Trumbull, a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States:
* Fairfield County, Connecticut
* Fairfield County, Ohio
Fairfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,921. ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
, in the
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
region of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, was originally home to the
Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation
The Golden Hill Paugussett is a state-recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut. Granted reservations in a number of towns in the 17th century, their land base was whittled away until they were forced to reacquire a small amount of territor ...
, and was colonized by the English during the
Great Migration of the 1630s as a part of the coastal settlement of
Stratford.
In May 1725, the northwest farmers of Stratford petitioned the
Colony of Connecticut
The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...
to establish their own separate village. They proposed calling their new village
Nickol's Farms, after the family that owned a large farm in its center, but in October 1725 the new
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
was named ''Unity''.
In 1744, Unity merged with the
Long Hill parish (organized in 1740) of the Stratfield section of Stratford to form the Society of North Stratford. North Stratford controlled its own religious and educational affairs. However, to have a voice in governmental functions such as adopting laws and establishing taxes, the inhabitants were required to attend town meetings in Stratford, an overnight journey for some.
After ten years of unsuccessful petitions, the
Connecticut General Assembly
The Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. Th ...
granted complete town rights in October 1797. The new town was named for
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
's staunch supporter,
Revolutionary War governor,
patriot
A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism.
Patriot may also refer to:
Political and military groups United States
* Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution
* Patriot m ...
, statesman, and merchant
Jonathan Trumbull
Jonathan Trumbull Sr. (October 12, 1710August 17, 1785) was an American politician and statesman who served as Governor of Connecticut during the American Revolution. Trumbull and Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island were the only men to serve as gov ...
(1710–1785).
[Jonathan Trumbull historic marker website retrieved on July 26, 2010](_blank)
/ref>
__TOC__
Historical overview
Native Americans
The Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation
The Golden Hill Paugussett is a state-recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut. Granted reservations in a number of towns in the 17th century, their land base was whittled away until they were forced to reacquire a small amount of territor ...
occupied the territory of Trumbull as a self-sustaining community for thousands of years before the arrival of the English in the late 1630s. The Indian Nation lived along the banks of the Pequonnock River
The Pequonnock River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed 2011-04-01. waterway in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its watershed is located in five communities, wi ...
in the Pequonnock River Valley and also around the natural lake first called Mischa Lake, after the Indian chief who resided there, and now known as Pinewood Lake
Pinewood Lake is a natural lake located northwest of tall Mischa Hill in the Nichols Farms Historic District section of Trumbull, Connecticut.
Pinewood Lake Association
Pinewood Lake and its facilities are the center of a private recreational ...
.
After twelve to fifteen years had passed, the Stratford settlement had grown so much in size that the displaced Indian Nation began to ask for compensation for land north of an east-to-west line north of Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
. This line was located within the present-day village of Nichols Nichols may refer to:
People
*Nichols (surname)
*Nichol, a surname
Places Canada
* Nichols Islands, Nunavut
United States
* Nichols, California, an unincorporated community
* Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, California
* Nichols, Connecticut
* Nic ...
, Mischa Hill, Pinewood Lake and White Plains areas. The original Stratford proprietors agreed and began to make several purchases from the Indians in the 1650s. However, relations between the English and the Indians became strained throughout the Colony of Connecticut as settlements continued to grow and displace the Native Americans.
In 1652, the Court at the Colony of Connecticut ordered that no Indian could walk near an Englishman's house either in town or at his farm on the Sabbath without being fined or imprisoned. In 1656, it was ordered that no one in the Colony of Connecticut could sell an Indian a horse or mare or any boat or boat rigging without suffering a penalty of 5 to 1. The tribe maintains a small reservation in the Nichols section of Trumbull that is considered to be the oldest continuing reservation in Connecticut and the smallest in the US.
Colonial era
Founding and Puritan era
Trumbull was originally settled as a part of ''Cupheag'', the Pequannock word for "harbor", a coastal settlement established in 1639 by Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
leader Reverend Adam Blakeman
Rev. Adam Blakeman (10 June 1596 – 7 September 1665) was an English Church of England clergyman who was an early migrant to New England and a founder of Stratford, Connecticut.
Blakeman was born in Gnosall, Staffordshire, England on 10 Ju ...
(pronounced Blackman), William Beardsley and either 16 families—according to legend—or approximately 35 families—suggested by later research—who had recently arrived in Connecticut from England seeking religious freedom. The main village and stockade was built where the Housatonic River
The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
flows into Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
. In 1643, the settlement changed its name to Stratford either in honor of William Beardsley who came from Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
, birthplace of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, or for Stratford-le-Bow
Bow () is an area of East London within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is primarily a built-up and mostly residential area and is east of Charing Cross.
It was in the Historic counties of England, traditional county of Middlesex but ...
, England.
Stratford is one of many towns in the northeastern American colonies founded as part of the Great Migration in the 1630s when Puritan families fled an increasingly polarized England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in the decade before the civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
between Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
and Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
(led by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
). Some of the Stratford settlers were from families who had first moved from England to the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
to seek religious freedom, like their predecessors on the ''Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
'', and decided to come to the New World when their children began to adopt the Dutch culture and language.
