Hidden Gems of North-Central Connecticut

TOLLAND/EAST HARTFORD, CT — The latest installment of the Hidden Gems series takes us to a small tract of land near the Main Street side of the Pratt & Whitney aerospace plant in East Hartford. It serves as a memorial to someone who served long before jet engines were a staple of America's military — a time when, well, the Colonies were trying to become a nation.

The plot is the final resting place of Heman Baker, a sergeant in the Lexington Alarm Company who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Baker was captured by the British early in the war, came down with smallpox, and was released.

He tried to make it back to his home in Tolland but, after a month-long journey, he never made it. He was buried in a lone plot near what is now the the Pratt plant.

Longtime Tolland resident and one-time Town Council Chairman Rick Field, along with Ron Usher and Esther Jagodzinski, who worked at Pratt for many years, took an interest in his story and spearheaded the efforts to restore the grave in 2004.

The monument at Pratt has since served as a testament to Baker and the birth of the United States.

Field said he meticulously researched the circumstances surrounding Baker at the time. He said that, according to "The Early History of Tolland," an address delivered before the Tolland Historical Society in 1861 by then-society president Loren Waldo, a company of men was formed immediately after hostilities broke out in Lexington, MA in 1775.

The company roll lists Baker as the orderly sergeant.

Field has said that, according to a family history, Baker was captured near New York in September of 1776, but was released that winter after developing smallpox. He made the arduous journey north, but fell more seriously ill and made it as far as East Hartford.

He died in January, 1777, according to the marker near the plot. Field said he led the efforts to preserve the gravesite to honor an "original American war hero."

____

The Hidden Gems series features out-of-the-way mom and pop restaurants, small specialty stores you may have never heard of, little-known historical markers or beautiful nature spots that may be a bit off the beaten path. Do you have a favorite "hidden gem" in the area that you wish to see featured in this column? Email your ideas to tim.jensen@patch.com.

Other columns in this series:

• Jessica's Garden, Lobster and Ice Cream Shack
• Shade Swamp Sanctuary
• Ken's Corner Breakfast & Lunch
• Tolland Red and White
• The Packing House
• Cold Harbor Seafood
• Nye Holman State Forest/Heron Cove Park
• Hosmer Mountain Soda Shack
• Connecticut Trolley Museum
• Matterhorn Mini Golf
• Wood Memorial Library & Museum
• Hastings Farm
• Liquid Nirvana
• Iwo Jima Survivors Memorial Park
• Academy Hall
• Southington Drive-In
• Little Theatre of Manchester at Cheney Hall
• Somersvillage Gifts & Gourmet Baskets
• New England Civil War Museum
• The Pinchot Sycamore
• Stafford Palace Theater
• Mansfield Hollow State Park
• Old Tolland County Jail and Museum
• Hill-Stead Museum
• Mark's Restaurant