(Originally written in July 1998 by Former Executive Director, Robert Novak Jr. for the weekly newspaper Huntington Herald)
Imagine the scene, not long after the year 1614 -
The waters of the Housatonic flow swiftly downstream through the
Housatonic Valley. After tumbling over the Great Falls at present day New
Milford, where the shad journeyed every year to spawn, they wind their way
downriver to merge with the waters of its largest tributary, the Naugatuck. The
shores on both sides are heavily wooded, trees growing right up to the shore of
the mighty river. Here and there, on both sides, can be found Native American
villages and encampments. The majestic stillness of the high bluffs and tranquil
flood plains along the river is broken only by the occasional splash of a fish
jumping, the chirping and screeching of birds both large and small, the howl of
a wolf, or the calls of Native Americans.
The waters swirl past an unfamiliar small craft, being rowed, paddled, or
possibly sailed up the river. Curious Native Americans on both sides of the
river peer behind trees, bolder ones coming straight to the shore. Some of the
Indians may have borne the marks of smallpox, the mysterious, imported disease
which absolutely devastated the Native American population in Connecticut.
The men they gazed upon in the small boat were
strange. They had hair on their faces. They were dirty. They spoke in a strange
tongue. Their skin was pale, appearing sickly-looking to the Natives. Their
clothes were of odd colors and materials. While their boat may have been a canoe
purchased or procured by the Indians downriver, it may also have been a
whaleboat, which would not have been suited for the swift current of the Great
River.
The strangers for their part, continued around the
long bend in the river at what is now Sunnyside in Shelton, gradually coming
around Two Mile Island. Gazing upriver, European eyes for the first time beheld
the confluence of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers. They probably put ashore
at the point between the two rivers, at what is now Derby, but could just as
easily have put ashore on the east (Derby) or west (Shelton) bank. As their
boots touched the Great River’s shore for the first time, they bore witness to
the first words ever to be uttered by a European in the Housatonic Valley, which
may have been something like:
“Schoon!”
“Dit is een goede plaats om zaken te doen”
Literal translation: “Beautiful!” and “This is
a good place to do business/trade”
Fast forward to July 7,1998. The local media swarms
upon an archeological dig behind a private home on the coast of Branford,
Connecticut. A local newspaper reports the next morning “Archaeologists from
Wesleyan University have unearthed the remains of what may have been the
earliest European settlement in Connecticut – a 17th century Dutch
fort…”
Some of the Natives who gazed upon the first Dutch
expedition up the Housatonic may have seen Europeans before. Many would spend
their summers along the Stratford coast, particularly Lordship, where seafood
was plentiful and easy to come by, and the weather was cooler and breezier. It
was during the summer of 1614 that a strange ship, the 16 ton vessel Onrust
(meaning "Restless" in Dutch), on a voyage of exploration under
the command of Adrian Block, was sighted by the Indians on the shore.
The Onrust
paused at the mouth of the Housatonic while the captain recorded the river was
“a bow shot wide”. Naming it the River of Roodenberg, or Red Hills, he
sailed east, fading over the horizon and out of sight of the curious and
inquisitive Native Americans on the Lordship shoreline. Later the river became
known on Dutch charts as the Mauritius River.
While the news that the Dutch were here decades
before English settlement of the Connecticut shoreline may have been surprising
to some, it has long been known that the Dutch were the first to explore the
Connecticut shoreline and the Housatonic River. We also know that the Dutch had
an extensive trading network in Connecticut, the chief trading post being the
House of Good Hope located at present day Hartford.
The Dutch did, of course, settle along the Hudson in
New Amsterdam. Being the first ones to explore Connecticut, their claim on the
state reached as far as the Connecticut River. As late as 1642, Dutch trade
existed in the Valley, as Adrian Van der Donck reported on the river “…to
which the name Red Hills has been given…Many beavers are taken here, since a
demand for our goods has stimulated the naturally slothful savages”. Dutch
trappers may very well have journeyed along smaller streams in the Valley's
interior to search of them. It also appears that Dutch traders regularly visited
Native villages and other sites on both sides of the river and bartered for
beaver pelts and other goods.
It is very possible, even probable, that the first
European structure in the Valley was Dutch. Most likely it would have been on
Derby Point. While
there may well have been a small, rude trading post
there to do business with the Native Americans of the Housatonic and Naugatuck,
it appears that all visits were temporary. None of the incursions, as far as
recorded history is concerned, involved the actual, permanent relocation of
Dutch settlers from Holland or New Amsterdam to Connecticut, the establishment
of farms and families, and the subsequent dislocation of Native Americans as a
result.
After the Pequot War of 1637, the English had begun
to establish dominance on this part of Connecticut, which was claimed (but not
occupied) by the Dutch, who were not in a position to enforce it. By 1640 places
like Fairfield, New Haven, Milford, and Stratford were established and growing.
The 1600s were very stressful for the English settlers. Relations with the
Indians were never the same after the terrible carnage of the Pequot War, plus
the Dutch in New Amsterdam were a constant thorn. The English settlers lived in
constant fear of being attacked and possibly exterminated by the Indians or the
Dutch.
In 1642, a group of English settlers under John
Wakeman of New Haven built a trading post on Derby Point. We can speculate that
they may have taken over a rough Dutch trading post that was already there but
only occasionally occupied.
The Housatonic Valley, and control of trade with its
Native inhabitants, had now grown into an international incident. The governor
of New Haven colony sent back a quirky reply to the Dutch, also in Latin. It
recapped the Dutch accusation of the encroachment of the Housatonic, known at
this point by the English as the Paugassett River, and stated “…we know no
such (Mauritius) river…It is true we have lately fell upon the Paugassett
River…built a small house within our own limits, many miles, nay leagues from
the Manhattoes (Native Americans of Manhattan). The letter stated the Indians
were “…free to trade with you, us, Connecticut, Massachusetts, or any
other”.
By this time, a New Haven man named John Wakeman had
explored the area, and in the Spring of 1642, The General Court of New Haven
Colony agreed to excuse two of his employees from their mandatory guard duty
"because of their imployment at Powgassett" - the first reference to
the area in English records. Meanwhile, the Dutch were significantly weakened by
the increasing numbers of English settlers, as well as a devastating war with
the Indians around the Hudson. The war began in 1643, lasted about four years,
saw atrocities on both sides, and greatly increased antagonisms and paranoia
between the local Native Americans and English.
Fears of war turned into a reality when England and
Holland declared war in 1652, only one year after Derby received its first permanent
settler - Edward Wooster. The English were afraid the Dutch would turn the
Native Americans against them, but the war was resolved quickly without any
action taken in North America. An idea of the paranoia manifested in the area
can be seen by the witch trials that occurred a year later. One woman each was
executed in Stratford and Fairfield. That same year (1653) the United Colonies
(Connecticut, New Haven, Massachusetts, and Plymouth) decided to send and
expedition of 500 men against New Amsterdam, but the venture fell through when
Massachusetts changed their mind and refused to comply. As relations with the
Dutch continued to deteriorate, Connecticut and New Haven colonies jointly
manned a frigate with 12 guns and 40 men to defend the coast in 1654.
In 1664 Col. Richard Nicolls, who was employed by the
rejuvenated King Charles II’s brother, the Duke of York, arrived in Boston.
Announcing he wished to annex New Amsterdam, a force was raised. Within two
months the city surrendered without any bloodshed. The city was renamed New
York, in the Duke’s honor, ending the Dutch presence in North America.