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In 1855 the area immediately north and west of the central village along Meadow Brook was transformed into a small manufacturing village. Joseph Hammond organized the Colchester Union Manufacturing Company to manufacture "wadding, paper, cotton, silk, woolen goods and wood and metal products." (Schuster / Wolf, p.1) The firm built a dam and mill at the base of Mill Hill on Meadow Brook, a site of 18th and 19th-century sawmilling activity. The actual products of the firm are unknown, but several investors; owners were carpenters by trade, and the shop could presumably have manufactured woodwork for local use. The area surrounding the mill became known as "Unionville" or "Union Mill Village."

The firm went bankrupt in 1858 and was replaced by the Colchester Wheel Company, a more narrowly focused undertaking. Under the direction of John C.
Wightman, the Colchester Wheel Company took control of the assets of the former mill and began to manufacture and sell wheels, carriages, wagons, and sleighs. The new firm was financed with local money and employed 18 workers. By 1874 the Unionville mill site consisted of 11 separate buildings and shops, including the original 100' brick mill, a carriage shop, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a paint shop, dwelling units, and a manager's house. (Schuster/Wolf, p. 5). The largest single product of the firm was carriage wheels, and much of the raw material was provided by local farmers. For a time velocipedes were also manufactured on site.

In the early 1880s the dam gave way, destroying the mill buildings and bankrupting the firm. The remaining buildings were eventually razed or moved to new sites, except for a single dwelling located at 68 Mill Hill Road [# 71]. The building was a company house inhabited by Pompey Ransom, a handyman at the mill. (Schuster/Wolf, p. 7-9). At its peak, the Colchester Wheel Company was the second largest industrial concern in the town. (1)

(1)  pp. 42-43, Paul R. Lusignan, Town of Colchester, Historical and Architectural Survey of Colchester, Connecticut 1991, np, 1991

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