The History of Redding
Chapter III. Town History
The Act of the General Assembly incorporating the town was as follows:
"An Act for Making and Forming the Parish of Redding Into a Distinct Town by Themselves.
"Whereas this Assembly are informed that the Parish of Redding in the northwesterly part of the township of Fairfield is very remote from the main body of that town, and that they are by their situation almost entirely prevented from attending the publick meetings of said town, and that they suffer very great inconveniences thereby, and that for them longer to continue as a parish of said Fairfield is very inconvenient: Therefore,
"Be it enacted by the Governor and Council and Representatives in General Court assembled and by the authority of the same, That said Parish of Redding be and they are hereby erected, made and constituted within the limits and bounds of said parish a distinct Town by themselves with all the liberties, privileges and immunities which by law the other towns in this Colony have and do enjoy, and that said new constituted town shall hereafter be called by the name of the Town of Redding, with this limitation and restriction, that but one Representative which said new constituted town shall at any time chuse to attend the General Assemblies shall be at the publick expence.
"And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That said Town of Redding shall have and hold their first Town Meeting for the choice of their town officers for the present year some time in the month of June next, which meeting shall be warned by a warrant signed by any justice of the peace in the county of Fairfield, to be directed to some indifferent person to serve, which warrant shall appoint the time and place at which said meeting is to be held, and shall be served at least five days before the day appointed for the holding said meeting."
It was passed at the May session, 1767, and a meeting was held, June 15th, 1767, in accordance with its provisions. Colonel John Read was chosen Moderator. Lieutenant Stephen Mead was chosen clerk for the year, and the following town officers elected: Stephen Mead, Ephraim Jackson, Daniel Hill, selectmen; David Lyon, Asahel Fitch, Daniel Hull, constables; Benjamin Hamilton, Zalmon Read, fence viewers; Peter Fairchild, Lemuel Sanford, Jr., David Jackson, listers; Thomas Fairchild, Jonathan Couch, grand-jurymen; Gurdon Merchant, town treasurer; Paul Bartram, Thomas Fairchild, Eleazer Smith, Jr., tithing-men; Ebenezer Williams, Ebenezer Couch, pound keepers; Gershom Morehouse, sealer of leather; Benjamin Meeker, Jonathan Mallory, sealer of weights; Ephrim Jackson, Captain Henry Lyon, and Gurdon Merchant, a committee to take all proper and lawful methods to clear the highways. The town by vote made the pound by Elizabeth Sanford's the "Town pound," and voted "to use the school house by the old meeting house for ye place for holding ye town meetings in ye future." The second town meeting was held September 28th, the same year, at which "it was voted and agreed that whereas the people being within one mile of the Southeasterly end of this Township, and in the Northwesterly end of the town of Fairfield, are about to petition the General Assembly to be held at New Haven in October next, to be annexed to this town, we are willing and desirous to receive them, and that we will assist them to endeavor to have them annexed to this town by appointing an agent for that purpose," and Colonel Read was appointed such agent. Shortly after they began agitating the question of building a town-house, and in November a meeting was called to provide "for the building or purchase of a Town house and pound." The first mention of a turnpike in the town is found in the records of a town meeting held in 1768, wherein the Highway Committee are instructed "to lay out a road from the School-house in Lonetown, so called, east, through Col. John Read's land to consort with a highway lately laid out from the road that leads from Danbury to Fairfield, west, through Andrew Fairchild's land, to s'd read's land," and Colonel Read was given liberty to keep a gate at the west end by the school-house, "he having given land to the town." The same year the town offered a bounty of 3s. on every "wile cat" killed, and 2s. for every grown fox, and 1s. for every young fox. A meeting held September 20th, 1768, appointed a committee to act with a committee of the Superior Court to lay out a highway in Redding from west to east, in rear of the long lots. This will be recognized as the road leading from Boston District to Hopewell, though portions of it must have been in use long ere this. In the records of a meeting held October 6th, 1768, we find a striking example of the towering ambition of the town fathers: this meeting appointed a committee to "present a memorial to the General Assembly, praying that Redding be made a County town." Decemmer 26, 1768, the selectmen were instructed to "set the distriots for the law books belonging to this town, and to enter the names of those persons in each district that hath a right by law to said books, in said books."
