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This is an artificial collection created by the Mattatuck Museum as collection for small donation of photographs having to do with Waterbury. The collection is arranged by subject. Photographs date from circa 1847-circa 2005 in various sizes and format. The collection's strengths include documentati...

This collection is composed of various donations of early photography in Waterbury. It includes: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes.

Plume and Atwood Manufacturing Company was organized in 1869 by Israel Holmes, John C. Booth, Lewis J. Atwood, David S. Plume, Aaron Thomas, George W. Welton, Burr Tucker, and others. The company made sheet brass, wire, lamp parts, rivets, fasteners, other small brass goods. Main office was in Water...

Between 1812 and 1849, the Waterbury Button Company was a division of the Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Company. In 1849, the Benedict and Burnham established its button making division as a separate company, capitalized at thirty thousand dollars. The stock in the newly formed Waterbury Button...

The Great Brook Reservoir Association was formed in 1856 in order to share the expense of building and maintaining a dam and reservoir in Great Brook at Buck’s Hill. Original Members included Waterbury Knitting Co., Waterbury Manufacturing Company, W. R. Hitchcock and Co., William Perkins, and L....

The Elton family have been members of the Waterbury community since the mid-1700s and were farmers, businessmen, politicians, and medical doctors. A brief history of those included in these papers is as follows. John Elton (circa 1855-1800) was a Watertown doctor. Samuel Elton (1780 –1858) was...

The Kingsbury family was a significant family who were involved in legal, industrial, commercial, and financial endeavors in nineteenth century Waterbury. Of special interest are the images and remarks by the Kingsbury family of several black women who were employed or indentured to the Kingsbury fa...

George L. Lilley was born in Oxford, Massachusetts on August 3, 1859. He attended Worchester High School, and Worchester Technical Institute. In 1881 he moved to Waterbury, CT to pursue a business opportunity in real estate. Lilley served in the State House of Representatives from 1901-1903. Running...

Elizur Prichard (1804-1860), Father to Sarah and Katherine. He was a manufacturer of buttons, and worked with the American Suspender Company based out of New Haven. After retirement, he purchased Charles Island and ran a resort house until the Civil War. Betsey J. Prichard (1806- ) Mother to Sara...

The Medical and Scientific Collection contains documents compiled by the Mattatuck Museum. The documents were collected over a period of years and cover the dates between 1772-1938 and undated. The Medical and Scientific Collection contain various medical journals and personal documents regarding...

This collection is an artificial collection comprised of various small donations relating to the local schools and education from 1709-1957.

Waterbury began as the Mattatuck Plantation, a land grant given to settlers from Farmington, Connecticut in 1676. In addition to Waterbury, the Mattatuck Plantation included the modern-day Connecticut towns of Naugatuck, Middlebury, Watertown and Thomaston, and portions of Wolcott, Plymouth, Oxford ...

George Townsend lived in Waterbury, CT during the mid-1800s. He was born in Connecticut around 1828 and died in 1868, according to obituaries and ancestry records. He wrote about daily life in his diaries.

The Brass Worker’s History Project was organized in the early 1980s by four people: Janet Stackhouse, Jerry Lombardi, Jeremy Brecher and Hank Murray. The group was influenced by a shared interest in public history: a push away from researching and writing about “the greats” of history, and an invest...

Phillip Kappel was born on February 10, 1901, in Hartford, Connecticut. As a child he was introduced to art through visits to the Wadsworth Museum and a local print shop. His father dissuaded him from perusing an artistic career out of fear that he would not become financially successful. To try and...

The Riverside Cemetery is a historic landmark located in Waterbury, Connecticut. Riverside was designed by Waterbury architect, Robert Wakeman Hill. Hill designed the cemetery in the "natural" style that was popularized in English garden design and made popular in the United States during the 19th c...

John W. Hill was born in Straitsville, Connecticut on April 13, 1834. He later moved to Waterbury, Ct with his family years later. Hill was a corporal in Company E of the Sixth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry during 1861. He stayed with the infantry until 1862, being discharged for disability. Howeve...

Raymond Joseph Donnelly was a World War II veteran and lifelong Waterbury resident. He was born on May 31, 1921 and passed away on November 2, 2013 at St. Mary's Hospital. Donnelly served in the US Army from 1942-1946. After the war, Donnelly returned to Waterbury and worked at the American Brass Co...

Elsie was born on November 8, 1894 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her parents were Hilma Flink and Karl E. Flink and genealogy records indicate that Hilma and Karl immigrated from London to the United States, though they were originally from Sweden. Hilma died when Elsie was a small child, and she and...

The myth of Chief Two Moon is known better than facts about his life and business. 1920 and 1930 census records show that Chief Two Moon Meridas was living in Waterbury, Connecticut with his wife Helen [Nugent] Meridas. He listed himself as being an "herbalist", that his race was "Indian" meaning Na...

In 1968 the State Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities held public hearings in Waterbury. The commission was concerned with four areas: Housing, Education, Employment, and Police-Community Relations. The hearings provided a forum for anyone who lived in Waterbury to voice concerns over these...

