The early settlement of Redding is incredibly interesting; it is also confusing, almost enigmatic at points. History is often opinionated and I have tried my best to remain as close to the facts as I could. Notations will be made to indicate points that are difficult to prove factual due to varying accounts or lack of pure information. Much of the information compiled here on the history of Redding has been taken directly from Charles B. Todd's "History of Redding", the only known publication accounting for the settlement and growth of the town up until the turn of the century. I have added in notes to highlight new findings.

Enjoy.

Reading or Redding?

Redding was named after John Read, early on the spelling was Reading. However, in 1767 the community voted to use Redding as the official spelling. From that point forward, both Reading and Redding were used in maps, letters, news articles, etc...

It seems the US Postal Service put the Reading or Redding debate to rest officially referring to the town as Redding on May 30, 1844 and according to legend everyone else followed suit.

Below is Redding Historian, Charles Burr Todd's findings in 1880:

Legally, no such town as "Reading" exists in Connecticut, since, both in the act of incorporation  and on the probate seal, the name is spelled Redding; and inquiry elicits the fact that the majority of the citizens prefer the latter method of the spelling. It is in the opinion of the writer(Charles Burr Todd), however, that the original name of the town was Reading, and that if historical precedents are to be followed it should be so named now. In all old documents among the State archives, State maps, and in the ancient records of Fairfield (where the name first occurs), the orthography is Reading.

Rev. Moses Hill, a gentleman well versed in the antiquities of the town, informs me (C.B. Todd) that at the time of incorporation, in 1767, a meeting was held, at which it was voted that the name of the new town should be Redding; and the fact that in the original bill incorporating it the name Reading has been crossed out and that of Redding substituted, would seem to point to some action on the part of the town. I (C.B. Todd) find no entry of any such action, however in the town records.

Connecticut maps from the 1700's all use Reading, Connecticut: 1771, 1795, 1797 as do Revolutionary War references to the encampments in our town. [During the American Revolution the Generals referred to it as Camp Reading.] Adding to the confusion-Redding continued to be known as Reading to some into the 1800's as this map of Connecticut shows: Connecticut 1824

*The following is the most entertaining reasoning for all the confusion I've come across so far, it is taken from the Redding Bicentennial Official Program, 1967:

"We personally favor the certainly apocryphal story about the peddler who traveled between Fairfield and Danbury, selling his goods and providing news and gossip gratis. Every time he passed through Redding he asked what they were going to call the new parish-reed or redd.

One day, on his way south, he walked into Redding and the first person he saw was the town crier. "Good morning, Town Crier," the peddler said. "Have you figured out how to pronounce your name yet?"

The crier was in bad humor and replied brusquely, "The official notice was "read" the day before yesterday, it was read yesterday, it has been "read" this morning, and it will be "read" tomorrow." (the word "read" is being pronounced "red" by the crier)

The peddler thanked him and went on his way, spreading the news throughout the land. It has been pronounced "Red-ding" and spelled Redding ever since.

The First Grants of Land in Redding

Below are "grants of land" in present day Redding. Very few of the individuals granted land actually settled in Redding. The majority of these grants were sold to Redding's early settlers.

"The first deed or grant of land in the 'oblong'' within my knowledge (Todd) was given to Mr. Cyprian Nichols in 1687 This grant, in Secretary Wylly's handwriting, reads as follows: At a General Court held at Hartford, October 13, 1687.

"This Court grants Mr. Cyprian Nichols two hundred acres of land where he can find it, provided he take it up where it may not prejudice any former grant to any particular person or plantation; and the surveyors of the next plantation are hereby appointed to lay out the same he paying for it. "Caleb Stanley."

Captain Nichols “took up” his grant in that part of the “oblong” which is now Lonetown, as is shown by the following document: March 1, A.D. 1711

"Then laid out ye Grant of two hundred acres of land granted by ye General Court to Capt. Cyprian Nichols, Oct. 13, 1687, as follows, viz., beginning at a great Chestnut tree marked on ye south and west side, and J. R. (John Read?) set upon it, standing at ye southend of Woolf Ridge, a little below Danbury bounds, thence running west one hundred rods to a Walnut tree marked on two sides, then running south one mile to a red oak tree marked, then running east one hundred rods to a black oak tree marked, then running north one mile to the Chestnut tree first mentioned. An heap of stones lying at the root of each of ye trees. We say then thus laid out by us.

Thomas Hoyt, Daniel Taylor Surveyors of the Town of Danbury.
"Entered in ye public books of Entry's for Surveys of Land, folio 14, per Hezekiah Wyllys, Secretary. March 21, 1711.”

The next two grants in this tract of which we have any record were made, the first, May 7th, 1700, to Mr. Daniel Hilton, and the second October 10th, 1706, to Mr.Richard Hubbell. They were laid out nearly at the same time, and side by side, with the preceding grant, as follows: “March 3rd, A. D. 1711.

“ Then laid out ye Grant of two hundred acres of land made by ye General Court to Daniel Hilton, May 7, 1700, and ye Grant of one hundred acres, granted October 10th, 1706, by ye General Court to Mr.Richard Hubbell, all in one piece as followeth, viz., Beginning at a Walnut tree marked, and J. R. (John Read?) upon it, standing a little way North East from ye Hog Ridge, between Danbury and Fairfield, thence running two hundred and eighty rods northerly to a Red Oak tree marked, on ye Westside of Stadly Ridge, thence running easterly one hundred and eighty four rods to the Little River at two Elm Staddles and a Red Oak, marked, thence running Southerly, west of ye river, and bounded upon it, two hundred and eighty rods to a bitter Walnut tree, marked, thence running one hundred and sixty rods westerly to the Walnut tree first mentioned, thus and then laid out by us.
Thomas Hoyt, Daniel Taylor Surveyors of the Town of Danbury.

These grants were purchased, probably before they were laid out, by Mr. John Read (J.R.), one of the earliest actual settlers of Redding. Mr. Read was a gentleman of education, and later became an eminent lawyer in Boston.

"Other" Grants of Land in Redding

Above are the pre-settlement grants according to Charles Burr Todd. There appear to be many more and I've listed what I've found to-date (March, 2007) below. What is confusing in almost every case is that the location of the land granted is not cleary stated by the General Court. For example, they read as follows:

In Fairfield Probate Records 8:248-249 is an Indian Deed of Umpawaug to Nathan Gold in December, 1686. This deed is an "eye crosser" so I'll only list the parts that make sense in the present day below:

"Be it known to all men and those present...(the) rightful proprietors of a tract or parcel of land called Umpawaug lying westward of Fairfield in ye wilderness have bargained and sold...from everyone of us (Indians), our heirs, our heirs executors, adminstrators, assignees and lawful successors for our [mark] to Nathan Gold of Fairfield in his majesty's Colony of Connecticut...and to his heirs and lawful successors for ever a certain parcel of land called Umpawaug as it is now laided out and bounded out to the Indians via a river and brook and through a pond running through ye middle of it and also bounded and marked (unknown word) the line dividing between said purchased land and other land now pertaining to the indians running through the middle of said pond. " (They seem to be stating the boundary line runs through the middle of the pond, Nathan Gold owning one side, they owning the other)

The parcel's boundaries explanation contains many references to "marked trees" which don't help us much in the present day, however, two key references are "across ye path that goeth from Poquiag (Danbury) ye English plantation down to Norwalke (Norwalk)" and "bounded southeast by with marked trees to Saugatuck River". The path from Danbury to Norwalk is Umpawaug Rd. in the present day so this parcel was likely a large rectangular running from Umpawaug Pond (half-way through it, if I'm correct on the pond they reference) on Simpaug Trpk. to the Saugatuck River width wise. The length or north-south boundaries are difficult to make out, the northern boundary was likely where Umpawaug Rd. meets Rt. 53. The southern border would be a complete guess seeing they state it is where a brook enters the Saugatuck River.

It ends: "we have laided out ye said land to Nathan and bounded it as above by said brook and river and in ye pond and we have marked trees as bounds...for the 2 square miles of land...it is to be noted said Indian proprietors do hereby reserve the liberty of hunting upon said land for themselves in witness of all which we said rightful proprietors have set to our hands and seals this 29th day of December, 1686. \

Next:

"General Assembly of this Colony grants Joseph Webb, minister of Fairfield, 200 acres where it may be had without prejudice to any former grant or the settlement of any plantation."

With the General Assembly located in Hartford, a statement like " where it may be had without prejudice to any former grant or the settlement of any plantation." could mean anywhere in the State.

One grant that is clearly in Redding is Captain John Wakeman's via a grant to his father Samuel Wakeman in May, 1673. Ironically, it ends up being next to Joseph Webb's land.

"Whereas the General Assembly of this Colony, holden at Hartford, May 8th, 1673, did give and grant to Mr. Samuel Wakeman of Fairfield, 200 acres of land; and where as upon the request of Captain John Wakeman of Fairfield, son of the said Samuel Wakeman, who is now deceased.

Mr. John Meredith, surveyor of land in the county of Fairfield, on the 8th day of April, 1709, did survey and lay out the said 200 acres of land, in one entire piece, adjoining onto or very near the northern bounds of the said town of Fairfield (Cross Highway).

Described as follows: Beginning at a small staddle (Staddle being: a base or support, especially a platform on which hay or straw is stacked.) at the southwest corner of Mr. Joseph Webb's land in the rear line of Fairfield bounds, and thence running west by south, half south, along said rear line (Fairfield Bounds), one hundred rods (16.5 ft. is a rod), to a heaps of stones, thence running north by west, half west, one mile (with 4 rods more allowed for a highway between this 200 acres and rear line of Fairfield boundary) thence east by north, half north, one hundred rods, to the northwest corner of Mr. Webb's land, and thence south by east, half east, one mile and 4 rods, along said Mr. Webb's land, onto the said staddle first mentioned.

As by the report of the said surveyor, now laid before this Assembly it doth and may appear:

Wherefore this Assembly do allow, approve and confirm the said survey of the said 200 acres of land, and the land therein mentioned and surveyed, unto the heirs of the said Samuel Wakeman, deceased, and do order that they shall have liberty to take out a patent according to law, for the same."

In the same 1711 General Assembly notes is found the 600 acres set aside for a Grammar School adjoining/near the northern bounds of Fairfield's Long Lots:

"Whereas the General Assembly of this Colony, holden at Hartford, May 9th, 1672, did give and grant unto the town of Fairfield, in the county of Fairfield, 600 acres of land, for the maintenance and support of a grammer school to be kept there; and whereas at the request of the selectmen of the said town of Fairfield, Mr. John Meredith, surveyor of land in the county of Fairfield, on the 8th day of April, 1709, did survey and lay out the said 600 acres of land, adjoining onto, or near to the northern bounds of said town of Fairfield. Described as follows:

Beginning at a certain Chestnut tree, near the road to Danbury (Black Rock Turnpike), and thence running 352 rods along the rear line of the said Fairfield bounds to a Great Red Oak tree, (which is the southeast corner of Mr. Joseph Webb's land) and thence north by west, half west, one mile (with 4 rods more allowed for a highway, between this said 600 acres, and the said rear line of the Fairfield bounds) and thence east by north, half north, or paralell with said rear line, 352 rods, and thence in a straight line to the Chestnut tree first mentioned, wherein also is included 100 acres formerly laid out for George Hull, as by the report of the said surveyor, now laid before this Assembly, it doth and may appear.

Wherefore this assembly do allow and approve the said survey of the said 600 acres of land, and do grant and confirm the same, unto the inhabitants of the said town of Fairfield for ever, to be improved in the best manner, for the use and behoof of a grammar school, to be kept in that town, and for no other use whatsoever; saving the said 100 acres included within the said survey, unto the said George Hull; and do order that the said inhabitants of Fairfield shall have the liberty to take out a patent for the same."

**Note: Reviews of the Colonial Records and Fairfield Land Records also show the following Grants [B. Colley 2007]:

• 80 acres to Richard Osborn in 1671;
• 200 acres to Thomas Hanford in 1674 (Thomas Hill acquired land in 1724);
• 200 acres to Simon Couch date unclear.
• 160 acres to John Banks date unclear. (Joseph Banks acquired land);
• 200 acres to Israel Chauncey in 1681;
• 2 Square Mile Tract (800 acres) in Umpawaug to Nathan Gold in 1686 (appears to have grown to 1,020 acres over time);
• 100 acres to Jonathan Bell in 1687 (John Edwards and Samuel Couch acquired 100 acres, plus additional 60 acres in 1712.)
• 200 acres to Cyprian Nickols in 1687 (Acquired by John Read in 1712);
• 150 acres to Dr. Isaac Hall in 1697 (this 150 acres in eastern Redding north of Church Hill Road to Isaac, Jr., Francis and John Hall via indian deed in 1709);
• 80 acres, by indian deed to Thomas Morehouse in 1689;
• 200 acres (see survey above) north of Redding Center on Webb's Ridge to Joseph Webb in 1699;
• 200 acres to Daniel Shelton in 1700 (Acquired by John Read in 1710);
• 100 acres to Richard Hubbel in 1706. (Acquired by John Read in 1711);
• 150 acres to William Hill in 1709;
• 600 acres (see survey above) east of Little River to Redding Ridge, for Fairfield School to Moses Knapp in 1718;
• 200 acres to Captain John Wakeman in Redding Center 1709.

August 1722 Captain Samuel Couch and Nathan Gold (Gold died in 1723) of Fairfield purchased the remaining land in the oblong via auction at Fairfield. Later Thomas Nash enters the picture as a land owner, purchasing some of the acreage from Couch.

*The approximate total acreage in the "oblong" is 7,600, if the totals listed above are added up they equal 3,950 acres. View a Map of the "oblong", this map give you a rough idea of the size and boundaries.

The General Court of 1712 had ordered that all the lands lying in the "oblong/peculiar" a.k.a "vacant lands" between Danbury and Fairfield, not taken up by actual settlers, should be sold in Fairfield at public venue via the "motion/petition of the settlers of Danbury" noted in the Colonial Records, May of 1712. This land, however, was not sold until the August of 1722, when it was bid off by Captain Couch for himself and Nathan Gold, Esq. (deputy Governor of Connecticut). No notice of the venue was given to the settlers at Redding, and when news of the sale reached them they became very much excited and indignant. Mr. Read at once drew up a protest/petition, which was signed by all farmers/settlers of said "oblong" and was presented to the next General Court at New Haven (1723). It is noteworthy that the Quaker system of dates was used.

General Assembly Records May, 1725:

"Upon the petition of Capt. Samuel Couch of Fairfield, showing to this Assembly that the honorable Nathan Gold and Major Peter Burr, Esqs, who were empowered by acts of this Assembly in May 8th, 1712, to sell all the country land between Fairfield and Danbury, and said gentlemen some years past did sell part of said land, and on August 22nd, 1723, sold the remainder of said land to said Couch; Assembly grants to the petitioner the land...on the condition that the money he bid for the same be immediately paid into the Colony Treasury, and that suffiecient highways in every part thereof public and private uses, as there shall be occation from time to time to be laid out by the county surveyour...; and saving always to the Indian, Chicken, what he in his deed to the petitioner hath reserved and saved to himself and his heirs."

200 acres secured by Thomas Hill in Saugatuck River area (Diamond Hill area) one mile long by 1/2 mile wide in 1723. (Later sold to Meeker Family). Not known if this transaction occurred before or after "vacant lands auction" mentioned above.

The Acquisition of land ABOVE the Fairfield Long Lots by Actual Settlers

The history of the early settlement of Redding differs from that of the neighboring towns. A new settlement was generally formed by a company of men, who purchased of the Indians a tract of land in the wilderness, had it secured to them by a charter from the General Assembly, and also surveyed and regularly laid out, and then removed to it with their wives and families.

Danbury, Newtown and Ridgefield were settled in this manner; but Redding at the time of its first settlement was not a part of any town--a fact which makes it much more difficult to collect the fragments of its early history and to accurately define its original metes and bounds.

At the time of initial settlement, between the Fairfield long lot's northern boundary (Cross Highway) and Danbury (Bethel) was an oblong tract of unoccupied land, whose bounds where about the same as those that now exist between Redding, Ridgefield, Bethel and Newtown; in the early records, this tract was called, the "oblong.'' and the “peculiar"

[To imagine the northern boundary in the present day: Old Redding Rd., Diamond Hill Rd., Great Pasture Rd., Cross Highway, and Church Hill Rd. would be the approximate northern boundary of the Fairfield long lots. Land north of these roads was the "country lands between Fairfield and Danbury" or oblong.]

