“Concerning the
Indians who dwelt upon this (tract of land that became Guilford CT) nothing
certain is known. A stone with a human head and neck roughly carved, now lying
in a fence half a mile northeast of Madison meeting-house, is supposed to have
been used by them as an Idol…”
(Unsure if this is one recorded by Stiles)
“The first settlers
of this town were adventurers from Surry and Kent near London, and, unlike
their mercantile brethren who peopled New Haven, were mostly farmers. They had
not a merchant among them and scarcely a mechanic… The places where most of the
original settlers first located themselves are now known. The noted Stone house
of Mr. Whitfield, said to have been built in 1639, erected both for the
accommodation of his family and as a fortification for the protection of the
inhabitants against the Indians, is supposed to be the oldest dwelling-house
now standing in the United States… It occupies a rising ground overlooking the
great plain south of the village and commanding a very fine prospect of the
sound… According to tradition the stone, of which this house was built, was
brought by the Indians on hand-barrows, across the swamp, from Griswold's
rocks, a ledge about eighty rods east of the house, and an ancient causeway
across the swamp is shown as the path employed for this purpose…”
(Hints at Indigenous Stone Building Skills, including
quarrying, transporting and building structures such as a house - and an
elevated Causeway through a swamp.)
“Guilford harbor affords but an indifferent station for
vessels. It has six feet of water on the bar at its entrance at low, and twelve
feet at full tide. On the flats adjacent round and long clams of a very
superior quality are taken by the inhabitants, and Guilford oysters, taken from
the channel of East river, are noted as among the best in Connecticut. Their
flavor is peculiarly agreeable and readily recognized by the epicure. They are,
however, taken in but small quantities and held at a high price.”
(This is where the Chaffinch Stone Weir is located – and makes
one ponder if another purpose of the stones was to create a Clam Garden.)
And of course
Stone Heaps or Rock Piles mentioned in Treaties or Land Deeds:
“Whereas, as the
General Court of Connecticut have formerly granted unto the proprietors,
inhabitants of the town of Guilford, all those lands both meadow and upland
within these abutments viz. at the sea on the south and on Branford bounds on
the west, and beginning at the sea by a heap of stones at the root of a marked
tree near Lawrence's meadow and so runs to the head of the cove to a heap of
stones there, and thence to a heap of stones lying on the west side of Crooper
hill at the old path by the brook, and thence northerly to a place commonly
called piping tree to a heap of stone lying at the new path, and from thence to
a heap of stones lying at the east end of that which was commonly called Rosses
meadow, and from thence to a heap of stones lying at the south end of Pesuckapaug
pond, and so runs into the pond a considerable way to the extent of their north
bounds which is from the sea ten miles, and it abuts on the wilderness…”
The History of Guilford, Connecticut: From Its First
Settlement in 1639
By Ralph Dunning
Smith (1877)
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