Several highways were laid out during this year, and the next: one across Sturgis' long lot, beginning at the upright highway above Ebenezer Andrus' barn, "to run southerly slanting down in some suitable way until it comes to the cross highway Southeasterly from said barn." The county road from Danbury to Fairfield, originally laid out six rods wide, was reduced to four rods, and Stephen Mead, Gurdon Merchant, and Lemuel Sanford were appointed a committee "to lay out the County road, four rods wide, exchanging where it shall be thought necessary, and all at the Proprietor's cost." A highway was also laid out from Samuel Smith's, southerly to the bridge below Daniel Perry's grist-mill.
The following interesting entry appears in the records of a meeting held March 6th, 1771: "Voted and agreed, that whereas a Plan hath been proposed of moving to the General Assembly in May next for the erecting a new county, to consist of the towns of Danbury, Newtown, Ridgefield, Redding, and New Fairfield, we are willing and desirous that said towns shall be erected a county, and that we will assist them to endeavor to have said county established." The committee appointed for this purpose were David Lyon, Gershom Morehouse, and James Rogers.
In October, 1773, the General Assembly passed a resolution, "to assert, and in some proper way support their claim to those lands contained within the limits and bounds of the charter of this Colony westward of the Province of New York" an act strongly disapproved by the people at large. Town meetings were called to protest against it, and a convention comprising delegates from twenty-three towns met in Middletown, and adopted a petition and remonstrance to the General Assembly against the proposed action. Redding's attitude in the matter is shown by the following extract from the doings of a town meeting held March 14, 1774: "Whereas it is the opinion of many of the freemen and other inhabitants of this Colony (and of this meeting in particular) that if ye above said Resolve be carried into execution it will inevitably involve the inhabitants of Connecticut in a long, expensive, and fruitless Litigation with Mr. Penn, therefore this meeting appoints and delegates Messrs. William Hawley and Peter Fairchild to attend a meeting to be held at Middletown on the last Wednesday of Instant March, to concert some Proper Methods in order to put a stop to so disagreeable a procedure." But the project of the Assembly was never carried into execution: within a few months an invading army was hovering about its coasts, and the sturdy, belligerent little Colony found other vents for its pugnacious spirit.
In the Revolutionary War, to which period we are now come, Redding played an important part: her people were fully alive to the importance and direfulness of the conflict, and bore their full share of the burdens it imposed; but the town records during this period refer but rarely, and then briefly, to the great conflict.
The first action of the town in regard to the war is found in the records of a town meeting held April 2, 1777, when a committee consisting of Messrs, William Hawley, Zalmon Read, Thaddeus Benedict, David Jackson, Gershom Morehouse, Stephen Betts, Jr., William Heron, and Daniel Mallory was appointed "to hire a number of Soldiers to serve in the Continental army." It was also voted that the "sum or sums the said Committee promise to, or do pay, to those soldiers that do enlist themselves as soldiers to serve in said army, as a bounty over and above what the Government bounty is, shall be paid by way of town rates, and the Selectmen are ordered and desired to make a rate to collect the money." In the records of the same meeting is the following significant entry: "Hezekiah Sanford, Seth Sanford, Daniel Mallory, S. Samuel Smith, William Hawley, Stephen Betts, Jr., Jonathan Couch, Stephen Gold, and Hezekiah Read, are appointed a committee to take care of the families of those soldiers that are in the service of their country"; and this also, under date of May 5th, 1777: "David Jackson, Seth Sanford, Thaddeus Benedict and John Gray are chosen Selectmen in addition to, and to supply the place of Stephen Betts and James Rogers taken prisoners by the enemy in their expedition to Danbury."