Between 1995 and 2001 the Mattatuck Museum conducted 60 oral history interviews with African American citizens in Waterbury. The project targeted elderly African Americans in order to obtain information about the early to mid twentieth century life in Waterbury. In addition to oral history interview...

The Jewish Oral History Project was a community-driven project begun by members of Beth El synagogue and the Jewish History Project Committee in the early 2000s. There were a total of 98 interviews conducted, with 133 individuals providing information on their family and their life in Waterbury. The...

Kay Sage was born on June 25, 1898 near Albany, New York to Henry Manning Sage and Anna Wheeler Ward Sage. In 1907 her parents separated and she spent time with her mother traveling abroad to Italy, France, Egypt, and the UK. In the early 1920s she began to study art, first in Washington DC and then...

Yves Tanguy was born in Paris in 1900. He spent summers in his family's home in Brittany and the landscape of his youth were influential on his later surrealist artworks. In 1920 Tanguy was drafted into service for the French army. During his service he met and befriended the poet Jacques Prevert. P...

Ernest David Roth was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1879. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1884 at the age of five and lived in New York City. As a child in New York, Roth worked in a print shop, which sparked his interest in printmaking. In New York City he studied at the Natio...

Reymond's Baking Company was founded in 1910 by Adolph and his brother Albert. At the beginning the only employees of the company were the Reymond brothers. The two worked 18-hour days, with Albert baking the bread in a single oven that produced 150 loaves a day and Adolph delivering the bread with ...

The Marjorie Robinson papers is largely composed of genealogy records compiled by Marjorie Robinson of the Robinson Family lineage. It also includes recorded genealogy on the Louisa May Alcott family. The collection also contains parish announcements from the First Methodist Church in Waterbury, as ...

Helen (Boice) Leary was born in 1901 and was a Waterbury resident her entire life. Her grandparents immigrated in the 1870's from Ireland, they bought a house in the North End and worked in one of the many factories in Waterbury. Leory's father and mother stayed in the North End, her father also got...

The Shoe Hardware Company was a shoe manufacturing company that produced out of Naugatuck, Ct. The company produced buckles and fasteners. It is believed that in 1892 it along with nine other Naugatuck companies consolidated to become the United States Rubber Company. One of the nine companies in...

Ruth (Upson) Currie was born in Waterbury Connecticut in 1901. She studied business at Post Jr. College in Waterbury and graduated in 1921. Currie worked as a bookkeeper and stenographer for Blake & Johnson in Waterbury before her retirement in 1968. Currie was a member of the daughters of the Ameri...

In 1882 Henry Morrow, the editor and publisher of the newspaper The Republican wrote an editorial headlined "Waterbury Pressing Needs A Hospital," a year later Waterbury Hospital was granted a charter of incorporation and fundraising efforts for equipment began. In 1890 the hospital opened in the Wi...

Minnie Rogers Steele took drawing lessons as a child at St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, CT and later became influential as an art teacher in Waterbury. In 1881 she began her art studies in New York City at the Art Students League under Charles Melville Dewey. She also studied in Philadelphia at ...

Alexandra Darrow was a photographer who lived in Woodbury Connecticut in the mid-1900s. She and her father, Judson Darrow, ran a successful photography studio and specialized in photographing artist's work. Alexandra Darrow also taught art at Saint Margaret's School in Waterbury.

Rosalind Russell was born in Waterbury, Ct on June 4th in 1907. Russell's father was an attorney, and her mother was a teacher. The Russell's had seven children, Rosalind being the fourth. They lived on Country Club Road. Russell attended Catholic schools, attending Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pen...

The Waterbury Women's Civic League was founded on April 27, 1942 by Corinne Thomas as a civic club for African American women. Other founding members included Virginia Goodson, Sara Keyes, Goldie Vicks, etc. Initially the club focused on purchasing war bonds, collecting materials for donation relate...

In 1923 a group of people met at Miss Alice Kingsbury's home on Prospect Street to discuss a report on the Waterbury African American population compiled by Charles Johnson. As a result of this study, an Interdenominational committee and Board of Directors made up of both African American and White ...

Roger Minott Sherman (1773-1844), the son of the Reverend Josiah and Martha Minott Sherman, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts. He grew up in Milford, Goshen, and Woodbridge, Connecticut and graduated from Yale in 1792. In 1796 he was admitted to the bar, married Elizabeth Gould, and set up a law pra...

Richard Ogden (d. 1687) settled in Fairfield, CT around 1650. He had two sons, Richard (c. 1655-1698) and David (c. 1668-1715) who also lived in Fairfield. The papers of their heirs comprise the bulk of this collection, including many items of Hezekiah Ogden (1755-1844), who was a military and commu...

This collection contains the personal and financial papers of the Couch family of Fairfield, CT in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This Couch family settled in Fairfield in the mid-17th century. The collection indicates these were people of property. Many of the items belong to Simon Couch (...

Nathan Gold of St. Edmondsbury, England arrived in the new village of Fairfield in the year 1648, establishing within a short time his preeminence in the community as, among other things, constable, assistant judge of Connecticut's General Assembly, and the commander of Fairfield's militia. His desc...

