Theodore Alfred Hungerford
Born and educated in Harwinton, Theodore Alfred Hungerford (1838-1903) moved to Chicago in 1860 and established a publishing company. The company was destroyed in the Chicago Fire. Hungerford moved to Manhattan, New York, worked at and eventually purchased the “Hotel Gazette” a where-to-stay vacation magazine.
When Hungerford began to think about establishing a mausoleum, his nephew Newman Hungerford encouraged him to bequeath a library for Harwinton in his memory. Theodore then created a provision in his will for Newman to buy property, build a library and supply it with books.
Theodore Alfred Hungerford died in 1903, and his remains were interred in a granite vault inside the foundation of the library which opened in 1912. After the Harwinton Public Library was built, the T. A. Hungerford Memorial Museum was established.
Lois Lenski
Lois Lenski (1893-1974) was born in 1893 in Springfield, Ohio, was a renowned author and illustrator of children’s and young adult literature. She became an art student in New York where she met painter and muralist Arthur Covey. They married in 1921 and lived at 76 Harmony Hill Road in Harwinton from 1929 to the 1950s. Arthur is known in Harwinton for painting the mural inside Harwinton Consolidated School.
In 1967, Lois established the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation. Her goal was to give back to children. By the time of her death in 1974, she had written and illustrated more than 100 books for children of various ages.
