Talk:History of Stamford, Connecticut

Township?
Was it ever a town, and if so, what is the incorporation date? 76.102.31.185 (talk) 21:29, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

New Haven Colony or Connecticut Colony?
I have noticed that this article claims:


 * In 1641, Stamford was settled by 29 Puritan families from Wethersfield, making it part of the Connecticut Colony, unlike Norwalk to the east, which was part of the New Haven Colony.[1]

Which then cites as reference a New York Times article from 1989:


 * Charles, Eleanor, "If You're Thinking of Living in: Stamford", an article in The New York Times, August 20, 1989, accessed April 29, 2007.

Unfortunately for the support of the claim that Norwalk was a New Haven Colony settlement the article does not mention Norwalk at all. It is a Real Estate section article that discusses only Stamford (and does not specify a distinction between Connecticut Colony and New Haven Colony). The Times article does mention the 29 families from Wethersfield though.

I note that both this article and the history section of the Stamford, Connecticut article mentions the purchase carried out by someone from the New Haven Colony:


 * The deed to Stamford was signed on 1 July 1640 between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus.

Whereas the purchase of Norwalk was carried out by Daniel Patrick (west side of Norwalk river) and Roger Ludlow (east side of Norwalk River) in 1640. Several years later (making it a younger settlement than Stamford) the initial settlement of Norwalk was carried out primarily on the east bank and East Norwalk is considered Norwalk's oldest neighborhood because of that. Roger Ludlow is considered a member of the Connecticut Colony (not the New Haven Colony). He was reprimanded for violating the instructions given him by the Connecticut General Court (colonial forerunner of the General Assembly). The articale History of Norwalk, Connecticut contains a more detailed discussion of Norwalk's settlement.

I also note that the map at Image:Ctcolony.png shows two brown dots in southwestern Fairfield County - which I think correspond to the settlements that would become Greenwich and Stamford. The color brown on that map is used to indicate New Haven Colony settlements. I think that the three red dots in eastern Fairfield County on the map are Connecticut Colony settlements: Stratford (1639), Fairfield (1639), and Norwalk (purchased 1640, settled 1649, chartered as a town 1651).

The Stamford Historical Society page at the Connecticut State Library website http://www.cslib.org/stamford/h_beg.htm mentions that:


 * Captain John Underhill was the Miles Standish of the Stamford colony.

and in the Captain John Underhill article here on Wikipedia it is mentioned that:


 * By 1642 he had settled at Stamford, Connecticut. In 1643, he represented them in the assembly of the New Haven Colony. But this location also didn't work out, and he moved on to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

It seems odd to me that a settlement like Stamford that was purchased by New Haven Colony members and whose prominent ("Miles Standish-ish") citizens represented it in the New Haven Colony legislature would be considered a Connecticut Colony settlement and not a New Haven Colony settlement.

But if it was not a Connecticut Colony settlement and was settled by Wethersfielders (the oldest town in Connectitcut and not part of the New Haven Colony) how could it be associated with the New Haven Colony? I think I was able to find an answer to that question from a page at the Fairfield Historical Society http://www.fairfieldhistoricalsociety.org/explore-fairfield-history.php which discusses the arrival of Roger Ludlow in the town of Fairfield and Stratford with a sentence that reads:


 * When Ludlow arrived, he learned that a disgruntled group of men from Wethersfield, who had recently joined the New Haven Colony, planned to settle in nearby Uncoway

Where "Uncoway" is an Indian name for an area that is ill-defined by that web page but could be taken to refer to areas west of present day Bridgeport (which could arguably include Stamford) or may be taken to specifically refer to what is now the town of Fairfield. It is at least plausible that the Stamford settlers from Wethersfield had decided to join the New Haven Colony before settling Stamford.

Of course by about 1665 the distinction between Connecticut Colony and New Haven Colony was rendered moot due to the absorption of the latter into the former.

For the reasons given above by mostly external references I suspect that Stamford's settlement was carried out by persons who thought of themselves as part of the New Haven Colony. I cannot find anything that supports the idea that Norwalk was part of the New Haven Colony (and several references, such as the book by Wing-Ray and Stewart, that contradict that notion). Hence, I propose changing the wording of the sentence to:


 * In 1641, Stamford was settled by 29 Puritan families who had set out from Wethersfield. The town of Greenwich, just to the west of Stamford, was part of the New Haven Colony, as well as New Netherland for a brief period (1642-1650).

Which refrains from saying which colony early Stamford held allegiance to and removes the allegation that Norwalk was allied with the New Haven Colony. 67.86.73.252 (talk) 00:01, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * This seems to indicate that Stamford was under the jursidiction of New Haven Colony. --Polaron | Talk 04:20, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you for that reference. In light of that and several external references that claim Stamford was part of the New Haven Colony I will now revise my proposal to the following (I have placed a "fact" tag in the article to let people who do not normally consult Talk pages that the current claims are contested.  I'll put the following into the article as a replacement in a few days) 67.86.73.252 (talk) 12:32, 19 June 2008 (UTC) :

In 1641, Rippowam was settled by 29 Puritan families who had chosen to leave Wethersfield. The group had formed "The Rippowam Company" and contracted with the New Haven Colony to settle the Rippowam area. Hence initially the settlement was a part of the New Haven Colony, as was Greenwich to the west. The name of the settlement was changed to Stamford on April 6, 1642. In 1642, Captain John Underhill settled in Stamford and the following year represented the town in the New Haven Colony General Court. Stamford was included in the creation of a New Haven confederation called the United Colonies of New England. Other towns or plantations in the United Colonies of New England included Milford and Guilford in Connecticut as well as Southold on Long Island. Shortly after the restoration of Charles II of England, in a session of the Connecticut General Court held on October 9th, 1662 the former New Haven "plantations" of Stanford (sic), Greenwich, Guilford, and even Southold were to be recognized as Connecticut Colony towns with constables sworn in.


 * Regarding the allegiance of Norwalk, Daniel Patrick who obtained a deed for the portion west of the Norwalk River, was from New Haven Colony. However, this portion was not settled significantly until much later and the settlers were from Hartford. --Polaron | Talk 04:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I think Daniel Patrick was an early Connecticut/New Haven Colony citizen who does not (yet) have a biography here on wikipedia, and probably should have (he helped to purchase Greenwich too). 67.86.73.252 (talk) 12:32, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Please note that the last proposal posted here on this discussion page was inserted into the article today to replace the previous sentence that asserted Stamford was a Connecticut Colony town and Norwalk was a New Haven Colony town. 67.86.73.252 (talk) 12:22, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Ferguson Memorial Building (1898)
Is the Ferguson Memorial Building still next to the St. Luke's Chapel? I just located information regarding "John Day Ferguson" from the Ferguson Library historical page.

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Police/municipal corruption in 1970s
This page could use a section about the scandals in the Stamford Police Department and municipal government in the 1970s, when police officers were running drug rings and thoroughly corrupted by the Mob. Anthony Dolan's Pulitzer prize-winning reporting led to cleanup, and was the basis for Dolan's later successful proposal to the Reagan administration to attack the Mob nationally. I don't have the time to work on it currently. ElrondPA (talk) 14:12, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

Old Castle
What is the history of the old castle that stood on a hill across the Ripowam River from Roxbury and Long Ridge Road? I last saw it around 1970. 66.58.154.122 (talk) 18:20, 3 May 2022 (UTC)