Date: Fri 16-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

history-place-names

Full Text:

Many Newtown Place Names Have Roots In "Common" Knowledge Long Forgotten

(with cut)

"There is everything in a name. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,

but would not cost half as much in the winter months."

--George Ade

Church Hill Road. Cold Spring. Taunton Lane.

It is not difficult to figure out how many of Newtown's oldest roads got their

names. But a drive around town will reveal others, like Jangling Plains Road,

whose origins are known to only those familiar with local history.

Place names reveal much about the way early settlers and later property owners

thought about their land, according to Town Historian Daniel Cruson. In an

article published in the Newtown Historical Society's newsletter, The

Rooster's Crow , Mr Cruson said that studying place names can provide

interesting insights into how people's views of their surroundings changed

over the years.

A good example of this in Newtown comes from comparing the way land deeds were

recorded throughout most of the town's history before World War II. Place

names were part of the common knowledge of the people who lived in the area.

An early deed might begin by describing a parcel of land as, "a certain tract

of land in Palestine as Capt Bennett's Hog Swamp." In this case, the seller

said the land was in the school district of Palestine, surrounding Palestine

Road, in a spot in or around Captain Bennett's Hog Swamp, a site that most

everyone knew in those days. That this location might not be known to those

who lived outside the town, or even on the other side of town, or in a later

generation, was unimportant.

Likewise, roads were named unofficially, Mr Cruson said. Unofficially, of

course, every neighbor had a way of designating a local road, usually by

saying to whose farm or house the road led. Thus "the road to Philo Curtis"

was adequate for local use. Even in the town meeting minutes where roads were

being discussed, and their acceptance or abandonment debated, the road in

question was not referred to by a name but rather as "...the road from

Berkshire to Moses Botsford's homestead."

All of this changed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. With the war over,

Newtown began a serious campaign to hard pave all of its secondary roads. The

state already had paved the main roads into town with either asphalt or, more

commonly, concrete. In addition, automobiles became readily available to a

large segment of the population as the manufacturers in Detroit rapidly

retooled from producing war machines and began producing a large supply of

cars. These cars were quickly purchased by consumers who had just endured four

years of deprivation for consumer goods. Consumers also had large amounts of

money to spend on such goods since there had been little available to buy

during the war.

Locally, this had the effect of opening Newtown up to development as workers

moved out of urban environments like Bridgeport and Danbury into the country.

It was now possible to live 10 to 12 miles from your place of employment and

to commute back and forth in a reasonably short period of time on the newly

paved roads with a newly purchased automobile.

This had the effect of rapidly increasing Newtown's resident population and

brought visitors to town on day trips in record numbers, Mr Cruson said. But

finding your way around town could be extremely confusing, especially since

there were no street signs.

The League's Campaign

This changed with a campaign launched by the League of Women Voters in 1952 to

place street signs on all roads and to produce a map with all of the street

names listed, something that had never been done before. To accomplish this

task, the league ran a contest to name all of Newtown's roads. Many of the

already commonly known names were now officially adopted, including Bennett's

Bridge, Osborne Hill, Gelding Hill, and Philo Curtis roads. The lesser roads,

of which there were many, were given names like Elm Drive, Sugar Lane, Turkey

Hill Road and Park Lane.

This campaign had other less obvious benefits, Mr Cruson said. Place names,

for example, became less important. Residents still tend to refer to

themselves as living in Hawleyville or Taunton, names which were left over

from the old school districts of the 19th Century, but no one refers to

himself as living by Bilberry swamp, or at the Great Boggs, or on Pismire

Hill.

Place and road names also ceased to evolve after the 1952 campaign. Formerly,

as a natural feature changed, or the activities that took place around it

changed, so did the references to it. Some of this was done consciously, as

when Slut's Hill was changed by Simeon B. Peck to Mt Pleasant just after the

Civil War, or Carcass Lane became Wendover in the late 1930s. Many of the

place name changes occurred spontaneously, however. Thus the section of Deep

Brook Road that was known as Potash Brook after the tanning operation that was

just south of the village cemetery, became Deep Brook after the tanning yard

closed.

