page_title: History of Trumbull, Connecticut
section_title: Early farmers
hierarchical_section_title: History of Trumbull, Connecticut / Historical overview / Agricultural era / Early farmers
caption_attribution_description: English: Zachariah Curtiss House ca. 1686 Trumbull, CT
context_page_description: Trumbull, a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States, was originally home to the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation, and was colonized by the English during the Great Migration of the 1630s as a part of the coastal settlement of Stratford.
  In May 1725, the northwest farmers of Stratford petitioned the Colony of Connecticut to establish their own separate village. They proposed calling their new village Nickol's Farms, after the family that owned a large farm in its center, but in October 1725 the new parish was named Unity.
  In 1744, Unity merged with the Long Hill parish of the Stratfield section of Stratford to form the Society of North Stratford. North Stratford controlled its own religious and educational affairs. However, to have a voice in governmental functions such as adopting laws and establishing taxes, the inhabitants were required to attend town meetings in Stratford, an overnight journey for some.
  After ten years of unsuccessful petitions, the Connecticut General Assembly granted complete town rights in October 1797.
context_section_description: The first individuals to own land in Trumbull were among the original founders of the Stratford settlement, namely Benjamin Beach, Zachariah Bostick (Bostwick), Richard Booth, Ephraim Booth, Paul Brinsmaid, John Curtiss, Benjamin Curtiss, Mr. Joseph Curtiss, Captain William Curtiss (Curtice), Ebenezer Curtiss, Israel Curtiss, Zachariah Curtiss, Joseph Fairchild, Elder Philip Groves (Graves, Grouse), Joseph Hawley, Ephraim Hawley, Captain John Hawley, Samuel Hawley, Edward Hinman, Lt. Joseph Judson, Sgt. Jeremiah Judson, Isaac Judson, John Judson, Thomas Lake, Isaac Nichols, Caleb Nichols, Abraham Nichols, Samuel Ufford (Uffoot) and Reverend Zechariah Walker. The first families to reside permanently in Trumbull were the Beach, Beardsley, Blakeman, Booth, Bostick, Brinsmade, Clarke, Curtiss, Edwards, Fairchild, Hawley, Hinman, Hubbell, Judson, Lake, Lewis, Middlebrook, Nichols, Peet, Plumb, Seeley, Sherwood, Thompson, Uffoot, Walker and Wildman families.
  Before becoming a freeman in 1686, Zachariah Curtiss built a ​1 ¹⁄₂-story center-chimney farmhouse and small one-story barn on the south side of Mischa Hill. His farm was located on land granted to him as a part of the "three-mile division" and part on land gifted to him by his father, Captain William Curtiss, which was described as "lying at Old Farm".
  Ephraim Hawley built his farmhouse immediately south of Zachariah Curtiss, on the south side of Mischa Hill, on the eastern portion of the Hawley land grant, commonly called "ye springs and white plains". To be elected a freeman in the Connecticut Colony at this time, one had to own real property, a dwelling house, in his name. It is presumed that Hawley built his house before becoming a freeman in 1687.
  The path or road connecting the Curtiss and Hawley farms on the south side of Mischa Hill to Stratford Village, located ​2 ¹⁄₂-miles to the south, became known as the Farm Highway, present-day Connecticut Route 108. The highway was completed and surveyed to the south side of Mischa Hill, at "Zachariah Curtiss, his land" and at Captain's Farm, in 1696, making it one of the oldest documented English highways in Connecticut.
caption: Zachariah Curtiss House
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