This collection centers around descendants of Thomas Sherwood who settled in Fairfield, CT in 1648. Members of this family were land owners with large farms, tradesmen, sea captains and part owners of boats, general store owners and bankers. The Fairfield Museum and History Center holds extensive ge...

The Beers family settled in Fairfield in the middle 1600's. This manuscript collection deals with the few that remained in Fairfield. Descendants of this family moved to many other localities. For more detailed information consult the genealogy papers and attached genealogy concerning material i...

Humphrey Hyde settled in Fairfield around 1649/50. His son, John, grandson John, and other heirs' papers are in this collection. The bulk of the material is from the early 1700s. More information on the family can be found in the included genealogical material and in "The History of Fairfie...

The Fairfield branch of the Jennings family was founded in 1650 when Joshua Jennings came to Connecticut. Over the next three hundred years, his descendants would become an indispensable part of Fairfield society. Not much is known about the Jennings family during the years of 1675-17...

Reverend Noah Hobart (1705/6-1773) was born in Hingham, Mass. He graduated from Harvard College in 1724 and settled in Fairfield as pastor of the First Church of Christ in 1733. His entry into the ministry was part of the family tradition--his grandfather, Peter, was the first pastor of the Church o...

Francis Bradley, the first member of this Bradley family, settled in Fairfield around 1660. His man heirs involved in this collection remained in Fairfield. They were land and mill owners, merchants, farmers and public servants. For published genealogies see: The history of Fairfield, Vol. I by Eliz...

The collection primarily consists of legal and financial records of generations of the Wakeman family, from the 17th through the 19th centuries. The most notable Wakeman, in relation to this collection, is William Webb (1799-1869), the son of Jessup (1771-1844, who served as collector of Revenue i...

George Hull (ca. 1590-1659) was the immigrant ancestor of the Fairfield branch of the Hull family in America. He arrived in the Massachusetts colony about 1631-32 and helped settled Windsor, Conn. in 1636 and Fairfield in 1647. George's son Cornelius (1627-2695) had a son Samuel (d. 1720) and an...

The Perry family’s first settler in Fairfield was Richard who was granted land in the middle 1600’s. There followed generations of merchants, farmers, shippers, storekeepers, millers, teachers, bankers and politicians.Kate Emily Peet Perry (1842-1882) whose papers are in this collection ...

This collection includes correspondence and other papers of the Tapping Reeve family of Litchfield, CT and also includes items from Aaron Burr and Lyman Beecher. Tapping Reeve (1744-1823), the son of Presbyterian minister Abner Reeve, was born in Brookhaven, NY and educated at the College of New...

This Bulkley family descended from Thomas, Daniel and Peter who settled in Fairfield in the middle 1600s. Their ancestors became farmers, store owners, blacksmiths, seamen, politicians, shipping merchants, owners and brokers. Eleazer Bulkley (1763-1843) and later his sons were successfully engaged i...

The Thorp family arrived in Fairfield in 1679 and established themselves as farmers, military officers, and sea captains. They were a prolific family, and an extensive family tree can be found in the collection folder to help identify the individual members. Burr ( ), Joel (1776- 1824), and Walter (...

Joseph Banks (1690-1776) is one of the first and most import members of this family. He married Mary Sherwood in 1712, and had seven children. Ebenezer Banks Sr. (1724-1777), the son of Joseph, married Sarah Hide, and had seven children. He was Captain of the Greenfield (militia) Company. David Bank...

The Adams family came to Fairfield in the 1650's and later settled in Green's Farms and Westport around 1700. Family members were landowners, farmers, storekeepers, school teachers and bankers. For a published genealogy see The History of Fairfield, Vol. I. by Elizabeth Schenck, 1889.

The first members of the Seeley family settled in the Fairfield area in the late 1600s. The papers in this collection belonged to family members who lived in Fairfield and surrounding towns including Easton and Weston. They include farmers, a school teacher, a military officer, a postmaster, and pol...

Jonathan Sturges was the patriarch of a family active in the social, political and economic life of the town of Fairfield from its earliest settlement. The library owns several published Sturges genealogies. Additional information can be found in Donald L. Jacobus’ book The History and Gene...

Caleb Brewster, born at Setuaket, New York, in 1747, settled in Black Rock after many seafaring years. He was notable for his role as a Revolutionary War spy, commanding a fleet of whale boats from Black Rock Harbor. After the war he married Anna Lewis and became a large land owner and captain of a ...

Thomas Dimon settled in Fairfield in 1639. Ebenezer (1704/5-1746) a grandson, had two sons, Jonathan and William. William's son William Burr (1773-1818) married Temperance Andrews (1783-1870) daughter of John Andrews (1734-1777). Shubael Andrews, brother-in-law of William Burr Dimon, was involve...

These papers revolve around Isaac Burritt (1769-1808) married first to Huldah Redfield (1776-1798) and second to Elizabeth Sherwood (1771-1826), and Burritt and Cannon, a shipping firm in New York. Isaac Burritt was master of the following sloops: Liberty, Dolphin, Marietta, Industry, Brilliant, and...

Fairfield’s ports were at Black Rock and Southport, from which vessels sailed to New York, the east coast south of the city, and the West Indies. From about 1789-1817 the Custom House operated in Fairfield; Samuel Smedley was the first collector for the district. Merchants shipped produce such...

