Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

This interactive, family friendly exhibition is designed to introduce visitors and students to the people and major events that have created our communities in Fairfield County, and in doing so, inspire visitors to take an active role in strengthening their own communities. The exhibition will be an essential step toward realizing FMHC’s educational vision to use history to strengthen community and shape its future.

Exhibit Themes • What makes a community change over time? • What makes a strong community? • How can objects tell us about history? • How do people adapt to their environment? • Draw connections between the past and today • Investigate the connections between local, regional, national and global history.

Exhibit Sections 1: Native Americans & Contact Period Hello and welcome to the Fairfield Museum’s permanent exhibition Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past. This exhibition traces highlights of the people, places and events from the history of Fairfield and the region. The exhibition includes many of the most unique items in our collections.

In this first section, you are standing on a general map of the area about 1639, when Fairfield was settled. The period when colonists arrived in North America and met the Native Americans is called the “contact period,” and lasts up until the Revolutionary War. The colonists in New included the Dutch, French and the English. They had little regard for the culture and traditions of the Native Americans and thought they were “savages.”

[The contact period was] … any interaction between Native Americans and Europeans. Frequently this took the form of stories of great ships, men riding strange creatures, exotic goods such as beads, brass kettles or flintlock muskets and, unfortunately for the Native Americans disease and warfare. It was a period of cultural transition, fragmentation and eventual collapse of Native American cultures (http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/archaeology/native-american/contact-period.html)

By this time many Native Americans had already been decimated by disease from the very early explorers, including smallpox and typhoid fever. Those remaining had to adapt and learn to live the colonists’ way of life. Yet they had been highly successful in living with the seasons and surviving in the harsh climate for hundreds of years. They made all of the items necessary for survival from the abundant natural resources and animals. They dugout canoes from large trees to navigate the waterways. They used reeds and

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

other fibers to create baskets. They used animals for a wide variety of purposes; such as clothing, making arrows and bags. They also used gourds for water containers and as rattles or musical instruments.

Sidebar -- Wampum Wampum were various sizes of beads created out of quahog (clam) shells and the central section of the whelk shell. In the Native communities, the beads were highly symbolic, valued and respected. When an agreement or promise was made between people, they exchanged wampum. A sachem or chief would wear a wampum belt to signify his station and often the designs had spiritual meaning. It was used as an offering in ceremonies or to express condolence or bereavement.

The color of the beads had meaning. For the Algonquians, white beads represented purity, light and brightness, and would be used as gifts to mark events that invoked those characteristics, such as the birth of a child. Purple beads represented solemn things like war, grieving and death. The combination of white and purple represented the duality of the world; light and dark, sun and moon, women and man, life and death. Wampum was given as a gift for many occasions: births, marriages, the signing of treaties, occasions for condolence and remembrance. Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/01/14/beads-bounty-how-wampum- became-america%E2%80%99s-first-currency%E2%80%94and-lost-its-power-146941

Unfortunately the colonists immediately translated wampum into currency. It became a part of the growing trade between the colonists and the Native Americans, which also included beaver and fur pelts (which decimated the population). • Dutch the first to create trading posts (near Hartford) and established trade with Indians for fur and wampum (Adriaen Block, a Dutch explorer, sailed up the River in 1614) • Dutch manufactured wampum from shells and colonists considered it like their currency, although it was far more symbolic to the Indians.

Sidebar: A Brief History of the Fur Trade http://cwh.ucsc.edu/feinstein/A%20brief%20history%20of%20the%20beaver%20trade.html

The map shows the general locations of some of the local tribes that fell under the Paugusetts; Maxumux, Sasqua, Unquoway and Pequonnok. The Native Americans spoke an Algonquin-derived language and many of their words are still in use today, can you think of any? Connecticut, Pequonock, Pequot … In this area of CT, the Native Americans often traveled to the coast for the summer and then moved inland during the winter months.

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

2: The English Colonists 1639 – 1700s Colonists arrived for religious and political reasons, but also to search for the Western Passage to China and India. Realizing their failure, they turned towards exploiting the resources in America. Part of what attracted the colonists to this area were the natural salt marshes, the land that was cleared by the Native Americans and the hardwoods / trees. Later on, farmers used the natural salt marshes to harvest hay and to graze livestock.

Can you imagine seeing a cow chomping away in the bushes near the beach?

At the floor map, you can also compare and contrast the Native Salt Marsh at Southport, CT, 1862-3. Martin Johnson Heade. American home (the wigwam) and North Carolina Museum of Art. the Colonists’ home (a typical New England saltbox or Colonial home).