This area of unoccupied land (or Vacant Land) is where initial settlers would build their homes and from where settlers would eventually petition the General Assembly to become a "Parish". It is not until the settlers of Redding were awarded "Parish Status" that Fairfield's long lots were added to the settlement. Land from Cross Highway north to the border of Danbury and Bethel was not owned by any town prior to 1729. Colonial Records simply call it the "country lands between Fairfield and Danbury".

Charles Burr Todd states that before settlers arrived the unoccupied lands were: "claimed by a petty tribe of Indians, whose fortified village was on the high ridge a short distance southwest of the residence of Mr. John Read (where Lonetown Rd. meets Putnam Park Rd.). This tribe consisted of disaffected members of the Potatucks of Newtown and the Paugussetts of Milford, with a few stragglers from the Mohawks on the west.

[By "disaffected" I take it that Charles Burr Todd was saying the "tribe of indians" residing in what we call the "Lonetown" section of Redding was made up of Native Americans from multiple tribes displaced from their homelands by English settlers making their way into the interior of Connecticut. The "oblong" or vacant lands between the northern boundary of the Fairfield Long Lots (Cross Highway) and what is now Bethel was one of the few available tracts of open space available in the area to Native Americans at this timeframe. B.Colley2007]

"Their chief was Chickens Warrups or Sam Mohawk, as he was sometimes called. Describing "Chickens", President Stiles says in his "Itinerary" that he was a Mohawk sagamore, or under-chief, who fled from his tribe and settled at Greenfield Hill, but having killed an Indian there he was again obliged to flee, and then settled in Redding. *All the Indian deeds to the early settlers were given by Chickens, and Naseco, who seems to have been a sort of sub-chief. The chief, Chickens, figures quite prominently in the early history of Redding; he seems to have been a strange mixture of Indian shrewdness, rascality, and cunning, and was in continual difficulty with the settlers concerning the deeds which he gave them."

*Not all deeds were given by Chickens and Naseco. In 1686 an Indian Deed was given to Nathan Gold for land in Umpawaug and was signed by Nascro (likely Naseco), Crekonac, Contasonahas, Mutake (could be Multeg), Wane Sunkeaway, Mamozusacke, Washaganosset, Aquetake, Iaquoshe. Indian witnesses: Sasco v Joanus, Robin, Pacomscutt, Misshasouns.

In 1709 an Indian Deed was given to Isaac Hall, Jr., Francis Hall and John Hall by seven indians: Mohaki, Coocongo, Tom, Harry, Old Multeg, Siachim, Young Multeg. The deed of 150 acres cost the Hall's 50 shillings, the land was north of Cross Highway and Church Hill to the Bethel line (Hopewell Woods/Sunset Hill). There is the possibility, that "Siachim" was Chickens' attempting to state he was the "Sachem" of the tribe but technically Chickens is not on this 1709 deed.

[Chickens is an interesting man, that unfortunately will continue to baffle me due to a lack of written records by Native Americans. He appears to have grasped the colonist's methods of obtaining land in the "interior" meaning he knew they were exchanging goods and/or money for land away from the coastal settlements. For example: In 1684, Chickens' name appears on a deed of Stratford lands, (he was living at Potatuck, in what became Newtown) and it is possible he was involved in land transactions in Ridgefield which occurred in 1708-09 (he married a Ramapo). If this is the case, Chickens can be considered the "Donald Trump" of his people, a real estate mogul, if you will. If he, in fact, signed a deed in Stratford/Newtown circa 1684, been involved in land transactions in Ridgefield circa 1708-09 (made with the Ramapo) and then moved on to Lonetown in Redding where he collected from John Read in 1711 and Samuel Couch in 1723, he certainly would/could be considered quite a Real Estate Investor by modern standards. This unfortunately is all speculation on my part and there is a good chance there was more than one Chickens Warrup.]

Fairfield Long Lots

Long lots were lands granted to individuals in long, narrow strips from the coast of Fairfield to approximately Cross Highway in Redding. The length of these lots was obviously long, the widths varied from 30.9 feet to 878.6 feet wide depending on the owner (originally). About 100 Fairfield families owned Long Lot's. To imagine the northern boundary in the present day: Old Redding Rd., Diamond Hill Rd., Great Pasture Rd., Cross Highway, and Church Hill Rd. would be the approximate northern boundary of the Fairfield long lots. The reasoning behind the Long Lots was....each individual received some hills, some valleys, some rock, some fields. It was a unique way to give individuals equal qualities of land.

Names of Oblong Settlers

John Read settled Redding sometime between 1711 and 1714. He purchased 3 land grants from 3 separate men to make up his original 500 acres in the Lonetown section of Redding. He would later add 200 more acres.

Moses Knapp settled Redding sometime between 1709 and 1714. His settlement is complicated by the methods he obtained his land...via secret handshake with his cousins. He sold land owned by his family in Fairfield in 1709, which could indicate he moved to Redding Ridge shortly afterward. More about his story will come as information becomes available.

Isaac Hall, Jr. would settle on Redding Ridge sometime between 1714 and 1720, it appears his brothers: Francis and John Hall remained in Stratford and sold their portion of the land to Moses Knapp who was their cousin.

Samuel Hall is another settler of Redding Ridge prior to 1720. Samuel is known only via a General Assembly of Connecticut request in 1720 that orders John Read and "his neighbors" to submit a "list" to said Assembly via Danbury. Read's neighbors the Assembly is aware of are: Isaac Hall, Jr., Samuel Hall, Moses Knapp. Samuel sold land in Stratford/Stratfield on Feb. 22, 1715/6, which could indicate he moved to Redding Ridge shortly afterward.

Oblong Settlers vs. Long Lot Settlers

What makes Redding's early settlement different (and down right confusing) is that it's town boundaries were expanded during it's attempts to obtain Parish Status. Parish Status meant the General Assembly of Connecticut recognized the settlement and the settlers could begin to take steps to become a Town.

Settlers were petitioning the General Assembly from the Oblong, "Vacant Land" that wasn't associated with any town. In the 1725 petition for Parish Status, Fairfield Long Lot owners state to the General Assembly that they "are willing and ready to give in two miles of our land adjoining the aforesaid Vacant Land to be within the Parish."

When Parish Status was finally granted in 1729 Redding became a recognized settlement of individuals who had made private purchases of Land Grants in the unclaimed lands above the long lots AND two miles worth of the northern portion of the long lots owned by Fairfield residents.

1625 Map of Indian Trails and Settlements in Southwestern Connecticut.

1766 Map of Southwestern Connecticut, which shows boundary of Fairfield and Ridgefield matching Sachem boundary in 1625 map of Indian settlements and trails. At this time Redding was still a parish in Fairfield's northern lands.

1685 Map of Indian Settlements in New York & Connecticut.

View additional Connecticut Map examples

Expanded Information About Redding's Early Settlement

Above I have provided a summary of Redding's early settlement, below is further information about the settlement and text from the multiple petitions for Parish Status, land deeds from Chicken Warrups, etc..

John Read and the Anglicans (Episcopalians) of Redding Ridge

John Read of Fairfield, Connecticut is credited as the first settler of the lands that would become known as Redding, Connecticut. Read's settlement coming sometime between 1711 and 1714. Although 20+ years of research by Robert Beecroft is indicating that Moses Knapp may have settled Redding Ridge just north of Cross Highway and Church Hill Rd. (256 Black Rock Trpk.) as early as 1709-10. It's an interesting topic that will be looked into further I'm sure. There is also the possibility that Nathan Gold established a farm in the Umpawaug section of town in the late 1600's. His land deed date is 1686.

Read, was born in 1679, and educated at Harvard as a Puritan-Congregationalist minister. He returned to Connecticut with a divinity degree at the age of 18 and would preach in several different towns before arriving in Stratford, Connecticut ten years later. It was in Stratford that Read made two life/career changing decisions, he *converted to the Anglican (Episcopalian/Church of England) faith and began studying for the bar.

*Read resigned as Congregational Minister of the Church on Watchhouse Hill in Stratford on March 27, 1707 after he was accused of being an Anglican by his congregation (in private) and a council of ministers from other parishes in town were gathered to examined his case. The elders recommended "the people take all suitable care to purge and vindicate Mr. Read from scurrilous and abusive reflections." (It does not appear Read pursued "Holy Orders" to become an Anglican minister.)

Read apparently vindicated himself, passed the bar, and quickly made his mark as a lawyer. He was appointed as an attorney in 1708, and it appears he gained an interest in large parcels of land soon after. Read, had several land transactions (Newtown and New Milford) under his belt by the time his focus turned to vacant land above the long lots of Fairfield. He made three separate purchases from three separate men in 1711 to secure a Colonial Grant for 500 acres of land in Redding's oblong. A year later he became the Queens Attorney for the Colony of Connecticut. And in 1714 obtained a native American Indian deed to finalize the purchase of the 500 acres of northern Fairfield land he and his family would settle.

*Read acquired an additional 200 acres from Nathan Gold and Peter Burr according to Colonial Records of 1729.

Following Read's settlement in Redding (above the long lots of Fairfield, Connecticut), other Anglican members from surrounding towns soon made their way to Redding. Most of these early Anglicans chose to reside on what is now Redding Ridge, they called it Chestnut Ridge. Redding Ridge was desirable to these early settlers because it ran along a path stretching from Danbury to Fairfield. Roadways were of obvious importance to settlers and Redding at this time had been surveyed but was not yet furnished with roads that allowed for east-west travel, even the route running north-south was merely a series of right-of-ways over rough terrain.

Given the fact that John Read was an Anglican sympathizer and the early settlers (Moses Knapp, Isaac Hall, Samuel Hall, William Hill, Daniel Crofoot) that followed him were known Anglicans, it is presumed that they hoped to establish an Anglican settlement in these vacant lands north of Fairfield's long lots and south of Danbury's boundary (Bethel). If this was in fact the case, Redding would not remain solely an Anglican settlement for long.

Samuel Couch & Nathan Gold enter the picture (Puritans/Congregationals)

In August of 1722, two devout Puritans/Congregationalists from Westport and Fairfield purchased the remaining unclaimed lands of northern Fairfield (Redding) at an unannounced auction in the town of Fairfield. This was not a well received transaction by the Anglicans, as they likely knew Samuel Couch and Nathan Gold were against the spread of the Church of England in their county. Read and his settlement petitioned in vain to have the auction negated, citing the auction "was conducted in an unseemly and illegal manner" because no notice of the venue was given to the settlers at Redding. Their request fell on deaf ears at the General Assembly (Gold was the Deputy Governor of Connecticut), and settlers with Puritan-Congregational ideals moved into their "utopia". *to-date no indications of Anglican vs. Congregationalist arguments have been uncovered by myself, Brent Colley. Best I can tell, outside of Anglicans losing their request/petition for an Anglican Minister in 1729, both groups worked and lived peacefully together.

Though petitions regarding his settlement were unsuccessful, John Read's prosperity as a lawyer continued, he served as a commissioner to settle New York and Connecticut's boundary disputes in 1719 and riding that success left Redding in 1722 for Boston, where he was elected Attorney General of Massachusetts a year later. His son remained in Redding, taking over his estate at Lonetown. His son's name was also John Read, which makes things interesting when time-lining Redding's history, but it appears John Read Sr. and Jr. worked together petitioning against the land auction and for Parish status in 1723.

Oblong Settlers Concern Over The Land Auctions in Fairfield

"At a General Court held at New Haven, 8th, 10th, 1723. "To the Honor’ble the General Court: " John Read in behalf of himself and the rest of the farmers or proprietors of farms between Danbury and Fairfield, humbly sheweth, " That the Hon'ble Nathan Gold, Esq., late deceased, and Peter Burr, Esq., as Agents for ye Colony, held a Venue lately at Fairfield about ye time of ye Superior Courts sitting yr in August last, and sold to Capt. Samuel Couch, who bid for himself and for s'd Nathan Gold, Esq., all ye land between Fairfield and Danbury not before disposed of for the sum of (Exact Sum Unknown) Yr humble pet'rs conceive the same ought not to be ratified: because ye same was done so unexpectedly, and without sufficient notice, none of us most nearly concerned knew any thing of it: if ye order of ye General Court had been freshly passed, ye less notice was need full, but lying ten or twelve years, sufficient notice was not given, and well considered it can’t be good. The inconveniences are intolerable; the place is now growing to be a village space. Ye lands purchased are but ye ------ ------(Original documents were unreadable here)over and over for farms.

" The remaining Scraps will be a very lean and scanty allowance for a common, and (are) absolutely necessary to accommodate the place with hiways, and some strips left on purpose for ye use and ye surveying of the farms--Several farms interfere through mistakes and such interfere must be supplied elsewhere; now in such circumstances it was never the hard fate of any poor place to have ye shady Rock at their door, and ye path out of town or about town sold away from them by ye General Court. Therefore, humbly praying ye Hon'ble Court to grant ye same to ye proprietors of farms there in proportion for a common and hiways, or if the same seem too much, since some persons have bid a sum for our hiways we pray to buy them at first hands, and will pay this Hon'ble Court for the same as much as ye Court shall set upon, and remain your honor's most obedient servants. "JNO. READ."

When the matter came before the Court, Mr. Read produced several witnesses to show that the venue was conducted in an unseemly and illegal manner; among them Mr. Jonathan Sturges, who deposed as following: " Some of the Company began to bid for s'd land, and some of the Company desired that Mr. Stone who was there present, would pull out his watch and that the time for bidding should be but ten minutes and the watch was laid down on the table; for a little time the people bid but slowly; but when they perceived the ten minutes to be near out, they began to bid very briskly, and when it come to the last minute the people bid more quickly, and at the last they bid so quick after one another that it was hard to distinguish whose bid it was: at the very minute the tenth minute ended; but I, standing near the watch, spoke and said, the time is out, and it's Capt. Couch's bid, but I am certain Thomas Hill bid twenty shillings more."

Mr. Read did not succeed in this attempt to have the sale set aside, and the lands were adjudged to the purchasers. Captain Couch seems to have disposed of an interest in a part of his purchase to Thomas Nash, of Fairfield, and in 1712, did order to received a joint patent-for the same: this patent is: a curious and valuable document and is given entire:

" Whereas, the Governor and Company- of the English Colony of Connecticut. in General Court assembled at Hartford, the 8th day of May. Anno Domini 1712, did order and enact that all those lands (lying within the said Colony) between Danbury on the north, and the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk on the south, should be sold at Public Venue, and by act did fully authorize and empower the Hon'ble Nathan Gold and Peter Burr, Esq., both of the town of Fairfield aforesaid to make sale and dispose of the s'd same lands accordingly...

and whereas the s'd Nathan Gold and Peter Burr in pursuance and by force and virtue of the aforesaid act did by their deed in writing, executed in due form bearing late this first day of May, Anno Domini, 1723, for a valuable sum of money paid by Samuel Couch and Thomas Nash, both of the town afores'd, Grant, sell and convey unto them the s'd Samuel Couch and Thomas Nash one hundred acres of s'd land bounded and butted as follows...

that is to say, lying within six rods of the north bounds line of the townships afores'd, and on both sides of the road that leads from Norwalk to Danbury, and lying the whole length of the one hundred acres formerly laid out to s'd Thomas Nash and bounded westerly by the s'd Thomas Nash, and from the north east corner of s'd Nash, his bound being a black oak stump that stands on the land, and a small box wood-tree marked in course, running northerly, sixty-eight degrees, eastwardly thirty two rods to a white oak staddle...

thence South forty three degrees and thirty minutes, eastwardly fifty rods to a rock, and stone oil the same, that stands on the eastward side of a brook that runs by the southerly end of Umpawaug Hill, between the s'd brook and Danbury road, and from s'd Rock to run North sixty eight degrees...

Eastwardly eighty six rods to a mass of stones, then South twenty-two degrees, Eastwardly, one hundred and thirteen rods to a white oak saplings, marked, standing on the aforementioned North bounds line of Fairfield, then by s'd line one Hundred and forty rods up to the South East corner of s'd Nash, his one hundred acres, Danbury road being allowed in above measure of six rods wide, and the hiway by the Township's line of six rods wide, and whereas the s'd Samuel Couch, and Thomas Nash, have humbly desired that they may have a particular grant of s'd Governor and Company made (by Patent) unto them, their heirs and assigns for the same land hounded, butted and described, under the seal of the s'd Colony,

know ye therefore, that the Governor and Company of the s'd Colony, in pursuance, and by virtue of the powers granted unto them by our late Sovereign Lord, King Charles the Second of blessed memory, in, and by his Majestie's letters patent under the great seal of England bearing date the three and twentieth day of April, in the fourteenth year of his s'd Majestie's Reign, have given and granted, and by these presents, for them their heirs and successors do give grant, ratify, and confirm unto them the s'd Samuel Couch and Thomas Nash, their heirs and assigns forever, all the s'd piece or parcel of land containing one hundred acres be the same more or less, butted and bounded as afores'd, and all and singular, the woods, timber, under woods, lands, waters, brooks, ponds.

