Arunah Waterman, from Norwich, Conn., was one of the original proprietors of Hyde Park. He left Norwich in February, with an ox and horse team, and was seventeen days on the road, arriving in Hyde Park on the fourth of March, 1801, the day that Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated president of the United States, and designed to settle on his own lands, but shortly after his arrival he purchased the farm in Johnson upon which Jonathan McConnell located, and built mills where the village has since grown up. He took possession on the first day of April, 1801, where he continued to live until his death, August 17, 1838, in the ninetieth year of his age, having previously served as justice of the peace and member of the legislature for a number of years. Asa, the eldest child of Arunah, located on road 44, where he resided until 5852, when, at the age of eighty years, he removed to road 46, where he resided with his son, David Sanford Waterman, until his death in 1860. He had a family of ten children, only one of whom, D. Sanford, now resides in the town.