Like other Puritan towns founded during this time, early Stratford was a place where church leadership and town leadership were both united under the pastor of the church, in this case Reverend Blakeman. The goal of these communities was to create perfect outposts of religious idealism where the wilderness would separate them from the interference of kings, parliaments, or any other secular authority.
By the mid-1650s, the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation began to petition the Court of the Colony of Connecticut for compensation for lost territory taken by the encroaching English settlement. This legal action led the court to set the town boundary on May 15, 1656, to include all of the territory inland from Long Island Sound between the Housatonic River
The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
and the Fairfield town line, including all of Trumbull.
The English continued to purchase territory from the Native Americans, entering the deeds of transfer into the land records. However, the first volume of such records has been lost. It took Lt. Joseph Judson
Lieut. Joseph Judson ( – October 8, 1690) was an early New England colonist best known for co-founding the town of Woodbury, Connecticut.
The Judson family, including the teen-aged Joseph Judson, settled in Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colo ...
, Joseph Hawley and John Minor until April 1662 to secure the last written deed of transfer from the Paugussett Indian Nation for the western part of the town of Trumbull, referred to as the Long Hill purchase. This deed references that it was lying west of the land they had already purchased.
Town formation and settlement patterns
In 1661, the town voted to allow each inhabitant to take up a whole division of common land anywhere in the woods where they could find fit planting ground as long as it was not within of the town meeting house, and they were prohibited from making it their dwelling place without the consent of a committee or the town selectmen. Elder Phillip Groves, Captain William Curtiss and Lt. Joseph Judson, early farmers in Trumbull, were named to a committee to lay out the land as they saw fit.
In 1668, according to the town records, there were only five families recorded as "outlivers", or living beyond two miles from the Stratford meetinghouse. However, by the 1670s, after numerous individuals were encouraged to and had received permission to dwell outside of the two-mile limit, the Stratford selectmen stopped recording outlivers altogether.
In 1670, the "three mile" or "woods division" was made. This divided common land located from the Stratford meeting house and included land up to away from it. The common land grants were laid out in a fashion so that each tract had a share of a run of water, woods, natural meadow, plains, swamp and ledge. The grants were often a quarter of a mile north to south and one mile in length east to west, about of land. Each freeman
Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to:
* a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm
* Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies
* Free ...
received division land according to his right or rank in the township, and many exchanged or sold their grant after receiving it.
In spring of 1680, the town decided to lay out all undivided common land within of the meeting house. This area would have included the southern third of Trumbull. In 1685, some families filed complaints at the court at the Colony of Connecticut at Hartford saying they were not receiving their land grants from the woods division in a timely manner. Therefore, the court ordered the town to apportion all common land located between two and six miles from the Stratford meeting house, which included all the territory in the lower third of Trumbull. The division of the common land in Trumbull took until 1800 to complete entirely.
Subsections
=Woodbury
=
In the 1660s, Lt. Joseph Judson
Lieut. Joseph Judson ( – October 8, 1690) was an early New England colonist best known for co-founding the town of Woodbury, Connecticut.
The Judson family, including the teen-aged Joseph Judson, settled in Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colo ...
had a disagreement with the majority of elders in Stratford as he tried to introduce the Half-Way Covenant
The Half-Way Covenant was a form of partial church membership adopted by the Congregational churches of colonial New England in the 1660s. The Puritan-controlled Congregational churches required evidence of a personal conversion experience befo ...
, and this led to a major rift which lasted for many years and split the town. In 1671, Judson received permission from then-Governor John Winthrop, Jr.
John Winthrop the Younger (February 12, 1606 – April 6, 1676) was an early governor of the Connecticut Colony, and he played a large role in the merger of several separate settlements into the unified colony.
Early life
Winthrop was born ...
to create a new town called Woodbury Woodbury may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Woodbury Glacier, a glacier on Graham Land, British Antarctic Territory
Australia
* Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
England
* Woodbury, Bournemouth, an area in Dorset
*Woodbury, East Devo ...
inland. Judson and Reverend Walker left Stratford with a dozen other families and moved to the newly created town, abandoning their farms in the Trumbull area of Stratford. Judson and Walker died in Woodbury in 1690 and 1699 respectively.
Joseph Judson and many others had established their farms in Trumbull decades before leaving for Woodbury in 1671. These farms were not sold initially, but were just physically abandoned and were referred to in the land records as Old Farms. Some of the other families to remove to Woodbury, abandoning their farms in Trumbull, were Caleb Nichols, Abraham's father, who removed to Woodbury and died there in 1690, and John Curtiss, who gifted his entire farm in the woods on "Misha icHill" (Trumbull) to his son Benjamin in 1688 and removed to Woodbury.[Stratford Land Records Vol. 2 p. 70] In a deed recorded at Stratford in 1710, Sgt. John Curtiss, "of Woodbury", sold to Abraham Nichols that was located "near the place called and known by the name of Lt. Joseph Judson's Farm."
=Nichols
=
It is not known exactly when the first settlers began to clear land and establish farms in the area, due to the fact that the first volume of Stratford's land records was destroyed around 1650. The first settlements were doubtless made soon after the settlement of the mother-town of Stratford in 1639. By 1658, Lt. Joseph Judson, Jeremiah Judson and Joseph Curtiss became freemen by the court of the Colony of Connecticut and established farms there. A freeman had to own real property in their own name before they could be elected as freemen.
