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East Hartford

By TINA BACHETTI | Hartford Courant HOW IT GOT ITS NAME: First settled as a part of Hartford around 1640 when Podunk Indians went to Massachusetts seeking settlers willing to come to the Connecticut River Valley. The land east of the river was made a separate town in 1783. GO HUSKIES: Rentschler Field is home of the University of Connecticut football team. The stadium was built in 2003 on the old military and corporate airport of the same name. The field, named after Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. founding father Fred Rentschler, seats 40,000. NOTABLE NATIVES: Captain Aaron Olmsted, who in the late 1700s bought 20,000 acres in the Connecticut Western Preserve, now part of Ohio. Also from East Hartford is actress Mary Cadorette, known for her roles on Three's Company, Three's A Crowd and Night Court and a founding member of East Hartford's Chapeau Rouge Dance Project. SOURCES: Connecticut Place Names, The Hartford Courant; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; Genealogy of the Olmsted family in America Rick Hartford