Woman’s Club Issues Pewter Tercentennial Ornament

In honor of the town’s 2005 tercentennial, the Newtown Woman’s Club, GFWC, Inc, has issued a pewter ornament, the latest in its series of annual ornaments. The design of the ornament is the town’s official logo for the tercentennial.

The $10 ornament, crafted by Woodbury Pewterers, is available for purchase at Edmond Town Hall, the C.H. Booth Library, The Newtown Bee, Lexington Gardens, and The Drug Center.

Accompanying the ornament is the story, written by Town Historian Daniel Cruson, of the town’s founding.

On July 25, 1705, after paddling their canoes up the Housatonic River, three men from Stratford — William Juno, Captain Samuel Hawley, and Justus Bus — met with three chiefs of the Pootatuck Indians who were living on the Southbury shore and purchased the land that would ultimately become Newtown.

For that land, the Indians — Mauquash, Mussumpas, and Nunnawauck — received “four guns, four broadcloth coats, four blankets, four ruffelly coats, four collars, ten shirts, ten pairs of stockings, forty pounds of lead, ten pounds of powder and forty knives.”

The purchase was made without the permission of the Colonial Assembly so the three men were forced to sell their interest in the land in 1708 to a group of 35 other Stratford men, most of whom became the first settlers of Newtown. The Legislature finally incorporated the town of Newtown in 1711, which is the date that appears on the town’s boundary signs, Mr Cruson explained.

In 1752, there was a change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendars, so that in that year 12 days were dropped. This means that the anniversary of the purchase is now August 5, and in 2005 this day will be observed as the culmination of a year of celebration, with a townwide picnic ending in a grand fireworks display, Mr Cruson said.