![Fairchild Library Nichols Connecticut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Fairchild_Library_Nichols_Connecticut.JPG)
Nichols, a historic village in southeastern
Trumbull in
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County is a County (United States), county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the List of counties in Connecticut, most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. A ...
, is named after the family who maintained a large farm in its center for almost 300 years. The
Nichols Farms Historic District, which encompasses part of the village, is listed on 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 ...
. 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 ...
, the area was colonized by the English during the
Great Migration of the 1630s as a part of the coastal settlement of
Stratford. The construction of the
Merritt Parkway
The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County. ...
through the village, and the subsequent closing of stores and factories, turned the village into a
bedroom community
A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
in 1939. Aviation pioneer
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 three separate homes in Nichols during his active years between 1928 and 1951, when he designed, built and flew
fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinc ...
and put the
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 ...
into mass production for the first time.
Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation
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 ...
is a Connecticut
state-recognized tribe, descendants of the ''Paugussett'' (also ''Paugusset'') Nation of
Native Americans, who occupied much of western
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 ...
prior to the arrival of Europeans.
While state-recognized, they have been denied
federal recognition
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
.
The tribe lives in
Colchester, Connecticut
Colchester is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 15,555 at the 2020 census. In 2010 Colchester became the first town in Connecticut, and the 36th in the country, to be certified with the National Wildli ...
, where it has a reservation,
and also has a reservation in Nichols, which is considered to be the oldest continuing reservation in Connecticut and the smallest in the US.
History
As the first volume of Stratford land records were destroyed in 1650, early records of English settlement are not available. In 1661, the Stratford selectmen voted to allow all inhabitants the liberty of taking up a whole division of land anywhere they could find fit planting ground, as long as it was not within two miles (3 km) of the town meeting house. They were prohibited from making it their dwelling place without consent. Elder Phillip Groves, Captain William Curtiss and 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 ...
, early landowners in Nichols, were named to a committee to lay out the land as they saw fit.
Before 1661, people were free to take up planting grounds anywhere within the township. The common land in Nichols Farms was divided and granted to individuals beginning in 1670 as a part of the ''three-mile'' or ''woods division'' and continued up to 1800.
Agriculture
Mischa Hill is located in the geographic center of Nichols. This area was first called ''Misha Hill'' or ''Lt. Joseph Judson's Farm'' in the land records. It was the first area within Trumbull to be settled due to its already cleared planting fields, fertile soil, spring-fed ponds, meadows and its close proximity to the main village, only three miles away.
Lt. Joseph Judson, Sgt. Jeremiah Judson, and John Curtiss established farms on Mischa Hill before 1658, the year they were elected
freeman (Colonial) by the legislature of the
Connecticut Colony
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 be elected as a freeman, at this time, an individual had to own real property in his own name.
Other early landowners included; Benjamin Beach, William Beardsley, Richard Booth, Zachariah Bostick, John Brinsmaid, John Curtiss, Benjamin Curtiss, Joseph Curtiss, Captain William Curtiss, Ebenezer Curtiss,
Zachariah Curtiss, Joseph Fairchild, Elder Philip Groves,
Joseph Hawley (Captain), Samuel Hawley,
Ephraim Hawley, John Hurd, 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 ...
, Jeremiah Judson, Isaac Judson, Isaac Nichols, Caleb Nichols, Abraham Nichols, Samuel Uffoot and Reverend Zachariah Walker.
Religious rift
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 ...
began a disagreement with the majority of elders in town as he and others 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 ...
. In 1671, Judson obtained permission from 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 remove with other families and settle 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 ...
. Judson and the other Woodbury founders, either sold, gifted or abandoned their farms in Nichols.
In 1688, John Curtiss removed to Woodbury, giving his entire farm on Mischa Hill to his son Benjamin, who had married Joseph Judson's daughter. Shortly after Judson and the others had abandoned their farms in Nichols to remove to Woodbury in 1673, the area was commonly referred to as ''Old Farm'', ''Old Farms'' and ''Judson's Farm's'' in the Stratford land records.
