Welcome

This website is dedicated to telling the story of the land and people of Woodbridge from its earliest days as a community. This area was settled in the mid-1600s by families who came from the New Haven Colony and the Milford Colony to the land that was later to become the Town of Woodbridge. Many of the families of the original European settlers are still living in Woodbridge. Read more...

Welcome to the website! Please look around…

The Elderslie Preserve

Twenty years ago today a ceremony to dedicate the Elderslie Preserve on Peck Hill Road took place on the sunny afternoon of September 21, 2002. The mayor of the Village of Elderslie in west central Scotland was the guest of honor and spoke to a small crowd of celebrants. After the ceremony, a bagpiper lead the assembled from ‘Rose Ridge’…

Recent history: Have we been here before?

It sometimes seems as though we have collectively slipped through a time shifting portal when local news headlines bear an uncanny resemblance to those of 20 years or longer ago. But while we ponder the mysteries of the universe, let’s also seize the day by taking a stroll down memory lane to recap some (relatively recent) town history, shall we?

One good source for relatively recent history is the reporting found in newspaper articles from bygone days. In examining these snapshots in time we might have an opportunity for review and reflection:

  • Have we been here before?
  • What can we learn from history?
  • How might an understanding of yesterday help us think about today and plan for tomorrow?


FitzGerald Tract

The FitzGerald Property

What can be said of the history of this beautiful parcel situated in the center of Woodbridge? The Town acquired the 131 acres, located at 100 Center Road, “after a vote of approval at a Special Town Meeting, held on January 29, 1973. This property was purchased for $655,000 by the Town through an Executor’s deed from The Connecticut Bank…

War Service Records

War Service Records

The Families of Ancient New Haven, by Donald Lines Jacobus, contains a thoughtful collection of service records that includes many of the men who were members of the Society of Amity in what is now the towns of Woodbridge and Bethany. Let’s take a look at one interesting example… Captain Benedict Arnold’s 2nd Company of the Governor’s Foot Guards on…

Poisoned Drinking Water Traced to Woodbridge Lake: The Sixty Typhoid Cases of 1901

The quality of our public drinking water has long been of consequence in Woodbridge. What happens on the watershed land of our town has health impacts down stream. Indeed, in late winter and early spring of 1901, the Journal Courier newspaper carried an alarming headline on page one: THE SIXTY TYPHOID CASES …Up to five o’clock yesterday afternoon the recorded number…

A Civil War Story: Correspondence Between a Woodbridge Father & Son

Town Records of Woodbidge, Connecticut Civil War correspondence from the Ralph Chester Smith family papers (donated by Ann Electa Smith Cassidy) Letter to son Isaac Bradley from Jason Wyllis Bradley (the reply written in pencil on the same sheet of paper from son to J.W. Bradley ) Metropolitan Hotel Washington city December 25, 1862 I came here expecting to come…

History of town government in Woodbridge

The governance of the Town of Woodbridge from its inception is recounted in a “History of New Haven” published in 1892 as follows: “The first town meeting was held February 17th, 1784, when the following principal officers were chosen: Selectmen Captain Ezra Sperry, Jacob Hotchkiss, John Dibble, Esq., Captain Samuel Osborne; Clerk Amos Perkins; Collector Reuben Beecher; Listers Amos Thomas,…

A very Sperry visit to Woodbridge in the summer of 1895

Reading the book Bethany and Its Hills recently, I came across a retelling of another storied visit to Sperry lands in old Woodbridge. The tale is told beginning on page 21 of the book, which can be read online. This account was apparently taken from portions of a news article published in the New Haven Morning Journal and Courier newspaper of July 29th 1895, which is…

Sperry family in Woodbridge

Richard Sperry is said to have been the first European settler to live in what is now Woodbridge, arriving in New Haven in 1643 and farming the land here in Woodbridge possibly as early as 1648. According to page 181 of The Descendants of Thomas Dickerman: Richard Sperry was among the early settlers of New Haven, though not one of the original planters.…

Johnson family in Woodbridge

Clues to the origin of the Johnson clan in Connecticut can be found in Families of Ancient New Haven by Donald Lines Jacobus. On page 1029 he states: “Three Johnson brothers, said to have come from Hull, Yorkshire, England, settled early in New Haven, Connecticut; these were John, who removed to Rowley, Massachusetts and died in 1641 leaving issue; Robert (see Family…

A Civil War Story: Correspondence from a Nephew to His Aunt in the wake of the Fall of Richmond

Town Records of Woodbidge, Connecticut Civil War correspondence from the Ralph Chester Smith family papers (donated by Ann Electa Smith Cassidy) Letter to Francis Castle Bradley (wife of soldier Isaac Bradley) from her nephew Dwight A. Sperry Jordan April 4, 1865 My dear Aunt Francis, I received your letter to night and hasten to answer it. I am very sorry…