Most often place name changes reflect changes in ownership of land or

landmarks. Cocksure Island, in the middle of the Housatonic River just below

Shady Rest, was named for its Indian owner. It became Hubbell's Island,

however, when Peter Hubbell was given permission to run a ferry there.

Underhill Cemetery, which was located on Hattertown Road just south of the

intersection of Boggs Hill Road, was originally named after the Underhill

family who donated the land and first began burying family members there. It

became the Morgan Cemetery about mid-19th Century when Ezra Morgan, an

influential merchant in town, established his store at the intersection. The

corner became known as Morgan Four Corners, using the name that earlier in the

century had marked the intersection of Head O Meadow Road and Route 302.

A few place name changes have been made to the detriment of local color. Hog

Swamp Road, which led to Capt Bennett's Hog Swamp, became Brushy Hill Road

after the hill at its northern end became settled. And Hog Pen Brook became

Curtis Brook after the Curtis family which created the mill pond (Curtis Pond)

for its button factory in the Berkshire section of Sandy Hook.

Hard's Corner is an example of a place name that would go from dull to

colorful. As automobiles began using Route 25 at ever increasing speeds, this

corner just north of what is now Sand Hill Plaza became known as Dead Man's

Curve. In the mid-1960s, the road was straightened by the state and now Dead

Man's Curve is remembered only by older residents.

Swamps Were Important

For many years properties were identified as being near swamps. While today

these bodies of water are considered a nuisance by builders and developers,

and also by homeowners with boggy lawns on which grass won't grow. But in the

late 18th and early 19th Centuries, a swamp was a valuable economic asset.

Cleared of trees, swamps became precious fertile grassland for grazing cattle

and horses, more fertile and productive than any of the high land areas of

town with their thin rock soils.

Most swamps were named after their early or original owner. Thus, Ferris Swamp

drained into Deep River through what is now Dickinson Park, and Seeley Swamp

was partially drained and filled to become the Newtown Fairgrounds in the late

1890s and later Taylor Field behind Hawley School.

Some swamps were named for the predominant vegetation, like Cranberry Swamp,

located between Phyllis Lane, Hattertown, and Hundred Acres Roads, which would

later become Castle Meadow.

Most notable were the substantial swamps simply called the Great and Little

Boggs, after which Boggs Hill Road was named. These wetlands served as the

source of the north branch of the Pootatuck River. There is no swamp, bog,

meadow or wetland in Newtown that was considered so unimportant to remain

unnamed.

Second only to swamps were trees and tree-related subjects which became

favorite place names, Mr Cruson said. These, too, reflected the importance of

trees in the 18th and early 19th Centuries. Unlike the modern citizens of

Newtown, the early settlers felt that the only good trees were those which had

been cut down for fuel or lumber. Cleared fields could be used for pasture or

planting, but wooded fields were seen as undeveloped and relatively useless.

As a result, by about 1800 most of Newtown consisted of open countryside.

Photographs of the early 20th Century show that from the top of the town's

several high hills, you could see all the way across town with nothing to

obstruct your view. In some cases, it was possible to see even Long Island

Sound.

Bare Hills was a series of denuded hills that ran around the south and eastern

sides of Sandy Hook from Toddy Hill to the small hill just south of the Glen.

Names like Two Tree Hill (another name for Taunton Hill) and Single Pine Hill

(in the northern end of Pootatuck Park) also existed then.

There also is a class of place names that is not necessarily indicative of the

early settlers' mind set but do originate from an historical incident.

Jangling Plains is a good example of this type. In 1719, the town was involved

in a bitter dispute with John Glover, who was a land baron among the early

proprietors, ultimately owning substantially more of the town than any of the

others. Mr Glover claimed a small parcel of land amounting to a little more

than an acre that appears to have been located near what is now the

Newtown-Bethel border. This claim was based upon an independent purchase from

the Indians. The town, however, claimed otherwise and finally won.

Because of this rather loud and jarring clash between Mr Glover and the town,

the parcel became known as Jangling Plains, and today Jangling Plains Road

commemorates this dispute.

(Editor's Note: Mr Cruson is always interested in the origin of Newtown place

names. Readers who have such information are asked to write to him at 174

Hanover Road, Newtown.)