Danbury, Connecticut

“ The family removed in 1831 to Danbury, Connecticut; in 1834, to Saugerties, New York; and in 1835, to Philadelphia, where they still reside. She is descended, on the mother’s side, of a Scottish family, staunch covenanters. Her father, who was a clergyman, and who, in the latter part of his life, was chaplain to the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, was of French descent, from the Waldenses of Piedmont. The family left France at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and settled in Bristol, England, and thence emigrated to Hartford, Connecticut. ”

“ Between Neversink Pond and Danbury extends a deep rock valley, in places filled with drift. As has been shown, this valley was probably occupied in preglacial time by Rocky River, which then flowed southward. At its southern end is Still River, which flows through Danbury from west to east.
The most important tributary of the Still rises northwest of the city, just beyond the New York-Connecticut boundary line, and has two forks. The northern fork, which drains East Lake, Padanaram Reservoir, and Margerie Pond, flows along the northeast side of Clapboard Ridge. ”

“ The inhabitants of Connecticut then numbered about fifteen thousand, settled in thirty towns, mostly along the shore of Long Island Sound, and upon the banks of the Connecticut and Thames Rivers. During the thirty years next before, a few families from Norwalk had settled at Danbury, from Stratford at Woodbury, from Milford at Derby, and from Farmington at Waterbury. ”

“ Tryon’s expedition against DanburyAmong the preparations for the coming summer campaign, Sir William Howe thought it desirable to cripple the Americans by seizing a large quantity of military stores which had been accumulated at Danbury in Connecticut. An expedition was sent out, very much like that which at Lexington and Concord had ushered in the war, and it met with a similar reception. A force of 2,000 men, led by the royal governor, Tryon, of North Carolina fame, landed at Fairfield, and marched to Danbury, where they destroyed the stores and burned a large part of the town. ”

“ The Danbury region of Connecticut presents many features of geographic and geologic interest. It may be regarded as a type area, for the history of its streams and the effects of glaciation are representative of those of the entire State. With this idea in mind, the field work on which this study is based included a traverse of each stream valley and an examination of minor features, as well as a consideration of the broader regional problems. ”

“ Suspicions were entertained that the attack would fall upon Western Connecticut, and that the Indians in this vicinity intended to join the French and Indians. The Council of War determined that the then western frontier towns of Danbury, Woodbury, Waterbury, and Simsbury, should be fortified with the utmost expedition. They were directed to keep scouts of faithful men to range the forests to discover the designs of the enemy, and give intelligence should they make their appearance near the frontier. ”

“ Although the regional slope of western Connecticut as a whole is contrary to that of Still River, there is no marked lowering of the hill summits between the source of the river and its mouth. As branches on the south side of the Housatonic are naturally to be expected, there is nothing unusual in the Still flowing in opposition to the regional slope, except that it flows toward the north instead of the northeast. ”

“ The broadest continuous area in the Still-Umpog Valley is, therefore, in the lower six miles between Brookfield and New Milford; south of that portion are several places where the valley is sharply constricted; and beyond the head of the Umpog, about one and a half miles below West Redding station (fig. 7) , the Saugatuck Valley is a very narrow gorge. On the whole, the valleys south and southwest of Danbury are much narrower than the valley of the Still farther north. ”

“ From there he will run another ten miles up to Danbury. Unless I'm completely wet, his objective is a certain house in the hills on a back road, over toward the New York borderline about twenty-five miles north. It's a rough, wild stretch of country, with Pawling, N. Y., to the west and New Milford, Connecticut, on the east, that he's heading for. Nice riding too, dirt roads, mere trails that haven't had a scraper on them since the Revolution. That house I just told you about is a good ten miles from a railroad as a plane flies--probably twice as far by road. ”

“ Samuel Canfield—money contributed by the first Ecclesiastical Society of New Milford, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of the towns of New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk.
The actual conflict came no nearer than Danbury. A large number of our citizens participated in that battle. ”

