fairfield

Frank S. Child
Frank S. Child
Publications [click on the titel for more informations: - review - summary - notes - price - publisher ..]
Old New England Town Frank S. Child Old New England Town
Fairfield Ancient and Modern, 1639-1909 Frank S. Child Fairfield Ancient and Modern, 1639-1909

INTRODUCTION
THE TOWN OF FAIRFIELD, which in Colonial days The included Redding, Easton, Weston, Green's Farms, Southport, Greenfield, Fairfield (Center), Stratfield and Black Rock has parted with all but four of these sections, namely: Fairfield (Center), Southport, Greenfield and Stratfield. The committee has, however, included Black Rock, now a part of Bridgeport, in the descriptive tours as that was, until recent years, a very important part of Fairfield town because of its exceptionally fine harbor.An honored historian of the Town -- Dr. Frank S. Child -- drew many a word picture of Fairfield's hills and shore line, its people and customs. He says: "This particular old New England town nestles down by an inflow of the sea. A favored resort of Indians, many of their wigwams dotted its shores."When our forefathers reached this spot they too were charmed with its virginal loveliness. In their enthusiasm, we can see the wearied immigrants turn aside from the hard toil of rearing log cabins and cultivating patches of corn to admire the landscape spread before them. They were men and women of refinement and culture. The beautiful must needs appeal to them. For we must remember that these people came from a land of gardens, cathedrals and art galleries."--'An Old New England Town.'




Among the prominent men who have lived in Fairfield are Roger Sherman, the first President Dwight of Yale (who described Fairfield in his Travth and in his poem Greenfield Hill),
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New York To New Haven
( Originally Published 1919 )



R. 1 § 1. New York to New Haven. 74.5 m.
Via the GRAND CONCOURSE AND PELHAM PARKWAY, STAMFORD, and BRIDGEPORT. STATE ROAD all the way. Marked from GREENWICH to NEW HAVEN with red bands on posts and with red arrows.
This is one of the principal motor routes in America; between one and two thousand automobiles pass over it every day. It is an excellent road, stretches of block pavement, asphalt, and oiled macadam alternating. The route out of New York as here described follows recently constructed boulevards, avoiding the Old Post Road until the shore is reached at New Rochelle.
The Old Boston Post Road originally commenced at the Battery and led through the Bowery and along what is now Third Avenue to Harlem, thence through Morrisania and East Chester to New Rochelle. As this district is now practically included within the bounds of New York City there are many streets and routes laid out by which New Rochelle is to be reached, which are preferable to the rather sordid modern conditions along the Boston Road