This artificial collection contains small collections from families and individuals in Fairfield, including correspondence, legal documents, photographs, bills, and other items. Information for some families can be found in their section of the finding aid.

Dr. Rufus Blakeman (1795-1870) was born in Monroe, Connecticut. He graduated from Union College in 1817 and from the Medical University of the City of New York in 1821. He immediately moved to Fairfield where he practiced medicine until he died. He was a member of the Medical Board of Examiners of t...

The Bennetts in this collection are mainly from Westport, CT.

The Andrews in this collection are primarily from Fairfield, Weston and Westport and were early settlers. They were military people and land owners.

The Hawleys in this collection are originally from Stratford. They branched out to Fairfield, Stratfield, Brideport, and Trumbull, CT. For more information on the Hawley family see The Hawley Record, by Elias S. Hawley, Buffalo, N.Y. 1890.

Rev. Nathaniel Hewit (1788-1867) was married first to Rebecca Wodsey Hillhouse (1794-1831) and second to Susan Eliot. Rev. Hewit was the minister of the First Congregational Church in Fairfield, CT, from 1818 to 1827. For more details see attached biography. For a biography of Hon. James Hillhouse (...

The Hopkins in this collection lived first in Fairfield, CT, and then in Bridgeport, CT. No further information is available.

The Sillmans were early settlers in Fairfield. The people in this collection were related as follows: Robert (1692-1767) and Nathaniel (1696-1763) Silliman were brothers. Robert’s son Ebenezer (1707-1775) had a son Gold Selleck Sillman (1732-1790) whose first wife was Martha Davenport (1733-17...

Doctors Ira DeVer Warner (1840-1913) and Lucien Calvin Warner (1841-1925) were brothers from Chenango County, New York. They took their medical training in New York State and eventually started a corset factory in Bridgeport, CT in 1876 called Warner Brothers. Lucien C. Warner lived in ...

The Beaches lived in the Chestnut Hill district of Trumbull, CT. David Beach (1785-1847) was a farmer, school teaccher, and local office holder. His son, John Henry Beach (1839-1919), worked with Swords Lumber Co., Bridgeport, CT., and was later superintendent of Bridgeport Hospital.

These books hold the names of males living in Fairfield, CT from 1873-1909. These men were checked every year for availability in case of an armed conflict.

The majority of items have been in the Society's possession for many years; some items have been added later.

Southport was settled as part of the Town Fairfield in 1639. The area was originally known as Sasqua Field, then as Mill River, and finally, when incorporated as a borough in 1831, Southport. Agriculture was the primary source of income in the 17th to mid-19th centuries. Without benefit of a central...

The New York and New Haven Railroad first opened in Southport on December 25, 1848. The depot which currently stands on the eastbound side of the track initially provided both passenger and freight service in direct competition with the coastal trade that had dominated Southport's economy in ...

Stanley J. Mayba (1921-1983) was born in Winthrop, Maine to Polish immigrant parents. He married Jane Gardner (1921-1983) of Westport, Connecticut, in 1949. They lived in Fairfield on Redfield road, Pickwick Street, and Old Farm Lane. Upon his retirement as a draftsman at General Electric, they move...

The donor's great grandmother, Ana Belle Bulkeley, married Simon Couch Bradley (b. 1858). Anna Belle, the daughter of Moses Aaron and Elizabeth Wakeman Bulkeley, was born in 1859 in Kendallville, Indiana, but spent most of her childhood in Fairfield, Conn., following her father's untimely death. Ann...

The Banks, Meeker, Wakeman and Sherwood families settled Fairfield in the 17th century. They were farmers, merchants and town officials. Like many families in the small community of Fairfield, their members frequently intermarried. The keeper of this chronicle of these families remains anonymous, al...

Edith DeForest compiled this information about her DeForest family line over the course of many years. She currently (1999) resides in Chester, Connecticut.

In 1973, Elizabeth Johnson, Fairfield Historical Society curator, conducted a series of oral history interviews for the Fairfield Public Library centered on transportation facilities in Fairfield, Connecticut in the late 19th and early 20th century. The collection was given to the Fairfield Histori...

In 1975, Elizabeth Gerteiny began a series of oral history interviews for the Fairfield Public Library centered on the reminisces of Hungarian residents of Fairfield, Connecticut. The collection was given to the Fairfield Historical Society by the Fairfield Public Library.

This collection contains taped interviews with residents of Fairfield, CT spanning 1958-2005.

Sound recordings of local historical significance. Recordings are stored in the original recording media, a migrated to MP3 computer file, and an audio CD-ROM. MP3 computer file available on Library's public access computers.

Captain David Burr of Fairfield, son of Ebenezer Burr and Hannah Osborn (d. of Daniel of Fairfield) married Magdalen (Ellen) Grostephan of Marseilles, France. Children: James B. (b. 2/1/1859); Josephine; and David. Burr's sister, Angeline Burr, married Samuel Morehouse. Burr's brothers are W...