Fishing, fowlings, mines, minerals and precious stones, upon or within the s'd piece or parcel of land or every or any part thereof. To have and to hold the as afores'd, and all and singular, the rights, members, hereditaments and appurtenances of the same, and the reversion or reversions, remainder or remainders, profits, privileges whatsoever, of and in the s'd piece or parcel of land or every or any-part thereof. To have and to hold the s'd one hundred acres of land hereby granted with all and singular, its appurtenances unto them the s'd Samuel Couch and Thomas Nash, their heirs and assigns to and for their own proper use, benefit, and behoof from the day of the date hereof, and from time to time, and at all times forever hereafter, as a good, sure, lawful; absolute, indefeasible estate of Inheritance in Fee simple, without any condition, limitation, use, or other thing to alter, change, or make void the same.

To be holden of our Sovereign Lord, King George, his heirs and successors, as of his Majestie's Manor of East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, in the Kingdom of England, in free and common soccage and not in cappitee, nor by Knight service; they yielding and paying therefor to our Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs and successors forever, only the fifth part of all the oar of Gold and Silver, which from time to time, and at all times hereafter shall be gotten, had or otherwise obtained; in lieu of all rents, services, duties and demands whatsoever according to charter. In witness whereof, we the s'd Governor and Company have caused the Seal of the s'd Colony to be hereunto affixed, the fourteenth day of May, Anno George, Magna Brittanniae, &c., Annoque Domini, 1723. (May 14, 1723)
G. Saltonstall, Governor "By order of the Governor, Hezekiah Wyllys, Secretary.”

General Assembly Records May, 1725:

"Upon the petition of Capt. Samuel Couch of Fairfield, showing to this Assembly that the honorable Nathan Gold and Major Peter Burr, Esqs, who were empowered by acts of this Assembly in May 8th, 1712, to sell all the country land between Fairfield and Danbury, and said gentlemen some years past did sell part of said land, and on August 22nd, 1723, sold the remainder of said land to said Couch; Assembly grants to the petitioner the land...on the condition that the money he bid for the same be immediately paid into the Colony Treasury, and that suffiecient highways in every part thereof public and private uses, as there shall be occation from time to time to be laid out by the county surveyour...; and saving always to the Indian, Chicken, what he in his deed to the petitioner hath reserved and saved to himself and his heirs."

Chicken Warrup Sells Lonetown Land to Couch

Securing his auction purchases via Indian Deed, Captain Couch purchased, of the Indians, the tract of land lying in Lonetown contiguous to the estate of Mr. John Read. The deed was given by Chickens, and some of its provisions caused considerable trouble to the colonists in later years. The deed is as follows:

“Know all men whom it may concern that I Chicken an Indian Saggamore living between Fairfield, Danbury, Ridgefield and Newtown, at a place called Lonetown in the county of Fairfield in the Colony of Connecticut, in New England, for and in consideration of twelve pounds, six shillings, already paid unto me by Samuel Couch of Fairfield.

Husbandman, have given, granted, bargained, sold, confirmed, and firmly made over unto said Samuel Couch, his heirs and assigns forever, all the lands (Chickens was under the impression the sale was for 200-300 acres not all the lands), lying, being and situate between the aforesaid towns of Danbury, Fairfield, Newtown, and Ridgefield, except that has been by letters patent from the Governor and Company of this Colony of Connecticut made over unto any person or persons or for any particular or public use.

To have and to hold unto the said Samuel Couch, and to his heirs and assigns forever the aforesaid granted and described lands or unpatented premises, with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, or any manner of way appertaining, affirming myself to be the true owner, and sole proprietor of said land and have lust, firm, and only right to dispose of the same.

(According to C. B. Todd: a few years later Couch sold this land to John Read)

*Provision that would be ignored and anger Chickens:

Reserving in the whole of the same, liberty for myself and my heirs to hunt, fish, and fowl upon the land and in the waters, and further reserving for myself, my children, and grand children and their posterity the use of so much land by my present dwelling house or wigwam as the General Assembly of the Colony by themselves or a Committee indifferently appointed shall judge necessary for my or their personal improvement, that is to say my children, children’s children and posterity, furthermore, I the said Chickens do covenant, promise, and agree, to and with the said Samuel Couch, that I said Chickens, my heirs, executors and administrators, the said described lands and bargained premises, unto the said Samuel Couch his heirs etc. against the claims and demands of all manner of persons whatever, to warrant and forever by these presents defend.

In confirmation of the above premises I the said Chickens set to my hand and seal this 18th day of February Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and twenty four five Annoque Regis, etc." (Feb. 18, 1724)
CHICKENS, X (His mark) Saggamtore

Sale Causes Further Concern and Plea to General Court

The proprietors of Redding could not long rest with the sale that had placed, in the hands of two men, nearly all the unoccupied lands lying in the "peculiar," and in 1725 made a second and, so far as appears, unsuccessful attempt to reverse the former decision of the Court. Chickens too was angered to find the deed he signed was for more land than he intended to sell. This attempt took the shape of a petition, and was as follows:

" To the Honorable the General Court to be holden at Hartford on the Second Thursday of May,1725.

THE EARNEST PRAYER: Of the inhabitants, and of those that have farms in a certain tract of land lying between Fairfield and Danbury, Newtown and Richfield, with whom the Proprietory of a certain division of Land in Fairfield importunately joins--

" Whereas the Honorable General Assembly of this Colony hath in several of their Sessions, been pleased out of their great goodness & generosity to give unto some of your humble Petitioners & to others of them to sell certain Parcels of Land between the aforesaid towns & many of your Petitioners that they might get a comfortable maintenance & thereby be better able to serve their country have removed from their former habitations with great families of Children unto sd Land where we by ye blessing of God on our Industry have (passed) through (the) many difficulties that generally attend such new & Wooden Habitations and have now yet to go through, which are by us insuperable--but reflecting upon your Honor's accustomed Goodness, ready protection, and willing encouragement towards all such that have been under ye like circumstances as we now are, makes us far from despairing of Living like rational Creatures and Christians in a very few years, and under our present Circumstances we have often the neighboring Ministers preaching ye word of God to us, and when your Honors shall be pleased to grant this our earnest & necessary request our number of Inhabitants will immediately be greatly renewed & we soon able to obtain a Minister & give him an honorable support-- and that is to grant the vacant land that lies in slips and pieces between ye Land already given and sold to your Petitioners to ye for a perpetual Common for ye good of ye parish:

Otherwise your poor Petitioners living at a great distance from any place where the public worship of God is attended, must be obliged and their posterity after them to be soon as the Hathen are without the outward and ordinary means of Salvation, the thought of which makes us now most impostantly address your Honors with this our request making no doubt but yt ye desire your honors have and the great care you have always taken to promote and encourage Religion will also now be moved to grant your poor Petitioners their request, it being no more than your Honors have often done even unto every new plantation, many of which are not nor never will be comparable unto this.

Your Honors, granting us this our request, and it will be as we humbly conceive the most profitable way for ye good of this Colony to dispose of ye land for a perpetual comon, for ye  good of a parish than any other way whatsoever: for a flourishing and large parish such as we are assured this will make will soon pay more into ye Public Treasury than the whole of the land would do if it were now to be sold: and not only so, but your poor petitioners and their posterity preserved from Heathenism and Infidelity:

For if your Honors should not grant the land for a common for the good of a parish your poor petitioners-the most of us are at least, must be shut within the compass of our own land and cant possibly get off unless we trespass, or gain the shift yt the birds of the air have, neither to market nor meeting and we and our posterity forever unable to have a settled Minister and your Honors may easily conceive how greatly disadvantageous to our Temporal Interest, which is so great an act of cruelty and hardship that never yet was experienced from your Honors and your petitioners humbly beg they may not: but yt they may be sharers with their neighbors in your Honor's thoughtful care and regard for them-

and if your Honors in their Prudence and Wisdom shall think it best to sell the aforesaid land your petitioners humbly beg that they may have the first offer of it, who are always ready to give as much as any shall or will let it lye for a perpetual Common and your humble petitioners beg and most earnestly desire the land may not be sold from their doors or confirmed to any yt pretend they have bought it: for whatever pretended sale there has been made thereof already we humbly conceive that it was not with the proper Power and Legality that it ought to be confirmed: and as for its purchase of the Indian (who both English and Indian acknowledge) has a good Indian title to it viz.

Chickens, is by what we can learn by the Indian himself and ye circumstances of, a slight piece of policy and we fear deceit, ye latter of which the Indian constantly affirms it to be, for his design as he saith, and being well acquainted with him, living many of us near him have a great reason to believe him, was to sell but a small quantity, about two or three hundred acres, but in ye deed ye whole of the land is comprehended, which when the Indian heard of it he was greatly enraged, and your petitioners humbly beg yt such a sale may not be confirmed, lest it prove greatly disadvantageous to this Colony and cause much bloodshed, as instances of ye like nature have in all probability in our neighboring provinces-

Your petitioners most earnestly and heartily beg that your Honors would think on them and grant them their request and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray-

John Read, Thomas Williams, Stephen Morehouse, Benjamin Hambleton, Benjamin Franklin, Moses Knapp, Nathan Lyon, Benajah Hall, Will'm Hill, Dan'll Crofoot, Ebenezer Hull, Asa Hall, Joseph Meeker, Dan'l Lyon, Thomas Hill, George Hull.

And we, ye proprietors of a certain division of land in Fairfield called ye Longlots most heartily join with your Honor's above petitioners in their needful request to you, and as we your humble petitioners being well acquainted with the circumstances of them-they being our children, friends, neighbors and concerned greatly for their welfare do earnestly beg that your Honors would consider how melancholy a thing it is, that these poor people should live destitute of the means of grace for want only of your small encouragement which to give them would not only be most certainly very pleasing to Almighty God but would likewise enrich this Colony if a large and rich parish will any ways contribute thereto and as your petitioners land runs to and adjoyns to ye aforesaid Vacant Land, we for the good of a Parish, thereby to advantage your above poor petitioners are willing and very ready to give in two miles of our land adjoining to the aforesaid Vacant Land to be within the Parish;

and are assured if your Honors would grant the afores'd Land to be for a Comon there soon would be a flourishing Parish; and being so well acquainted with the circumstances of the above petitioners that we cant but earnestly and pathetically entreat your Honors to grant their request and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray:"

Signed:

Moses Dimon, John Hide, Tho. Hill, Cornelius Hull, Elizabeth Burr, Jona Sturgis, John Smith, Thad's Burr, Andrew Burr, Samuel Wakeman, Samuel Squires, Ezekiel Sanford, Robert Turney, Jr., Joseph Wilson, John Wheeler, John Sturges, Joseph Wheeler, Thomas Sanford, John Morehouse, Joseph Rowland, William Hill, Nathan Gold, John Gold, Robert Silliman, Daniel Morehouse.

About the 1725 Petition

From 1723 to 1725, settlement in Redding had increased, and settlers were petitioning the General Court at Hartford in May of 1725 for Parish Status and assistance in providing for a Common and better means of travel within their settlement, in addition, to pleading to have the auction sales negated.

At this time, Redding was truly divided into two parts: the Anglicans occupying the lands above the Fairfield Long Lots and Puritan-Congregationalists occupying the actual Long Lots. While it is difficult to state with certainty that both groups co-existed in perfect harmony, there is evidence of cordial behavior on the part of the Congregationalists in the 1725 petition.

Twenty-five Long lots owners signed the northern settler's petition after adding:

"We, proprietors of a certain Division of Land in Fairfield, ye Long Lots, most heartily join with your Honor's above petitioners in their needful request to you and…being well acquainted with the circumstances of them - they being our Children, Friends and Neighbors - we are concerned greatly for their welfare and do earnestly beg that your Honors would consider…for the good of a Parish…to grant their request."

They also state that they "are willing and ready to give in two miles of our land adjoining the aforesaid Vacant Land to be within the Parish."

While the General Court did not grant the petitioners all that they desired, they did re-survey the cross highway at the rear of the Fairfield Long Lots which allowed for east-to-west travel and improved the upright highways between the Long Lots which allowed for better north-to-south travel in and around Redding and likely increased Redding's population.

Anglicans & Congregationalists Win Fight for Parish Status Together

Redding (then spelled Reading) did finally receive Parish status in 1729, by then a slightly larger number of Congregationalists had settled along side the Anglicans. I say "slightly larger" because at the very first meeting of the Parish Society of Redding, Anglicans "Moses Knapp, Nathan Lion (Lyon), and Daniel Crofoot" objected against the hiring of any other than a minister of the Church of England. Their objection or "proposal to hire an Episcopal minister" was over ruled by a vote of the people. It was voted that a meeting house would built "for the worship of God in the Presbyterian (Congregational) way." Indicating Congregational voters out numbered Anglican voters. While it is difficult to state with certainty that both groups co-existed in perfect harmony (in this time period), there is evidence of cordial behavior on the part of the Congregationalists as they anticipated the completion of their church building:

On February 23rd, 1731, a statement was issued that read "all those persons that inhabit or hereafter may inhabit in this parish, which profess themselves to be of the Church of England, shall have free liberty to come into this meeting house and attend the public worship of God according to the articles of Divines at Saybrook, and established by the laws of this Government…"

It's safe to say the Anglicans graciously declined the offer. In March of 1732, they wrote a letter of their own, not to the Congregationalists but to the Bishop of London. It began: "We, the subscribers, members of the Church of England, in Reading (Redding) and Newtown, within the County of Fairfield and Colony of Connecticut… " and continued to request the services of Rev. John Beach in Redding following his return from England where he was to receive his Holy Orders "…if the honorable Society shall think proper." The request was granted and John Beach became their first rector in November of 1732.

Like Redding's founder, John Read, the Reverend John Beach was also a Congregational minister that converted to the Anglican faith. His decision was made just a year prior to coming to Redding on the basis that "The Presbyterian and Congregational discipline was an 'unscriptural method of organizing and governing congregations…'" in comparison, he felt the Church of England was 'Apostolic in her ministry and discipline, Orthodox in her doctrine, and Primitive in her worship.'"

Anything you can do...I can do better

Thus, the Congregational/Anglican theme in Redding continued to develop:

• John Read, Sr., converts to the Anglican faith, comes to Redding
• Other Anglicans soon followed
• Congregationalists purchase lands in Redding
• Other Congregationalists soon followed
• Redding becomes a Parish
• By a vote of the people, Congregational meeting house will be built in Redding Center
• Congregational meeting house erected
• Anglicans make a plea to the Bishop of London for services
• John Beach, newly converted to the Anglican faith, comes to Redding
• Anglican meeting house erected on Redding Ridge

The old adage: "Anything you can do, I can do better" comes to mind when mapping Redding's history in this fashion. Records of two companies of militia in Redding- One commanded by members of the Congregational society at Redding Center, the other commanded by officers of the Anglican society at Redding Ridge as early as 1755, raise an eyebrow but in actuality these militias were formed in response to the French/Indian War not disagreements between Congregationalists and Anglicans. There are no indications of heated conflicts between the religious groups until the Revolutionary period.

Map of Redding in 1758. At this time it was still a Parish of Fairfield.

Early Settlers

The earliest settlers located their houses on the three fertile ridges that now form the most striking as well as beautiful features of our landscape. The valleys were avoided, as being literally in the shadow of death from the miasms (diseases, insects) which they engendered; the hills, according to the early writers, were open, dry, and fertile, land, being comparatively healthful, were in almost all cases selected as sites for the infant settlements.

At that day the hills, like the valleys, were covered with continuous forests of oak, chestnut, hickory, and other native woods, from which every autumn the Indians removed the underbrush by burning so that they assumed the appearance of natural parks: Indian paths wound through the forest, often selected with so much engineering skill as to be followed later by the Highways of the settlers. There were "long-drawn aisles and fretted vaults" in these verdant temples, nooks of outlook, and open, sunny glades, which were covered with tufts of long coarse grass; groves of chestnut and hickory afforded shelter to whole colonies of squirrels--black, Grey, and red. Other game was abundant. Deer, wild turkeys, water fowl, quail, partridges, an occasional bear, and, in the autumn, immense hocks of wild pigeons darkened the air with their numbers. Panthers were seen rarely; wolves were' abundant, and the otter and beaver fished and built in the rivers. Both tradition and the written accounts agree in ascribing to the rivers an abundance of fish: Little River is especially mentioned as being the favorite home of the trout, and tradition asserts that scarcely four generations ago they were so abundant in that stream that the Indian boys would scoop them up in the shallows with their hands according to tradition.