Roger Ludlow founded Fairfield in 1639. They came from the Bay Colony and created the four squares of the original Fairfield. It was very important to establish a Meetinghouse for people to worship and to act as a Town Hall for meetings. People had to have permission to join a colony and the founders had the ability to exclude whomever they liked.

The colony was centered around the Town Green, which is a unique feature of New England colonies. People built their homes along the green, often to use the common Green area for grazing their livestock. Farmlands and fields were located around the Town Green. The Green was an area for a sign post, militia drills and even punishment. Have you ever seen a stockade? Criminals were put on public display to shame them and passers-by were encouraged to throw insults or toss rotten food at them. Alongside the Colonial section of this exhibit, you’ll see more about the strict Colonial rules that were established.

Sidebar: Roger Ludlow & the

From the 2014 exhibition on the Pequot War: The murders of two English traders—John Stone in 1634 by the Pequot and John Oldham in 1636 by the Manisses—are often cited as the cause of the Pequot War, but the conflict was really the culmination of decades of tension between Native tribes that was further stressed by the arrival of European settlers.

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

The Pequot War resulted from intense competition for control of trade as well as inter-tribal conflict as Native groups wrested themselves from Pequot subjugation. The conflict was as much Native vs. Native as it was English vs. Native. Tribes that were resentful of the ’ domination, such as the Narragansett and , allied themselves with the incoming English, while the Pequot, determined to maintain control over trade in the Connecticut Valley, pulled in local [Fairfield] tribes like the Sasqua and Unquowa, who owed them allegiance.

Sidebar: Roger Ludlow & CT The Constitution State The colonists believed in self-government and created their own rules organized around the Church. Roger Ludlow is credited for writing the Code of 1650 and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. Educated at Oxford, he was elected (1630) an assistant of the Massachusetts Bay Company and in the same year sailed to America. He was one of the founders of Dorchester, Mass., and served (1634) as deputy governor of Massachusetts. It was noted that he wanted to be Governor, but he never attained that position.

Moving to the new settlements along the , he presided (1636) at Windsor over the first court held in Connecticut and is credited with the final drafting of the Fundamental Orders, adopted by the colony in 1639. He also completed the first codification of Connecticut laws, known as Ludlow's Code or the Code of 1650.

Although given a charter to start a new colony, it was not in Fairfield, yet he defied these orders and settled here anyway. Disagreement over his proposed expedition against the Dutch settlers of caused him to return to England, after which he settled in Ireland.

Years later the Fundamental Orders are considered by some historians to be “the first real Constitution” and harbinger of other founding documents to come.

“it is our wisdom therefore to improve what we have, to walk close with our God and to combine and unite ourselves to walk and live peacable and lovingly together, that so, if there be cause, we may join hearts and hands to maintain the common cause aforesaid, and to defend our priviledges and freedomes we now enjoy, against all opposers”

Roger Ludlow, writing from Windsor on May 29, 1638, in a letter addressed to “The Gouer & brethren of Massachusetts Baye” (Coleman) 3: A Community at War – The 1775 - 1783 An expanded community becomes a community of wealth – and a British target.

Despite the notoriously rocky New England soil, farmers surrounding Fairfield became very prosperous from the land, livestock and certain crops that did well. Flax was one of these plants. In 1640, the colonial government ordered each family to sow a rod of either flax or hemp. Flax is a centuries-old plant (think Egypt!) used to make linen, although the arduous process took a long time to break down the plant to reach the willowy fibers inside. Eventually the seeds became a valuable export to Ireland, where they had difficulties maturing seeds.

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

Other exports to markets in and New York included sheep, hogs and cattle. Horses also became popular and Connecticut developed a reputation for quality across the colonies and in trade to the West Indies. Close to these major ports and with a proliferation of farmers and ship captains, the economy boomed. Important ports were also created closer to home: Black Rock Harbor (currently Captain’s Cove), a tide mill at Ash Creek and Mill River (later called Southport). By 1756, Fairfield was the 4th largest town in Connecticut and ranked 2nd in taxable property.

OBJECTS: The objects on display here represent the wealth that began to proliferate amongst Fairfielders; the tall case clock, imported tiles, the silver cans/tankards, the fine shoes.

Sidebar: Clockmaking in CT See: http://connecticuthistory.org/when-the-world-ran-on-connecticut-time/

Portraits of Eunice Dennie Burr and Thaddeus Burr by 1763. Courtesy of the St. Louis Art Museum.

Sidebar: Thaddeus and Eunice Burr Wealth also afforded many to own slaves, including Thaddeus and Eunice Burr. The 1790 census indicated that Thaddeus owned 5 slaves. The Burr couple (who never had children) were both incredibly wealthy and influential in politics and the Revolution. He became Deputy for Fairfield in 1769, Justice of the Peace and eventually became High Sheriff of the County in 1779.