Donor William H. Burr (b1930) is the son of Morris Lyon Burr (b1891-d1963) who was the son of William H. Burr Jr. (b1854-d1933) who was the son of William Hanford Burr (b1808-d1880). WHB/1808, son of Zalmon Burr (b1773) and Mary Hanford (b1782) began a Westport fruit and vegetable growing business a...

In April 2005, Johanna G. Capozzoli, student intern from Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, produced (3) oral history interviews with Fairfield, CT men who served in the military during the Vietnam War.

The Riverside Cemetery is a historic landmark located in Waterbury, Connecticut. Riverside was designed by Waterbury architect, Robert Wakeman Hill. Hill designed the cemetery in the "natural" style that was popularized in English garden design and made popular in the United States during the 19th c...

The Allen family of Connecticut are descendants of George Allen ( -1648) of Salford, Bridgewater, Somerset Co., England who settled in Weymouth, MA in 1635 and removed to Sandwich, MA where he was buried. His grandson Gideon Allen settled in Milford, CT and subsequently "Old Fairfield", CT ca. 1700....

The Fairfield Republican Town Committee is a local organization dedicated to advancing Republican agendas and candidates for local and state elections. It seeks out and promotes candidates for local and state elections and raises funds for the use of the Republican Party..

The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce was formed in St. Louis, Missouri in 1920 to provide opportunities for young men between the ages of 18 and 41 to develop personal and leadership skills, and business development and management skills through community service. The Chamber expanded to acc...

This collection features architectural drawings of the historic Burr Homestead at 739 Old Post Road in Fairfield. Donor Rick Daley found these drawings at a tag sale. The Thaddeus Burr House was built in 1793 to replace the earlier Burr Homestead burned by the British in 1779 during the American Rev...

The Bridgeport Protestant Orphan Asylum was founded in 1867. It purchased a Lafayette Street building in Bridgeport, CT and remained there until 1900. From 1900 to 1935, the orphanage was located in Black Rock on Ellsworth Street. In 1935, the name was changed to Woodfield Village and moved to Strat...

Lester Card (1872-1951) was an avid genealogist and historian. Although born into a family of mariners, Lester did not care for the sea, and left the family business at the age of 15. He graduated early from Columbia College’s Pharmacy School. However, loss of hearing at a young age encouraged Card ...

Edith Louise Knight (1901-1978) was a member of the first class to graduate from Fairfield High School in 1918. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in MA, Edith taught in Fairfield High School from 1923-1924. She married Albert Edwin Hussey on August 1, 1932. These tintypes we...

This collection contains various items found within the Historical Society’s Library. This collection encompasses local and national elections. Elections of note are the 1876, 1936, and 1940. Some of the dates attributed to these flyers may be off by a few years, in some cases a range of dates...

Abraham Benson moved from New York to Fairfield after becoming enamored with the town; as a young boy he would work on the ships bringing goods to the town. His first wife was the daughter of General Jarvis; she lived about one year after marriage. His second wife was Grissel Burr, with whom he had ...

This collection contains materials reflecting the history of the Hungarian community in the Bridgeport/Fairfield area from the 1880s to the present. This collection was undertaken by a committee led by Robert D. Kranyik, working with the Fairfield Musuem and History Center to document...

This collection is a compilation of the municipal and legal papers of Fairfield, including Greenfield, Greens Farms, Southport, Stratfield, and Weston, held by the Fairfield Historical Society. Also included are some tax records for the town of Trumbull for the years 1878-1889.

Account books, correspondence, deeds, schoolbooks, and other materials relating to Gershom Hubbell of Fairfield, his family members and legal papers from Hubbell's tenure as justice of the peace. Bibles with family records are also included. The Hubbell family's roots in Fairfield go back to...

In 1882 Henry Morrow, the editor and publisher of the newspaper The Republican wrote an editorial headlined "Waterbury Pressing Needs A Hospital," a year later Waterbury Hospital was granted a charter of incorporation and fundraising efforts for equipment began. In 1890 the hospital opened in the Wi...

Ida Miller and her husband William, a farmer, lived on Round Hill Road where they built an attractive two-story home. Both had come to the Fairfield area from Virginia after the Civil War. Ida’s sister Lettie/Lottie, and her husband Edwin Randolph, lived around the corner on Barlow Road. Edwin Rand...

In 1853-54, Robert Schuyler issued some $2 million in unauthorized stock of the New York and New Haven Railroad. This was America's first large-scale stock fraud. Schuyler, who was president of the railroad, had helped develop several other railroads and was known as "America's first railroad king."...

Sarah Bragg married Henry Monmouth Smith in 1852; they had three daughters, including Laura Burr Smith who died as a child. They lived at 915 Old Post Road, which they called "Cranberry Villa"; it was (later) owned by the Kippen family. Henry was a founding member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church; he...

Adam Grudzinski was born in Poland in 1879 and immigrated to the United States in 1902. He was married to Mary, who also immigrated from Poland, and they had a son, Louis, born in 1913. Adam worked as a gardener and caretaker for the Warner family at their Restmore estate, and also worked for Nellis...

The Mohican Spring Water Company distributed spring water as well as ginger ale, lemon soda, root beer, and soda water. It was located on the current site of Lake Mohegan. The plant burned in 1905 and bankruptcy was declared in 1907 though the business seems to have continued operation. According ...