The area now called Nichols, located in southeastern Trumbull, was first called Mischa Hill in the land records for the Native American who lived there. In the late 1660s, it was commonly called Lt. Joseph Judson's Farm, or Judson's Farm, after the owner of the largest farm on its hilltop. After Judson and others removed to establish the town of Woodbury in 1672 and abandoned their farms on Mischa Hill, it was called Old Farms. In the early 1700s, it was called Nickol's Farms, then in 1725 it became a part of Unity and in 1744, North Stratford. During the mid-1800s, the area was called Amblersville after the principal manufacturer in the center of the village.
It has been said that Abraham Nichols made the first permanent settlement within Trumbull around 1690 or 1700, depending on the source, and then other families subsequently ventured into the wilderness to establish mills, churches, and schools. Nichols' landholdings were said to total . However, there is no documentation to support these claims.
According to Walter Nicholls, who wrote the ''History of the Nichols family'' in 1909, Abraham did not accompany his father to Woodbury in 1673, but remained in Trumbull to oversee the plantation. However, since Abraham was only eleven at the time (born 1662), it is likely that he did remove to Woodbury with his family and returned to Trumbull between 1696 and 1700. Walter Nicholls' imaginative description of the Nichols homestead was:
The land records show that Abraham Nichols' holdings were actually around of land, of which around remains as open space today. Nichols bought or exchanged land to acquire several farms and large parcels of land beginning in 1696. He exchanged land with the son of, then deceased, Lt. Joseph Judson for of his old farm which had a barn on it. He purchased , or half the land owned by Jeremiah Judson, and of land from Benjamin Curtiss. He also purchased Reverend Zachariah Walker's entire farm in 1704, which was in size. Furthermore, in a deed recorded in 1699, Lt. Ebenezer Curtiss received of land from the three-mile division that was said to be bounded west with Lt. Joseph Judson's farm, now belonging to Abraham Nichols. All of these transactions are described in the land records as being located at or near the "Old farm", "Judson's farms" or "Lt. Joseph Judson farm". Joseph Judson had removed from Trumbull in the 1670s to settle at Woodbury, where he died in 1690.
Some of Abraham Nichols' farm remained in the Nichols family through four centuries. Florence Nichols, the last of the Nichols line, married George Woods in 1903 and the property was known as the ''Woods Estate''. Soon after their deaths in 1973 and 1972 respectively, the property was deeded from the Woods to the Nichols Methodist Church from whom the town of Trumbull purchased it in 1974. The Woods homestead was renamed ''Abraham Nichols Park'' and is now the home of the Trumbull Historical Society.
Agricultural era
The first farmers of Stratford resided in the village and went out to their farms, located one to three miles away, to do the work of the farm. The Nichols and White Plains areas were the first to be cultivated and settled within the present-day bounds of Trumbull, due to the fertile soil, spring-fed ponds and natural meadows found there and their proximity to the main village located less than three miles away. In the mid-seventeenth century in the Colony of Connecticut
The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...
, it was very common for freemen to establish a farm or several farms in the fertile upland or countryside while maintaining a substantial townhouse in the village or even back in England.
Early farmers
The first individuals to own land in Trumbull were among the original founders of the Stratford settlement, namely Benjamin Beach, Zachariah Bostick (Bostwick), Richard Booth, Ephraim Booth, Paul Brinsmaid, John Curtiss, Benjamin Curtiss, Mr. Joseph Curtiss, Captain William Curtiss (Curtice), Ebenezer Curtiss, Israel Curtiss, Zachariah Curtiss, Joseph Fairchild, Elder Philip Groves (Graves, Grouse), Joseph Hawley, Ephraim Hawley, Captain John Hawley, Samuel Hawley, Edward Hinman, Lt. Joseph Judson
Lieut. Joseph Judson ( – October 8, 1690) was an early New England colonist best known for co-founding the town of Woodbury, Connecticut.
The Judson family, including the teen-aged Joseph Judson, settled in Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colo ...
, Sgt. Jeremiah Judson, Isaac Judson, John Judson, Thomas Lake, Isaac Nichols, Caleb Nichols, Abraham Nichols, Samuel Ufford (Uffoot) and Reverend Zechariah Walker. The first families to reside permanently in Trumbull were the Beach, Beardsley, Blakeman, Booth, Bostick, Brinsmade, Clarke, Curtiss, Edwards, Fairchild, Hawley, Hinman, Hubbell, Judson, Lake, Lewis, Middlebrook, Nichols, Peet, Plumb, Seeley, Sherwood, Thompson, Uffoot, Walker and Wildman families.
Before becoming a freeman
Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to:
* a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm
* Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies
* Free ...
in 1686, Zachariah Curtiss built a center-chimney farmhouse
FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...
on the south side of Mischa Hill.[''Colonial Records of Connecticut'', Vol. 3, p. 233] His farm was located on land granted to him as a part of the "three-mile division" and part on land gifted to him by his father, Captain William Curtiss, which was described as "lying at Old Farm".
Ephraim Hawley, a slave owner
The following is a list of slave owners, for which there is a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership, in alphabetical order by last name.
A
* Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inh ...
, built his farmhouse immediately south of Zachariah Curtiss, on the south side of Mischa Hill, on the eastern portion of the Hawley land grant, commonly called "ye springs and white plains". To be elected a freeman in the Connecticut Colony at this time, one had to own real property
In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or affixe ...
