The Town voted at the 2026 Annual Meeting to restore the General Jonathan Chase Ledger Stone at the Trinity Church Cemetery, and we are happy to report that the restoration is complete in time for the Fourth of July holiday. General Jonathan Chase came to Cornish in 1765. A farmer and a surveyor, he opened the first store in town and kept the first inn. He opened his home for public meetings including several of the first town meetings. He also built and operated the first sawmill and gristmill in Cornish.

In 1775, he was commissioned as Colonel of the territorial regiment comprising the towns of Hanover, Lebanon, Lyme, Orford, Cornish, and Plainfield, and he served honorably during the Revolutionary War. Among his accomplishments after the war, he served nine years as a Selectman, three years as Treasurer, and three years as Moderator. On top of all that, he established the first ferry across the Connecticut between Cornish and Windsor. His stone at Trinity Church aptly reads in part, “He filled a variety of offices with honour to himself and advantage to the public.”

Many thanks to stonemasons Dave Fielder, Lucas Weld and his son, Declan Weld, for taking on and completing the project on schedule. Like the Chase family, the Welds were one of the first families to settle in Cornish, and it was especially nice that descendants of the first settlers were part of the restoration project.