Starting in 1857, David M. Read and his sons David F. and Charles B. built their dry goods, carpet and furniture business into New England's largest department store by the turn of the 20th century. The D. M. Read Company remained independent until 1946 when it became a unit of Allied Stores. The Br...

This subject collection was created in 1986 by accumulating gifts from a number of donors, along with printed documents and Fairfield Town Records that were gathered by Historical Society staff or given by unknown donors. It has been added to over time as items were collected.

Kenneth A. Flatto was born on June 29, 1952 in New York City. Living in New York City in the Gramercy Park/Stuyvesant district, Flatto was a Democratic district leader from 1985 to 1989. Flatto and his wife, Elizabeth, later moved out of the city to Westchester. In the fall of 1990, they pulled up s...

Edward William Anderson (1894-1985) Marjorie Sarah (Chew) Anderson (1895-1964) Ruth Eleanor Anderson (1925-2013)

V. Louise Higgins(1922-2016) originally of Andover, MA. Louise was highly respected as both a teacher and a Director in the Westport Public Schools. A serious and valued historian of Southport, she added important documents, maps and photographs to the Pequot Library and the Fairfield Museum. She wa...

Parker Handy and Cortlandt Harman established Handy & Harman in 1867 as a dealer in gold and silver bullion and a supplier of precious metals to the jewelery industry. Until the turn of the century the firm's operations were limited to dealing in bullion, specie and bond but, by 1901 they entered in...

Summagraphics Corp. was founded in Fairfield, CT by Albert J. Whetsone in 1973 under the name Scriptographics Corporation. In one year, it became the major supplier of computer-input devices that translate graphic information into computer-usable, form.The executive offices were based at 398 Kings H...

Charles Samuel "Chick" Peden was born in Brooklyn in 1903, he attended Yale University and graduated from Sheffield Scientific School in 1924. He worked for R.C.A.as a research engineer, developing sound and film. He went on to be a pioneer newsreel man for R.C.A. - Fox Movietone News and ...

The Shoe Hardware Company was a shoe manufacturing company that produced out of Naugatuck, Ct. The company produced buckles and fasteners. It is believed that in 1892 it along with nine other Naugatuck companies consolidated to become the United States Rubber Company. One of the nine companies in...

Between 1812 and 1849, the Waterbury Button Company was a division of the Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Company. In 1849, the Benedict and Burnham established its button making division as a separate company, capitalized at thirty thousand dollars. The stock in the newly formed Waterbury Button...

Enoch Smith Huntington (1804-1862), around whom the collection is built, was born in Ashford, Connecticut, the son of Andrew and Zerviah Smith Huntington. He was a Congregational minister and a missionary in Illinois. His youngest sister was Amelia (1811-1847). In 1836, Enoch married Lucy Cowles (d....

Collected by Fairfield resident Anne Elizabeth Jennings throughout her life, this collection contains papers of the Morehouse and Jennings families, other Fairfield families, the Fairfield First Church of Christ Congregational, Saint Paul's Episcopal Church and the Fairfield School District. A n...

These papers are copies of land deeds and map tracings. Title searches by Edith Hoyt Allen and map tracings by Andrew S. Huntington were used in publishing the block maps in the Fairfield, CT Tercentenary 1639-1939 booklet [974.6971 T315fa]. Other researchers and compilers for this project were Kath...

Parents of E.S. Hand were Noah Hand of Cape May Co., New Jersey and Jane Hannah of Londonderry, Ireland. E.S. Hand (b.1861, d.1918) M. 1914 to Beatrice Tunison (b.1892, d.?) E.S. Hand, Jr. (b. 1915, d. 1985) "Breakwater" was built by E.S Hand in 1891. It was owned by Edgar P. Pawson in 192...

The Burr family settled in Fairfield in the 1600's. The Burrs in this collection were town officials, farmers, storekeepers, sea farers, and business people. Among the more distinguished family members were Thaddeus Burr (1736-1801) at whose house John Hancock was married and Aaron Burr (1756-18...

This collection was compiled by Orrando Perry Dexter. He was the son of Henry and Lucretia Marquand Perry Dexter, was born in New York City, Oct. 31, 1854. He attended private schools in N.Y. and Europe during his boyhood. He entered Phillips Exeter Academy 1869. "A brilliant mathematical schol...

This subject collection was created from materials given by various donors.

The First Located School Society in Fairfield bought land in 1830 to create burial ground known as East Cemetery. Several months later, they purchased land on the other side of town for West Cemetery, In 1863 the Fairfield Cemetery Association was founded to manage East Cemetery; the Association was...

In 1968 the State Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities held public hearings in Waterbury. The commission was concerned with four areas: Housing, Education, Employment, and Police-Community Relations. The hearings provided a forum for anyone who lived in Waterbury to voice concerns over these...

There is no information on the items in this collection. Many of the journals are unidentifiable.

Various materials from areas churches are gathered in this collection including legal documents, financial records, member lists, bulletins, newsletters, correspondence, calendars and meetings minutes. The approximate dates of the establishment of the following churches are: Greenfield Hill-1725, Fa...

