14-03-2025
Old Lyme to begin celebrating the country's 250th anniversary
Old Lyme — A group has begun work to educate residents about the town's place in the country's 250-year history, its role in the American Revolution, social progress and development of the country's founding ideals.
The town's America 250 Committee is scheduled to launch its website March 15, an auspicious date in town history, said committee member and Selectman Jim Lampos.
March 15 is the birthday of David Ruggles, an abolitionist born 1810 in Lyme, which then encompassed Lyme and Old Lyme. He was the first Black publisher in the country, a founder of the nonviolent civil disobedience movement and associate of Frederick Douglass.
He published books, articles and pamphlets denouncing slavery, opening what was likely the first Black-owned bookstore before a group burned it down. He was a major conductor" of the Underground Railroad, aiding at least 600 Black people to freedom, including Douglass, according to the New England Historical Society.
"We have amazing stories to tell," Lampos said.
"We want our residents to have a lot of pride in the town," added committee member Cheryl Poirier.
The celebration will last through July 4, 2026, Poirier said, and more information on festivities is to come. The town is going to take part in a nationwide event, "Two Lights for Tomorrow" this April, Poirier said. It commemorates Paul Revere's midnight ride warning of the British Army's approach before the battles of Lexington and Concord, both in Massachusetts.
Yet another historical figure from Lyme the group will tell residents about is Stephen Johnson, a pastor and pamphleteer who was a main opponent of England's Stamp Act, which imposed an extra tax on paper materials produced in the colonies, Lampos said.
"Our country is based on an idea, that we're created equal with inalienable rights," Lampos said. "That was first codified in one of Stephen Johnson's pamphlets. The ideology of the Revolution can be traced to Old Lyme.
Poirier said about 100 Lyme troops marched from Connecticut to one of the two first armed conflicts of the American Revolution, the Battle of Lexington, including Black soldiers and men from the Nehantic Tribe. The group also plans to tell residents more about the history of the town's Black residents, and of its precolonial inhabitants, the Nehantic, and of important suffragists and artists the committee says deserve more attention.
The group will have free tours of local landmarks and historic houses, Lampos said.