Sidebar: Slavery By the early 18th century African-American slavery had become an established institution in Fairfield as well as in other parts of Connecticut. By the time of the American Revolution, Connecticut was the largest slaveholding colony in New England, with slaves comprising about three and a half percent of the population. In Fairfield, the percentage ran higher: about six percent, or 260 of its 4455 residents.

Slavery was never the basis of the agricultural economy in Connecticut as it would become in southern states like Virginia and South Carolina. Rather, slaveholders generally owned one or two people and put them to 5

Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

work as household servants or day laborers. Fairfield’s slave owners were mainly wealthy and affluent people, including several of the patriots who supported the cause of liberty—Gold Selleck Silliman, Caleb Brewster, Thaddeus Burr, and others—as well as Loyalists.

Connecticut grew crops, raised cattle and felled logs to send to the West Indies, because many Caribbean islands, though capable of growing their own food, were busy growing the vastly more profitable sugar cane. It would be more accurate to say that enslaved black people, in a labor that often killed them, were growing that sugar cane. And Connecticut was feeding them.

Citizens All: http://glc.yale.edu/outreach/teacher-programs/citizens-all-african-americans-connecticut-1700- 1850/connecticut-stories-1 The Burr and The Hancock Family Thaddeus Burr had a close friendship with Governor of Massachusetts, who often spent time at the Burr Homestead during his travels. Burr often visited Hancock in MA, as well. Shortly after the “Shot Heard Around the World” and the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775, Hancock came to stay with the Burr’s, along with , Lydia Hancock and Dorothy Quincy. Lydia was the chaperone of Ms. Quincy and is buried in the Old Burying Ground on Beach Road, along with Thaddeus and Eunice. Eunice’s parents are commemorated there with two “tablestone” markers.

Sidebar: Dorothy Quincy (her portrait is on the left) John Hancock married Dorothy Quincy in 1775 at the Burr Homestead in Fairfield. The date of their wedding was scheduled just a few days before the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which was to take place at the Quincy House in Boston (which was completely refurnished for the event). At first they escaped from Boston to Lexington, where he was later joined by Dorothy and his aunt. “A lovers’ quarrel broke out because Hancock would not permit Dorothy to return to Boston. In the midst of this quarrel, the trio was forced to flee again, and Dorothy went to Fairfield. There she met Aaron Burr who became such an ardent suitor that Hancock’s aunt became alarmed and sent word to her nephew. In spite of Hancock’s protestation of undying love, Dorothy continued her flirtation with Burr. Not until a second and more alarming plea reached him from his aunt that Hancock hurried to Fairfield where he and Dorothy Q. were married on August 28, 1775.”

Sidebar: Aaron Burr and his Fairfield connection: Aaron Burr famously killed Alexander Hamilton on the dueling grounds of Weehawken, NJ on July 11, 1804.Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr. is the father of Aaron Burr, who was the Vice President of the under Thomas Jefferson from 1801 – 1805.Aaron Burr’s grandfather, Daniel Burr (c. 1660) was the brother of Thaddeus Burr’s grandfather, Peter Burr.

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

Gold Selleck Silliman and Mary Fish Silliman Gold Selleck Silliman (b. 1732) studied law and graduated from Yale in the class of 1752. He became the king’s attorney for Fairfield County and was a justice of the peace. In May 1774, he became a major and two years later he became Brigadier General of the 4th Brigade. He was at the infamous in 1777 when the British came onto Connecticut soil and ventured inland.

Mary Fish Silliman, whose portrait on the right hands in the “Creating Community” exhibition, was the second wife of Gold Selleck Silliman. She wrote many letters to her husband when he was away leading the militia. On May 2, 1779, the Silliman’s were woken in the middle of the night by a group of men who broke into their house. They captured Gold Selleck Silliman and took him to , where the British held him as a prisoner. On April 27, 1780, almost a full year after the attack on Fairfield, kidnapped General Gold-Selleck Silliman was returned by the British in exchange for loyalist Thomas Jones. Jones was a chief justice of the Superior Court on Long Island. He was kidnapped by the patriots so they would be able to trade someone for General Silliman. Silliman’s wife, Mary, hired the boat that enabled the two men to be traded. Primary Sources: Silliman Letters Letter from Gold Selleck Silliman to Col. John Ely (still a prisoner), June 14, 1780. In this letter, Silliman has returned home after being a prisoner of the British. He writes, “the Sweets of Liberty and Freedom, a Blessing that I most sincerely wish you and our Friends who are still in captivity” In the letter below, Mrs. Silliman writes to her two sons (from previous marriage) at . Along with the letter she send apples, clothes and “some little tokens of your Mammas love.” She reported that their stepfather, Gold Selleck Silliman, was hoping to visit, but they could not depend on it, “as he is not his own man, but the Publick Servant.”