“ Silver-plated ware (mostly manufactured by Rogers Bros.) is another important product. At Danbury is held annually the well-known agricultural Danbury Fair. The township was settled in 1684 by emigrants from Norwalk, and received its present name in 1687. When the War of Independence opened, Enoch Crosby, believed to be the original of Harvey Birch, the hero of J. F. Cooper’s The Spy, was a resident of Danbury. A depot of military supplies was established in the village of Danbury in 1776 ”

“ Let such remember, that when the Ethiopian shall change his skin, when the Leopard shall change his spots, and when bitter fountains shall send forth sweet water, then will those who flatter the people with their tongues, and deceive them with their lips seek their happiness. Such are some of the measures resorted to by those who have sworn in their wrath that Connecticut shall be revolutionized. Finding all these ineffectual, and that the good sence and virtue of Connecticut has hitherto opposed an inseparable barrier to all their plans, they now exclaim Connecticut has no Constitution. ”

“ John Davenport, after witnessing the Antinomian controversy, declined the pressing hospitality of Massachusetts, and led his New Haven company far enough afield to avoid theological entanglements or disputed points of church polity. Unimpeded, they would make their intended experiment in statecraft and build their strictly scriptural republic. Still earlier Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and John Warham led the Connecticut colonists into the wilderness because they foresaw contention, strife, and evil days before them if they were to be forced to conform to the strict policy of Massachusetts. ”

“ The ministers and churches of New Haven were universally and utterly against them. Mr. Davenport, and others in this colony, were also strong in the opinion that all government should be in the Church. No person in the colony could be a freeman unless he was a member in full communion. But, in Connecticut, all orderly persons possessing a freehold to a certain amount might be made free of the corporation. Those gentlemen who were so strong in their opposition were jealous that a union would mar the purity, order, and beauty of their churches, and have an influence on the civil administrations. ”

“ Thus has Connecticut, by contention and folly, impoverished and kept in obscurity the most fruitful colony in America, to support the fame and grandeur of Boston and New-York among the trading nations of Europe. When I view the less fertile soil of Boston, the conscience of merchants, the pride of the pretended Gospel ministers, the blindness of bigotry, and the mercantile ignorance of farmers, I forgive Boston, New-York, and Rhode-Island, but condemn Connecticut. ”

“ Such numbers were constantly emigrating to New England, in consequence of the persecution of the Puritans, that the people of Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown, began to be much straitened by the accession of new planters.
By those who had been in Connecticut they had received intelligence of the excellent meadows on the river; they therefore determined to remove, and once more brave the dangers and hardships of making settlements in a dreary wilderness. ”

“ Davenport was entirely opposed to a union with Connecticut. He proceeded, therefore, to offer a number of reasons why the inhabitants of New Haven could not be included in the patent of that colony, and for which they ought, by no means voluntary, to form a union. He left his reasons in writing, for the consideration of the freemen. He observed that he should leave others to act, according to the light which they should receive. ”

“ To Danbury it seemed as though they had stopped stock-still. He was not a good man in such a position as this; he was all for dashing action. He could hardly sit still. They received many side glances from the excited groups, but they passed merely as a carriage full of nervous foreigners. Danbury himself was not recognized. So they crept along and Danbury gained hope, until they were within two hundred yards of the turn which would take them out of the line of march. Then with hoarse shouting, the advance line of the revolutionists swept around a corner and directly towards them. ”

“ Mrs. Hooker was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The people generally carried their packs, arms, and utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on their journey.
[8] While the planters of Connecticut were thus exerting themselves in prosecuting and regulating the affairs of that colony, another was projected and settled at Quinnipiack, and afterward called New Haven. On the 26th of July, 1637, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Samuel Eaton, Theophilus Eaton, and Edward Hopkins, Esquires, Mr. Thomas Gregson, and many others of good character and fortune, arrived in Boston. ”

