Submitted by Ray A. Dalrymple, a descendant of the Rising family. (Reprinted from the quarterly “Rising News” Letter for December 2024)
There are several names given to the Notch/Jog at the top of the Connecticut state line. The westward border area between Conn. and Mass. dips south in what is an otherwise straight line across the state. Many call the 2.5-mile dip, the Southwick Jog after the town line plunges south into what would appear to be part of Conn. A majority of Rising Corners ran through the Southwick Notch in the early days and would have been located in Massachusetts. Most of Rising Corners is now located in Connecticut.
If you’re not from the area, most have wondered what that little notch is in North Central Conn. It looks like a piece of the state was chopped out by an ax or something sharp fell on top of it. Some say it holds Mass. from sliding into the sea. Others believe the surveyors were drunk when the lines were drawn. However, the real history behind the Southwick Jog dates back over 375 years.
In 1642, Massachusetts hired two surveyors to establish a border between itself and Connecticut. However, the two surveyors were afraid of being killed by Indians, so they sailed down the Connecticut River and stopped at what they believed was the border. However, they were eight miles south. Instead of fixing their mistake, they just began settling the boundary from there, taking over 100,000 acres from Conn. When officials in Hartford found out, they immediately demanded a new survey which was promptly ignored by Mass. Over the next 60 years, each colony hired their own surveyors to set the border but said the surveyors would just put the line wherever was most favorable to their respective colony. The two colonies even joined together in a survey in 1702, but it failed to settle things for good. Tensions between the two colonies rose with every survey.
Making matters worse, in 1724, the towns of Enfield, Somers, Suffield and Woodstock applied for admission into Connecticut because they were upset with Massachusetts high taxes. They claimed to be within Connecticut, and since the northern border couldn’t be settled, there was no way to confirm or deny said claim. In 1749, Connecticut voted in favor of admitting them, but Massachusetts of course objected.
This lead to shouting matches between the two colonies for years, to the point they nearly brought up arms against each other. They asked England to settle the dispute twice, but since the Empire was in the middle of the French-Indian/Seven Year war, those requests were ignored. Massachusetts officially claimed these towns in 1768, but Connecticut neglected the claim and continued to govern the towns as they had for the previous 19 years.
The dispute continued through the Revolutionary War until 1793 when the now states appointed a boundary commission to draw a straight line due west from Union, Conn. to the New York border. This wasn’t the end however, as in 1797, the commission recommended that a 2.5 square mile disputed territory be given to Massachusetts because it “lost” Enfield, Somers, Suffield and Woodstock. In 1804, Connecticut reluctantly agreed to a compromise which gave Massachusetts 5/8ths of the 2.5-mile territory along the western shore of Congamond Lakes while Connecticut received the eastern shore. This finally settled the border and officially created the South Jog.
Sources: CT State Library and The New York Times.