TORRINGTON  , a

borough of Litchfield county, Connecticut, U.S.A., in the township of Torrington, on the Naugatuck river, about 25 M . W. of Hartford . Pop . (190o), 836o, of whom 2565 were foreign-born; (igro) 15,483; of the township, including the borough (1900) 12,453; (1910) 16,84o . It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway and by an electric line connecting with Winsted . It has a public library (1865) with 15,000 volumes in 1909 . There is a state armoury in the borough . Torrington is a prosperous manufacturing centre . In 1905 the value of the factory product was $9,674,124 . The township of Torrington, originally a part of the township of Windsor, was first settled in 1734, and was separately incorporated in 1740 . The site was covered by pine trees, which were much used for ship-building, and for this reason it was known as Mast Swamp . In 1751 a mill was erected, but there were few, if any, residences until 1800 .

In 18o6 the

settlement was known as New Orleans village . In 1813 members of the Wolcott family of Litchfield, impressed with the water-power, bought land and built a woollen mill, and the village that soon developed was called Wolcottville . Its growth was slow until 1864 . In 1881 its name was changed to Torrington, and in 1887 the borough was incorporated . See S . Orcutt's History of Torrington (Albany, 1878), and an article, " The Growth of Torrington," in the Connecticut Magazine, vol. ix., No . 1 .