The above-named gentlemen were released when the British re-embarked at Norwalk. September 18th, 1777, it was voted "that the injunction or request from his Excellency the Governor and the Council of Safety be complied with, and that the Committee procure and get double the articles if they can, mentioned in the Governor's said request, and that said Committee be paid by the town, the extra charges that the said articles may cost more than they are set at in said request." March 23, 1778, David Jackson, Zalmon Read, and Ephraim Robbins were appointed a committee to provide clothing for the army. May 8th, 1778, Asahel Fitch appears as a committee, "to take care and provide as the law directs for Nathan Coley's family." At the same time he, with Capt. Zalmon Read, was appointed a committee to provide "shirts, shoes, stockins and other articles of clothing for the Continental soldiers." December 17, 1778, another committee was appointed to care for the families of soldiers as follows: Nehemiah Hull for Nathan Coley's; Elijah Burr for Stephen Meeker's; Ebenezer Couch for Elias Bixby; Nehemiah Sherwood and John Read for Jeremiah Ryan, and William Hawley for Samuel Remong. July 30, 1779, Micayah Starr, Thaddeus Benedict. and Stephen Betts were appointed a committee to prepare clothing for the soldiers, and a tax of 2s. on the pound was levied to pay for the same. Several of the records are very annoying from their incompleteness; the following for instance of a meeting held September 2, 1779: "Voted, to ratify the proceedings of the County Convention held Aug. 10th, 1779, and to appoint a Committee to carry into effect what was recommended in the first resolve of said Convention." Not a word is said as to the object of the Convention, nor is any report of its proceedings given. From other sources, however, we learn that it was called to devise measures to prevent further depreciation of the paper currency, and also to consider what course should be pursued in dealing with the Tories among them.No record of the proceedings of this convention, interesting and important as it would have been, is found. It was held at the dwellinghouse of Captain Stephen Betts, on Redding Ridge. January 23, 1780, the town voted to appoint a committee of nine "to procure and hire nine soldiers to enlist into the Connecticut Line in the Continental army, for the town of Redding." This committee consisted of Stephen Betts, Ezekiel Sanford, David Jackson, Nathaniel Barlow, brother of the poet, Asahel Fitch, Hezekiah Read, Elijah Burr, Ephraim Robbins, and Hezekiah Sanford. The committee were also instructed "to use their utmost diligence to hire nine able bodied efficient men to enlist as aforesaid, during the war or for three years, or six months, and that they enlist them at such sum or sums of money in any price, or such quantity of provisions of any kind as they shall judge reasonable and just." Six months later, June 26, they voted to instruct their committee to give to each soldier they enlist for six months, ten bushels of wheat per month or the value in hard money when paid, besides they shall receive the bounty the state offers, but the town shall receive their wages." The same offer was made to the drafted men. This offer was probably taken in the belief that the town could more readily collect the wages of the soldiers than they could themselves.
November 20th, same year, it was voted, "that the town will lay a tax on provisions to supply their quota of provisions for the Connecticut Line in the Continental Army, and that a rate bill be made apportioning to each individual his proportion of each kind of provision to be raised, viz. flour, beef, and pork, according to his list for the year 1779. George Perry was appointed receiver of the flour collected by the town, and sworn to a faithful discharge of his trust. Russell Bartlett was appointed Receiver of pork and beef, and was also sworn. At the same meeting a committee was appointed "to repair to the camp and ascertain the number of soldiers of the town now in camp." This order was several times repeated, but none of the reports of the committees are preserved. The following significant entry appears in the records of a meeting held February 5, 1781: "Voted not to abate assessments for purposes aforesaid (i. e. tax, on provisions) on Enos Lee, James Morgan, Hezekiah Platt, Daniel Lyon, Abigail Lyon, Sarah Phinney, David Knapp, James Gray, Abigail Morehouse, Ezekiel Hill, Andrew Fairchild, and Sarah Burr, who have each of them a son or sons or a son or sons in law gone over to the enemies of the United States." At this meeting several who had refused to pay the tax levied for hiring soldiers were assessed double rates. March 28, 1781, Captain Gershom Morehouse and Lieutenant Nehemiah Hull were appointed a committee "to collect the tents belonging to this town" probably those furnished for the winter encampment of the troops; at the same time a committee was appointed "to vindicate our claims to the Connecticut Soldiers." April 16, 1781, it was voted "to divide the people into eight classes according to their several lists in order to raise seven soldiers, and one Light Horseman to serve for one year as coast guards." It was voted "that the sixth class (for procuring men to serve in the guards at Horse Neck till ye first of March next) shall procure a light horseman and horse, and that the town shall pay said class all it shall cost them more to procure a man and horse, than it shall cost the other seven classes on a medium."