On the Post Road is the Sherman House, the spacious residence of Judge Roger M. Sherman, nephew of the Roger who signed the Declaration of Independence. He willed it to the Prime Ancient Society for a parsonage. It is known as The House of Sixty Closets, the title given a story about the portraits of the Judge and his wife which still hang in the east drawing room. Today it is the home of the Rev. Frank S. Child, the loyal historian of the countryside.
52.5 FAIRFIELD. Pop (twp) 6134. County-seat of Fairfield Co. Settled 1639. Indian name Uncoa. Mfg. chemicals, wire, rubber goods, aluminum, automobile lamps, and flat silver and tin ware.
Fairfield, named from its fair fields, in Colonial times one of the four largest towns in Connecticut, is today a beautiful residential town. In the village and on the hills are many handsome and elaborate estates of wealthy New York families.
Near the station the route turns to the right, passing the Memorial Library and a stone fountain. Just north of the station is the old barrel-roofed stone powder house. Beyond the Library is a stone set by "David Barlow, cidevant, farmer, 1791." In front of the Town Hall stands a boulder with a bronze tablet recording Tryon's Raid, July 7, 1779, when the Hessian Yagers returning from the pillage of New Haven burned two hundred houses.
The Town Green is the center today as in the past. Fronting it stands the old Sun Tavern, where Washington `baited his horsese and tarried all night Oct. 16, I789, on his Grand Tour. On the Green itself stands the ancient whipping post, now serving as a bulletin board. The town records show how one and another offender was sentenced to be whipped twenty or thirty lashes, or to be confined in the stocks three hours a day. Unseemly carriage, profanation of the Sabbath, witch work, and unlicensed use of tobacco, as well as other crimes, were expiated. On the west side of the Green was a pond in which Mercy Disbrow and Elizabeth Clausen, reputed witches, were thrust to determine whether or not they were daughters of Belial. The records tell us "that they buoyed up like a cork," positive evidence to the onlookers that they had sold themselves to the devil.
Benson's Tavern of stage coach days, now a private house, still stands on the main street. This was a favorite stop. The stage changed horses at Stamford but at Fairfield was supper. Famous travelers have sat about its board,—Macready, Edwin Booth, and Fanny Kemble. Souvenirs of distinguished men decorate the walls of the dining room and in the living room is Peter Parley's chair.
The ivy-mantled, gothic St. Paul's Church now stands where the gaol stood until the burning of the town. The Norman Church opposite is on the site of the original log meeting house of 1640 and five successive edifices.
Southeast of the Green on the road to the beach lies the ancient God's-Acre, entered by a beautiful stone lich-gate. The oldest stone bears the date of 1687. The Silliman monument commemorates the distinguished family which in successive generations gave many sons to public and university life. Here, too, are buried members of the Burr family.
The present fine old Burr mansion on the main street is the successor of the one burned by the drunken troops in spite of Tryon's written protection in the Sack of 1779. The present homestead, by John Hancock's request, was patterned somewhat on the Hancock mansion at Boston, since torn down.
In Colonial days the Burr family was most notable in these parts. The Burr mansion in its palmy days was the center of hospitality and about it cluster the local traditions. It was built about 1700 by Chief Justice Peter Burr, one of the earliest graduates of Harvard, and stood somewhat back from the village main street under a canopy of elms, a manorial structure. Its old fashioned garden with an ancient arbor-vita hedge, dates to Colonial days.
Washington, Franklin, Lafayette, John and Samuel Adams, and Dr. Dwight were frequent guests, and here Trumbull and Copley painted full length portraits, still preserved, of their host and hostess. After the Battle of Lexington in June, 1775, Governor John Hancock, fleeing from British justice, followed his affianced bride, Dorothy Quincy, the celebrated belle of Boston, who sought refuge in the house of Thaddeus Burr. The gossips say that while John was in Philadelphia attending the Continental Congress, Aaron Burr, a handsome youth of twenty, came to visit his cousin Thaddeus. There at once began a flirtation which greatly disturbed Hancock's peace of mind, as his letters plainly show. But for the intervention of Aunt Lydia Hancock it might have resulted disastrously, but Aaron was packed off to Litchfield to enter the law school of Judge Reeve (R. 6). John and Dorothy were later married here in the old house.
On the Post Road is the Sherman House, the spacious residence of Judge Roger M. Sherman, nephew of the Roger who signed the Declaration of Independence. He willed it to the Prime Ancient Society for a parsonage. It is known as The House of Sixty Closets, the title given a story about the portraits of the Judge and his wife which still hang in the east drawing room. Today it is the home of the Rev. Frank S. Child, the loyal historian of the countryside.
There are many fine old estates in Fairfield and the neighbor-hood. Mailands, situated on Osborn Hill, an old signal station of the Indians, is the extensive country seat of Mr. Oliver G. Jennings. Verna Farm is the country place of Hon. Lloyd C. Griscom, former Ambassador to Italy. Round Hill, another Indian signal station, is a commanding eminence belonging to Mr. Frederick Sturges. Sunnie Holme is the country estate of Miss Annie B. Jennings, and has gardens that are among the most beautiful and elaborate in the State. The house of Hermann Hagedorn, a poet and dramatist taking honorable place among the younger writers, is at Sunnytop Farm, a hill not far distant from the place where the first President Dwight wrote poetry, cultivated strawberries, and conducted his remarkable school. Waldstein is the home of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, President of the State Audubon Society, and author of numerous works of fiction and books on nature.
A generous friend has recently given to the State Audubon Society a Bird Sanctuary,—some fifteen acres of diversified, well-wooded park land situated on the edge of the village, commanding a fine view of the Sound. Near the entrance is the rustic cottage of the curator and opposite is the quaint museum filled with several hundred specimens of our native birds. The Fairfield Historical Society has an interesting collection of antiquities and rare books in its hall. It has published some fifteen brochures on local history.
Fairfield Beach, extending for three miles, is one of the most attractive along this coast. Near the beach is the Fairfield Fresh Air Home, which cares for more than one hundred and twenty-five city children each summer season. Here, too, is the Gould Vacation Home for self-supporting women, a beautiful Colonial estate endowed by the Gould sisters. Grover's Hill projects boldly into the sea on the east of Ash Creek. This was the site of a fort in Revolutionary times; today it is a private estate, Shoonhoven Park, containing some of the finest country residences in Connecticut. Ash Creek in Colonial days had several tide mills upon it. Here it was the British landed the night they captured General Silliman, whose house was on Holland Hill. To the east is Black Rock Harbor.
In 1777 nine Tories crossed the Sound by boat and captured the Continental General Silliman and his son, who was then quartered in his own house, and took them to Oyster Bay. In retaliation a few months later a band of twenty-five Southport men crossed to Oyster Bay and seized the Tory Judge Jones and a young man named Hewlett, while a dance was going on in the Judgees house, and brought them back as prisoners, where Mrs. Silliman entertained them. Later the four prisoners were exchanged.
In the suburbs of Bridgeport on Fairfield Ave. at the corner of Brewster St. is a milestone inscribed "XXM to NH," which being interpreted indicates that it is twenty miles to New Haven. Just beyond is the Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Bur-roughs Home for Widows.
Where the road passes under the railway occurred the wreck of the Federal Express, fourteen killed and forty injured, July 11, 1911. In the short stretch of track between here and North Haven the New Haven Road has succeeded in wrecking five trains in five years, with a loss of fifty-seven lives and two hundred injured.
Passing under the railway we come to the winter quarters of the Barnum and Bailey circus, now owned by the Ringling Brothers, which occupy several acres. The winter quarters of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show were formerly somewhere within the city limits. The old house of P. T. Barnum, America's greatest showman, is almost opposite Clinton Ave. In front of the house stands a statue of a sea god.
Barnum made his great hit in 1849 when he paid $150,000 to Jenny Lind for 150 concerts, a figure that was something stupendous for the time. Another of his stars, General Tom Thumb, was born in Bridge-port in 1832 and weighed nine pounds at birth, but after his seventh month he ceased to grow, and remained through life but twenty-eight inches high. In 1863 he married Miss Lavinia Warren of Middleboro, Massachusetts, who, like himself, was a dwarf (R. 31). Barnum starred General and Mrs. Tom Thumb through Europe, where they were received by "all the crowned heads." One of the Ringlings married a daughter of Barnum and inherited the circus business.
Barnum was a great benefactor of Bridgeport and through the city we find evidence of it, Barnum Public School, the Barnum Building, and Barnum Ave., so that Bridgeport is a sort of Barnum Museum itself. Barnum Institute is the head-quarters of the Historical and Scientific Society, contains collections, and is used for lectures. But his greatest gift was Seaside Park, a beautiful tract on the shore, in which there is, properly enough, a statue of the great circus man himself.
At the corner of Park Ave. opposite St. John's Episcopal Church is a beautiful memorial fountain to Nathaniel Wheeler, the originator of the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine.