Town of Bethel Historical Marker

When this area was settled, soon after 1685 it was part of its present neighbor. Danbury. As population grew, residents petitioned the General Assembly of the Colony for parish status and a church closer than the center of Danbury, In 1759 this was granted but the Assembly named the new parish Bethel not Eastbury as petitioned. The meeting house for the seventy-one members of the new Bethel Society was the Main Street site of the present Congretional Church. Parish taxes were collected. By 1769 there were at least five schools within the Stony Hill, Plumtrees, Wolfpits, Wildcat Center and Grassy Plain settlement.

Town of Brookfield Historical Marker

The land which comprises the geographical are of Brookfield belonged to the towns of Danbury, Newtown and New Milford. In 1754 the Parish of Newbury was incorporated by decree of the General Assembly with boundaries and area similar to those of the town as it is today. In October 1755 the Assembly approved as a site for the Newbury meeting house the location of the present Congregational Church. In 1788 the Parish of Newbury was incorporated as the Town of Brookfield so named for the first pastor of the Congregational Church, the Reverend Thomas Brooks.

Town of Danbury Historical Marker

Eight families came from Norwalk in 1685 to settle this area which the Indians called Pahquioque. They built their first homes a half mile south of here and made this green their common. The General Court in October 1687, decreed the name ‘Danbury’ although the settlers had chosen ‘Swampfield.’ Beans and other crops helped make Danbury and inland trading center by 1750 with a population of two thousand. At the start of the American revolution this town became a hospital and supply base. General Tryon let a British force of two thousand in a raid of Danbury on April 26–27, 1777. Three young men, one a Negro, died in defense of the town near the north end of this green. The British burnt nineteen houses, a church, twenty-two barns, and many supplies. General David Wooster, commanding the American forces which set upon the British, was wounded at Ridgefield and died and was buried here. The street name to the west is his name. Hat making became Danbury’s for most industry after independence. Until the 1950’s, Danbury was known as the Hat City of the World. Charles Ives, famed American composer, was born here in 1874. His birthplace has been preserved by the Danbury Scott-Fanton Museum and Historical Society.

Town of New Fairfield Historical Marker

The town was incorporated in 1740, and the twelve "Proprietors" carried on civil affairs. When the first meeting house was built in 1742 by the South Society of New Fairfield (later known as the Congregational Church) it also served as the seat of government. In 1759, the civil government was separated from the Church, and a town hall was built. During the early part of the 19th century, New Fairfield, always an important farming community, also developed as a sizable industrial center. In the 1860's there were at least a dozen business and manufacturing enterprises but by 1900 most of these firms had moved elsewhere or had been liquidated. After the creation of Candlewood Lake in the late 1920's by the Connecticut Light and Power Company for hydro-electric generation this rural town gradually became a desirable residential and resort area.

Town of Newtown Historical Marker

This area then known as Quannneapague was purchased from the Pohtatuck Indians in 1705. Settled from Stratford and incorporated in 1711. Newtown was a stronghold of Tory sentiment during the early Revolutionary War. French General Rochambeau and his troops encamped here in 1781on their way to the sledge of Yorktown, Virginia which ended the Revolution. An important crossroads throughout its early history the village of Hawleyville briefly emerged as a railroad center, and the town's population grew to over 4000 circa 1881. In the following decades the population dwindled to a low of 2633 in 1930 before again growing. Newtown covers an area of 6038 square miles. Local industry has included the manufacture of furniture, tea bags, combs, fire hose, folding boxes, buttons and hats as well as farming and mica and feldspar mining. The game of scrabble was developed here by James Brunot.

Town of Redding Historical Marker

Originally part of Fairfield and unclaimed land, Redding was settled about 1711, made a parish in 1729, and incorporated in 1767. It was named for John Read, gentleman, lawyer, early landowner, and spokesman for the settlers. One of his land purchases was from the Mohawk Indian sachem Chickens in 1714. In 1777, during the Revolutionary war, General Tryon led British troops over Redding Ridge on their way to burn Danbury. The right wing of the Continental Army under General Israel Putnam encamped here in the winter of 1778-1779. Putnam Memorial Park marks the only remaining preserved campsite. A wire mill founded by native-born Benjamin Gilbert in 1818 is the Town’s only industry. The library was founded by Mark Twain, famous American writer and humorist, who lived here 1908-1910. The high school is named for Joel Barlow, born 1754, poet, patriot, and statesman. Collis P. Huntington State Park was a gift of Archer and Anne Hyatt Huntington, philanthropists and long-time residents here.

Town of Ridgefield Historical Marker

This town was founded in 1708 by a group of families from Norwalk who purchased twenty thousand acres from the Ramapoo Indians for one hundred pounds sterling. They were aided by John Copp, a surveyor who explored the land now lying between High Ridge and East Ridge and recommended it as a promising agricultural area suitable for settlement. In 1777 at the Battle of Ridgefield, Colonial militia fought British and Hessian troops returning from a raid on American military stores in Danbury, They were headed back to Compo Beach on the shore of Long Island Sound. Ridgefield began as a farming community and remained a typical New England village until after the Civil War. Then it became a summer resort town for prosperous New Your City families and many large homes were erected over the years on Main Street, West Lane, High Ridge, Peaceable Street and East Ridge. 

Town of Sherman Historical Marker

Originally part of New Fairfield which was purchased from the Indians in 1729 the area then known as the Upper Seven Miles was separately incorporated as the Town of Sherman in 1802. The town was named for Roger Sherman who as a young man had a cobbler shop at the north end, He was to become the only statemen to help draft and sign all the following documents: the Article of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the United State Constitution. A native of Sherman was Philo Penfield Stewart, missionary to the Choctaw Indians, Inventor of the Stewart stove and in 1833 a founder of Oberlin College in Ohio. The character of the town as a farming community devoted to dairying, grazing, and tobacco-growing changed after 1926 when for hydroelectric power eight hundred acres of Sherman land were flooded in the creation of Lake Candlewood.