About Beacon Falls
Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the area to become the town of Beacon Falls was originally called Nyumps by the surrounding Paugaseck and Paugasuck tribes.
It was purchased by a native slave known simply as ‘Toby’ for 10 pounds and a barrel of cider on September 7th, 1693.
It made it’s biggest mark through industrial production of rubber; firstly with the discovery of the process of Vulcanization - processing rubber into a durable and waterproof material - which was first patented by Charles Goodyear in 1844; secondly, with the inception in 1898 of the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Company, which quickly became a mainstay of the town and indeed the country at large; producing 150 pairs of shoes by the end of the 19th century, and which by 1920, had increased exponentially to 5.5 million pairs shipped. This explosion in productivity helped the town’s population to double in that time period, providing the town with a major source of income and.employment as a result.