PART I

THE PAST AND PRESENT

PAGE

INTRODUCTION. By MINOT S. GIDDINGS 3

The first settlers of New Milford. Zachariah Ferriss sued for trespass. John Reed and his career. Organizing a township. Organizing a church and calling a minister. The sturdy character of the Fathers. Noted men. Roger Sherman. The splendid heritage of New Milford.

GLIMPSES OF OLD NEW MILFORD HISTORY. By CHARLOTTE BALDWIN BENNETT 8

The site of New Milford two hundred years ago. The character and career of John Noble. The Boardman well. The first minister and the first meetinghouse. The union of town and church. “Seating and dignifying the meetinghouse.” People called to church by a drum. The tithing-man. The Sabbath-day house. Importance of the minister. The first Episcopal services. The Separatists. The Baptists. The Methodists. The Quakers. The different church edifices. Church music. The schools. The singing schools. The early wars. A romance of the Revolution. Illustrious visitors. Social life after the war. Anecdote of Parson Taylor. Transportation. Main street nearly a century ago. Beautifying “The Green.” The village doctor. Slavery. The “Underground Railroad.” The Civil War. The fire of 1902.

THE OWNERS OF NEW MILFORD. By GEN. HENRY STUART TURRILL 22

Proprietors to the amount of £1, 4s. Proprietors to the amount of 12s.

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. (POEM). By SARAH SANFORD BLACK 24

THE TWO ABIGAILS. By GEN. HENRY STUART TURRILL 26

Caleb Terrill settles in New Milford. Major Turrill. Marriage of Caleb Terrill and Abigail Bassett in Stratford. Caleb and Abigail visit Caleb’s family at Milford. They mount the “Great River.” Halt at “the Cove.” The home on Second Hill. The wonderful life of Abigail. The career of Abigail Ufford.

NEW MILFORD IN THE WARS. By GEN. HENRY STUART TURRILL 31

Military inactivity of the first fifty years. The first company in New Milford. Arduousness of the train-band service. The Second Company. Tenth Company of Col. David Wooster’s Third Regiment of Connecticut Levy. Other Companies. The Eleventh Company of the Fourth Regiment. The Tenth Company of the Second Regiment. Captain Joseph Canfield’s Company. The good understanding with the Indians. The most prominent names in military affairs. The first company mentioned in connection with the Revolution. Its history indefinite. Captain Isaac Bostwick’s Company. The Nineteenth Regiment of Connecticut Line. Part played in the movements about New York. At Spuyten Duyvil Creek. Tradition of a sergeant’s guard under the command of David Buell. The capture of Fort Washington. New Milford men made prisoners of war. Confined in a barn. The Old Sugar House Prison. Prison hardships. Roger Blaisdell’s pork barrel. The prison-ship _Dutton_. Arrival of the surviving prisoners in New Milford. Captain Bostwick’s company about Philadelphia. The Danbury alarm. Captain Daniel Pendleton’s company. The stay-at-homes. The leading families in the Revolution. Engagements in which New Milford men participated. New Milford soldiers refreshed by Deacon Gaylord. New Milford men at Stony Point. The old age of David Buell. Reunions of old soldiers at the home of John Turrill. The adventures of Stephen Turrill.

THE COLONIAL WARS 45

New Milford men in the Colonial Wars as given in the Connecticut Historical Society rolls.

THE REVOLUTION 49

Muster roll of a company said to have been raised in New Milford and to have formed a part of Colonel Andrew Ward’s Regiment of Connecticut Militia. Roll of Captain Isaac Bostwick’s company, Seventh Company, Sixth Regiment, of Connecticut Line. Men who crossed the Delaware with Captain Isaac Bostwick and were in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Officers and men from New Milford who served in the Sixth Company of the Fourth Regiment of Connecticut Line. New Milford men who served in Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Starr’s Regiment, Connecticut Line. New Milford men who were in Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Canfield’s Regiment of Connecticut Militia at West Point in 1781. New Milford men who served in Connecticut Regiment of Pioneers. New Milford men who served in Col. Moses Hazen’s Regiment, Connecticut Militia. New Milford men who served in the Fifth Troop, Shelden’s Dragoons. New Milford men who served in Second Regiment, Connecticut Line. Company of forty volunteers. New Milford men in Captain Charles Smith’s company. General David Waterbury’s State Regiment. Lieutenant John Phelps’s Troop of Horse. New Milford men in Sixth Company, Fourth Regiment, Continental Line. New Milford Men in Captain Kimberley’s Company, Second Regiment, Continental Line. New Milford men who served under Lieutenant-Colonel Canfield in the Tryon invasion. New Milford members of the Society of the Cincinnati.

THE WAR OF 1812 53

THE MEXICAN WAR 53

THE CIVIL WAR 54

List of men from New Milford who had service in the Civil War. Recapitulation.

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 66

RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD NEW MILFORD HOMES.

By ALICE MERWIN BOSTWICK 67

The pre-Revolutionary houses. The great chimney. The good cooking of the early days. The hard work. The quilting bee. The shoemaker. The schoolmaster. Homeless wanderers. Indians from the Reservation. The calls of the parson. Visiting. Sunday. Fast Day. Thanksgiving. The long winters. Comparison of the life then and now.

UNCHARTERED INSTITUTIONS. BY FREDERIC KNAPP 75

The general “sitting-down” place. Levi Knapp’s store. Its influence. Remarkable longevity of its habitués.

TRAINING DAYS IN THE ’FORTIES, AS TOLD BY AN OLD BOY. BY FREDERIC KNAPP 78

Emerson’s appreciation of boys. Training day _the_ day of the year. Off for a good time. On the parade-ground. At the tavern. The evolutions of the train-band. The lessons taught.

REMARKABLE LONGEVITY OF NEW MILFORD CITIZENS. By MINOT S. GIDDINGS 81

ACTIVITIES OF NEW MILFORD IN LATER YEARS 84

Original extent of New Milford. Well watered and fertilized. Beauty of the landscape. Growth of the town. The production of milk and butter. Account of the tobacco industry, by Vincent B. Sterling. The hatting industry. The button industry. The furniture industry. The manufacture of machinery. Paper making. Grist mills and saw mills. The iron industry. Cloth making. Operations in wood and lumber. Quarrying and burning lime rock. The electric light plant. The New Milford Power Company. Pottery making. Account of the Bridgeport Wood Finishing Company by George B. Calhoun. Education in New Milford. The early schools. The Housatonic Institute. Adelphi Institute. The Center School. The first kindergarten. The Ingleside School. The New Milford churches. The Memorial Hall and Library. The New Milford newspapers. The New Milford Brass Band. Roger Sherman Hall. The banks. The Agricultural Society. The water supply. The fire department. The fires of New Milford. The fire of 1902. Recovering from the fire of 1902. Recent growth and improvements.

THE STORY OF NEW MILFORD TOLD IN CHRONOLOGICAL EPITOME. By RUSSELL B. NOBLE AND MINOT S. GIDDINGS 98

RECORD OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES OF ROGER SHERMAN. By HON. EBENEZER J. HILL 115