Abraham Nichols
Abraham Nichols is credited, by some, with being the first Englishman to settle in Trumbull around 1690 or 1700, depending on the source. It has been said that others soon followed him into the wilderness to; "establish mills, churches, and schools". Nichols landholdings were said to total as much as . However, none of these claims can be substantiated by the public land records.
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. Since Abraham was only eleven in 1673 (born 1662), it is likely that he removed to Woodbury with his family, and later returned to Trumbull between 1696 and 1700 as an adult. According to the public land records, Nichols owned of land, purchased between 1696 and 1700, of which remains as
open space today.
The last Nichols to reside on the farm was Florence, who married George Woods in 1903. Soon after their deaths in 1973 and 1972 respectively, the property was donated to the Nichols Methodist Church, as Florence and George Woods had bequeathed. The Town of Trumbull purchased the land from the church in 1974. This tract was then known as the ''Woods Estate'', and is now the home of the Trumbull Historical Society.
Development
Nichols is named for the family that maintained a large farm in its geographic center for almost three hundred years. 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 form their own
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
. The farmers wished to call their 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 ...
Nichol's Farms. The legislature approved their new village in October 1725, but named the new parish
Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...
. Unity became a part of
North Stratford in 1744 when it merged with the parish of
Long Hill, Trumbull, which had been founded in 1740. When it incorporated in 1797, the Nichols village became a school and taxing district as a part of the Town of Trumbull.
Nichols Green
The Nichols Green or N.I.A. Green, is owned and maintained by a private trust called the
Nichols Improvement Association', established in 1889 to beautify and improve the village.
*A memorial to those residents who fought in World Wars I and II is located on the south end of the green.
*An 80' tall pine flagpole brought through the
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...
from
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
was erected on the green in 1932. This pine pole replaced an earlier 115' chestnut flagpole erected on July 4, 1892 that carried a 25' by 15' flag and was believed by some to be the highest flag flown in the state at the time.
*Another landmark near the green is the Bunny Fountain. The fountain was a gift from the Peet family to the citizens of Nichols in 1895. Originally installed at the intersection of Huntington Turnpike and Shelton Road, it was moved to the Turnpike and Unity Road in 1931. In the spring of 1971, it was restored and moved to its present location. It was restored again in 1992.
*An old grinding stone from the 1826 Fairchild (Paper) Mill is placed at the south end of the green. The mill was located at the Falls 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, w ...
beginning in 1674; the area is now called Fairchild Park and marks the Town boundary with Bridgeport.
*A piece of the original 1940
Merritt Parkway
The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County. ...
bridge, which was built over Huntington Turnpike, is installed on the green. The concrete ornament is a likeness of the town of Trumbull official seal. The bridge was demolished in 1979 when the interchange was updated.
Pinewood Lake
Then called
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 audito ...
,
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 ...
is notable for having served as the summer rehearsal headquarters of the
Group Theatre from New York City. Formed in 1931 by
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. ,
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
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
, the Group Theatre and had a vision of doing socially responsible works that would raise community consciousness. It was composed of
actors
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...
,
directors
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
,
playwrights
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and
producers
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
. The Group gathered to rehearse in the countryside every summer during the 1930s of the Great Depression. They spent the summer of 1936 at Pinewood Lake. During this time, they produced works by the most important American playwrights. Their emphasis on realistic dramas changed stage and film forever.
Nichols Avenue
The road linking the village of Nichols to Stratford center, three miles (5 km) to the south, was first called the ''Farm Highway'', now called ''Nichols Avenue'' or (
Route 108). The historic road was laid out or surveyed to the south side of Mischa Hill in Nichols on December 7, 1696. The highway was described as being completed to the south side of ''Mischa Hill and at
Zachariah Curtiss, his land, and at Captain's Farm''.
In October 1725, when the
Connecticut Colony
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 ...
approved the Parish of Unity, they referred to the Farm Highway as ''Nickol's Farm's Road''. The Nichols Avenue portion of Route 108 in Trumbull is the third-oldest documented
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...