This collection contains items from various Fairfield businesses starting in the late 1700's up through present day. Biographical information specific to some fo the companies can be found further in the finding aid.

The Fairfield Fire Companies collection deals primarily with the late nineteenth and early twentieth century phenomena of the volunteer fire department. Volunteer fire companies were fraternal organizations with strict membership rules and lifetime membership. The three companies represented in the ...

William Brown Glover was the son of Samuel and Emily Glover. (Samuel had been the judge of probate in Fairfield). He graduated from Yale in 1878 and from Columbia Law in 1880, and started practicing law in Connecticut in 1881. The following year he was elected as probate judge, a position he held un...

This collection concerns Henry Bradley (b.1807, New York State, D. 1883, Greenfield) and his son George H. Bradley (b. 1835 d. 1914) Henry lived at 1681 Hillside Rd next to his store which he ran through the 50's and 60's. He was also a shirtmaker in the 50's and 60's and dabbled in the wool busi...

The Perrys and Bulkleys in this collection lived in Southport, CT. Walter Perry was born in 1770 and died in 1831. His children were: Gurdon (1807-1869), Elbert (1792-1820), and Oliver H. (1815-1882). Gurdon Perry's children were : Harriet, Helen (1826-1914) who married Edwin Bulkley, and Cornel...

This collection contains letters, financial and legal papers belonging to the Breed family of Norwich, CT, merchant Thomas Mumford of Groton, CT and the Susquehanna Company. The Breeds lived in Norwich, CT and were in the merchandising and shipping business. Thomas Mumford lived in Groton, CT. He op...

John J. Sullivan (1906-1997) moved to Fairfield in 1936. He ran a flower shop until 1959 when he was elected First Selectman of Fairfield. He retained that office until 1983 when he chose not to stand for reelection. For further detail see Fairfield: The Biography of a Community 1639-1989...

In 1880, Edward Payson Bullard founded the Bridgeport Machine Tool Works in a loft in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The company produced vertical lathes--machine tools used in other industries such as transportation and construction. By 1890 the company had grown and was producing lathes, boring and turn...

John Taylor Arms (1887-1953) was born in Washington D.C., went to Princeton and graduated from M.I.T. in 1911. He worked in an architectural firm in N.Y. for five years before starting his own firm with Cameron Clark of Fairfield, CT. He made his first etching in 1913 and became a well known and pro...

The Greenfield Hill Grange No. 133 was founded in 1893 as part of the national grange organization. The grange's original goal was to improve agricultural, economic and social conditions for rural farmers. Other interest included promoting patriotism, providing higher education, and developing l...

The Southport National Bank was formerly a branch of the Connecticut Bank at Bridgeport. The Southport Trust Co. was formed around 1900.

The majority of items have been in the Society’s possession for many years. Items are added as they are donated.

See preface and introduction for original conception of the collection. It has since been expanded to include all known landscape commissions for which the Society has drawings

The collection contains items pertaining to the Lacey family, descended from Edward and Sarah Lacey, early settlers and farmers at Stratfield Parish before 1694. Early family members included several Captains who served in the Revolutionary War. Members of the family later settled the Plattsville ar...

An exhibition of Cameron Clark drawings prompted the collection of these materials. Charles Cameron Clark (1887-1957), an architect and resident of Greenfield Hill, designed institutional and civic buildings in New York State and Connecticut, and residential structures in Pennsylvania, New York, New...

Gertrude Jellif (ca. 1873-1951) of Fairfield married Monroe Perry (ca. 1872-1954). Their daughter Gertrude was born on December 31, 1907 at the home of her parents.

Ernest Royal Hart, the son of James T. Hart of Bridgeport, was born about 1899. His father worked for the railroad from about 1910-1920. Ernest volunteered for the army and was stationed at Fort H.G. Wright in New York about 1917 with Battalion D, 68th Artillery. In August 1918 his regiment was tran...

This collection came as part of the Fairfield Citizen-News photograph archive sometime in the late 1980s, and was discovered during processing in July 1995. The original artwork was drawn by at least four artists, one of whose names is unclear. The other three artists are Tom Glover, Jean M Griffin,...

Arthur Selleck, who collected these records while a member of the Fire Commission from 1968-1988, made his living in the insurance industry, first with the National Board of underwriters, then as a field representative for the Insurance Service Organization in the 1970s. He is an active member of Co...

John Kennedy Williamson (1883-1964) inherited the boiler trade from his father, John Kennedy Williamson (1852-1908). The elder Williamson started the Connecticut Construction and Supply Co. in Bethel, Connecticut, which sold boilers manufactured elsewhere. At his father’s death in September 19...

Rolock Incorporated, which manufactures woven wire mesh baskets and trays for industrial heat treating processes, and environmental monitoring devices, was founded in Southport in 1924 as the DeMattia Wire Works, Inc. The name Rolock, which was DeMattia’s trademark, became the company name in ...

From September 1932 to May 1935, three young men from the Brooklawn section of Fairfield published The Brooklawn Weekly News. The leaders of the venture were Arthur Williams, Bradley N. Hunt and Phillip D. Grout. Other neighborhood boys worked as paid reporters. Stories covered such subjects as soci...