, a dwelling house, in his name. It is presumed that Hawley built his house before becoming a freeman in 1687.
The path or road connecting the Curtiss and Hawley farms on the south side of Mischa Hill to Stratford Village, located -miles to the south, became known as the Farm Highway, present-day Connecticut Route 108
Route 108 in the U.S. state of Connecticut, locally called Nichols Avenue and Huntington Turnpike, is a two-lane state highway that runs northerly from U.S. Route 1 in Connecticut, US 1, Boston Post Road in Stratford, Connecticut, Stratford, throug ...
. The highway was completed and surveyed to the south side of Mischa Hill, at "Zachariah Curtiss, his land" and at Captain's Farm, in 1696, making it one of the oldest documented English highways in Connecticut.
American Revolution
In 1773, Robert Hawley was named Captain of the North Stratford or Second Train Band established in 1706. His grandfather, Captain John Hawley, was its first captain. At a special meeting held at the North Stratford meeting house on November 10, 1777, Hawley was also appointed to a committee to provide immediately all those necessaries for the Continental soldiers.
On March 12, 1778, the parish of North Stratford raised money and over of cheese and gammon for those residents, including two slaves, Nero Hawley
Nero Hawley (1742 – January 30, 1817) was an African-American soldier who was born into slavery in North Stratford, Connecticut, and later earned his freedom after enlisting in the Continental Army in place of his owner, Daniel Hawley, on Apri ...
and Caesar Edwards, and thirteen other residents serving in the southern army in Captain Beebe's Company, Huntington's Brigade, 2nd Connecticut Regiment, stationed at Valley Forge
Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the B ...
under the command of General George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
.
Huldah Hawley was born in 1755 and died in 1856 at the age of 101. The widow of Chauncey Beardsley, Huldah took pleasure in talking of the exciting times of the Revolution and related during her lifetime about the time that two companies of French soldiers, under the command of French General Rochambeau, encamped a whole winter during the war on what is now known as Mountain Hill, a high rocky bluff in the central part of the village of Nichol's Farms. This high rocky bluff, at the time, commanded a view of Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
for , and was used to spy on British ships. Hawley said the soldiers ordered her to cook for them, and she furnished them with provisions for fear that they would kill her. French coins have since been found near the site of their camp in Abraham Nichols Park.
In December 1780, two dozen Hussar
A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely ...
horsemen deserted and discharged themselves from their winter quarters in Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
and fled into the Connecticut woods.
From June 28 until June 30, 1781, during the American Revolutionary War, units of the French army, called Lauzun's Legion
The 5th Hussar Regiment (''5e régiment de hussards'' or ''5e RH'') was a French Hussar regiment.
Formation under the Ancien Régime
The 5th Hussar Regiment was formed under the Ancien Régime. It was the last regiment created under the monarch ...
or Hussars, encamped in North Stratford, now Trumbull. The Legion was commanded by Colonel Armand Louis de Gontaut
Armand Louis de Gontaut (), duc de Lauzun, later duc de Biron, and usually referred to by historians of the French Revolution simply as Biron (13 April 174731 December 1793) was a French soldier and politician, known for the part he played in t ...
-Biron, duc de Lauzun, and marched to the south to protect the flank of the main French army encamped in Newtown. The army was marching in the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route
The Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is a series of roads used in 1781 by the Continental Army under the command of George Washington and the Expédition Particulière under the command of Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau during their 14- ...
south to reinforce American troops under the command of General George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
at the Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...
.
Benjamin Silliman was born in the Eliakim Beach tavern, built by mill owner Ebenezer Hawley in 1765, a few months after his mother Mary (Fish) Silliman (widow of John Noyes) fled from their Fairfield home to escape 2,000 invading British troops ordered to burn Fairfield. The British forces had taken Silliman's father, General Gold Selleck Silliman
Gold Selleck Silliman (1732–1790) was a Connecticut militia General during the American War for Independence.
Biography
Silliman was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and practiced law and served as a crown attorney ...
, prisoner in May 1779.
A Great Jubilee Day
A Great Jubilee Day, first held on Monday May 26, 1783, in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut, commemorated the end of fighting in the American Revolutionary War. This celebration included feasting, prayer, speeches, toasts, and two com ...
to commemorate the end of major fighting in the Revolutionary War was held on May 26, 1783, at the grounds of the North Stratford meeting house. This celebration included feasting, prayer, speeches, toasts, and two companies of militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
performing maneuvers with cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
discharges.
American Civil War
During the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Company C of the 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard
The Connecticut Military Department is a state agency of the government of Connecticut. Its primary components are the
Connecticut Army National Guard, the Connecticut Air National Guard, and four companies of the state militia. The Military Depa ...
was formed in Trumbull under the command of Capt. Charles E. Plumb and was disbanded in 1871 after the war ended.
Municipal development
In May 1725, the farmers of northwest Stratford at Nickol's Farms, desiring to have their own meeting house, asked for permission to form their own parish or village. The legislature approved their application in October 1725 and named the new village "Unity". The Unity Congregational Church was established in 1730. The Reverend James Beebe
James Beebe (1717–1785), Reverend, presided over the Unity Parish at ''North Stratford'', now Trumbull, Connecticut, between 1747 and 1785. He was an Army Preacher in the French and Indian War and a patriot.
