to be rebuilt.

Peter Dobson played a great part in the history of Talcottville. He had previously worked for Samuel Slater elsewhere, and locally in John Warburton's mill, then ventured on his own up into the ravine and made his own mark. Dobson's mill was one of the first cotton mills in America, according to"Cascades and Courage, a Vernon and Rockville History" by G.S. Brookes, the definitive history of our area.

Above is a Journal Inquirer newspaper picture from 1979, from a major archeological dig to validate the historical remnants and artifacts from the Dobson mills in the Talcottville ravine.

It is a great story how the multi-million dollar plans for the I86 highway were actually changed - moved away from the ravine - due to the pressure from, local residents, historians and scientists. The Talcottville Neighborhood Association, our predecessors, were led by Henry Moses. People CAN make a difference!

Here is a really SURPRISING event in scientific history:

Great men who stand out in our history books often have wide abilities that seem to extend to areas that are not their expertise. Peter Dobson is a good example of that. Although he was a mill owner, a hard working immigrant, and specialized in textiles, he is known and quoted in, of all things, Geological Journals. According to Michael Bell, writing in a Connecticut Geology bulletin, (footnote#1) (footnote#2)

"In 1825, one Peter Dobson of Vernon, Connecticut, was supervising the construction of a cotton mill when he became puzzled by the rounded boulders randomly mixed in with sand and clay (till, again) that his workmen kept digging up. He proposed an explanation that was published the next year in Silliman's American Journal of Science. Dobson wrote, "I think we cannot account for these appearances unless we call in the aid of ice along with water and that they [the boulders] have been worn by being suspended and carried in ice, over rocks and earth, under water.""

This was the first theory published anywhere that suggested erosion and transportation by ice might in some way be responsible for the formation of till. Dobson, however, was not a highly regarded scientific figure; consequently, his ideas received little notice, and his article slipped into obscurity, unread. Only later in the century did scientists make these conclusions and discovered Dobson had written about it years before Dobson's observations were published in 1826, and thus preceded the 1833 publication of Ignace Venetz' pioneering work on the same subject. As Roderick Murchison was aware of Dobson's work, Dobson deserves credit as one of, if not the, founders of glacial theory. (footnote#3).

So here was an educated but simple mill owner who correctly observed and recorded a major geological science theory years ahead of the geologists. When they finally figured it out years later, they praised Dobson and knew he had been right all along.

And right here in the TALCOTTVILLE Ravine.

Other Peter Dobson trivia:
*From same English town as Warburton
*Immigrated by hiding illegally in a hogshead barrel rolled on to a ship bound for America.