The Newtown bee., 1905-08-11
NEWTOWN'S
BI-CENTENNIAL.
Historical Address of
EZRA LEVAN JOHNSON.

When it became known that as ,
town we were nearing the Bi-Centen
NAL Of two events of historic interest
the purchase from the Indians in 10!
of the land that comprises our town
ship, and also the time when we were
Incorporated town by act Of the Gen
eral Court in October, I'LL, the ques-
tiOn naturally arose, which of these
events should be observed, or whether
each should come in it's turn. The
gathering of to-day shows how the
question was answered..
We cannot call upon those who were
active participants in the early days,
to tell us the story of the almost for.
gotten past. ThemosS has gathered,
and is still gathering upon the head
stones in our village cemetery, telling
that long ago the first settlers began
to fall asleep. Children and childrens
children have followed in quick sue
cession until none are left to tell the
story of the first hundred years. For
tunate for us, that the town and
church records have been so we'll pre-
served that from those sources so much
can be gathered of value. We have
no historic landmarks as the nearby
towns of Fairfield, Ridgefeld, Redding
and Danbury have. We have no bat
tletields where the blood stained sod
was once plOwed by shot and she'll as
contending armies met in deadly strife.
We have no Putnam Park with its
crumbling chimneys and it's broken
hearth-stoncs that mark the places
where the American soldiers, under
the gallant Putnam, bivouacked during
the rigors of long New England win
ter while keeping vigil against an In
mt hof
line our village street were not erect
ed, as those of Fairfield and Danbury
were, on the ruins that followed the
cOnflagration caused by the invaders
torch. A quiet, inland town ours has
ever been, with agriculture as It's basis,
consequently our history must lie
along the lines of peace. On the
plains of our vast domain that lie be-
You'd the Rocky Mountains, where
cities spring up in day and villages
are of mushroom growth, the man or
the woman who drove the stakes for
the first homestead plot is still living
on 1T, and could tell us in half hours
time or less, the history Of the town
from its birth to the present time.
Not so is it with our staid New
England towns, and Newtown is no
exception to that rule. No one within
UAO AOok 1hS VI lily SOASV Will
to say or think, that in an hours time
anyone, howev yer gifted in language or
fluent in speech, can give the his
tory of town that has had an exist
ence of 200 years. Two hundred years,
as we finite creatures count time, is a
long stretch. In that time Kingdoms
may rise or fall empires crumble away,
and the population of the globe change
and give place to the ever coming tide
Of human life. But, whoever hears Of
the death of old New England towns?
They may become depleted, and we
regret to be obliged to say they do, but
they never die. They are as tenacious
of life as are the giant trees of the
Yosemite valley that count their age
by the thousands of years, and grow
turies roll by.
or the Pootatuck tribe Of Indians
who occupied this region when the
English first came among them, we
know little as to their numbers or
condition. That they were a peace
able tribe is affirmed by all historians.
They never gave trouble to the whites,
nor did they distinguish themselves
by wars upon neighboring tribes.
Their lives seem to have been as peace
full as the evertlowing waters OF the
HouSatonic on whose banks they had
their homes, and which locality will
ever be known by it's Indian name,
Pohtatuck. We know not how many
the tribe numbered at the time they
sold their land, but President Stiles
of Yale college says in his Itinerary,
that in ITO they numbered only SO
that time subject to Waraumaug, a
considerable Sachem who lived on the
Housatonic within the township of
New Milford.
The Colonial Records abound with
evidences of the persistent efforts
made by the General Court to educate
and ChristianiZe the Indians in the
Colony. In 1876 it was voted "that at
the next public thanksgiving there
should be contribution taken in
every ecclesiastical society in the col
ony to raise money to be used for the
civilizing and outstanding of the
Indians" Bounds were set for those
who were called friendly Indians, the
Connecticut river was the eastern
boundary, and the HOuSatOnic river
those rivers the friendly Indians must
stay, and no hostile Indian could cross
those boundaries except at the peril
Of life, the General Court keeping g
Jealous eye on all who were looked
upon with suspicion as likely to incite
the Indians to any malicious or muir
derous intent.
From the report sent from the Col
Ony of Connecticut to His Majesty!
government by order Of his Honor the
Governor and the General Court il
173O, the Indian population OF the
Colony was reported as 1900, inclined
to hunting, drinking and excessive
idleness Indians in the colony were
taken into the military service whel
they offered themselves, and furnished
with arms and ammunition and what
ever else was needful to fit them TO
war, and for their encouragement the.
were to be allowed from the publ,
treasury the same as the English, thu
sum OF tive pounds for every man.
scalp of the enemy killed in the colony
to be paid to the person who did tina
service over and above his or thei
wages and the plumber taken by them
In 1851 it was reported to Presden
Stiles that the number was reduced t
one man and two or three broken fan
lilies. Cothrcn in his "Ancient Wood
bury, says Mauquash, the last sacheI
Of the Pootatucks, died about IT'S,
and was buried In the "old chime
lot" short distance east of the oil
Elizur Mitchell house and a short dis
tance from the elevated plain on whic
stood the principal and last villag
OF the Pootatucks, and that tn
last tribal remnant removed il
"l759 to Kent, and Joined the Scat
cooks" Records show that in l742 tn
General Court voted that the sum {
25 pounds should be delivered out {
the Colony treasury unto the Re
Anthony StOddard and Rev EliSh
Kent, who shall receive and improv
the same for the instruction and Chris
tianiZing the Indians at the plac