Biography
Beebe was born in Danbury ...
was the parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
leader from 1747 to 1785. The Unity Burial Ground
The Unity Burial Ground is a small graveyard located on the southeast end of White Plain in the Nichols section of Trumbull, Connecticut. It is located a few rods north of the site of the first meeting house that was built in the parish of Unit ...
still exists, its last burial being in 1935.
In May 1740, upon the petition of Jonathan Edwards, the farmers gathered at Stratfield's winter parish on Long Hill and were granted their own individual parish and funding for education by the legislature.
In 1744, Unity parish and the Long Hill parish of the Stratfield section of Stratford asked permission to combine and become the Society of North Stratford. The General Assembly referred to the eastern boundaries of Unity, at the time, as "ancient" when they approved the new town called North Stratford in 1744. North Stratford remained as a village under the control of the town of Stratford for a period of 53 years until it became a part of the town of Trumbull in 1797.
After the Revolutionary War, citing their well-established population and the inconvenient distance to attend town meetings in Stratford, they petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly
The Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. Th ...
for status as an incorporated town. After several denials, the legislature granted their petition in October 1797. On November 20, 1797, the first town meeting was held. The new town was named for Jonathan Trumbull
Jonathan Trumbull Sr. (October 12, 1710August 17, 1785) was an American politician and statesman who served as Governor of Connecticut during the American Revolution. Trumbull and Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island were the only men to serve as gov ...
, Connecticut governor during the Revolutionary War and a valued adviser to George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
, who respectfully referred to him as "Brother Jonathan".
Society and religion
Religious burial grounds
Unity Burial Ground
The Unity Burial Ground is a historic graveyard located on the southeast end of White Plain a few rods north of the site of the first meeting house that was built in the parish of Unity. The cemetery was laid out in 1730, and the first burial was that of 7-year-old Samuel Bennitt on June 21, 1731. There are over 110 gravestones and 90 unmarked field stones.
Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground
Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground
Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground is a historic property including an Episcopal Church building and cemetery at 5170 Madison Avenue in Trumbull, Connecticut. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places i ...
is a historic site including an Episcopal Church building and cemetery at 5170 Madison Avenue in the Tashua section of Trumbull. The site was founded in 1760 and added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2001. Two prior churches had been on the site before the cornerstone of the existing church was laid in 1826. This building is believed to have been designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and was consecrated
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...
in 1847. The original church was a structure and stood at the north end of the graveyard. The second, larger church was built across from the first and consecrated in 1795 after the first church was abandoned five years earlier.[About Christ Church](_blank)
The current church is an example of Carpenter Gothic, a variant of Neo-Gothic architecture. Christ Church displays the original Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
that was received by the church in 1762 from England. The church is still active, with two services held on Sunday mornings. The graveyard on the site dates to 1766, and includes 241 plots.
Gregory's Four Corners Burial Ground
Gregory's Four Corners Burial Ground is a historic cemetery just over the Monroe town line. It was established in 1761. It is most famous for being the final resting place of Hannah Cranna, often called the "Wicked Witch of Monroe".
Pine Brook Country Club
Benjamin Plotkin purchased Pinewood Lake
Pinewood Lake is a natural lake located northwest of tall Mischa Hill in the Nichols Farms Historic District section of Trumbull, Connecticut.
Pinewood Lake Association
Pinewood Lake and its facilities are the center of a private recreational ...
and the surrounding acreage and built forty cabins and an auditorium with a revolving stage
A revolving stage is a mechanically controlled platform within a theatre that can be rotated in order to speed up the changing of a scene within a show. A fully revolving set was an innovation constructed by the hydraulics engineer Tommaso Francin ...
and incorporated as the Pine Brook Country Club
Pine Brook Country Club is a private lake association in Nichols, Connecticut, a village within the Town of Trumbull. It began when Benjamin Plotkin purchased Pinewood Lake and the surrounding countryside on Mischa Hill. Plotkin built an auditor ...
in 1930. Plotkin's dream was to market the club as a summer resort for people to stay and enjoy theatrical productions. Pine Brook is best known for becoming the summer rehearsal headquarters of the most important experiment in the history of American theatre. The Group Theatre was formed in New York City by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford
Cheryl Crawford (September 24, 1902 – October 7, 1986) was an American theatre producer and director.
Biography
Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation in 1925, she moved to New York City and ...
and Lee Strasberg in 1931. The group was made up of actors, directors, playwrights and producers and produced works by the most important American playwrights of the time on real-life subject matter, changing stage and film forever. In 1944, Pine Brook Country Club was sold, reorganized and chartered as the Pinewood Lake Association.
Commerce and industry
Roads
Farm Highway
On December 7, 1696, the Farm Highway, present-day Nichols Avenue (Connecticut Route 108
Route 108 in the U.S. state of Connecticut, locally called Nichols Avenue and Huntington Turnpike, is a two-lane state highway that runs northerly from U.S. Route 1 in Connecticut, US 1, Boston Post Road in Stratford, Connecticut, Stratford, throug ...
), was laid out by the Stratford selectmen to the south side of Mischa Hill. The highway was 12 rods wide, or , where Broadbridge Brook runs off the south side of Mischa Hill, at Zachariah Curtiss, his land, and at Captain's Farm. Broadbridge Brook runs off Mischa Hill west of the present-day intersection of Route 108 and the Merritt Parkway and flows southwesterly to Broadbridge Avenue in Stratford.