*Please note that the letters are often swapped out of the gallery due to their sensitivity to light. Please make sure to confirm which letters are on display.

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

The Burning of Fairfield In July 1779, as part of a series of attacks along the coast, British forces under General William Tryon marched into Fairfield and burned much of the town. The attacks on Fairfield, New Haven and Norwalk aimed: • to draw out of his secure position at West Point to come to the defense of Connecticut; • to stop attacks on British and loyalist shipping in ; • to interrupt the flow of farm goods from Fairfield farmers to the Most of the center of the town was burned, including houses, barns, shops, schools, churches, and the courthouse. Fairfield militia men, hidden between the center of the town and the shore, fired on British troops as they marched up Beach Road, then fell back to Round Hill to organize their defenses. Isaac Jarvis, located at Grover’s Hill Fort (where present-day St. Mary’s by the Sea is located) fired warning shots. Colonel Samuel Whiting ordered men to tear up the bridge over Ash Creek to prevent the British from attacking Black Rock fort from behind. Ten Fairfield residents were killed, and it took years to recover from the destruction.

What did the revolution’s fight for freedom mean for African-American slaves? In the midst of the Revolutionary War, two Fairfield slaves, Prime and Prince, appealed to revolutionary ideas about freedom when they petitioned the Connecticut assembly to end slavery in the state altogether in 1779. Their petition was denied, but a few years later, in 1784, Connecticut did pass a measure that would gradually bring slavery to an end in the state.

During the war, slaves made their own choices when they could, following the path that seemed to promise the greatest chance of freedom. Tens of thousands of slaves left their masters during the war when the British promised freedom to those who came under their protection. This included Fairfield’s Edward Lloyd, a teenager during the war who went on to join with British forces. Other Fairfield slaves joined the patriot forces. For instance, Jack Sanford enlisted in 1777, with his owner’s permission, and was discharged at Valley Forge after becoming too ill to fight. After the war, he changed his last name to Freeman. Peter Nash followed his master and ended up serving as a private in a company of guards patrolling the Fairfield coast.

Sidebar: George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring One of the most successful spy operations on either side of the war was the Culper Spy Ring, based in Setauket, Long Island and Fairfield. They gathered information about British forces headquartered in and passed it on to Washington at his headquarters. To ensure their safety, they used elaborate codes, invisible ink, and fake names. Although the British knew that there was information being passed through Long Island, no one in the Culper Spy Ring was ever arrested. (AKA Culper Jr.), a New York City merchant. He collects information about the British in New

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Creating Community: Exploring 375 Years of Our Past Docent Gallery Guide

York and passes messages to… Austin Roe, a tavern operator on Long island, who comes to New York

City to purchase goods from Townsend, and receives messages stuffed in with his purchases. When he returns to Long Island, he buries the secret messages in a box on the farm of … (AKA Culper Sr), who decides which ones to send on to General Washington. He uses a telescope to look at the clothesline hung by his neighbor… Anna Strong. If she hangs a red petticoat and a series of white handkerchiefs, it signals that… Caleb Brewster, who commands a fleet of whale boats in the Sound, has arrived and is waiting in one of the local coves. He carries the message to Fairfield, where he passes it on to another messenger until it gets to Washington’s headquarters. Shown above (although illegible) Caleb Brewster’s Caleb Brewster was born in Setauket (near present-day Port gravesite is in the Old Burying Ground on Beach Jefferson), Long Island, in 1747. He was an active boy and was Road. From Kate Perry’s book, we know the anxious to explore the world beyond his native village, so at the epitaph reads “he was a brave and active officer of the Revolution.” age of 19 went on a whaling ship bound for the coast of Greenland.

On return from London in a merchant ship, he arrived to find the country engaged in the Revolutionary War. He immediately volunteered and soon was made a lieutenant of artillery. He was held in high esteem by his officers and the commander in chief for his integrity, courage and patriotism and became an important member of the Culper Spy Ring. Under the direction of Major , Brewster provided important information relative to the movements of the British Army in New York and on Long Island. In one of their most extraordinary missions, their intelligence information helped uncover ’s infamous role in betraying West Point to the British. Throughout the war, Caleb risked his life carrying information back and forth across the Sound. He was the only member of the Spy Ring identified by the British, who offered a large reward for his capture.

After the war he married Anne Lewis of Fairfield and settled in Black Rock where he lived until his death in 1827. As shown at left, Caleb Brewster also took out the newspaper ad above, indicating that he either owned slaves or was hired to find runaway slaves. Updated: April, 2017

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