John Read (Lonetown), Isaac Hall, Jr. (Redding Ridge), Samuel Hall (Redding Ridge), Moses Knapp (Redding Ridge) are the settlers known prior to 1720.

Between 1720 and 1725 more settlers flocked from Stratford, Fairfield, Westport and Norwalk; several families moved here from Ridgefield and Danbury too. It is not, however, until 1723 that we get any authentic record of the names of the inhabitants or of their entire number.

Nathan Picket, Gershom Morehouse, John Hall, Francis Hill, Robert Chauncey, Wolcott Chauncey, Daniel -(Illegible), William Hill, Jr., Phillip Judd, Nathan Adams, Stephen Morehouse, Benjamin Fayerweather, Thomas Bailey, Thomas Williams, Asa Hall, Joshua Hull, David Crofut, Jno. Read, Isaiah Hull, Moses Knapp, Benjamin Sturges, Sam’l Hall, John Read, 2d, Burgess Hall, Isaac Hall.

In 1725 petition we have the names of settlers above the Long Lots:

John Read, Thomas Williams, Stephen Morehouse, Benjamin Hambleton, Benjamin Franklin, Moses Knapp, Nathan Lyon, Benajah Hall, Will'm Hill, Dan'll Crofoot, Ebenezer Hull, Asa Hall, Joseph Meeker, Dan'l Lyon, Thomas Hill, George Hull.

And the long lot owners/settlers:

Moses Dimon, John Hide, Tho. Hill, Cornelius Hull, Elizabeth Burr, Jona Sturgis, John Smith, Thad's Burr, Andrew Burr, Samuel Wakeman, Samuel Squires, Ezekiel Sanford, Robert Turney, Jr., Joseph Wilson, John Wheeler, John Sturges, Joseph Wheeler, Thomas Sanford, John Morehouse, Joseph Rowland, William Hill, Nathan Gold, John Gold, Robert Silliman, Daniel Morehouse.

The settlement of Georgetown seems to have been begun at about the same time as the other portions of the town. The first settlers in that section seem to have been Benjamin and Isaac Rumsey, one of whom lived in a house that stood in the old orchard east of Aaron Osborne's (Meadow Ridge Hillside), and the other near the site of the present homestead of Mr. S. M. Main (Across from Brookside Lane). As early as 1721 Robert Rumsey, of Fairfield, bought of John Applegate a large tract of land located in what is now the village of Georgetown. In 1724 he willed this land to his three sons, Benjamin, Isaac, and Robert. Benjamin and Isaac were actual settlers on this tract, and the former's estate was inventoried and distributed in 1744.

As roads in and around Redding improved more settlers came to Redding.

Chicken Warrup and his Native American Indian counterparts

First Encounters: ..." It was claimed by a petty tribe of Indians, whose fortified village was on the high ridge a short distance southwest of the present residence of Mr. John Read." This tribe consisted of disaffected members of the Potatucks of Newtown and the Paugussetts of Milford, with a few stragglers from the Mohawks on the west. Their chief was Chickens Warrups or Sam Mohawk, as he was sometimes called. President Stiles says in his "Itinerary" that he was a Mohawk sagamore, or under-chief, who fled from his tribe and settled at Greenfield Hill, but having killed an Indian there he was again obliged to flee, and then settled in Redding. All the Indian deeds to the early settlers were given by Chickens, and Naseco, who seems to have been a sort of sub-chief. The chief, Chickens, figures quite prominently in the early history of Redding; he seems to have been a strange mixture of Indian shrewdness, rascality, and cunning, and was in continual difficulty with the settlers concerning the deeds which he gave them.

Exchange of Wampum Causes Alarm:...In 1720 he was suspected by the colonists of an attempt to bring the Mohawks and other western tribes down upon them, as is proved by the following curious extract from the records of a meeting of the governor and council held at New Haven, September 15th, 1720.

It having been represented to this board that an Indian living near Danbury, called Chickens, has lately received two belts of wampumpeag from certain remote Indians--as it is said, to the west of Hudson River with a message expressing their desire to come and live in this colony, which said messenger is to be conducted by aforesaid Chickens to the Indians at Potatuck, and Wiantenuck, and Poquannuck, in order to obtain their consent for their coming and inhabiting among them; and that hereupon our frontier towns are under considerable apprehensions of danger from Indians, fearing that the belts have been sent on some bad design:

“It is resolved, That Captain John Sherman, of Woodbury, and Major John Burr, of Fairfield, taking with them Thomas Minor, of Woodbury or such other interpreter as they shall judge meet, do repair immediately to said Indians at Potatuck and Wiantenuck, and cause the said Chickens, to whom the belts and messengers were sent, to attend them, and to make the best inquiry they call into the truth of said story, and what may be the danger of said message. and as they shall see cause, take proper order that the said Indian with the belts, and the principal or chief of the Potatuck and Wiantenuck Indians, attend the General Court at its next session, to receive such orders as may be useful to direct them in their behavior in relation thereunto; and that Major Burr return home by way of Danbury, that the inhabitants there and in those western parts may be quieted as to their apprehensions of danger from the Indians; if upon inquiry they find there is no just ground for them."

Deeds from Chickens:...Subsequently Captain Couch purchased of the Indians a tract of land lying in Lonetown, contiguous to the estate of Mr. John Read, and which a few years later he sold to that gentleman. The deed was given by Chickens, and some of its provisions caused considerable trouble to the colonists in later years. This deed is as follows: “Know all men whom it may concern that I Chicken an Indian Saggamore living between Fairfield, Danbury, Ridgefield and Newtown, at a place called Lonetown in the county of Fairfield in the Colony of Connecticut, in New England, for and in consideration of twelve pounds, six shillings, already paid unto me by Samuel Couch of Fairfield. husbandman, have given, granted, bargained, sold, confirmed, and firmly made over unto said Samuel Couch, his heirs and assigns forever, all the lands, lying, being and situate between the aforesaid towns of Danbury, Fairfield, Newtown, and Ridgefield, except that has been by letters patent from the Governor and Company of this Colony of Connecticut made over unto any person or persons or for any particular or public use. To have and to hold unto the said Samuel Couch, and to his heirs and assigns forever the aforesaid granted and described lands or unpatented premises, with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, or any manner of way appertaining, affirming myself to be the true owner, and sole proprietor of said land and have lust, firm, and only right to dispose of the same. Reserving in the whole of the same, liberty for myself and my heirs to hunt, fish, and fowl upon the land and in the waters, and further reserving for myself, my children, and grand children and their posterity the use of so much land by my present dwelling house or wigwam as the General Assembly of the Colony by themselves or a Committee indifferently appointed shall judge necessary for my or their personal improvement, that is to say my children, children’s children and posterity, furthermore, I the said Chickens do covenant, promise, and agree, to and with the said Samuel Couch, that I said Chickens, my heirs, executors and administrators, the said described lands and bargained premises, unto the said Samuel Couch his heirs etc. against the claims and demands of all manner of persons whatever, to warrant and forever by these presents defend. In confirmation of the above premises I the said Chickens set to my hand and seal this 18th day of February Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and twenty four five (between 1724 & 1725) Annoque Regis, etc."
CHICKENS, X (His mark) Saggamtore

Respect Settlers had for Chickens:...it ought to be confirmed: and as for its purchase of the Indian (who both English and Indian acknowledge) has a good Indian title to it viz. Chickens, is by what we can learn by the Indian himself and ye circumstances of, a sligh piece of policy and we fear deceit, ye latter of which the Indian constantly affirms it to be, for his design as he saith, and being well acquainted with him, living many of us near him have a great reason to believe him, was to sell but a small quantity, about two or three hundred acres, but in ye deed ye whole of the land is comprehended, which when the Indian heard of it he was greatly enraged, and your petitioners humbly beg yt such a sale may not be confirmed, lest it prove greatly disadvantageous to this Colony and cause much bloodshed, as instances of ye like nature have in all probability in our neighboring provinces-

Ongoing Troubles with Chickens Lead to His Shipment to Scattacook:...The next Assembly of 1767 passed the long-desired act of incorporation it will be noticed that nothing is said in the records concerning the tribe of Indians inhabiting the parish, but from other sources we learn that quite important changes·had taken place among them. “Their chief, Chickens, after causing the settlers no little trouble concerning the deeds which he had given them, had been induced in 1749 to remove with most of his tribe to Scattacook in New Milford, and there were now but a few scattered families remaining in the town.

No less than three petitions of Chickens, complaining of the injustice of the settlers, are preserved in the Colonial Records. The first, presented to the General Court of May, 1738, asked that in accordance with the provisions of his deed to Samuel Couch in 1725, the Assembly would appoint a committee to lay out to him, his children, children's children, and their posterity, so much land near his wigwam as they should deem necessary for his and their personal improvement; and the Assembly appointed such a committee.

No report of the action of this committee is preserved in the archives; but ten years later, in 1745, Chickens again petitioned the Assembly to appoint a committee to view his lands for the same purpose, and the Assembly appointed such a committee “to repair to and deed of conveyance, with the savings and reservations therein contained, to survey and by proper meets and bounds set out for, and to the use of the memorialist and his children, such and so much of said lands as they shall be of opinion-(on hearing all parties or persons therein concerned) ought to be allowed and set out to said memorialist and his children.

The third and last memorial, and is given in full. “The memorial of Capt. Chicken alias Sam. Mohawk of Reading in Fairfield County, showing to this Assembly that in his deed formerly made to Capt. Samuel Couch, late of Fairfield, deceased, of his land lying between the township of said Fairfield, and Danbury, Ridgefield, and Newtown, he had reserved to himself so much of said land as a committee, appointed by this Assembly, should judge be sufficient for himself, his children and posterity, for their personal improvement, which said reserve has since been set out by proper meets and bounds in two pieces, containing in the whole about one hundred acres as per the surveys thereof may appear, reference thereunto being had: and showing also that John Read, Esq. Late of Boston deceased, had surveyed., and laid out to him two hundred acres of land by the appointment of this Assembly, at a place called Scattacook bounded as in the survey thereof on record: and also showing that the land aforesaid, laid out to the said John Read. Esq., is much more convenient and advantageous for him, the said Chickens, being well situated for fishing and hunting, and that he had made and executed a deed of exchange of his aforesaid hundred acres, lying in two pieces as aforesaid in the parish of Reading to the said John Read, Esq. and his heirs, which said deed bears date October 11th, A.D. 1748, and in consideration thereof did receive of the said John Read, Esq. A deed bearing date the day aforesaid well executed to him the said Chicken and his heirs by his heirs by his attorney John Read, Esq. of said Reading, being fully authorized thereunto, of the aforesaid two hundred acres; praying this Assembly that said deeds, executed as aforesaid, may be allowed of ratified, and be admitted as good evidence in the law for conveying and fixing the title to the several pieces of land aforesaid.” This petition the Assembly granted, and Chickens and his tribe soon after removed to the reservation at Scattacook. His grandson, Tom Warrup, however, remained in Redding, as will be more fully related.

Chickens did have a case as this provision was in the deed to Couch. BColley2005:

"Reserving in the whole of the same, liberty for myself and my heirs to hunt, fish, and fowl upon the land and in the waters, and further reserving for myself, my children, and grand children and their posterity the use of so much land by my present dwelling house or wigwam as the General Assembly of the Colony by themselves or a Committee indifferently appointed shall judge necessary for my or their personal improvement, that is to say my children, children’s children and posterity, furthermore, I the said Chickens do covenant, promise, and agree, to and with the said Samuel Couch, that I said Chickens, my heirs, executors and administrators, the said described lands and bargained premises, unto the said Samuel Couch his heirs etc. against the claims and demands of all manner of persons whatever, to warrant and forever by these presents defend. "

John Read #2 took back Warrups' Scatacook land when Chickens returned and died in Redding.

October 1763

Upon the memorial of John Read of Fairfield, representing to this Assembly that one Warrups Chickens, an indian at Reading parish within said Fairfield, was taken sick in the beginning of December 1762, under distressing circumstances applied himself to said Read for assistance, doctors, etc...who at the request of said Warrups procured doctors and supplied him with provisions until his death, all to the amount of 11 pounds, 11 shilling, 5 d money, the said Warrups leaving no personal estate wherewith to satisfy said sum etc.., praying that so much of the said Warrups farm at Scatacock may be sold as is sufficient to pay sum and the incident charges arising on such sale, as per memorial on file.

Resolved: That Ephraim Hubbel, Esq. of New Fairfield have liberty, and liberty and authority is hereby granted to him, to sell so much of Warrups farm at Scatacook as shall be sufficient to pay and answer said sum of 11 pounds, 11 shillings, 5 d and incident charges arising on such sale, for the use and benefit of said Read; the same to be paid over to said Read by Hubbel.[So much for goodwill to fellow man!!]

The Adventures of Tom Warrup:...Tom Warrup, an Indian, son of the chief Chickens, whose story is given in the earlier pages of this work, and one of Putnam's most valued scouts and messengers. Tom possessed a great deal of individuality, and impressed himself on a succeeding, generation to the extent that numberless anecdotes are remembered and told about him to this day.

Some of these, illustrating the Indian character, are worthy the attention of the grave historian. Tom had a weakness for liquor, which would have caused his expulsion from the camp had it not been for his services as scout and guide. One day he was seen deplorably drunk, and the officer of the day in disgust ordered him to be ridden out of the camp. A stout rail was brought, Tom was placed astride of it, four men hoisted it upon their shoulders, and the cavalcade started. On their way they met General Putnam with his aids, making the rounds of the camp. "Tom," said the General sternly, "how's this?Aren't you ashamed to be seen riding out of camp in this way ?" “Yes," replied Tom, with drunken gravity. " Tom is ashamed, vera mooch ashamed, to see poor Indian ride and the Gineral he go afoot."

Tom's House: Tom had a house on the high ridge back of Captain Isaac Hamilton's, now owned by William Sherwood. It was built, it is said, in primitive Indian style, of poles set firmly in the ground, then bent and fastened together at the top. This framework was covered with bark, and roofed with reeds and rushes. Its furniture consisted of framework bedsteads, with bedding of skins, wooden bowls fashioned from pepperage knots, huge wooden spoons, baskets made of rushes or long grass, pails of birch bark, and an iron pot and skillet begged or borrowed from the settlers. His sister Eunice was his housekeeper.

Master of Revels: Except in war he was a worthless, shiftless fellow, and lived chiefly by begging; hunting and trapping were his recreations. He would often absent himself from his hut for weeks at a time, sleeping in barns or in the forest. A huge overhanging rock about a mile north of Georgetown often sheltered him on these occasions, and is still known as Warrup's rock. Tom's neighbor and landlord before the war was Colonel John Read, son of the early settler of that name. On one occasion the colonel had a company of gentlemen from Boston to visit him, and planned a grand hunt in their honor. Tom was always master of the revels at such times, and piloted the party on this occasion. In their rambles through the forests they came to a spring, and beings thirsty one of the party lamented that they had left their hunting cups behind. Tom at once slipped off his shoe, and filling it with water offered it to the guest to drink; whereupon Colonel Read reproved him sharply for his ill-breeding. Tom drank from the vessel while the homily was being delivered and then replaced the shoe, observing with the haughtiness of a king, " Good enough for Indian, good enough for white man too."

Life with Zalmon: After the war Captain Zalmon Read and Tom were near neighbors, and the former had a cornfield in dangerous proximity to Tom's cabin; he missed the corn and suspected Tom, and watching, not only discovered him to be the thief, but also his ingenious plan of procedure. About midnight the Indian would come, basket in hand, and seated on the top mil of the fence would thus address the field: "Lot, can Tom have some corn?” Tom," the lot would reply, " take all you want ;" whereupon Tom would fill his basket with ears and march off. The next night, as the story goes, the Captain armed himself with a grievous hickory club, and lay in wait behind the fence. Presently Tom came, repeated his formula, and proceeded to fill his basket, but when he returned with it to the fence, it was occupied by the captain, who proceeded to re peat Tom's formula with a, variation. " Lot, can I beat Tom ?'' " Yes," the lot replied," beat him all he deserves;” whereupon the fun-loving captain fell upon the culprit and gave him the thorough beating which his roguery deserved.