The "Captain" the town recorder was referring to may have been Captain Joseph Hawley or Captain William Curtiss, who was captain of the first Train Band and owned a farm at Turkey Hill at this time. This hill was located two miles from the meeting house, along the Farm Highway, on the way to Mischa Hill. The hill was also commonly called Second Hill, Good Hill and Grassy Hill as well. The Captain could have also been John Hawley, who owned the Ephraim Hawley House at this time, which bordered on Zachariah Curtiss' farm. Hawley was captain of the Second or North Train Band and was Justice of the Peace for Fairfield County.
In October 1725, when the Assembly of the Connecticut Colony approved the Parish of Unity, they referred to the Farm Highway as Nickol's Farms Road. The Nichols Avenue portion of Route 108 in Trumbull is considered to be the third-oldest documented highway in Connecticut after the Mohegan Road, Connecticut Route 32
Route 32 is a primary north–south state highway in the U.S. state of Connecticut, beginning in New London and continuing via Willimantic to the Massachusetts state line, where it continues as Route 32 in that state.
Route des ...
in Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
(1670), and the King's Highway King's Highway or Kings Highway may refer to:
Roads Australia
* Kings Highway (Australia), connecting Queanbeyan to Batemans Bay
Canada
* King's Highways, an alternative designation for the primary provincial highway system in Ontario
* King's ...
or Boston Post Road
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States.
The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Ro ...
(1673), now U.S. Route 1.
White Plains Road
In February 1694, Thomas Lake purchased land on the east side of the natural grassy flood plains of the Pequonnock River
The Pequonnock River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed 2011-04-01. waterway in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its watershed is located in five communities, wi ...
near an area called The Falls. By 1705 White Plains Road, present-day Route 127, was laid out northerly past Lake's house to a natural rock outcropping called Pulpit Rock. Pulpit Rock is located north of the present-day intersection of White Plains Road and Unity Road. The first meetings of the Trumbull Congregational Church, established in 1730 as the Parish of Unity, were held at Pulpit Rock on White Plains Road. This church also served as a town meeting house until 1747 when a new church was built under the leadership of Rev. James Beebee.
Merritt Parkway
The Merritt Parkway was built directly through Trumbull in the late 1930s. Trumbull has the distinction of harboring the youngest original Parkway underpass (Frenchtown Road), built in 1942, and the oldest Parkway overpass (at White Plains Road), built in 1934. Constructed of reinforced concrete and encased steel-girder design at a cost of $47,532. It was financed by NRA grants and Connecticut Highway Department funds, the White Plains Road Overpass is not a typical Parkway structure. It was designed prior to the Parkway concept being adopted in 1934 and reflects the newer state highway bridges seen throughout Connecticut during the early 1930s.
Upon completion of the Merritt, George Dunkelberger, the designer of all sixty-nine original bridges, was asked to sketch a bird's-eye view of a Parkway scene he particularly enjoyed. He chose the Park Avenue Underpass in Trumbull with the Sport Hill Road Underpass and Morehouse Highway Underpass in the distance. The sketch, with Park Avenue as a focal point, was used on the cover of the 1940 Highway Commissioner's Biennial Report. The Park Avenue Underpass was also used to symbolize the Parkway on the state of Connecticut's Anniversary Plate issued in 1943.
Industries
Mills
At the August 1697 town meeting, John Seeley first proposed building a gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
at the "narrows" of the Pequonnock River
The Pequonnock River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed 2011-04-01. waterway in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its watershed is located in five communities, wi ...
southward of Eassays Pond, but it took until July 1704 to come to terms with the town and finish construction.
On January 26, 1703, the Stratford selectmen granted Ebeneezer Curtiss, James Lewis and Edmund Lewis, county surveyor, permission to erect a sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
near Mischa Hill.
In December 1709, Captain Judson and Captain Coe agreed to build a dam at the Falls of the Pequonnock River as long as they maintained a mill or mills at the location and they satisfy all persons for land drowned by said dam.
In January 1722, Gideon and Ephraim Hawley agreed to rebuild a mill or mills on the stream of the Pequonnock River at the narrows by White Plain.
Reuben Fairchild and his brothers Daniel and Eben built the Fairchild Paper Mill in 1826 at a place commonly called since 1674 as the Falls of the Pequonnock River. They were guided in their endeavors by Andrew Tait who had learned the art of papermaking
Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...
in Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. Fairchild Paper Mill was the first mill to make white note paper. The company also ran a boarding house for its female employees. The mill stood to the west of White Plains Road
White Plains Road is a major north-south thoroughfare which runs the length of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It runs from Castle Hill and Clason Point in the south to Wakefield in the north, where it crosses the city line and becomes ...
near what is today the entrance to Fairchild Memorial Park. As of 2010, it is the town boundary with the city of Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...
and has been made into Fairchild Park. ''Pequonnock'' in the Paugussett Indian language meant "place of slaughter" or "place of destruction".
Mines
The first mention of minerals at Saganawamps, or the Old Mine Park Archeological Site
The Old Mine Park Archaeological Site is a historic site in the Long Hill section of Trumbull, Connecticut, United States. It was mined from 1828 to 1920 and during 1942-1946, and has been incorporated in a municipal park. It was added to the N ...