July 5, same year, a tax of three pence on the pound was laid "to pay last year's six months men, to be paid in Silver, or Gold, or wheat at six shillings a bushel, and to be collected and paid to the selectmen before the 10th of July Inst."
The next fall, October 30th, 1781, George Perry was chosen "Receiver of Grain and flour on the half crown Tax, Benjamin Meeker and Isaac Meeker to receive the grain and flour on the two sixths tax, and William Hawley esq. to receive the Beef and Pork on said tax, and to provide casks and salt said provisions as the law directs."
The last entry referring to the war appears August 11, 1783, some nine months after the Provisional Articles of Peace had been signed at Paris. It is as follows: "Voted that the select men of this town be desired to move out of this town all those persons that have been over and joined the enemy, and have returned into this town, and that they pursue the business as fast as they conveniently can according to law." The selectmen on whom this task devolved were, Seth Sanford, James Rogers, Stephen Betts, Hezekiah Sanford, and John Gray.
Several items that next follow are important as denoting the progress of events. December 18, 1781: "Voted, that the select men be instructed to petition the General Assembly to annex this town to Danbury Probate District," and the road committee was instructed to sell the highway from Nobb's Crook to Captain Grays, and also the "upright highway" west of Micayah Starr's, from Nathan Rumsey's to the rear of the long lots.
August 9, 1782, the town appointed delegates to a County Convention held in Greenfield "to inquire into the progress of illicit trade": also a Committee of Inspection to assist the informing officers in putting the laws into execution.
August 11, 1783: It was voted "that the town will set up a singing school," and a tax of one penny on the pound was laid to pay the singing master.
March 13, 1797: "Voted not to admit Small Pox by innoculation; voted to admit Small Pox by innoculation next fall."
December 14, 1791, a committee was appointed to apply to the proprietors of the mile of commons for a title to the land in Redding left by said proprietors for a "parade." (This "parade," familiar to all old inhabitants of Redding, was in the large field adjoining the Congregational parsonage now owned by Miss Dayton; it was the scene of many militia trainings in later days.)
December 19, 1792: "Voted to reduce the highway from Danbury to Norwalk to four rods wide, and to sell two rods." In 1795: "Voted that the selectmen prosecute those persons that cut timber on the highways."
The first town-house was built early in 1798. It stood nearly in the centre of the common, a few yards west of the present building.
From the plan submitted December 27, 1797, by the building committee, we learn that it was "36 feet in length, and 30 feet wide, with 12 foot posts, covered with long cedar shingles, the sides with pine." There was a chimney in each end, and fifteen windows with twenty lights in each. Peter Sanford, Ezekiel Sanford, Samuel Jarvis, Aaron Sanford, Andrew L. Hill, and Simon Munger were appointed "to receive proposals and contract for building the aforesaid Town House." The builder was Daniel Perry. In 1807 there was a movement to petition the General Assembly, "that Redding be made the shire town of Fairfield County." In 1809 it was voted unanimously, "That we will prefer a petition to the Congress of the United States for the establishment of a Post Road through this town," and William Heron, Lemuel Sanford, and Billy Comstock were appointed to draft the petition. This was successful, and the first post-office in the town was shortly after established. It was kept in the dwelling-house of Billy Comstock, who was the first postmaster; his house stood were the late Mr. Dimon Fich lived, at the fork of the Danbury road, and that leading to Redding Centre, via Nobb's Crook. There are old people in town who remember this first post-office, and the excitement attendant upon the arrival of the weekly mail, carried by the great lumbering Danbury stage, which, with its four horses, its red-faced driver, and crowd of dusty, sweltering passengers, was the great tri-weekly event of the village through which it passed.