Rum, Whiskey or Cider?: One more anecdote of Tom must suffice. One day he went to a neighbor's house and demanded whiskey. No, the neighbor was of the opinion that whiskey was bad for Tom. "Rum, then" "No." “Cider,” No, cider was bad too; food he might have to keep him from starving, but no fire-water." Tom ruminated. ." Well,)' said he at length, " give me toast and cider"-a favorite dish in those days--and in this way won the desired stimulant. Some years after, when age was creeping on, Tom and his sister removed to the Indian reservation at Scattacook, in Kent, whither his tribe had preceded him, and the time and manner of his death was unknown to his white brethren in Redding.

Clues to How Chickens Obtained Land in Redding

After 1637 English settlement had extended down the coast of Long Island Sound, taking land from the Paugussett and Peaquanock at the mouth of the Housatonic and southern lands from the Siwanogs to the boundary of New York. By 1658 the settlements at Fairfield and Stratford had taken so much land, the Peaquanock petitioned the General Court at Hartford to set aside some land for them alone before the colonists took it all. The following year Connecticut created Golden Hill in Bridgeport, the first Indian reservation in the United States.

With the exception a few Podunk warriors, the Mattabesic took no part in the general uprising in Massachusetts and Rhode Island known as the King Philip's War (1675-76). Many of the southern New England tribes disappeared entirely or left the region as a result of this conflict. By 1680 there were only 1,000 Mattabesic left in Connecticut, at least half of whom were members of the Housatonic tribes (Paugussett, Peaquanock, Potatuck, and Weantinock). As white encroachment continued, the General Court in 1680 established two additional 100 acre reservations for the Paugussett: Coram Hill (Shelton) and Turkey Hill (Orange). In addition to the three small reserves, several mixed Mattabesic communities, such as the Paugussett village at Naugatuck and Tunxis settlement at Farmington, were still managing to maintain themselves on a rapidly shrinking land base. Only the Weantinock and Potatuck in extreme west and northwest portion of Connecticut had retained anything approaching their original territory. However, even these small holdings quickly slipped away and passed into white ownership.

During the next century, almost all of the Mattabesic lands in Connecticut would either sold or taken over by the state - in many cases without native knowledge or consent. Even when the transfers were legal, the circumstances were often questionable since the native signatures appearing on the deeds show a clear pattern of increasingly sloppy signatures and the probable use of alcohol. Located near the English settlements at the mouth of the Housatonic, the Pequannock and Paugussett were the first to feel the pressure.

Between 1680 and 1750, a combination of fraud, harassment, and encroachment forced many of the native families at the Golden Hill reservation to leave. Some moved north to the native settlement of Lonetown near Redding. And in 1748 the Peaquanock at Lonetown (Chickens & Co.) exchanged the last of their lands at Redding for 200 acres bordering Schaghticoke in Kent, CT.

It is not known how exactly Chicken obtained the land in Redding. In 1684, Chicken signed a deed of Stratford lands, and it states he then was living at Potatuck, in what became Newtown. Chicken was not a signer of a 1686 deed to Nathan Gold in Umpawaug. Perhaps after his marriage to the daughter of Catoona, they removed from the Ramapo lands(Ridgefield) to Potatcuck (Newtown) which was then part of Stratford until settlers arrived and he sold land to them there before moving on to Redding. In Redding he joined members of other tribes settling on land which had been granted to them by the General Court of the Connecticut Colony, and settled on a ridge known as "Wolf's Ridge" which can be seen today located to the left as you make a right hand turn toward Putnam Park from Lonetown Road.

My guess as to how he obtained land in Redding was that he simply settled there after he left what would become Newtown (Potatuck) and soon became the leader of the group of indians considered a "tribe" by the Connecticut General Assemby. The "tribe of indians" residing in the "Lonetown" section of Redding was likely made up of Native Americans from multiple tribes displaced from their homelands by English settlers making their way into the interior of Connecticut. Seeing the Oblong was not settled until 1709 - 1714 it was a large area of available land for the Indians to inhabit.

*Chicken passed away in 1763. Capt Thomas Chicken Warrups, son of old Chicken passed away at Schagticoke in 1769. Thomas Warrups #2, (Chicken Warrups grandson) is noted as a scout in the Revolutionary War but his death and residence at the time of his death is not known.

*There is a very good chance that Chicken Warrups of Redding was a son of the "Chicken" that signed the land deed in Stratford in 1684.

Chickens in Scatacook: In 1748 Captain Chickens, alias Sam Mohawk, exchanged with John Read, Esq., land in Redding for land in Scattacook. (This is not completely true, Chickens was no longer welcome in Redding and was forced to move to the Scatacook Indian Reservation in Kent, CT.) In 1749 he left Redding and made his residence in Scatacook. The Warrups family returned from time to time to work for the Read family. Chickens died and is buried in Redding.

October 1763

Upon the memorial of John Read of Fairfield, representing to this Assembly that one Warrups Chickens, an indian at Reading parish within said Fairfield, was taken sick in the beginning of December 1762, under distressing circumstances applied himself to said Read for assistance, doctors, etc...who at the request of said Warrups procured doctors and supplied him with provisions until his death, all to the amount of 11 pounds, 11 shilling, 5 d money, the said Warrups leaving no personal estate wherewith to satisfy said sum etc.., praying that so much of the said Warrups farm at Scatacock may be sold as is sufficient to pay sum and the incident charges arising on such sale, as per memorial on file.

Resolved: That Ephraim Hubbel, Esq. of New Fairfield have liberty, and liberty and authority is hereby granted to him, to sell so much of Warrups farm at Scatacook as shall be sufficient to pay and answer said sum of 11 pounds, 11 shillings, 5 d and incident charges arising on such sale, for the use and benefit of said Read; the same to be paid over to said Read by Hubbel.[So much for goodwill to fellow man!!]

"In 1775, the Assembly ordered that the lands of the Scatacooks should be leased to pay their debts and defray their expenses. Thomas Warrups, (Chicken Warrups grandson) was allowed to sell thirty acres of land to pay his debts and provide for his family. Three years after, another tract of ten acres was sold, for the purpose of relieving the indigent circumstances of the Warrups family. The old squaw of Chickens was still living, but was blind."

"In 1801, the Scatacooks were reduced to thirty-five, who cultivated only six acres of land, although their territory amounted to twelve hundred acres, extending from the Housatonic River to the New York line. At this time Benjamin Chickens, a descendant of Thomas Chickens #2, was a careful and industrious farmer at this place."

[I have seen a note that was found dated in the early 1800's that requests the town of Redding pay a resident for room and board for Eunice Warrups. Who she was or how she arrived back in Redding is unknown. B.Colley 2007]

Around the turn of the century "one daughter of the Chicken family was in Scatacook (Kent) and one in New Haven (Maryanne Cogswell), who has children-Nancy and Milton Cogswell." Nancy Cogswell Moody was full-blooded Schaghticoke Indian 1850-1934. Wells Offutt is the only living descendent of Chicken Warrups known as of 2006, Maryanne Cogswell was his great, great grandmother.

First Houses

*The three first houses in the town were built nearly at the same time. One was in Boston district, where Mr. Noah Lee's house now stands (across from Lee Lane on Rt. 107), the second in the centre, on the site of Captain Davis’s present residence (about where the Heritage house stands), and the third in Lonetown, built by Mr. John Read, and which occupied the site of Mr. Aaron Treadwell's present residence (corner of Lonetown Rd. and Putnam Park Rd.).

[*This text as with most of the text on this page comes from Charles Burr Todd. It is likely that John Read's house was one of the first in Redding, however, Moses Knapp's north of Cross Highway and Church Hill Rd. is a possibility too. Nathan Gold in Umpawaug along with many others in the Aspetuck River vicinity and on Redding Ridge...notably the Crofoot, Hall, Knapp, Lyon, Morehouse families to name a few, were early families that may have had homesteads not mentioned by Todd. BColley2006].

The First Town House

The first town house was built early in 1798. It stood nearly in the centre of the common, a few yards west of the present building.

From the plan submitted December 27th, 1797, by the building committee, we learn that it was "36 feet in length, and 30 feet wide, with 12 foot posts, covered with long cedar shingles, the sides with pine." There was a chimney in each end, and fifteen windows with twenty lights in each. Peter Sanford, Ezekiel Sanford, Samuel Jarvis, Aaron Sanford, Andrew L. Hill, and Simon Munger were appointed " to receive proposals and contract for building the aforesaid Town House." The builder was Daniel Perry.

The present "old" town house(still standing and used today) was erected in 1834. At a town meeting held March 3d, 1834, Mr. Thomas B. Fanton made a proposition "that he would engage to build a new Town House, same dimensions as the old one, of good materials, covering to be of pine, with shutters to the windows, outside of the house to be painted, and the whole inside and out, to be finished in a workman like manner, to be erected near the old one, on land belonging to the town, provided the town will give him $400.00, and the old house," and engaged to save the town form any expense on account of the materials provided by the committee to repair the old town house. This proposition was accepted, and John R. Hill, Gershom Sherwood, and Aaron Burr,2d, were appointed a committee "to superintend building said House." There were objections, however, to having the new house built on the old site, and a meeting held shortly after voted " to relocate the house in the building owned by Thaddeus M. Abbott recently occupied for a school house."

Other parties objected to this plan, and a third meeting was held before a site satisfactory to all parties could be agreed on. This meeting voted to locate it "on the Southeast corner of Thaddeus M. Abbott's homelot, fronting the public parade on the South, and on the West of Lonetown highway, provided that nothing in this vote interferes with the contract made with Thomas B. Fanton for building said house, and that it be no additional expense to the town." The building belonging to Mr. Abbott which stood on this site was moved away, and the present townhouse erected in the summer of 1834.

On the back of this great photo forwarded by Isabella Eredita-Johnson it reads:

"Thomas B. Fanton home and store Redding, Ct.
House that William M. Fanton was born in Feb. 12, 1867"

T.B. Fanton and D.S. Johnson can be found on the Beers 1867 map where Cross Highway intersects with Sanfordtown road. Johnson & Nickerson is what the store's sign says. The store also served as Redding's Post Office for some time. The first Redding Center post office was said to be located at the old Town house.

Slavery

Baptist Church in Georgetown-Blown up:… It was 1838, the period of the slavery excitement, when abolitionist and pro-slavery man engaged in almost daily conflict, and men thought to stifle with shot-gun and bludgeon the first faint stirrings of the national conscience. A few pithy entries in the church records thus refer to the affair: " Nov. 26th. Rev. Nathaniel Colver lectured on slavery in our meeting house-was disturbed by unruly persons. " "27th. Another lecture on Slavery molested as night before." " 28th. Meeting house blown up by a mob, but not entirely destroyed."

This is all the information the church records, give us on the subject, but from the files of the Norwalk Gazette for that year we glean a full account of the affair. This article is interesting as showings the manner in which even the Whigs handled the question of slavery at that time. "High-handed Outrage.-We learn that Judge Lynch has been exercising his summary proceedings in this vicinity within the week past. Colver, the abolitionist lecturer, has been holding forth, as we understand, for a number of evenings, on the subject of immediate emancipation, in the Baptist church in Redding, and in the course of his lectures had taken occasion to exhibit before his audience the practical amalgamationism of the Vice-President of the United States, the Hon. Richard M. Johnson. We are informed that he accused this distinguished personage of making merchandise of the offspring of his own loins, of selling his own,sons and daughters into slavery. This so enraged some of his political partisans, that they determined to abolish the walls which had echoed the nefarious libel upon ‘Dick, the Tecumseh Killer.' So, after the lecture was concluded, a keg of gunpowder was deposited under the church which had been profaned by these abolition orgies-and about two o'clock on the morning of the 29th ult. the church was blown ' sky-high,' as John Randolph used to say. It was a small building of one story, and not worth more than $500.00. But notwithstanding the provocation, and not withstanding the comparatively trifling amount of damage occasioned by this wanton outrage,we most sincerely deprecate: the prevalence of a spirit which does violence to the dearest rights of every freeman in the land-the freedom of speech and of opinion. We are no apologists for the intemperate: and fanatic zeal of the abolitionists; but we deem it the duty of every press in the land to cry out against such violations of the Constitution and laws. And though we would denounce in the severest terms the exasperating conduct of the abolitionists, we would at the same time do our utmost to bring the trespassers upon the rights which the Constitution guarantees to every citizen and the violators of the public peace, to condign punishment.”

* *A resident of Georgetown at the time gives the following additional particulars:

About two o’clock on the morning following Mr. Colver’s lecture, the inhabitants of Georgetown were startled by a tremendous report and rumbling noise, which jarred the houses and broke the windows in the immediate neighborhood. In the morning, this unusual disturbance was found to have been caused by the explosion of a keg of powder which had been placed directly under the pulpit, a portion of the underpinning of the church having been removed for that purpose. The pulpit was demolished, the front of the building displaced several feet, the windows broken out, and the walls destroyed. This action of the mob, with the dissensions engendered by it, proved a sad blow to the church, and from which it never fully recovered, although it continued in existence for several years. Elder John H. Waterbury served the church as pastor for some months in 1839, and was succeeded in 1841 by elder John Noyes, of North Haven.

Anti-Slavery Society: One of the earliest antislavery societies in the State was organized in Georgetown, in December, 1838.

Dr. Erasmus Hudson and Rev. Nathaniel Colver were appointed by the Connecticut Antislavery Society agents for the evangelization of the State, and in October, 1838, entered Fairfield County in the furtherance of their mission. They lectured at Sherman, Danbury, Redding, Georgetown, and Norwalk, being driven from each place in succession by mobs who abused and threatened, and in some cases stoned them. At Norwalk they were burnt in effigy, and assailed with brickbats and all manner of missiles. At Weston they organized the first society in the county.

In November a call was issued for a convention to be held in Redding (Georgetown) December 12th, 1838. On the 29th November, Messrs. Colver and Hudson went to Georgetown to hold meetings. They met on Monday night in the Baptist Church but the mob was so violent that the meeting was adjourned until Tuesday evening. All through Tuesday there was great commotion among the enemies of the cause, and this culminated in the evening, when a mob composed of men and boys, some with painted faces and some wearing masks, surrounded the church, and assailed it with stones, clubs, and hideous outcries. Being dispersed by the citizens the band betook itself to quieter forms of mischief. Dr. Hudson drove to the meeting a beautiful milk-white horse, and on that night his tail was sheared so closely that is resembled a corn cob; and other outrages were committed. At this meeting a society was organized, called the Georgetown Anti-slavery Society. The constitution of this society bears date December 4th, 1838; its officers were: President, Eben Hill; Secretary William Wakeman; Treasurer, John O. St. John.

Proof of Slave Ownership: From the Couch family biography: His will dated March 2d, 1712-13, is still in the possession of Mr. Nash Couch, of Couch’s Hill, who is a lineal descendant. In this will he gives his “Negro man Jack” and “Negro maid Jinne” to his wife, in addition to other bequests.

Slaves and the Church: (This letter is dated at " Reading, in New England," as all his published reports are, between 1740 and 1760.) "My people are poor, (he continues) and have but few negro slaves, but all they have, I have, after instruction, baptized, and some of them are communicants. From the history of the Christ Church:

There are about fifty negroes, most of whom after proper instruction have been baptized there are no heathens or infidels. I commonly baptize about 100 children in one year, among them some black children. From the history of the Christ Church, 1769.

Epidemics in town

Redding is now much sought after by invalids for its health-giving properties, but it has been occasionally visited by epidemics of a fearful character. Small-pox, before Dr. Jenner's discovery of inoculation, was a fearful scourge, and news of its appearance in town always excited the wildest apprehension.

The roads near the infected spot were at once fenced up, and no one save the physician and nurse was permitted to have any communication with the stricken family. If the disease became epidemic, pest-houses were erected in secluded localities whither the patients were removed. Those dying of this disease were placed in a rude coffin, and buried at midnight, the clergyman standing at a safe distance and reading in a loud voice the service for the dead.

An epidemic called the " camp distemper" raged in the town in 1780--the year succeeding the encampment here of Putnam's division. It seems to have been of the same general character of the dysentery, but from the fact of its raging more vio- lently in the neighborhood of the camps was called the camp distemper. A severer scourge was an epidemic that visited the town about 1810, and which displayed many of the characteristics of Asiatic cholera. Strong men were stricken down by it in a day, and there was scarcely a house where there was not mourning for the dead.