, is found in the February 21, 1757, deed giving Howkins Nichols of Stratford a lease for 200 years of five acres "at a place commonly called Saganawam for obtaining ye ore or mineral substances." Some time around 1818, Ephraim Lane took some samples of rocks he found at Saganawamps to Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
Professor Benjamin Silliman for identification. Silliman reported, in his new ''American Journal of Science
The ''American Journal of Science'' (''AJS'') is the United States of America's longest-running scientific journal, having been published continuously since its conception in 1818 by Professor Benjamin Silliman, who edited and financed it himself ...
'', that he had identified tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
, tellurium
Tellurium is a chemical element with the symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur, all three of which are chalcogens. It is occasionally fou ...
, topaz
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al Si O( F, OH). It is used as a gemstone in jewelry and other adornments. Common topaz in its natural state is colorless, though trace element impurities can mak ...
and fluorite. In 1837 the first (and at the time only) prismatic barite
Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...
ore of tungsten in the United States was discovered at the mine.
Manufacturing
Reuben Fairchild, son of Lewis and Mary (Ufoot) Fairchild, married Anna, daughter of Robert Hawley in 1813. He was a cabinet maker by trade and lived his entire life at Nichols Farms where he and his brother Eben commenced the manufacture of saddletrees on a large scale around 1810. In May 1817, they purchased a building and moved their business to Wall Street Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...
.
George R. Nichols embarked with his brother David Stiles Nichols in the manufacture of coaches during the 1840s, their business being mostly with Texas and the Southern states. David S. Nichols was succeeded by James K. Nichols, a brother of George K. Nichols. The firm of Nichols and Brother encountered heavy losses during the Civil War. Before the war, Mr. George K. Nichols, who had successfully conducted a carriage repository on Broadway in New York, in the interest of the firm, had to return to Nichols' Farms to help supply the demand for carriages from the South. The Mexican coaches made by the firm were of high repute.
Harvey Hubbell
Harvey Hubbell II (December 20, 1857 – December 17, 1927), was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and industrialist. His best-known inventions are the U.S. electrical plug and the pull-chain light socket.
In 1888, at the age of thirty-on ...
, like his contemporaries Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
, Ford and Westinghouse, contributed to both spheres of progress, new product design and manufacturing innovation. The first Harvey Hubbell, father of the company's founder, was a partner in two clothing manufacturing firms in the late nineteenth century. The first factory was located in New York, and the second was started in Trumbull in 1860 in a building located near the Hubbell farm on Main Street in the Long Hill section of Trumbull.
Housatonic Railroad
From 1840 - 1931, a segment of the Housatonic Railroad ran along the Pequonnock River with stations at Bridgeport, North Bridgeport (Lyons), Trumbull, Long Hill, Stepney, Pepper (Pepper Crossing) and Botsford, terminating in New Milford, Connecticut
New Milford is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is in western Connecticut, north of Danbury, on the banks of the Housatonic River, and it shares its border with the northeastern shore of Candlewood Lake. It is t ...
. The railroad also maintained the Parlor Rock Amusement Park in Trumbull. The railroad was ripped up and replaced with Connecticut Route 8 up to Trumbull, north of which became the Pequonnock River Valley State Park.
Education
The spirit of public education was fostered early in Trumbull when the selectmen voted on January 11, 1716, to allow the farmers at Long Hill, Fairchilds and Nichols Lakes the use of the forty shillings per thousand allowed by law for seven years ensuing, provided they educate their children according to law.
Five school districts were formed in November 1761. Each district had its own committee, which was appointed regularly and consisted of three persons. The districts were called Nichol's Farm, Daniel's Farm, Long Hill, White Plain and Cutler's Farm, for the area they served. The number was increased slightly in 1762 when Long Hill was split into Upper Long Hill and Lower Long Hill. Tashua School was first noted in 1769.
On December 2, 1795, a meeting was held to set off the eight school districts' new boundaries: Nichol's Farms, White Plain, Daniel's Farm, Booth's Hill, Long Hill South, Long Hill North, Tashua and Mount Moria. The description of the new districts listed landmark houses, roads and geographical locations in the boundary descriptions that included Bears Den, Nichol's Farm Road, the place where Lt. Brinsmade's house once stood, Mischa Hill sawmill, Hedge Hog Brook, Daniel's Farm Road, Luff's Hill, James Daskom's, Widow Sterling's, Widow Beebe's, Booth Hill Brook, Mr. Joseph Nichol's, Mr. Edward Waylon's, Porter's Hill, Shagnawamps Road, Shagnawamps Brook, a large rock by the road between the house of Mr. Joshua Curtiss and Mr. Daniel Foot's, Canoe Brook, Daniel Salmon's, Mr. Seeley Burrough's, Mr. Benjamin Beardslee's, the Weston and Stratfield Parish town lines as well as Mr. Enoch Gregory's, Mr. John Jones, Mr. John Fitch and the Newtown Road.
On the National Register of Historic Places
* Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground
Christ Episcopal Church and Tashua Burial Ground is a historic property including an Episcopal Church building and cemetery at 5170 Madison Avenue in Trumbull, Connecticut. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places i ...