Andrew Frank Daniels, who died in 1982 (Ca. 1911-1982.), was a member of the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee, the Fairfield Board of Zoning Appeals, and was a sub-district director of the United Steelworkers Union. His activities with the Democratic Town Committee coincided with the tenure of Fi...

Millicent Bridgman (Mrs. John S.) was a lifelong resident of Fairfield.

John Warner Barber was an engraver and historian in New Haven. Born February 2, 1798 in East Windsor, Conn.; apprenticed to Abner Reed, engraver; operated his own engraving business in New Haven; studied history and traveled the eastern U.S., gathering information for the books which he wrote and th...

Sarah Burr, daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah Osborne Burr, married James Bulkley in 1852. They had no children. James (b. 1828) was the son of James and Ellen Sherwood Bulkley. His brother, Benjamin Sherwood Bulkley married Eliza Anna Burr, Sarah's sister. Their son James Osborne Bulkley married ...

John Wilson Fogarty, an artist by training, made his living as a photographer and teacher. After his retirement he spent his time researching and painting family crests or coats of arms. , d. ca. 1979.

The Fairfield Department Store started as a small retail establishment on the Post Road, in the heart of Fairfield. It was founded in 1921 by brothers Samuel and Isadore Manasevit. The original store primarily carried men's wear and work-related apparel to meet the needs of the population, the m...

William Bradley of Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut, the son of Walter, married Ellen Burr. Their children were William (1816-1900), Sarah, Charles, Ellen, Joseph, and Burr. Joseph and Burr moved to Illinois and New York States, respectively, and operated farms. William Bradley (senior) was...

Robert Bryan, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Master's degree in City Planning, was a long-time resident of Fairfield. He worked as a planning consultant for several Connecticut and Westchester County, New York, towns. From 1951-1957, he served as Planning Director...

Rev. Albert Elswick, a genealogical researcher and historian by avocation, lived in Bridgeport in the 1950s and 1960s when he compiled and collected the materials in this collection. The cemetery records were copied by Elswick in situ and compared with earlier transcripts, if available. The card fil...

The Bullard Company, originally known as the Bridgeport Machine Tool Works, was founded in 1880 by Edward Payson Bullard. The company produced vertical and horizontal lathes and machine tools used in industry. The plant closed in the early 1980s after being taken over by White Consolidated Industrie...

Ruth Mills Bradley was the first woman from Fairfield, and the first from Connecticut, to join the WACs after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1942. She stayed in the the Army as a career officer. She was promoted to Major in 1956 and had reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel when she retire...

George Reed Godfrey sold spring water to factories and offices in the Fairfield area until the advent of the water bubbler. He then turned the land where he found the water in a nursery. George was also a founding member and was active in the Father's Club of Roger Ludlowe High School. His son, ...

Ebenezer J. Hill, Congressman from Norwalk, Connecticut, for 22 years, married Mary Ellen Mossman, daughter of Abner Goodale Mossman and Emily Rice. Mary Ellen Mossman Hill was an organizing regent of the Norwalk chapter of the DAR. Ebenezer and Mary's children were Frederick Asbury Hill, who se...

William Clarke was born in New York City. He graduated from the Taft School and Yale University. He was the former plant manager of Handy & Harman and was active in a wide variety of civic and cultural affairs. After his retirement in 1976, he pursued his interests in photography and poetry. He ...

The Greenfield Hill Volunteer Fire Company No. 5 was founded in 1933 by a group of prominent citizens who wanted fire protection for residents in their part of town. The company also provided a social outlet for its members, and raised funds for charity. Originally located at 165 Verna Hill Road, th...

George Pratt (1903-1979) was born in Kansas City, Missouri, where, after graduating from Yale and Yale Law School in 1927, he practiced law. He later worked for the N.L.R.B. in Washington, D.C., the O.S.S. in London, and The Bureau of Reclamation. He joined the Kuljian Engineering Firm in 1954 and o...

The Fairfield County Agricultural Society was founded in August 1840 at a meeting in the County Court House in Fairfield. It was part of a state-wide effort to increase and improve agriculture under the auspices of the General Assembly. An annual fair, held in various towns, gave county farmers a ch...

Agnes Selkirk Clark was born in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1898. She attended the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, 1915-1918, then worked in the Des Moines office of Pearse & Robinson as a drafter and planting supervisor, 1918-1919. In 1920 she moved to New York and worked for well-know...

In a letter to John J. Sullivan, Fairfield's First Selectman, town planner and Fairfield resident Robert Bryan proposed celebrating the town's 325th anniversary in 1964. Bryan later served as secretary on the committee formed to plan festivities.

The English Literary Club was organized in Bridgeport in 1879 by a small group of women. The object of the club is intellectual culture and literary pursuits. The twenty-five members meet weekly between October and May, when they hold an annual meeting. The hostess of each meeting serves as presiden...

Robert Berthelson attended Fairfield College Preparatory School and Fairfield University from 1948 to his graduation in 1956. The Trumbull resident is active in historical society activities locally and throughout the state. Fairfield College Preparatory School was founded in 1942 by ...

E. Lee Schneider joined the staff of Pepperidge Farm in...

Artificial collection of photograph albums relating to different families