“ The Dutch settlers on New-York Island, Hudson’s [Pg 100] river, and the west end of Long Island, being subdued by Colonel Nichols in September, 1664, the royal Commissioners, after hearing the Deputies from Connecticut in support of the charter granted to that province against the Duke of York’s patent, ordered, in December following, that Long-Island should be annexed to the government of New-York, and that the West boundary of Connecticut should be a line drawn from the mouth of Mamaroneck river north-north-west to the line of the Massachusets. ”

“ The colony also extended their claim to the Narragansett country, and appointed officers for the government of the inhabitants of Wickford.
Notwithstanding the remonstrance of the court at New Haven, their appeal to King Charles II., and the engagements of Governor Winthrop, Connecticut pursued the affair of a union in the same manner in which it was begun. At a session of the General Assembly, August 19, 1663, a committee was again appointed to treat with their friends at New Haven, Milford, Guilford, and Branford, relative to their incorporation with Connecticut. ”

“ The tombs of the first settlers are held sacred, and travellers seldom pass them without the compliment of a sigh or tear. On one mossy stone is written,
“Here pride is calm’d, and death is life.”
In 1709, this town was honoured by a convention of contending independent divines, who were pleased with no constitution in church or state.—This multitude of sectarians, after long debates, published a book, called The Saybrook Platform, containing the doctrines and rules of the churches in Connecticut. ”

“ Davenport withdrew to Boston, where he became a participant in the religious life of that colony; and the strict Puritans of Branford, Guilford, and Milford, led by Abraham Pierson, went to New Jersey and founded Newark. The towns, left loose and at large, joined Connecticut voluntarily and separately, and the New Haven colony ceased to exist. But the dual capital of Connecticut and the alternate meetings of its legislature in Hartford and New Haven, marked for more than two hundred years the twofold origin of the colony and the state. ”

“ In short, and upon the whole, possession, begun in usurpation, is the best title the inhabitants of Connecticut ever had, or can set up, unless they can prove they hold the lands by a heavenly grant, as the Israelites did those of Canaan.
This heavenly title was, indeed, set up by Peters, Hooker, and Davenport, the first three ministers that settled Connecticut, and is generally believed through the Colony to this day. They thus syllogistically stated it: “The heathen are driven out, and we have their lands in possession ”

“ To your eye and ear there are differences between your people and those of Connecticut, just as I have no difficulty in distinguishing an inhabitant of the district of Hing Chang from a dweller on the banks of the Fi Fum. To you we are all Chinese. To us, Americans are all Yankees. Orientals, occidentals. Let Ying Kee stand for the one, Yang Kee for the other.”
“You don’t say Melican man?”
“No; I am not a washerwoman,” replied he, with a smile. ”

“ American history. The agricultural life, which was more productive in the valley of the Connecticut than elsewhere, determined largely the social life of the colony, made Connecticut the most serenely democratic of the New England States, emphasized the individual worth, and allowed free play in self-government. ”

“ Greenwich was our first Connecticut town, a charming introduction to a new state: highroad and streets thickly tree-lined, and once, when we lost ourselves at a turning, we passed exquisite houses in lovely gardens. There was a divine smell of ozone-haunted seaweed in the air, for Greenwich is on Long Island Sound, with gold-green [Pg 231] sedgy shores, and everybody is rich or richish. Surely, though, the people are not "exclusive" in that selfish way I hate, for in this part of the world they can prowl all over each other's lawns; they have hardly any fences. ”

“ The American people believed in their authenticity, which belief was confirmed during the war by the distinct favor shown for a while to Massachusetts, and by the hope, openly entertained by England, of separating New England from New York and the southern states.
[l] Manufactures in Connecticut (abridged from the U. S. marshal's report in the autumn of 1810, cited in Niles' Register, vi, 323-333) were represented by 14 cotton mills, 15 woolen mills. (By 1815 New London county alone had 14 woolen mills and 10 cotton.) ”