The Newtown bee., 1889-07-19
Newtown's First Boy and Layout.

| parent settlement of Stratford. The ear ly roads show that on the east lay ''Derbe;'' at the northwest Woodbury, also settled from Stratford; on the north New Milford just laid out for settlement on the north of west, Danbury, recently settled from Norwalk and, on the south- west, Fairfield, whose bounds thenreach- ed from Stratford on the east to Dam bury on the north. Quonnopogue, so called from the name the Indians gave Taunton lake, or Newtown was primeval forest and without owner, save where some outsider had taken up legislative grant of land, often vaguely defined. The most important of these grants was the sherman farm, which was mile square, at Cowamps, as the fishing grounds of the Pootatuck Rod and Reel club were called by the aborigines, who knew no game laws. Samuel Sherman of Stratford, the owner of this grant, took it up on the Pootatuck, reaching south to the neighborhood of Botsford.
 Though Jeanes, Iawley & Bush bought
 
 was not until May l3, 170S, that the Leg islative grant was made for it's settlement and actual settlement was probably still later, for minute left on the records by Isaac Beers, when town clerk, states that the first male child born in Newtown was Jeremiah Turner, who was born May P, 1710. The fact that he was the first white boy born here lends an interest to his history that it would not otherwise possess. He was named arter his father Jeremiah and lost his mother, Mary Fur ner, when four years old. She died June l3, l714, three months after giving birth to q second son, Samuel. The widowed husband did not long mourn for his lost wife, for, three months after her death, September 15, 1874, Jeremiah Turner comforted himself with the Widow Will met Sherman of Stratford, who bore five daughters in the next II years. Jeremi- ah Turner, who apparently lived in the neighborhood of Taunton Lake, died August g, 1724, when his namesake and son was II years old. When he was 2S years old, Newtown's first born, Jeremi- ah Turner, married Abigail Leavenworth, to whom was born five sons, the eldest of whom was called Jeremiah and four daughters.
 An old record made in TITO, 60 years after the pioneers had blazed their way here, says that Newtown was settled in l709, chiefly from Stratford and Milford The next Spring, March 24, 1710, the first recorded allotment of land was made. The land was not all taken up at once, but certain tracts were laid out as the needs or desires of the proprietors or owners dictated. This land was divided into equal parts and numbered and the proprietor drew these numbers by lot to find out which allotment of land was his. This system of dividing the land was not always satisfactory, for there are numer- ous instances in which the proprietor was authorized to give up or slip his division, as his allotment of land was called and to take another piece of land from the common land, as the wild land was known before being distributed to individual ownership. This division was of 20 acres to each one and, as to it's location, part of it lay on Taunton Lake, here called Great pond and some of it in South Gen. | ter, where Deep brook still retains its name among older residents like ex-Town Clerk c. II. Peck. The long meadow ad- joining the Deep brook on the north end must, of course, have been Sugar Street, through whose swamp, now covered with forest, Newtown once maintained a deer ditch for drainage and cut it's best crops of hay. Of the men to whom the land was divided, John Read was a big land owner living in hometown, now Bedding to whom the Legislature had given land here; John Minor was the sturdy ole captain, Woodbury's pioneer; William Jeanes and Samuel Hawley were two 0. the three who had bought the land O the Indians five years before; Jeremiah Turner has already been referred to as father of Newtown's first white boy though the boy was not born till tw, months after this division; Abraham Kimberly, the early blacksmith, is sait by Mir c. H. Peck to have had his hom and shop on the corner now occupied b, the Charles Warner place, where hug , old button ball tree once stood, mon
 arch of the forest under which traditio
 relates that the Indians used to meet t l barter with tic early settlers; kimberl and a few others had apparently take Inn x.f fxff ha, hnfn For - division; the Burrs were Fairfield fan
 fly with whom Newtown afterward Ina
 some trouble in settling their claims t s land here. Many of those whose name l are attached to this document never SC : tied here. The record reads.
 An account of a division of land laid O,
 March 24, ITO, by the committee for Newtow
 each lot containing 20 acres, namely. On u
 hill on the west side of the town, IA lots . [ ready laid out to particular persons name
 to wit Josiah Burritt the north lot and Abr
 ham Kimberly the south lot, only Kimberly ? lot contains but nine acres and is to have y more adjoining to the west side of Mir She = mans farm to front with the south sitie [, said farm; 60 acres laid ont to Mir John Glov,
 in one piece being for three aIlotments ' him, lying northward of the said town on u
 north side of n brook. Note that John Griffi in lieu of the home lot laid out to him, acceI ' of land laid by his dwelling house and Ina
 two acres laid at the east end of his 20-acre
 and two acres on the west side of Asr Prindl, '' ho me lot adjoining to it. Sixteen 20-acre IL
 to be laid out west of Josiah Burrttt's lot a, i, that range of 20-acre lots in three parcels 1T
 first range on the west of aforesaid contai l- eight iots of 20 acres each from the south
 the north upon the first hill and three lots
 q hill of 20 acres, each lying west Of the nor erly end of the next above hin and five lots
 be laid out on the southeriy end of Mir Sh
 mans tarln and Kimberiy's land above m, v fianed. each containing 20 acres fSlrna lnfs