In one school district alone, Lonetown, it is said that twenty died of this disease. The victims of this scourge were interred in the old cemetery near the Congregational Church. They were buried hastily, at midnight, and the Rev. Nathaniel Bartlett, who officiated on the occasion, stood on the ledge a few yards south of the church, and there read the burial services, in tones so stentorian, that they were heard by residents on Umpawaug Hill, fully two miles distant. March 13th, 1797: “Voted not to admit Small Pox by innoculation; voted to admit Small Pox by innoculation next fall.”

Roadways

"The Roads of Easton and Redding: Their Origins" by Daniel Cruson

Understanding the development of towns such as Easton and Redding, as well as understanding the modern interactions between areas within these towns and between the towns themselves, can only occur when the pattern of roads which govern this development and these interactions is known and understood. In any town, the road pattern is usually determined as the town is first settled. This pattern will then be modified as the town grows but through all of its modifications the basic pattern of roads which emerges with the first settlers remains. Even today, after paving, widening and cutting through new roads to give access to old farm property for subdivisional housing, the basic patterns established by the crude roadways which were first cut through the wilderness of northem Fairfield can be seen by simply glancing a map of Easton and Redding provided one knows a little of the background of this early road development.

To understand the basic pattem of roads in the Easton-Redding area it is first necessary to go back and consider the way in which the land that would later become these towns was acquired, divided among Fairfield's proprietor's, and then settled. The land that became Easton, Weston, and the southern half of Redding was formally purchased from the local Indians on January 19,1671 for "36 pounds sterling of cloth valued at 10 shillings a yard" (i.e. 72 yards of cloth.) Fairfield had already secured possession of the coastal lands from Black Rock harbor to the Saugatuck River in what is today Westport, and extending six miles inland. The Northern Purchase of 1671 , then, gave the town possession of another six miles further inland so that the town now extended from the coast northwesterly to an east-west line that coincides with modern Cross Highway in Redding.

With a weeks of its purchase, this northem land was divided among the town's proprietors. This reflected a strong desire on the part of the town to get all common lands into private hands quickly and thereby strengthen the town's claims of ownership over the potential claims of other local Indians who may have felt entitled to land in this area. In fact, the Indian John Wampus in 1671 did step forward and try to claim a substantial parcel of land in Aspetuck. He claimed this land was his by right of his marriage to the daughter of Romanock, the chief sachem of the Aspetuck Indians, from whom she inherited the title of the land at his death ten years before. After a long and very involved period of legal maneuvering, the courts awarded the land to the proprietors to whom it had been distributed for they were in possession of the land and living on it, whereas Wampus had never actually taken possession of it.

The proprietors of Fairfield were those people who were either the first settlers of the town or descendants of the first settlers who were entitled to take ownership of a share of common land as it was divided. A problem accompanied the division was the land to be equitably divided? This did not mean that each proprietor was to receive an equal amount of land, for Proprietors were not equals. Some were far wealthier and, by the later half of the 17th century owned more land than others. To these wealthy Proprietors would go the largest parcels of land. The problem, rather, was to insure that regardless of its size, no individual would be left with land of poor quality for farming while another proprietor would end up with fertile productive land, in addition, the division must insure against one proprietor receiving land that was tucked into quality for farming while another proprietor would end up with fertile productive land. In addition, the division must insure against one proprietor receiving land that was tucked into a remote northern region while another received land that was readily accessible in the southem portion of the purchase.

The answer to these distributional problems was the "long lot". Town officials first began carving up the Northern Purchase by setting off a strip of land 1/2 mile wide and which ran across the town from East to West about two miles above the village of Fairfield. Perpendicular to this Half Mile Common another strip of land was set off which was one mile wide and which ran from what is today the green in the center of Redding, south to the Half Mile Common. This  was appropriately called Mile Common. To either side of the Mile Common long lots were laid out. These lots were long, thin stripes of land that ran from the Half Mile Common nine mile north to the towns northern boundary. They varied in width from 50 to over 850 feet, the widest lots being given to the wealthiest and thus more deserving proprietors. Although their width varied considerably, most of these lots averaged about 490 acres.

The long lots were not immediately settled but rather were held for speculation, either hoping that the land would increase in value in the future or that it could be given to the proprietor's sons so that when they came of age they could establish farms of their own. Land records indicate that these lots were also frequently sold or traded between proprietors. Regardless, historians such as Thomas Farnham who have extensively studied this area, doubt that there was any settlement on these lots before 1725. This did not mean that the proprietors completely ignored their holdings to the north, for as soon as land division is made, concern was expressed over access to the northern properties and plans for roads were drawn up.

A year after the 1671 land division a highway was laid out running East and West of the Half Mile Common. This road assured owners that they could gain access to the bottom or southern portion of their long lot. This road survives and is appropriately called Long Lots Rd. in Westport. Looking at a modern map of the Westport-Fairfield area, it is easy to see that Long Lots Rd. forms a straight line east to west, and that Hulls Farm Rd. and Fairfield Woods Rd. form eastern extensions of this line. All three of these roads along with several other shorter ones were at one time connected and formed the northern boundary between the Half Mile Common and the southern terminus of the long lots.

Marking boundaries with roads was a common colonial practice. Modern Park Ave., which used to be called Division St. or Line Highway, is the remnant of such a boundary road marking the line between Stratford and Fairfield after the exact boundary had been finally worked out in the 1690's. This road was originally a six rod road meaning that the right of way for the road was six rods or 99 feet wide (one rod=l6.5 feet). It begins as it does today in eastern Redding, where modern Stepney Rd. intersects with it and proceeds south in as straight a line as topological features will allow, through the campus of the University of Bridgeport, ending at the monumental arch which marks the entrance to Seaside Park. One stretch of the road was probably never completed and that ran from the intersection with Flat Rock Rd. in Easton south, to a point just south of the Merit Parkway bridge. This part of the straight line route is a very narrow part of the Mill River valley which was formerly known as a wilderness and scenic area called Nick's Hole. There was a narrow dirt road that ran up this through this valley and which has become part of the modern Park Ave., but this road twisted and turned following the contours of the valley and not running in a nice straight line as a good boundary road should. (The section of road between Flat Rock Rd. and the southern end of North Park Ave. in Easton was destroyed by the Easton Reservoir.)

The northern boundary of the town of Fairfield was also marked by a boundary road which is still an important east-west corridor for Redding. This road consisted of the modern Church Hill Rd., Cross Highway, Great Pasture Rd., Fox Run Rd., and Seventy Acres Rd. Looking at a modem map of Redding, it can easily be seen that these roads form an almost straight line which bisects the town from east to west. One section of the boundary road, east of Fox Run Rd. was obliterated when Mark Twain built his residence, Stormfield, on it and other sections twist and turn to negotiate the steep hills which characterize any east west road in this area, but on the whole the route is straight and direct, making a clear delineation between the northern long lots and the area to the north which originally was not claimed by any of the surrounding towns, hence known as the Peculiar.

Once the boundary roads were established, thoughts turned to the need of gaining access to the interior and northern portions of the long lot themselves. To meet this need the "upright highways" were laid out starting in 1692. These roads derived their name from the fact that they ran in an upright or north-south direction. In fact, they ran slightly to the northwest or to the 11 o'clock position on an imaginary clock face so they were also known as "11 o'clock roads." One stretch of road in Weston is still called by that name. The upright highways were to run between the long lots giving owners access to the northern portions of their lots. As a result it became common to refer to the highways by the name of the adjacent long lot owner. Modern roads such as Burr St, Morehouse Highway, and Tumey Rd. are quaint relics of this practice.

Like the boundary roads, the upright highways ran in a perfectly straight line except where geographical features made this impossible. Sport Hill Rd., for example, runs through Easton in a straight line except where it deviates to get around Beacon Hill, where Silverman's orchard has been establish (just north of the Easton firehouse). The straightness of these roads derives from the fact that they were laid out between perfectly straight long lots which in turn were laid out on paper, regardless of geographical features, before they were laid out in fact.

Unlike the boundary roads, few of the upright highways were ever completely finished. Of the four upright highways that pass through Easton into southern Redding, only Sport Hill Rd., formerly called Jackson's Highway, was substantially completed, even though it ended, as it still does, at a rock outcropping on Stepney Rd. about one mile short of the cross highway boundary road in Redding. As with many of these early roads, rough terrain north of this point simply made it impractical to push the highway further. It was far easier to turn to the west and go up the valley. When geographical obstacles appeared, our colonial forebearers, like their descendants today, often took the path of least resistance.

Another relatively complete upright highway is Morehouse Highway. Although a bypass has been constructed just where the road enters Easton, the old road, complete with its hairpin tums which enabled the traveler to get to the top of the 90 foot high hill, can still be seen extending north off of Congress St. across from the Fairfield branch of this road. From the top of the hill the old upright highway proceeds in the characterisric straight line fashion, northward across Center Rd., stopping at Westport Rd. (Rt.#136). At one time the road extended further crossing Slady's fruit farm . Now this section of road has been obliterated but it does pick up north of the farm where it becomes Bibbins Rd.. Bibbins picks up the straight northward movement to Cedar Hill Rd. At this point the paved road stops but a remnant of the old road can be seen passing into the woods north of Cedar Hill, although it appears now as only two parallel stone walls with clear ground between them. These walls stop at the base of a rock escarpment and it is doubtful if the stretch of road which was to be laid out to the immediate north of this cliff ever was. A more northern section of Morehouse Highway was laid out in Redding, however. This appears as Turney Rd. today, and it runs behind Joel Barlow High School. Up until the beginning of this century the road ran down to Rock House Rd. in Eastoh. The old route may still be followed by tracing the parallel line of stone walls as they run south of the athletic complex. The northern end of Turney Rd. is its intersection with Meeker Hill Rd., but originally it ran north to Church Hill Rd., the eastern end of the cross highway boundary road. A small portion of this northern terminus survives as Iris Lane.

From the incomplete nature of Morehouse Highway we have a clue as to the manner in which these roads were constructed. The first section of the upright highways to be laid out were the southernmost which rose perpendicular to the northern boundary of the Half Mile Common. The lines which determined the location of these first road sections were establish by a surveyor in 1692 and it is probable that the first mile or so of highway was at least cleared of trees and major obstructions. Because there was no move to settle in the long lots until the second quarter of the 18th century, however, the highways were little used after they were first laid out and they quickly reverted to the wild. Thus we find that the town had to resurvey the southern limits of the highways in 1707, 1711, and again in 1714. Only after 1738, when the town again voted "to clear the highways that run between the long lots", does mention of surveying and clearing these roads disappears from town records, implying that there was sufficient travel on them after this date to keep the roads relatively clear and the rights of way sharply defined. As Fairfield settled the interior northern lands, the roads would have been pushed farther north, until the areas which were last and lightly settled were reached and geographical obsticals were encountered, then, as with Morehouse Highway north of Bibbins, there was little motivation to push the roads further.

At the same time that the upright highways were being pushed northward, the sections of these roads that on paper rested in Redding were begun and pushed southward. Within a year of purchasing Lonetown Manor in 1714 and thereby beginning the settlement of Redding, John Read petitioned the town of Fairfield to survey the back or northern end of the long lots and with them the northern terminuses of the upright highways. It is obvious by this request that Read anticipated growth in the community which he was helping to establish. Only by determining clearly and definitely the boundaries of the northern long lots could he expect to induce settlers to either move north onto their own lots or purchase a section of the northern long lots from one of the proprietors and build a family farm on it. In fact, the narrow nature of these lots made it essential that their boundaries be established before settlement could occur because a farm could not be established on a strip of land to 200 feet wide. Thus the northern portion of neighboring long lots had to be purchased to put together a workable piece of farm land.

Settlers also could not be induced to move to the northern long lots if those lots were inaccessible. Therefore, after the 1714 survey, the northern portion of the upright highways were laid out and cleared. Thus, even though Morehouse Highway was never cleared much beyond Bibbins Rd., the northern sections, Iris Lane and Turney Rd., were.

In western Redding this process of highway construction can be seen even more clearly. To the west of Redding center, the upright highways which passed between the western long lots, (today Weston) should have continued up to the western extension of the cross highway boundary road, namely Seventy Acres and Fox Run Rds. Only two short section of upright highway, however, appear to have ever been laid out; Dorothy Rd, along with part of Wayside Lane which are the northern sections of the upright highway which survives as Bayberry Lane and White Birch Dr. in Weston, and Goodsell Rd. which was part of the highway that survives as Old Hide Rd. and North Ave. In western Redding, then, only the sections of road which were needed for convenient movement in that area of town, were constructed and even then they were never run completely north to the cross highway boundary road.

Another factor which severly hampered the construction of the western upright highways was Devil's Den. This piece of land was virtually useless except for obtaining fire wood and later in the 19th century, turning it into charcoal. The land is rocky with little soil and what soil there is tends to be infertile. Even worse, the terrain in this area is so uneven that even the pasturing of cattle is dangerous. As a result, Devil's Den has remained unused, unsable, and open space down to the present. The terrain not only removed the motovation to push the highways through this region, but it also made it nearly impossible. Therefore, the western upright highways were laid out and cleared through central Weston and there they stop. Two northern sections of highway are then constructed solely for local convenience and not to be able to pass back and forth to Fairfield village as was the original purpose of these roads.

For the sake of completeness, the remaining two upright highways in the eastern long lots should be traced since they are part of the basic road structure of Easton, as are Sport Hill Rd. and Morehouse Highway. Just west of Morehouse Highway is Wilson's Rd. or Highway. Today the road stops at Beers Rd. but originally, before the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company closed it in 1914, it continued southerly into and through Fairfield to Fairfield Woods Rd., the boundary road for the Half Mile Common. In a northerly direction Wilson's Rd. passes over Westport Rd. and becomes Old Sow Rd.. it ends where Old Sow Rd intersects with Center Rd. and it is doubtful that the highway was ever pushed further north. The terrain north of Center Rd. is extremely uneven and the road which has become Black Rock Turnpike follows a much easier course as it goes up the Aspetuck River valley and over Jump Hill. A road following the same route as modern Black Rock Turnpike was established very early; probably in the mid 18th century since many house of that period are found along its length and because it is mentioned adn mapped by the British during the Danbury Raid in 1777. With a convenient road like this passing up to and over Redding Ridge, there certainlt was no incentive to push Wilson's road further north nor to construct a northern section of this highway in Redding.

The last of the upright highways to be considered here is Burr St. Very little of the original highway is still in existence, at least in Easton and Redding. The road enters the western corner of Easton across Division St. and runs a very short distance before running into Black Rock Turnpike. At one time, the section of Black Rock Turnpike that runs north to the intersection with Wesport Rd. was Burr's Upright Highway. With the flooding of the Hemlock Reservoir, however, Black Rock Turnpike had to be moved westward where it took over the identity of Burr's St.. From Westport Rd., the highway jogged slightly to the west and then passed through one of the oldest sections of Easton, Gilbertown, to become Norton Rd.just north of the Gilbertown Cemetary. Norton Rd. today degenerates into an impassible dirt track north of Freeborn Rd., but much of its route northward over the top of the ridge that separates Easton and Weston, can still be substantially traced on foot. The highway eventually intersected with Den Rd. (never paved and now effectively closed to public traffic.). It then proceeded north to become Greenbush and Sanfordtown Rds. in Redding stopping only at the cross highway boundary road at the Redding green. The upright highway solved the problem of north-south travel, but getting east to west was another matter. The geography of Easton and Redding in characterized by a series of north-south running ridges. Thus when the north-south upright highways were being laid out, they extended along the ridges. This is one reason why they could be so straight. There were few elevated areas or large geographical obstructions along these ridges around which the highways would have to be rerouted. Going east to west, however, necessitated crossing these ridges and the intervening river valleys therefore causing the traveler to be almost constantly climbing precipitous hills or descending into steep sided valleys. Great Hill on Cross Highway in Redding is a good example. In traveling east to west on this road, once you have climbed the 150 feet of hill on modern Church Hill Rd., you pass over a short level stretch of road around the intersection with Newtown Turnpike. Then, as the name implies, you descend the 200 feet of Great Hill to the Little River valley floor only to start up the other side as soon as you have crossed the river. Similar climbs and descents are now waiting for you on Great Pasture Rd. and Diamond Hill before you finally reach the relatively level area of Seventy Acres Rd.

