Page 36 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 54 Late Spring 2025

Lord Acton once said that “history is not a
burden on the memory, but an illumination
of the soul." Wallingford is the twenty-
second oldest town in Connecticut and
is the home to a lot of great history. It is
home to New England’s last witch trial, the
birthplace of a signer of the Declaration
of Independence and of the founder of
the American Press, and the home of the
first skew underpass (which was also the
location of a car accident involving Babe
Ruth), just to name a few. We are blessed to
have three organizations in town that do
wonderful work to maintain our history.

Center Street Cemetery

Center Street

Cemetery Association

Center Street Cemetery is one of the oldest
cemeteries in the country. The first burial,
William Holt, was in 1683. It includes tombs
and recognitions of Lyman Hall, a signer of the
Declaration of Independence born on South
Elm Street in Wallingford; Moses Yale Beach, the
founder of the Associated Press and Wallingford
native; Thomas Yale, one of Wallingford’s
founders and the brother of Yale University’s
founder; Joseph Benham, a relative of the last
people in New England to be tried for witchcraft,
Winnifred Benham; several of the town’s original
settlers; and veterans of every major military
conflict from the Revolutionary War to present.

by Rajan Doering
WA LLI N GFO R D
HIS TO RY

36 WALLINGFORD MAGAZINE - LATE SPRING 2025