Author and Historian Peter Vermilyea will be discussing his latest book, “Wicked Litchfield County” at a special lecture on Sunday, November 6th, at 4:00 PM, at Winchester Grange Hall, 100 Newfield Road, Winchester Center, CT. This event is sponsored by the Winchester Center Historical Association.

Vermilyea will explore the lesser known devilish and sometimes scandalous tales from the seedier history of Litchfield County, which is colored by thieves, rum-runners, and rapscallions. Townspeople accused women of witchcraft simply for not bearing enough children in the early days of the region.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Owen Sullivan and William Stuart took advantage of the county’s isolated stretches and a currency shortage to build counterfeiting empires.

In 1780, Barnett Davenport’s brutal actions made him infamous as the nation’s first mass murderer.

Small-time speakeasies slowly took hold, and the omnipresence of alcohol-fueled crime led to the birth of the nationwide prohibition movement.

Attendees will discover the underbelly of “Wicked Litchfield County” through these and other tales.  

Vermilyea teaches history at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, Connecticut, and at Western Connecticut State University. A graduate of Gettysburg College, he is the director of the student scholarship program at his alma mater's Civil War Institute. He is the author of “Hidden History of Litchfield County” and recipient of the 2015 CultureMax Award.

For more information, please contact Bill Ahrens, President of the Winchester Center Historical Association at 860-738-0766, or via email at wahrenscpa@earthlink.net.