Duckpin in Connecticut in 1856?

While not a bowling “center”, the historic Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, CT, has a 1-lane setup that was built in 1846. Note that it served for both tenpin and duckpin and used manual pin-setting.

While we cannot find a record of when duckpin was first included (original or much later) but there is a reference in an 1856 letter to “bowling the small pins” while visiting Henry Bowen to discuss the “fermenting political ugliness in the South”. We have so far been unable to obtain a copy of the letter, but the information was shared by the letter’s owner, a private collector.

If accurate, that potentially moves duckpins presence in the USA back another few decades from its mention on the original building plans of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan.