1840, New Beginnings
1840 was a memorable year for Alexander Clark. It was a year of profound change for the town became independent from Saybrook and known officially as Westbrook. Mr. Clark was elected the town’s first representative to the General Assembly and also as a selectman. Westbrook was now responsible for its roads, its schools, for collecting taxes and for care of the town’s poor. It was an anxious time. Shipbuilding, the major industry, was declining and those workers were leaving town, shrinking the population.
There was little industry to provide jobs and although farming and fishing persisted, the new opportunities were in providing goods and services. Coal and ice deliveries replaced cutting firewood and the farm’s own ice pond. Livery wagons provided transportation and stores supplied all kinds of manufactured goods.