MRHS - Bringing the History of Mystic to the World

Over the years MRHS has published and acquired quite a few very interesting books and pamphlets. This page provides links to some of them.  None of these documents is to be reproduced or used for any commercial purpose without the permission of the Mystic River Historical Society.

A History of Masons Island James H. Allyn  1940

A Stop in Time - A house tour guide in celebration of Mystic's 350th anniversary.

Back When - The Story of A Youth Who Lived Through A Very Exciting Time in America by Karl H. Inderfurth

Eighty Years of Banking - A history of the Mystic River National Bank from 1851 to 1931

George Greenman Family History Chronology - Part of a 1995 report for the Mystic Seaport. Not to be reproduced without the permission of the Mystic Seaport.

Greenman Historic Structure Report - Part of a 1995 report for the Mystic Seaport. Not to be reproduced without the permission of the Mystic Seaport.

Haley Farm Souvenir - A little pamphlet tied with a red ribbon with the cover “Haley Farm Souvenir”. There is no date or other information other than the title page "The Haley Farm, Noank, Conn.  Near New London, Caleb Haley, Proprietor.”

Major John Mason's GREAT ISLAND by James H. Allyn

Mystic by William Allen Wilbur, The Connecticut Magazine, August 1899

The Mystic River Historical Society: Our First 40 Years by Patricia Schaefer  December 2013 There is also Pat's PowerPoint presentation of her talk at the December 2013 Membership meeting. This is a larger file (55.9 MB) and will take about 2 minutes to download so it can then be opened in PowerPoint.

Old Mystic in Days Past published by the Old Mystic Community Association in 1979

Preserving history one document at a time   The Mystic Times December 12, 2013

1649- 1949 The Stonington Chronology by Williams Haynes

Swamp Yankee from Mystic  by James H. Allyn

This file is 30.6MB in size and takes a little while to download and open in Acrobat Reader.

A Trolley Ride - Groton and Stonington Street Railway 1907 by Grace D. Wheeler. Also, see our Virtual Exhibit on trolleys.

Do you ever think about the days when a Mystic telephone number was 63-2? Have you ever ridden through town and country on an old-time trolley car? Have you ever dreamed about taking a trip from Westerly to the Thames River and back on a lovely spring day?  Grace D. Wheeler wrote about just that in 1907 in a charming little booklet titled Historic Ground Westerly, Rhode Island to Groton, Connecticut issued by the Groton and Stonington Street Railway and printed by Geo. H. Utter, Printer, Westerly, R.I. You can see an original copy at the Downes Building as well as a piece of track from downtown Mystic now lying beside the fence behind Portersville Academy.

Where Connecticut Has a Glimpse of the Sea by Odell D. Tompkins, New England Magazine, March 1901 to August 1901

These self-guided tours have been created by members of the Mystic River Historical Society and are made available for your personal use and enjoyment. Any use for any other purpose requires the consent of the Society.