A solution to the problem of east-west travel in northern Fairfield (travel across the long lots)was partially provided by "cross highways." These highway obviously did nothing to reduce the elevations over which the traveler had to climb, but they did provide a cleared right of way which snaked back and forth, up and down the hill sides. The series of hairpin turns, such as the one that still survives on Church Hill Rd., served to reduce the grade up which your horse had to pull your wagon or up which you yourself had to walk. In the process of course, the length of the route that you had to travel was somewhat increased.

In 1734 the town of Fairfield voted to lay out and construct the cross highways. This probably coincided with the first movement of settlers onto the long lots. As with most road building projects on which the colonial towns embarked, the vote was not acted upon until 12 years later, a time in which the pace of settlement in the long lots had increased, thus increasing the pressure on the town to ease the burden of cross lot travel. The roads were probably not completed until 1758.

Depending on how they are counted there were six or seven of these cross highways built in whole or in part. The first and last respectively were the Long Lots Rd. to Fairfield Woods Rd. boundary road and the Cross Highway boundary road in Redding. Both of these were laid out in the 17th century and were not part of the planned program of cross highways mentioned above. The identity of the other cross highways constructed after 1746 are obscure. Old records frequently refer to the same roads using different highway numbers. Thus the 4th cross highway for one writer becomes the 5th cross highway for another. By ignoring numbers and looking for older roads that ran across most of the town, perpendicular to the upright highways, the major cross highways for Easton can be at least tentively identified. (Redding had only the northern boundary road which still retains the name Cross Highway.)

The most southerly of the cross highways apparently run just south of the present Easton border in Fairfield. In terms of todays roads, this highway consisted of Jefferson and Congress Streets running all the way from Burr St.. These roads are not a continuous line today but rather consist of disconnected segments because of the intervention of the Merritt Parkway, constructed in the late 1930's. The next or 2nd cross highway was almost certainly Beers Rd. which, before the Hemlock Reservoir was created in 1914, began at Burr St. and proceeded east to its present starting point at Wilson's Rd. (This section included what is today Division Rd. on the east side of the reservoir.) The road then proceeded, as Beers does still, to Sport Hill Rd. on the other side of which it follows the route of modern Flat Rock Rd. to Park Ave. Almost equally certain is the 3rd cross highway which appears today as Westport Rd to Center Rd. Then Center Rd. to Adams Rd. and along Adams Rd. to North Park Ave.

The 4th and 5th cross highways, however, are much less certain. We know that for Weston (the westem long lots.) seven cross highways were planned and were at least partially laid out (including the cross highway boundary road in Redding). This would argue strongly that the same number had been planned for the eastern long lots. Confusing the issue however are old documents and land records which tend to call Rock House Rd. Either the 4th or 5th cross highway. The reason for this inconsistency is not clear. Possibly two cross highways had been planned above the line of Westport and Center Rds. and even partially constructed but had not been used, had fallen into disrepair and thus forgotten. It is quite possible that the 4th cross highway was in fact Silver Hill Rd. The section that would have run to the west of Black Rock Turnpike to Norton Rd. was never completed and the steep hillside of Flirt Hill over which it would have to pass is probably the reason why. In addition, it apparently was never completed to the east of Sport Hill Rd. to Park Ave. This would leave the line of Valley Rd. to Staples Rd and Sunny Ridge as a probable uncompleted 5th cross highway. Rock House Rd. which until recently ran all the way to Black Rock Turnpike and continued west as the now disused Den Rd., would then be the 6th cross highway even though it is frequently refered to in contemporary documents as the 4th cross highway.

The confusion here is quite probably the result of the pattern of settlement in infant Easton. When the cross highways were being laid out between 1746 and 1758, what is now Easton was just beginning to be settled. As settlers moved into the area, they tended to concentrate in communities in the west, Gilbertown (the area around the Bluebird Inn and Easton swimming pool), and in the east, the Mill River Valley (under the Easton Reservoir). There was very little settlement in the northem portions of this area. Therefore, although the location of the 4th and 5th cross highways were determined, there was little need to construct them since there were so few people in that area to use the roads. Even if the rights of way had been cleared of trees and brush, disuse would have quickly allowed them to revert to forest. The sections that appear to remain were quite probably in the area of one or two outlying farms whose owner found segments of these cross highways useful as access roads to get cattle back and forth to pasture. Farm access roads frequently became town roads and were paved in the 20th century.

This of course leaves the question of why Rock House Rd as the 6th highway was constructed and maintained. The answer to this lies in Redding. Redding was settled beginning at least 30 years before Easton. Therefore, by the period when the cross highways were being built, Redding was a thriving community, having set herself up as an independent parish as early as 1729. Rock House Rd., running just south of the Redding border, would have been a convenience to those residents living in the southern part of the town. As a result the road would have been used and kept open.

A quick glance at the roads just outlined on a map will show that, unlike the upright highways, the cross highways were far from straight. Again the difficulties of travel from east to west across the town can be invoked as the explanation. This difficulty is also reflected in the early specifications for these roads in that they were originally supposed to be 20 rods (330 feet) wide. This extraordinarily wide right of way could have been seen as necessary to insure sufficient land to put in the hairpin turns or switchbacks that were necessary to lessen the grades of these roads up steep hills.

Another reason for the wide right of way might be to deal partially with the problem of erosion and mud. When wide roads were laid out in most early American communities, it was usually done to ease drainage problems. The center of the right of way in these roads always consisted of an 18 to 20 foot area that was bare dirt, kept free from vegetation by heavy traffic. During the wet season, however, spring rains turned these dirt tracks into a sea of mud making passage of horses and riders difficult and of carriages and wagons almost impossible. At such times it was possible to travel up the sides of the right of way where there had been little traffic during the early parts of the year and thus were not stripped of vegetation which held the soil and maintained relatively firm footing.

Where roads ran up or down steep grades the mud season posed a special problem. Water would run down these steep grades and the steeper the grade, the faster the water flow and the greater the erosion of the roadbed. In many early hill roads deep gullies were formed after even a few years of existence. In some remaining remnants of the early steep roads, which have not been recently graded or paved, entrenching has lowered the roadbed eight to ten feet below the old ground surface level. Building hairpin turns on these roads reduced the grade and consequently the rate of water run off, but it did not completely stop erosion. Vegetation along the sides of the right of way would have further slowed water run off and retarded erosion. Regardless these measures were only partially successful as existing relies of these old roads demonstrate. With respect to the cross highways, the original intentions of the road planners may have been to deal with these problems by employing the extraordinarily wide right of way, but expediency, or maybe it was just the cost of acquiring the extra land, prevailed and t 2 years after the first proposal, the road width was reduced to the standard six rods (99 feet).

As should be apparent from the above discussion, traveling the colonial and early American road system was not easy, nor was it fast. In addition to the problems of the mud season, there were numerous others. Although the right of way of any of these roads were supposed to be cleared of obstructions, they rarely were. If a rock was too large to be removed easily from the traffic path by an ox team, it was left and traffic was expected to maneuver around it, or, if the rock was low enough, to go over it endangering wheels and axles. Trees were cut down but stumps were rarely removed. They were left to rot and again traffic had to maneuver around them. If the traffic on any given stretch of road was insufficient to keep the vegetation down, brush and small trees quickly invaded the right of way. Farmers living off of these roads were expected to keep them clear of obstructions, but the town records are filled with votes to deal with highways that had become impassible and which need to be maintained.

In addition to hills that had to be climbed and streams that had to be forded, swamps also had to be crossed. If the swamp was small nothing was done and traffic was expected to wade through it. Occasionally there was an attempt to firm up the roadbed by pitching rocks into the slime along the right of way or by setting sections of logs side by side across the soft areas, but with the weight of passing traffic, the rocks frequently sank too deep to be useful and logs quickly rotted and broke through. If the swamp was large, an attempt was made to build an elevated section or causeway across it by using rocks and dirt to build up the right of way. This is in part the origin of the term highway. A relic of this technique can still be seen in the small segment of old Stepney Rd.(Rt#59) in Easton which passed immediately to the east of the Baptist church. The elevated roadway extends for several yards out into the swamp. It apparently was insufficient and the town voted to simply go around the edge of the swamp, an alternative frequently employed by other early American road builders when faced with a swamp.

Not only natural factors but humans also impeded movement along early roadways. Farmers frequently looked upon the roads that passed through or adjacent to their farms as being extensions of their lands. Thus the grass growing along the sides and into the right of way was a resource to be utilized by his cattle. Negotiating one's way through a herd of grazing cows is a common annoyance mentioned by early travelers. Farmers even went so far as to erect gates across the roadway so that their cattle did not wander too far away. Town meetings down to the late 19th century were constantly issuing instructions to their highway surveyor and haywards to remove such obstacles.

Is it any wonder, with all of these inconveniences, why people who traveled during these early periods, preferred traveling by water and if water transportation was not possible, they preferred to stay home. The state of the roads was one reason why inland communities tended to be close. To run from Easton or Redding into Bridgeport or Danbury was not a 20 minute trip as it is with paved roads and high performance automobiles, but rather a several hour to half a day expedition, depending on from where you started. Thus trips to town were infrequent and done only for pressing business or to pick up such goods as could not be produced in the community or on the farm. Needs for social contact and entertainment were satisfied within the neighborhood and this created a closeness which has become one of the notable characteristics of colonial and early American life.

As imperfect as the roads were and as difficult as travel over them was, the grid of upright and cross highways was an important one. At its most basic, this road structure allowed access to the interior lands that would become Easton and Redding and thereby encouraged settlement, in the same way that paved roads and automobiles today have turned these towns into suburbs. In addition, they allowed movement between neighborhoods within these areas as well as movement between outlying farms and the meeting house, general store, and tavern that were so important to the isolated farmer. In a very real sense they made these outlying farms possible and road crossings often determined where whole neighborhoods would develop.

In a broader sense this early road structure determined the present pattern of roads in these towns as well as their traffic flows and patterns of modem residential development. As Easton and Redding moved into the 20th century, the old upright and cross highways were the first to become paved and thus they became the major arteries into and out of town, as well as between areas within the towns. These early paved roads constitute the basic road structure of this area. This basic structure would be modified as old farm access roads became paved to give access to more remote areas of town. More recently it would be modified by new subdivision roads which follow a map line set up to most efficiently develop a parcel of land. But the basic structure still remains and therefore to understand the interactions within the towns of Easton and Redding as well as their development, it is necessary to understand the patterns and nature of the highways that were first built in these areas and called upright and cross highway.

"Turnpikes of Easton and Redding" by Daniel Cruson

As the 18th century drew to a close, the first stirring of the Industrial Revolution were being felt both in Europe and the United States. One of the prerequisites for this industrial development was a transportation system which provided for easy and inexpensive movement of raw material to mills and factories and the movement of finished products out to markets at home and abroad. In coastal areas, where there was ready access to water, adequate transportation was much less of a problem than it was in interior areas like Easton and Redding where there was neither direct access to the ocean nor any navigable rivers down which products could be floated by barge or river boat. The interior, therefore, was forced to rely on overland transportation and, until the development of railroads about the middle of the 19th century, this meant reliance on wagons and the roads over which they had to pass. The state of the roads in this area, however, was very poor. Overland transportation even for a single horse and rider, was difficult and, at times such as the wet spring season, nearly impossible as dirt roadways dissolved into a sea of mud. This was true not only in central Fairfield County but in the entire nation as well.

A major problem that faced the United States in the 1790's, then, was how to improve the state of the Nations roads. Road construction and repair was a very expensive process, and the federal government had little in the way of money, especially since direct taxation, such as the Income Tax, would not appear until the 20th century. In addition there was a strong feeling among most citizens that the federal Government should stay out of the road building business. The answer to this dilemma was to turn the business of road construction and repair over to private individuals and the most efficient means of doing this was through incorporation. Thus began an economic period referred to by historians as the Turnpike Movement.

Individual states, such as Connecticut, had the right to charter and thus create corporations. A corporation is a legal entity which is entitled to sell shares of ownership in itself, called stocks, in order to raise the money necessary to set itself up in business. Corporations had occasionally been chartered for purposes of colonization and various manufacturing processes in the early colonial period. With the formation of state governments in the wake of the Revolution, however, the number of incorporations increased until, by the decade of the 1790's, this growth became dramatic, especially as corporations were applied to transportation and the construction, repair, and improvement of roads and bridges. One type of corporation that was specifically set up to construct or repair a road then was the turnpike company.

To form a turnpike in Connecticut, as in most other states, it was first necessary for a group of men to draw up a petition to be submitted to the state legislature asking for the privilege of incorporation and proposing a route along which the road would be constructed or, in the case of an already existing road, improved. Once incorporation was granted, the founders of the turnpike corporation would meet, elect officers, and determine how much money was going to be needed to construct and maintain or improve the roadway. Once this was determined, the corporation would issue and sell stock. By doing this the corporation sells small pieces of itself. The money that is raised by this process is then put toward the acquisition of land along the proposed route, if a road was not already in existence, and toward the actual construction or improvement of the roadbed.

It is important to remember that the turnpike company was a business venture and that the purchasers of these early company's stock expected to receive dividends, a share of the company's profits, in return for their stock purchase. But where was the money to come from that would constitute the company's profit? In the corporation charter, the turnpike company was given the right to charge a fee or toll to all of those who would be using the road. The toll rate was carefully controlled by the state legislature and was to be collected at a tollgate placed at a convenient location or locations along the length of the road. The tollgate usually consisted of a small house in which the toll taker could take refuge in inclement weather, and a long pole or pike that could be rotated horizontally on a post to block the road until the toll was paid, and then rotated out of the way to allow the passage of the toll paid traffic. It is the turnpikes which gave these roads their names.

The tolls which supplied profits and thus dividends, usually made the formation of turnpike companies a very attractive venture in areas where there was a substantial volume of traffic passing in and out of a region. This accounts for the large number of turnpike companies that were formed in the 1790's and through the first three decades of the 19th century. By 1800 there were 219 turnpikes and bridge companies in the U.S. but only six manufacturing concerns were organized as corporations. This ratio of manufacturing to transportation corporations would be reversed by the second quarter of the 19th century but the figures for the early years of this century clearly show how profitable and popular the turnpike movement was. Entrusting road building to private hands rather than to the government was clearly successful, at least in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.

What was true for the nation, was no less true for the state and for the towns of Easton and Redding. The basic structure of roads in these towns had been created by the system of upright and cross highways constructed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but these highways had been laid out first on paper without regard for the actual patterns of traffic created by local geography nor the traffic patterns that developed as the communities grew and prospered. Modifications and improvement of this basic road structure, then, would be accomplished by turnpike companies as they perceived the need for new traffic patterns or improvements to old ones, and acted on these needs for their own profit.

A good example of one of these local transportation companies is the Stratfield and Weston Turnpike Company. [note: Weston until 1845 included Easton] Chartered as the result of a petition to the General Assembly in 1797, this company was permitted to issue stock and with the proceeds from this stock sale they were to repair and modernize a stretch of road that began "at the foot of the hill...before the Baptist meeting house, and extend north in Jackson's Upright Highway so called until it comes to the Cross Highway about 25 rods [about 400 feet] above the dwelling house of David Silliman" in Easton. This road today is the section of Sport Hill Road that runs from the Baptist church, which still stands on the hill in Stratfield just below Fairfield Woods Road, north to Rock House Road in Easton. Apparently this stretch of road was in almost impassible condition and the formation of the Stratfield and Weston Turnpike Co. was a means whereby the road could be made fully usable without having those repair become the concern of the towns involved and without having to raise taxes to pay for it.

Also by the provision of their charter, this company was entitled to set up a toll house and turnpike and to collect tolls according to a fee schedule that was established by the General Assembly. The toll house and turnpike were set up at the base of what is today Sport Hill Road, across from Jefferson Street, where entrance to the General Electric corporate headquarters driveway is situated. There it remained for 89 years until the company's charter was repealed and the road made free in 1886.

The fees collected at this tollgate were very carefully regulated since turnpikes were seen as a type of natural monopoly over which the traveler and resident had no control. For the Stratfield and Weston Turnpike a fee of 6.2 cents could be collected for every loaded wagon (half that fee a the wagon was empty), 4 cents for a loaded one horse sleigh, 12.5 cents for a pleasure carriage of any kind, 4 cents for a man on horseback, and 1 cent for every sheep or pig that was herded through the tollgate. A penny of course was worth more during this period than it is today. According to government statistics for consumer prices at various time in our history, one penny was about 7.5 times more valuable in 1800 than now. Therefore in today's money every sheep or pig would cost 7.5 cents, every man on horseback would be charged 30 cents and any pleasure carriage would have to pay almost a dollar for the privilege of driving up Sport Hill Road into Easton along a fully modern gravel road.

