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…
Category: history
The Beecher Family in America… and Woodbridge
What do we know about the origins of the Beecher family in America, and how do the Beechers who lived in long ago days here in Woodbridge connect to the more famous members of this family? The noted Presbyterian minister and social reformer Lyman Beecher (born 1775 in New Haven, CT and died 1863 in Brooklyn, NY) is buried in…
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…
Enoch & friends… and their 999-year lease
What will the world look like in the year 3016? Can we even imagine it, as we gaze out our front door here in Woodbridge, take in the surrounding landscape and consider from our vantage point what our town looks like today? What about the year 2784? Is that any easier for us to imagine today? It will be the 28th…
Tracking down some Hotchkiss and Clark kinfolk in Woodbridge
Every so often the Amity & Woodbridge Historical Society receives an inquiry by email from someone trying to trace their family tree through the forest of old-timers here in Woodbridge. Lately I’ve been able to help out — and have some fun in the process. So I thought, why not step through a good example here of the phenomenon I…
Clover Hill Farm: the former John Beecher-Roger Sherman-James Hillhouse property
What do we know about the history of the land currently owned by the Town of Woodbridge and operated today as the Country Club of Woodbridge? An article in the New Haven Register back around the time of the Town’s purchase in 2009 tells a portion of the tale of the founding of the former “Woodbridge Country Club” in the 1940s:…
A visit to Sperry Park, June 2015
What a lovely day to visit Sperry Park today. Before setting out, I’m rummaging around for some background information. Let’s start by gathering some old photos, shall we? First we have the photo “Bridge near Sperry’s Mills. Circa 1890.” as published in the Woodbridge Bicentennial Booklet. Under the photo the following text appears: “Handsome gifts have been made to Woodbridge. Sperry…