When Benjamin Franklin was Postmaster General, he  traveled the road to Boston in his cushioned chaise, with gangs of men behind in carts filled with stones, which they dropped as each mile was registered on the cyclometer Franklin had attached to his chaise’ wheels.  One of these stones, marked "25 N.H.", was set on the south side of the "Boston Post-road", in colonial Kenilworth.  It can be seen, today,  on East Main Street, in the town now  known as Clinton, in the State of Connecticut.

Across the street from Benjamin Franklin’s ancient marker is the birthplace of one of our country’s greatest universities.  For it is here that Yale came into existence.

In 1700, ten of the Connecticut colony's leading ministers were appointed "to found, erect and govern a college", which came to be known as the Collegiate School.  Each of these trustees is said to have brought or pledged books to the enterprise. The Colony's General Assembly ratified their petition for approval and assistance the following year.

Milestone Marker,
68 East Main Street (Milestone House),
Clinton, CT 06413

Statue of Abraham Pierson on the lawn adjacent to
the Abraham Pierson School
75 East Main Street, Clinton, CT 06413

Three weeks after ratification, the trustees met in Saybrook, a town along the Connecticut shore, which had been chosen for the Collegiate School's location, and named the Reverend Abraham Pierson as its first Rector.

At the time, Pierson was the pastor of a Congregational Church, in the Town of Kenilworth, just west of Saybrook.  It was there, in his parsonage, that he taught the Collegiate School's first undergraduates. In 1704, the Town of Kenilworth contracted to "have a scoll houes bult" adjacent to the church and Reverend Pierson taught there until his death in 1707.

Following Abraham Pierson’s death, the Collegiate School was removed to New Haven, which, according to Benjamin Franklin’s milestone, lay 25 miles west of Kenilworth.  This move was due, in part, to a substantial contribution from Elihu Yale, a Boston born London merchant and former Governor of the East India Company.   Yale had made a gift of goods, which were sold and the proceeds used to purchase books.  It was the largest private donation to the College for more than the next hundred years.   Thus, it came to pass that the Collegiate School was renamed Yale College at its 1718 Commencement.

Monument on the hill in front of the Congregational Church
in Clinton, CT:

I GIVE THESE BOOKS FOR FOUNDING A COLLEGE

Well in the yard of the Stanton House
Stanton House, 63 East Main Street, Clinton, CT 06413

IN HONOR OF

THE GOOD AND LEARNED

ABRAHAM PIERSON

FIRST PRESIDENT

OF

YALE COLLEGE 1701-1707

______________________

PASTOR OF KILLINGWORTH CHURCH

NOW CLINTON 1694-1707

THE TIME HIS DEATH

BELOVED AND REGRETTED

BY ALL

Yale sills laid across stone piers in basement of Stanton House