Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

Ludlow's purchase of Norwalk was at about the date of the distinguished man's removal from Windsor to Fairfield This occurred, it is probable, some time in 1639, and within the next year Norwalk was his owner- ship. During the ten years purchase and settlement in- terim Ludlow was busied with court and other matters, but did not, it would seem, entirely forget his possession en the hither side of the Sasco. The pioneer settlers ar- rived during 1650-51, and on Septemper 11, 1651, their new home was "ordered to be a towns." Empowered now "to sue" and eligible to "be sued," the little "com- panie" entered upon the sea of corporate existence. Proper officials were chosen and in 1652 their first minis- ter, Rev. Thomas Hanford, was called. This well fur- nished man here remained and ministered for somewhat over fifty years. The town gradually grew in population and its settlement limits gradually spread. "Parish" off- shoots— Wilton, Canaan, Saugatuck — anon sprang from the parent stock and the towns "centre" was transferred from its cradle (East Norwalk) to "the point of the rocks, " afterward many years known as "The Bridge," now Norwalk proper. The enterprising and expanding city of the South Norwalk of 1901 bore, for a long period 14 the name of "Old Well," the settlers designation of the same territory being "Over the River." Besides the Norwalk and South Norwalk of the present century East Norwalk has grown to comprise a large and important constituency, and West Norwalk, Broad River, Silver Mine, Winnipauke and Cranbury are nourishing sec- tions and districts, the interest-history of which places is elsewhere in this work presented. The English history of Norwalk opens with the pur- chase of the place from the Indians, in 1640, by Roger Ludlow. The territory, however, was not English — oc- cupied until ten years afterward, during which decade- interim its owner resided in Fairfield and was busied in public matters. Depredations by the red men to the west of his Fairfield home caused concern on Ludlow's part and nothing was done in the direction of peopling his purchase until 1650. It appears to have been the Ludlow design to start, for political or prudential rea- sons, a settlement between "the plantacon beyond" (Stamford) and his own new found home in Fairfield. A wilderness zone of nearly twenty miles breadth separated the two places, portions of which zone, nevertheless, were fertile and its average twelve miles longitude coursed by, at that day, three fine streams, viz., the Saugatuck, Nor- walke and Rowalton rivers. Ludlow was keen sighted and far seeing and as there was a somewhat disturbed condition of things in the recently New Haven planted colony at Stamford and as the "Lords Waste" between Stamford and Fairfield would constitute a constant In- dian menace to the projected enterprise which had the latter place for its center the rival Hartford proprietor seems determined, (not that he coveted the uninviting area but for policy or protections sakes,) to prepare the way for the eventual establishment of another plantation midway twixt Fairfield and Stamford. The careful stu- dent of that period and of that personage can hardly fail to be impressed with the story of the time and of the man in question. Ludlow first knew of this portion of the colony through his own and Daniel Patrick's fellow sol- dierlife hereat. The two were old acquaintances and brother Tndian fighters and had together pursued the foe as far west as Sasqua (Southpdrt), and when, two years later, the Hartford court commissioned the former to establish a colony at Pequonnock (Bridgeport) it was natural for him, upon reaching the spot and finding in- sufficient or inferior cattle accommodations to move a 15 little on to the highly pleasing and productive levels of the Uncowa (Fairfield) of his twenty or so months before administration and love. It is lawful to presume that even now the sagacious Ludlow had Norwalk in mind. In the spring of 1639 his stone residence at Windsor was "drowned deep" (Connecticut River freshet) and in that same fall he removed to Fairfield and only the next Feb- ruary purchased a part of Norwalk which act was suc- ceeded, a few weeks after, by the acquirement of the other half of Norwalk by his companion, Patrick. That Lud- low was somewhat familiar, in 1640, with Norwalk geo- graphy is surmised from that years deed described boun- daries and that his interest in the spot was continuous may reasonably be inferred from his purchase (ten years after the 1640 transaction and a few months prior to his Norwalk covenant in 1650) of Salem (Lewisboro, N. Y.) which added acquisition, he included in his generous "make over" to the Norwalk company, under date of June 19, 1650, an instrument which admits of nothing of a gain-greedy but only a comity and friendly interpreta- tion. Mr. Ludlow was, beyond doubt, ambitious. This is about the only charge which could be brought against him. He had been reprimanded for transcending on some occasions, his authority, but when the