– 5170 Madison Ave. (added May 25, 2001)
* David Mallett Jr. House – 420 Tashua Road (added March 20, 1986)
* Kaatz Icehouse – 255 Whitney Ave. (added October 19, 1977)
* Nichols Farms Historic District
Nichols Farms is a historic area within the town of Trumbull, Connecticut. The Nichols Farms Historic District, which encompasses part of the area, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Originally home to the Paugusset people, ...
– Center Road, 1681–1944 Huntington Turnpike, 5–34 Priscilla Place, and 30–172 Shelton Road (added September 20, 1987)
* Old Mine Park Archeological Site
The Old Mine Park Archaeological Site is a historic site in the Long Hill section of Trumbull, Connecticut, United States. It was mined from 1828 to 1920 and during 1942-1946, and has been incorporated in a municipal park. It was added to the N ...
(added 1990)
Demographics
Notable residents
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
inventor Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...
lived in Trumbull from 1928, after moving his aircraft manufacturing company that bears his name from New York to Stratford, until 1951. The Sikorsky Manufacturing Company became a part of United Aircraft and Transport (now United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems ...
) in July 1929. The company manufactured flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
s, such as the S-42 "Clipper", used by Pan Am
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...
for trans-Atlantic flights.
Sikorsky also continued his earlier work on vertical flight. On February 14, 1929, he filed an application to patent a "direct lift" amphibian aircraft which used compressed air to power a direct lift "propeller" and two smaller propellers for thrust. On June 27, 1931, Sikorsky filed for a patent for another "direct lift aircraft", and was awarded patent #1,994,488 on March 19, 1935.Google Patents retrieved on November 25, 2010
/ref> His design eventually culminated in the first (tethered) flight of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 on September 14, 1939, with the first free flight occurring on May 26, 1940.
Sikorsky's success with the VS-300 led to the R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942. Sikorsky's final VS-300 rotor configuration, comprising a single main rotor and a single antitorque tail rotor, has proven to be one of the most popular helicopter configurations, being used in most helicopters produced today.
Image gallery
Image:Ephraim Hawley House Spring 2011.JPG, Ephraim Hawley House c. 1683
Image:John Wildman House.JPG, John Wildman House c. 1745
Image:Zachariah Curtiss House ca. 1721.JPG, Zachariah Curtiss House c. 1721
File:Samuel French House ca. 1736.jpg, Samuel French House ca. 1736
File:Daniel Beach House ca. 1750 Saltbox.jpg, Daniel Beach House ca. 1750
Image:Daniel Hawley House.JPG, Daniel Hawley House c. 1756
Image:Captain David Beardsley House.JPG, Captain Beardsley House c. 1756
File:John Wheeler House ca. 1770.jpg, John Wheeler House ca. 1770
Image:Joseph Plumb House.JPG, Joseph Plumb House c. 1780
File:Middlebrook House Stepping Stones.JPG, Dr. Elijah Middlebrook House ca. 1824
Image:Joel Curtis House.JPG, Joel Curtis House c. 1840
File:Nichols Farms Burial Ground 1850.JPG, Nichols Farms Burial Ground est. 1850
Image:85 Shelton 1.JPG, Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...
home 1928–1934
Image:27 Alda 2.JPG, Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...
home 1934–1945
Image:1896 Huntington 3.JPG, Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...
home 1945–1948
Image:1487 Huntington 5.JPG, Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...
home 1948–1951
See also
* Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation
The Golden Hill Paugussett is a state-recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut. Granted reservations in a number of towns in the 17th century, their land base was whittled away until they were forced to reacquire a small amount of territor ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
* Reverend Samuel Orcutt
''A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Volume 1''
Fairfield Historical Society, 1886
* Reverend Samuel Orcutt
''A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Volume 2''
Fairfield Historical Society, 1886
* ''History of Trumbull Dodrasquicentennial 1797–1972 Commemorative Book'', Trumbull Historical Society, 1972
* Isaac William Stuart
''Life of Jonathan Trumbull Sen., Governor of Connecticut''
Crocker and Brewster, 1859
* Henry Phelps Johnston
''The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis, 1781''
Ayer Publishing, 1971
* Charles S. Hall
''Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons''
Ostenigo Publishing Co., Binghamton, NY, 1905
* E. Merrill Beach, ''They Face the Rising Sun'', Trumbull Historical Society, 1971
* E. Merrill Beach, ''Trumbull, Church and Town'', Trumbull Historical Society, 1972
* Dorothy Seeley, ''Tales of Trumbull's Past'', Trumbull Historical Society, 1984
* Jonathan Sutherland, ''African Americans at War: an encyclopedia'' Vol. 1, 2004
External links
Jonathan Trumbull historical marker
Trumbull Historical Society
Colonial Connecticut Records: The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636-1776
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Trumbull, Connecticut
Trumbull, Connecticut
Trumbull Trumbull may refer to:
Places United States
* Trumbull County, Ohio
** Trumbull Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio
* Trumbull, Connecticut
* Trumbull, Nebraska
* Fort Trumbull, Connecticut
* Mount Trumbull Wilderness in Arizona
People Surname
* ...
Populated places established in 1639
Populated places established in 1725
Populated places established in 1744
Populated places established in 1797
History of Fairfield County, Connecticut
1639 establishments in Connecticut