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ORDER FROM:
GoldenWest Marketing
5812 Temple City Blvd., PMB705
Temple City, California 91780-2112
626-294-9535 800-445-8925
To pay with your credit card - click on the "Buy Now" button
Order item B265
FORMAT: PRINT ONLY
The book is 70 pages, not indexed, names listed alphabetically, soft cover with a plastic comb binding, and available for $11.98 + $3.99 shipping & handling charge (Add $1.00 S&H for each additional volume ordered).
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD, CONNECTICUT Ridgefield, Connecticut is rich in history. Purchased from the American Indians in 1708, the town became the scene of the Battle of Ridgefield that starred Benedict Arnold. For more than two centuries, Ridgefield was an agrarian community. But in the late 1800s artists and writers (including six Pulitzer Prize winners) as well as leaders of finance and industry began to discover its charms. Ridgefield also offered a new home for countless immigrants from Ireland, Germany and Italy, and finally, a home for the modern commuter. Through its nearly 300 years, the town has had many stories to tell.
To the scientist, the librarian, or the postman, a name is a means of identification. But a name can be more than simply a label — we might all be calling each other by numbers if that were true. Names are often a source of knowledge, of history, even of romance. And it is to record not only the fact of, but also the history and, where possible, the significance of Ridgefield’s geographical names that this record has been compiled.
Moving to an unknown land, the first settlers needed names for the features of the territory to provide some mutually agreed upon manner of identification. Even among themselves, the pioneers had to create some new names; there were two Samuel Smiths among the first settlers. So the one who moved here from Milford was usually called "Milford Samuel Smith" — sometimes just Milford Smith" — while the other was called "Norwalk Samuel Smith."
The Ridgefield pioneers had three chief sources for the names they applied to parts of town: the language of the native Indians; the features, appearances, or uses of the land, including the terrain and wildlife; and the names of the people themselves. Some of the names used 250 years ago survive today: Whipstick, Flat Rock, West Mountain, Titicus, Silver Spring, Limestone, and Bennett’s Farm, for instance. Many, however, had disappeared from use by the 20th or even the 19th Century, and with them unfortunately went part of the town’s early heritage. For Ridgefield in the 18th Century had a wealth of colorful names. Brimstone Swamp, Pompion Ridge, Toilsome, Peespunk, Cradle Rock, Dutchman’s Swamp, Turn of the River, Turkey Island, Buckspen Swamp, Asprumquak, Grassy Island, Nisopack, Asoquatah, and many others have disappeared, except from early land records....
--From the Introduction to Ridgefield Names.
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