circum- stances of such "exceeding of authority" on his part are critically examined we do not wonder that the distant court itself reversed its reprimand. At all events it is contrary to all sense to suppose that the well situated Ludlow could have hungered and thirsted for the mere gain or glory of the ownership of the savage infested tract, which skirted, both sides, the Saugatuck and Norwalk river banks. The case does not reasonably admit of a doubt that Ludlow's primeal object in buying Norwalk was part of a digested plan and that he had patiently watched and waited for Norwalks peopling hour to arrive. The very covenant conditions he imposed upon the new company, several of whom were his personal acquaintances, the reserva- tion of the best lot in the whole acreage for the use of his two sons, and the care the godly man would have the planters exercise in the choice of their first minister (whose wife was the daughter of his business partner and neighbor and intimate old and new world friend) em- phasizes the claim that is made for the distinguished jurist to wit that he was the designer, beginner, origma- tor and consequently honored founder of this town. Norwalk gradually outgrew its primitive limitations. The "towns streete" was northward surveyed and worked until Whitney's Mill (foot of Mill Hill of 1901) was reached. Diverging from that "'streete" at a point (pres- ent Morgan avenue) two paths conducted, one to "Cran- berry plains" and the other (Fance street) to the Rocks. The settlers found, upon their arrival, two "ways' already worked and more or less trodden. The first was the Fairfield and Stamford path and the second, "Ponasses path, conducted to what is now known as New Canaan. Land was taken up along these different routes while "over the river" (South Norwalk) was by degrees tilled and tenanted. The original "common pasture" embrac- ed the area now covered by the Benedict Farm, Pine Hill, 'Gregory' point, Marvin Bros, and Langdon proper- ties, and for a period English and Indian shared its pos- session. "Saugatuck playne" was a choice strip of ara- ble soil and "long lots" were anon laid out across the Saugatuck river. The maiden sixty or seventy years Norwalk life saw Saugatuck (Westport) opened, Rowai ton (Five Mile) tenanted, Canaan parish well under way, Wilton well settled, Danbury formed and Ridgefield pro- jected. These places, all have grown and from that day been in the ascendant. Their pioneers were, as a class, hardy and honest and religious and lovers of freedom. They did good foundation work and laid, strongly so, the corner stone of their children's progress and prosperity. These children are widely scattered and their mother can point with pride to what, not a few of them, have accomplished. The town of Norwalk is now two hundred and fifty years old and at this notable age epoch embraces the two municipalities of Norwalk and South Norwalk and the fast growing section known as East Norwalk, also the West Norwalk, Broad River, Silver Mine, Winnipauk and Cranbury districts, numbering in all about twenty thousand souls. There are neat and several pretentious churches and chapels all over the Norwalks and the towns public and private schools show good results and stand high in the estimation of an appreciative commun- ity. The board of school visitors is a competent body, the influence of which is a determinate quantity in the weal of the institutions under its management. Theol- ogy, law and medicine have and have had able represen- tatives in Norwalk. Letters have here a field and culture has here a province and two skillfully and successfully W superintended libraries attest to the gaining power of literature and inspire the hope that it may here hold court gradually become a general characteristic of the community. The city of Norwalk comprises the towns centre. Here is the seat of artizanistic enterprise, of a considera- ble number of mercantile houses of greater or less strength, of three banks of deposits and discount and two savings institutions, of insurance, financial, benevolent and other local interest offices, lodges, etc., and the site of many homes of the descendants of the first settlers. The city of South Norwalk covers the lower portion of the old township and is a commendable and exception- al example of the true spirit of progress. Its large bank- ing houses and business capital, its commodious offices, fine hotels and stores, its iron and lock works and nu- merous important factories and "yards" and its wide awake people are features which distinguish the south- ernmost of the twin Norwalk cities. East Norwalk, the town's cradle, is fast on the way to become what the fathers' original scheme probably contemplated to make of it, a town centre. Its develop- ment is surprising and its future rank in the Norwalks it is not difficult to forcast. Winnipauk depends, largely, upon wool and cotton mill interests, Silver Mine, Broad River, West Nor- walk and Cranbury are, to a greater or less extent, farm- ing districts and Rowayton is the seat of a prosperous sea and shell fish business.