Charles Burr Todd (January 9, 1849 – 1928)historical marker for C. B. Todd of Redding
/ref> was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Biography

He was born at

Redding, Connecticut Redding is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2020 census. History Early settlement and establishment At the time colonials began receiving grants for land within the boundaries of present-d ...

, educated at the common schools, and fitted for college, but failure of eyesight prevented him from entering. After teaching for some time, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and contributed to American magazines. In May 1877, Todd was appointed commissioner for erecting a monument on the 1778-1779 winter quarters of Gen.

Israel Putnam Israel Putnam (January 7, 1718 – May 29, 1790), popularly known as "Old Put", was an American military officer and landowner who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). He als ...

's division of Continentals in Redding, Connecticut, which was authorized by act of the Connecticut legislature. He was instrumental in the creation of

Putnam Memorial State Park Putnam Memorial State Park is a history-oriented public recreation area in the town of Redding, Connecticut. The state park preserves the site that Major General Israel Putnam chose as the winter encampment for his men in the winter of 1778/ ...

. As a Redding resident and historian he was interested in preserving the site, which is now a state park dedicated to Putnam's encampment. In 1895 he was secretary of the committee appointed by

Mayor Strong William Lafayette Strong (March 22, 1827 – November 2, 1900) was the 90th Mayor of New York City from 1895 to 1897. He was the last mayor of New York City before the consolidation of the City of Greater New York on January 1, 1898. Early lif ...

for the printing of early records of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1903 Todd entered a

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

police station, claiming that he had been poisoned and that detectives from New York City were pursuing him with the intent of killing him for magazine articles he had written a decade earlier and that offended certain prominent New Yorkers. He appeared otherwise sane but was nonetheless confined to an insane asylum for eight days, whereupon he was released.

Works

* ''A General History of the Burr Family'' (1879; fourth edition, 1902) * ''History of Redding, Conn.'' (1880; second edition, 1907)
''Life and letters of Joel Barlow''
(1886)
''The Story of Washington, the National Capitol''
(1889; 1897)
''The Chautauquan''
(1901)
''The story of the city of New York''
(1902)
''The true Aaron Burr''
(1902)
''The real Benedict Arnold''
(1903)
''In Olde Connecticut''
(1906) * ''In Olde Massachusetts'' (1907)
''In Olde New York''
(1907) * ''The Washington's Crossing Sketch Book'' (1914)

Notes

References

* * People from Redding, Connecticut 1849 births 1928 deaths Historians from Connecticut {{US-historian-stub