Weston

WESTON Originally the Nor'field parish of old Fairfield (1639) to the south, present Weston was divided into long lots circa 1670, commencing our agricultural development. By 1757 there were enough families to become a separate ecclesiastical society. During the Revolution British General Tryon's forces passed nearby en route to and from the burning of Danbury. To escape, Weston mothers fled with their children to the Devil's Den, a wilderness landmark since earliest times. Near dawn, December 14, 1807 a large meteorite exploded over Weston, one of the first such phenomena recorded in America. A thirty-pound fragment became the nucleus of Yale University's meteorite collection. Incorporated since 1787, Weston prospered from onion farming and numerous early industries. Our forested slopes provided charcoal and our rapidly falling rivers the water power for iron forges and foundries shipping their products all over the East. (Continued on other side) WESTON (Continued from other side) Peaking at 2997 in 1830, the population steadily fell off to 1117 in 1860, 840 in 1900, and 670 in 1930. The decline resulted from the loss of territory to form Westport and Easton, the opening of the richer Ohio farmlands, the rise of steam-powered industry on the coast, and isolation from canals and railroads. Lyon's Plain and Valley Forge, once thriving villages, lingered as population centers. As late as the 1880's wandering Indians still camped in the Den. Early in the 1900's artists, musicians, theatre people, writers, and summer colonists discovered Weston, the vanguard of the waves of commuters who arrived by automobile after the Second World War and brought the sleepy town vigorously back to life. The mixture gives Weston its special character.