Although these toll rates might seem burdensome, especially for anyone who used the road regularly to pass back and forth between Easton and Fairfield or Bridgeport, there were exceptional circumstances under which the tolls did not have to be paid. These were also carefully spelled out by the General Assembly. Exempt were all persons going to or returning from a funeral, public worship, or a saw or grist mill. In addition, " all officers or soldiers on days of military exercise on command who must necessarily pass through...the gate," were exempt, as were all residents who "live near the place where the toll gate is erected, whose necessary daily calling requires their passing the gate.”

The General Assembly also regulated the way in which revenues from tolls would be disbursed. As with any business, a portion of these revenues would be used to cover the cost of repairs and maintenance of the roadbed and payment of a toll taker. In a modern corporation, profits, their revenues after all costs are deducted, are then distributed to the stock holders as dividends in proportion to the number of shares of stock owned. The Stratfield and Weston Turnpike Co., however, was only allowed to distribute an amount of profit to each stockholder equal to 12% per year of the total amount that the stockholder had paid for his stock. All money that was left after these dividend payments had been made were to be used to pay back the money that the company had collected from its stockholders as a result of the original stock sales. In this, the money from stock sales was being treated as a loan rather than a true investment in the company. Ideally the amount of money that the stockholder had made available to the corporation, would be slowly returned to the stockholder until he was entirely paid back. Then there would no longer be a need to collect tolls and the road would become free. Since we know that the Stratfield and Weston Turnpike Co. continued to collect tolls until 1886 when Fairfield County made all of its turnpikes free, it is fair to assume that the company never had large enough revenues to pay back its stockholders, although the enterprise must have been fairly profitable or it would not have survived as a corporation for almost 90 years.

Older than the Stratfield and Weston turnpike Co. by about six months was the Fairfield, Weston, and Reading Turnpike Co. which received its charter in May of 1797. This company improved and maintained a section of road that ran from the home of Samuel Wakeman Jr. in Easton, across Redding Ridge to the meeting house in Bethel, which was then part of Danbury. The Samuel Wakeman house is still in existence and it sits on route #58, opposite the mouth of Freeborn Road. The turnpike extended from that point north along route #58 to Sunset Hill Road. It then went north along Sunset Hill and over Hoyt's Hill into Bethel as far as the Congregational church. (The section of modern route #58 which runs from Sunset Hill Road to Putnam Park, is a new stretch of road that was constructed around the turn of this century to facilitate access to the park.)

The tollgate for this turnpike was located " at the house of Samuel Thorp," which was apparently located just north of Jump Hill, on the flat stretch of road which lies just south of the Redding border. Having their tollgate so far south on the road posed a revenue problem, however, since many people were using just the northern sections of this road and thus not paying tolls for the use of the road. This problem materialized very early in the company's history, for in 1798, a little over a year after their formation, they petitioned the legislature and were granted permission to establish a tollgate on the northern portion of the road provided that someone traveling the full length of the road would only have to pay at one tollgate and not at both. Unfortunately the location of this upper tollgate was never mentioned in the legislative records and is therefore unknown. It continued to function, however, the road was declared free in 1834. The entire road became free when the company's charter was repealed in 1838.

Another turnpike was created in 1832 whose history was to become closely tied to the Fairfield, Weston, and Redding Co.; The Black Rock and Weston Turnpike. The company that was chartered to construct and improve this road was permitted to operate from Black Rock Harbor northwesterly to a point just north of today's Westport Road (route #136). The purpose for constructing this road was obviously to facilitate the movement of farm produce and other small locally produced goods to the harbor for transshipment by water to markets in places like New York City and the South. The road became an even more valuable link to the coast when it was connected to the Fairfield, Weston,and Redding Turnpike by a short stretch of road running from Westport Road to Freeborn Road creating what is still known as Black Rock Turnpike running from Bethel to Long Island Sound. The road was made entirely free when the Black Rock and Weston Turnpike Co. was dissolved in 1851.

Among the other roads in this area which began as turnpikes are Newtown Turnpike and Hopewell Woods Road in Redding. These roads are what remains of the Newtown and Norwalk Turnpike which was chartered in 1829 to run from the " foot of Main Street in Newtown, passing near the Episcopal church in Redding, through the westerly part of Weston, (and) ultimately to the great bridge in Norwalk at the head of Norwalk Harbor." Again the motive for building this road was to facilitate the movement of goods from the interior to the coast. By 1841, the northern portion of this road running through Redding and Newtown was made free and tolls were dropped on the rest of the road by 1851.

The Fairfield County Turnpike, which ran through both Easton and Redding, had a relatively short life and ran along a very confusing route. It was chartered in May of 1834 and its charter was repealed in 1848 after two changes in location had been approved in 1836 and 1837. The final route of this turnpike was supposed to have run from the northern end of the Black Rock and Weston Turnpike (where routes 58 and 136 intersect today) across Easton, through eastern Redding to the southwesterly portion of Newtown, and passing ultimately into Brookfield ending at "Meeker's Mill." In terms of modern roads, this turnpike appears to have passed up Westport Road (route#136) to Staples Road, up Staples to Valley Road, and then followed Valley Road through Poverty Hollow in Redding and Newtown, turning down Flat Swamp Road and passing through Dodgingtown.

A longer lived turnpike, but one with an equally unclear route was the Weston Turnpike. It was chartered in May of 1828 and only became a free road when Fairfield County cleared itself of all turnpikes on March 24, 1886. The route is described as running "from Philo Lyons to the Black Rock Road in Fairfield with a branch from Fairfield to the Academy in Weston." The location of Philo Lyons house is not known precisely but it probably stood on Morehouse Highway about one mile north of the junction with Beers Road. From this point on Morehouse Highway, the turnpike probably ran south to Beers Road, then west along Beers beyond Wilson Road and under what is now the Hemlock Reservoir, to end at Black Rock Turnpike. The section of this turnpike which ran to the west of Wilson Road was closed and abandoned when the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company built the reservoir in 1914. The "branch from Fairfield to the Academy in Weston," was probably Wilson Road from Beers to Westport Road, to the Staples Academy building which still exists as part of the parish hall for the Congregational Church.

A turnpike about which we have very little information is the Simpaug Turnpike in northwestern Redding. We do know that a company was chartered to build this road in 1832. We do not know when the road was made free but it must have happened by 1886 when the County abolished its turnpikes. Modern road names suggest that the turnpike started in the business section of Bethel and ran southwesterly along what is now route#53 and Side Cut Road to the village of West Redding. From that point it appears to run along the railroad tracks south and west to the Topstone area where today it swings out and joins the Ethan Allen Highway (route #7). It is not known if the turnpike ever ran beyond its intersection with route#7. It is also not certain where the name comes from unless it refers to the Simpaug ponds which lie near its point of origin in Bethel.

The road that started as the Branch Turnpike is still an important east-west corridor through Easton. The company that built this road was incorporated in May of 1831 and the road itself extended from Bennett's Bridge across the Housatonic River (just north of the Rochambeau Bridge which carries route#84 traffic across the same river today.), through south and east Newtown, Monroe, Easton, and Fairfield, ending in Westport. Today in Easton this road is Stepney Road (route #59) running from the village of Upper Stepney to the Easton Rotary (The four way stop below Union Cemetary and the Baptist Church.) From the Rotary it becomes Westport Road (route #136) and runs southwesterly to a point just south of the village of Westport. This road became free when its charter was repealed in 1851, 20 years after it had been founded.

One further turnpike must be considered for the sake of completeness of this treatment if not for the importance of the road itself; the Sherman and Redding Turnpike. The company which built this road was chartered in 1834 and the road ran from the town of Sherman to either the Newtown and Norwalk Turnpike in Redding or to the Northfield Turnpike in Weston. According to Frederick Woods, who wrote the definitive book on the turnpikes of New England, "it is clear that the plans were carried out, but it is impossible today to pick out the location." According to a petition which was filed with the General Assembly in 1846, the turnpike was "never demanded by public necessity or convenience and that for six years it had been wholly and entirely abandoned, and consequently impassible and useless." From this it would appear that the turnpike had a life span of less than six years. All that remains of the road today is a short stretch of road in central Redding which is still called Sherman Turnpike, running from the Redding Green south to Newtown Turnpike. Other sections of this turnpike may still be in existence under other names but since its route north of the Redding Green is unknown it is impossible to be sure that any of these other roads lie along the old Sherman Turnpike.

The Sherman Turnpike was an apparent financial failure which underscores an important aspect of the entire Turnpike Movement; turnpikes were a business, supported by private financiers and dedicated to improving overland transportation without resorting to federal government control and expenditures nor requiring tax revenues. As with any businesses, some were failures like the Sherman Turnpike and others were highly successful such as the Branch Turnpike which became Westport Road and the Stratfield and Weston Turnpike which became Sport Hill Road. The failures had little impact on this area beyond supplying an occasional place name or reference in an old land deed. The successes, however, because they served a necessary function such as getting goods and people from the interior to the coast, or supplied a public convenience such as getting people across town easily, survived and became improvements and modifications of the basic road structure in this area. The Turnpike Movement was the most important phase in the development of local roads and transportation between the establishment of the basic road structure with the upright and cross Highways of the late 17th century and the concerted push during the early 20th century by the towns themselves to pave all of their roads. The turnpikes also stand as one of the highest expressions of the American ideal that the most desirable way to accomplish something is not through government effort and expenditure but rather through the exercise of Capitalism and private enterprise.

The Old Turnpike thru Georgetown- by Wilbur F. Thompson. For many years after the first settlement of our state, the roadways connecting the towns were very poor. Many were mere "bridle paths," others were Indian Trails widened into "Cart Paths." One of these was the Indian Trail leading up from the Sound, at what is now known as Calf Pasture Beach, through the section now known as Georgetown, into what is now the city of Danbury. It was over this trail that the eight families left Norwalk in 1684, to found the new town of Danbury. And for many years this trail, widened into a cart path, was the only connecting link between the two places.

As the town of Danbury grew, the need of a better means of transportation became apparent. A survey was made and a new highway was opened up. From Danbury the turnpike followed South Street to what is now Reservoir Road, to Long Ridge Road, into West Redding, up over the Umpawaug Hill, Redding, through what is now Boston district and Georgetown, and on to Norwalk. The right of way was six rods wide. It was known as the "great road" from Danbury to Norwalk.

[On South Street, Danbury, there is still a mile-stone bearing the date of 1787, "68 miles to New York, 67 miles to Hartford."]

In 1723 Nathan Gold (Gould) and Peter Burr of the town of Fairfield sold to Samuel Couch and Thomas Nash, of the same town, one hundred acres of land in the Parish of Redding, town of Fairfield, "said land lyeing on both sides of the great road, that leads from Norwalke to Danbury," showing that the road was in use at that date.

In 1792 the town of Redding voted to reduce the width of the Danbury and Norwalk road, in Redding, to four rods.

In 1795 the "Norwalk and Danbury Turnpike Company" was formed. The company was incorporated for the purpose of "making and keeping in repair the great road from Danbury to Norwalk - from Simpaug Brook, Bethel, to Belden's Bridge, Norwalk (now Wilton) and to erect gates and collect tolls for the maintenance of the same." Toll gates were erected at intervals along the road. One was north of where Connery Brother's store once stood in Georgetown (likely about where Georgetown Auto Body is located). This was the only road of consequence in the area and soon became the Post Road.

Proof of its importance is indicated by the location selected as Redding's first Post Office. On December 22, 1810, Redding's first Post Office was established with Billy Comstock as Postmaster, keeping office in his house which was located at what is today the corner of Umpawaug and Route 107. Across the street was a tavern which was also the place where horses were changed and fresh horses put on. The tavern serviced the stage coaches as they passed through Redding to meet the Danbury and Norwalk stage. This location was known as Boston Corners, and for some time Darling's Corners as well. Later the horses were changed in Georgetown at Godfrey's store on Old Mill Road.

Clark's Map of 1856 showing Old Mill Road on the right. You'll notice Old Mill
Road was far more popular than Route 7 (road on the left) at that time period.

As the towns grew and the intervening section became thickly settled, the "Old Turnpike" became a congested thorough-fare. Historian Wilbur F. Thompson explained that his grandfather, Aaron Bennett, said "in his boyhood days (1818) there was an unending procession of great canvas-topped freight wagons, stage coaches, slow-moving ox carts. Travelers on horseback and on "Shanks Mares" (pedestrians) passing both ways night and day." At about this date the Sugar Hollow Turnpike was opened up. Starting at Belden's Bridge, Norwalk (now Wilton) on the west side of the Norwalk River, up through Georgetown and into the Sugar Hollow Valley, along the course of the river, through the town of Ridgefield, and into the western side of Danbury. This is now [Route 7] the state road from Danbury to Norwalk.

The History of the Norwalk to Danbury Railroad through Georgetown- by Wilbur F. Thompson. Despite the additional highway the demand for a better means of transportation began to make itself felt. In 1825 a survey was made for a canal from Danbury to tidewater at Westport. From Danbury, through Bethel to the Saugatuck River in Redding, following the course of the stream [through Weston] to tidewater. This project was abandoned when it was found that Danbury was 350 feet above sea level.

In 1835 there were two surveys made for a railroad from Danbury to Tidewater. One followed the old canal survey to Westport. The other survey was along the line of the present D. & N. R. R. It was found that over 8,000 tons of freight was carried in freight wagons at $5 per ton, and 10,000 passengers were carried by stage coaches to and from Danbury. The fare was 75 cents from Danbury to Norwalk and 50 cents from sections in between Danbury and Norwalk. This was the traffic to and from Danbury in the year 1834.

The second survey resulted in a proposal for a "horse railway", a plank roadway or horse path running between the rails. But nothing was done until 1850, when a contract was awarded to the Beard, Church & Co. to build and equip a steam railroad. John Beard was a resident of Danbury.

The section between what is now Cannondale and Topstone was known as the Georgetown section. The first work done in this section was in the deep rock cut known as "Couch's Cut" between Branchville and Topstone. Cannon & Fields was one of the firms who had a contract to do the grading on the Georgetown section; Charles Cannon of Wilton and Frank Fields of Croton Fall, N. Y. Fields had recently finished a contract on the Harlem R. R. and came well equipped to do the work.

[Couch's Cut, was a difficult stretch for the rail workers. There was quite a bit of rock to get through and dynamite was about 18 yrs. from being invented. Pick axes and black powder were likely used. Thomas Couch was a partner in the 19th Century iron foundry at the north corner of Florida Hill Road and Route 7. Couch's cut comes from his name.]

The surveyors for the Georgetown section were Aaron B. Whitlock of Croton Falls, N. Y., and Jebediah I. Wanzer of Pawling, N. Y. They were assisted by a young man, John W. Bacon, who later became superinten-dent of the D. & N. R. R. They boarded with Aaron Bennett, east of Connery's coal yard in Georgetown (off Old Mill Rd). The boarding house for the men employed on the section stood north of the Methodist Protestant Church (later Miller's Hall and now gone).

[If you were to walk past the dead end on Church Street South, down the hill and across the railroad tracks you would be standing in the approximate location of the buildings mentioned above.]

With the completion of the Danbury and Nor-walk R.R. in the spring of 1852, traffic on the old Turnpike grew smaller. The great freight wagons and stage coaches were soon retired as many who had traveled on horseback now traveled in railcars.

[The first train from Norwalk to Danbury went through on March 1, 1852. George Tucker was the engineer and Harvey Smith the conductor.]

A one-way trip took 75 minutes using Hinkley Steam Engines named "The Danbury" and "The Norwalk." Trains would make two round trips daily for passenger service. The Line did well financially in the first few years, especially for passenger service.

Almost immediately after the completion of the RR the Georgetown Post Off-ice was established on Old Mill Road. The date was May 11, 1852. The first station agent in Georgetown was Silliman Godfrey, who was also Postmaster. The next agent was Dr. Lloyd Seeley, later Burr Bennett, and for many years James Corcoran.

The station was a two-story building. On the first story was the Railway Station, Post Office and store kept by Silliman Godfrey. On the second floor was a large hall used for various purposes. In 1853 it was the lodge room of Fraternal Division, No. 79, Sons of Temperance. In the late 1850's it was occupied by Fanton's shirt factory. In 1862 it was the Armory of Co. E, 23rd Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, who were mus-tered into service in the Fall of 1862. Later it was used by the Gilbert & Bennett Co. for a sieve shop. [The old Railway station was lost to fire many, many years ago.]

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