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 Route 1 (1673).
Merritt Parkway
The
Merritt Parkway
The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County. ...
was built directly through the center of Nichols in the late 1930s displacing a residence and the old Nichols Store, which were razed, and the Trinity Church which was moved a few hundred feet to the north. The large 5' by 6' natural stepping stone was the only item saved from the old Nichols Store and was relocated to the front of the
Ephraim Hawley House
The Ephraim Hawley House is a privately owned Colonial American wooden post-and-beam timber-frame saltbox house situated on the ''Farm Highway'', Route 108, on the south side of ''Mischa Hill'', in Nichols, a village located within Trumbull, C ...
. In 1979, the original Huntington Turnpike Overpass was demolished and a new bridge was built in its place when the interchange was updated. When the original 1940 overpass was demolished, the cast-iron grills that resembled a trellis with a grapevine were salvaged restored and placed as decorative items on the replacement Huntington Turnpike Underpass. The new bridge is not listed on the
NRHP.
Notable people, past and present
*
Dick Allen
Richard Anthony Allen (March 8, 1942 – December 7, 2020) was an American professional baseball player. During his fifteen-year-long Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played as a first baseman, third baseman, and outfielder, most notably ...
( 1939-2017), American poet and former poet laureate of the state of Connecticut.
*
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 ...
(1717–1785),
Reverend
The Reverend is an style (manner of address), honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and Minister of religion, ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and c ...
Unity Parish from 1747 to 1785, Army
Preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a ...
in the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
and
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 ...
.
*
Truman Bradley (1826–1900),
American Indian from the
Schaghticoke tribe.
*
Will Geer
Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In Ca ...
, (1902–78), actor and folklorist
*
Robert Hawley, (1729–1799), Captain local militia during
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
*
Carolyn Hax (b. 1966), writer and columnist for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and the author of the advice column "Tell Me About It".
*
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 ...
(1619-1690), early settler, militia officer and elected official, negotiated ''Long Hill Purchase'' from the
Paugussett Indians.
*
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 ...
(1889–1972), aviation pioneer and
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.
Ikenson page 24
/ref>
Images
Image:Zachariah Curtiss House ca. 1721.JPG, Zachariah Curtiss House
The Zachariah Curtiss House is located at 2950 Nichols Avenue on the east side of the ''Farm Highway'' or Route 108 on the south side of ''Mischa Hill'', in the village of Nichols in Trumbull, Connecticut in New England. The house was built by ...
c. 1721, ell c. 1800
Image:Peet Barn.JPG, Peet barn ca. 1700 (house demolished)
Image:Joseph Plumb House.JPG, Joseph Plumb House ca. 1780
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: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
Image:1939 Merritt Parkway Town Seal.JPG, Town Seal from 1940 Merritt Parkway Bridge at Huntington Turnpike now demolished
Image:NIA Flagpole.JPG, Circa 1932 Flag Pole NIA Green
Image:Monument WWI WWII.JPG, Monument to World War Veterans
Image:Bunny Fountain NIA.JPG, N.I.A. Starkweather House and Peet Fountain view from green
Image:Fairchild Mill Grindstone.JPG, Fairchild Mill Grindstone Circa 1826
References
Bibliography
* Trumbull Historical Society, ''History of Trumbull, Dodrasquicentennial, 1797-1972'', 1972
* Reverend Samuel Orcutt, ''History of the Old Town of Stratford, Connecticut'', Fairfield Historical Society, 1886
* Dorothy M. Seely, ''Tales of Trumbull's Past'', Trumbull Historical Society, 1984
External links
Nichols Improvement Society
National Register of Historic Places
{{Fairfield County, Connecticut
Trumbull, Connecticut
History of Connecticut
Populated places established in 1725
Colonial architecture in Connecticut
Federal architecture in Connecticut
Greek Revival architecture in Connecticut
1725 establishments in Connecticut
Villages in Fairfield County, Connecticut
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Fairfield County, Connecticut