Mary Janette Elmore, born in 1832, and her brother were the seventh generation of Elmores in Connecticut. 
Edward Elmer, the first ancestor to come to America settled in Hartford and, in 1660, became owner of a “three-mile lot” of land on the east side of the Great River (now known as the Connecticut River). These lots were measured in rods along the river (Elmore owned 90, or approximately 500 yards) and three miles inland, equitably granting each landowner access to the river, meadowland, upland, swampland and wooded areas.
Mary Janette’s great-grandfather was the first to move inland, on a rise now known as Long Hill. This was where Mary Janette lived her entire life, attended her first school and was later an active member of the Long Hill Missionary Circle and held Sunday school in her dining room.
In her 80th year, 1911, Mary Janette wrote about her childhood and memories, which she called “Reminiscences,” and dedicated “this little record of our early days” to her brother. In 1976, the South Windsor Historical Society published the manuscript under the title “Long Hill.”
In “Long Hill,” Mary Janette provides a detailed look 
at life in South Windsor in the mid 19th century. As a child during this time, she lived among the memories and stories of the Revolutionary War and later wrote while looking back on our country’s first 150 years of independence. While somewhat common to learn about old-fashioned soap making, one-room-schoolhouses, spinning and dyeing of cloth, and memorable storms, Mary Janette additionally offers truly unique stories of country life. Included in these special vignettes were the number of utensils in the home and how they were used, the variety of fruit that was available. Mary Janette also wrote about “a few incidents,” such as when she could hear the whistle at the Colt Factory.
Photographs courtesy of Gary Pitcock.