There is evidence that in early times the town exercised considerable influence in public affairs. In the Farmer's Journal (Danbury) for April 8th, 1793, appears a circular letter "sent by a committee appointed to correspond with the different towns in the county of Fairfield," from Reading, as follows:
Reading, Apr. 2, 1793
"Gentlemen: We are, by the inhabitants of this town, in a town meeting legally warned for that purpose, appointed a committee to correspond with the other towns in Fairfield County respecting the list of persons entered on the records of Congress, a number of whom this town apprehend are really undeserving. We are ordered to ask of you to adopt a similar mode of appointing a committce to correspond accordingly, and if by due enquiry any person, or persons shall be found to be put on the pension list, who are undeserving, to adopt proper means for redress at a proper board.
Signed: Thaddeus Benedict, William Heron, Lemuel Sanford, S. Samuel Smith, James Rogers
To the Selectmen of:
And in the Farmer's Chronicle (Danbury) for January 6th, 1794:
"At a Town Meeting held in Reading, by adjournment, on the 23rd day of December A. D. 1793, "Voted unanimously, That this Town will exert ourselves in every legal and constitutional method in our power to prevent the sale of the western lands at present, and to obtain a repeal of the act of this state appropriating the avails thereof for the support of the ministry and schools in this state, as we conceive the same to be impolitic. And that a committee be appointed to correspond with the other towns in this county to effect the purpose aforesaid, and that this vote be sent to the committee appointed to sell those lands, with our request that they will omit to make any contract or sale of them till the sitting of the next General Assembly.'"And in the records of a town meeting held April 20, 1818:
"Voted, That our Representatives to the General Assembly to be holden at Hartford in May next, be, and hereby are, instructed to use their influence that measures be taken preparatory to forming a written constitution for the government of this State. That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the State of Connecticut is without a written constitution of Civil Government, and we believe it very important for the security of the Civil, and Religious rights, and privileges of the Citizens, that the powers and authorities of the Government should be distinctly defined."
The present town-house was erected in 1834. At a town meeting held March 3, 1834, Mr. Thomas B. Fanton made a proposition "that he would engage to build a new Town House, same dimensions as the old one, of good materials, covering to be of pine, with shutters to the windows, outside of house to be painted, and the whole inside and out, to be finished in a workman like manner, to be erected near the old one, on land belonging to the town, provided the town will give him $400, and the old house," and engaged to save the town from any expense on account of materials provided by the committee to repair the old town house. This proposition was accepted, and John R. Hill, Gershom Sherwood, and Historic Houses. General Putnam's Headquarters, 1778-9. From an old print of 1836. Aaron Burr, II, were appointed a committee "to superintend building said House." There were objections, however, to having the new house built on the old site, and a meeting held shortly after voted "to relocate the house in the building owned by Thaddeus M. Abbott recently occupied for a school house."
gbBut other parties objected to this plan, and a third meeting was held before a site satisfactory to all parties could be agreed on.
This meeting voted to locate it "on the Southeast corner of Thaddeus M. Abbott's homelot, fronting the public parade on the South, and on the west the Donetown highway, provided that nothing in this vote interferes with the contract made with Thomas B. Fanton for building said house, and that it be no additional expense to the town." The building belonging to Mr. Abbott which stood on this site was moved away, and the present town house erected in the summer of 1834.
From this point until the opening of the civil war the records indicate only the usual routine of town business, and may be profitably passed over in order to make room for the valuable and interesting Revolutionary history of the town.