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| Colonial Green's Farms |
| In
1639, the Town of Fairfield was settled and
incorporated at a place the Indians called Unquowa
after the Pequot War ended here. |
Machamux. Shortly thereafter, cattle wandered westward
from the town center, along the old Indian trails.
Some of the farmers who followed them
decided to settle in a remote area that the Indians
called Machamux (The Beautiful Land). First came
Thomas Newton, Henry Gray and John Green. Then
Daniel Frost and Francis Andrews.
In 1648, these
five - who came to be known as the Bankside Farmers
- were officially sanctioned by Fairfield to
"sit down and inhabit at Machamux."
According to Jennings,
the agreement entitled them to own and
administer in common Fox Island, which was
then a real island west of the salt marsh
and across Gallop's Gap Creek. [See the controversial creeks.]
Fox Island was later renamed Sherwood's
Island.
Later Simon Couch
bought the land called Burial Hill, which was
acquired by the Town of Westport in 1893 to
be a town park (Burying Hill Beach).
In the next half-century,
more land was acquired from the Indians and the
community grew. The people petitioned for their own
church, and in 1711 the "West Parish of
Fairfield" was established with ecclesiastical
and civil functions. In 1732, the area was
renamed "Green's Farms" in honor of John
Green. Frost Point was named for Daniel Frost. |
The
Jennings
composite map shows the 1648
properties of the Bankside Farmers (at the western
end of what is now Beachside Avenue) as well as the
much-later Sherwoods on Sherwood Island (formerly
Fox's Island).
Just north of Sherwood
Island, see the Machamux Boulder -- a monument in a
small park on what is now Green's Farms Road, at the
foot of Morningside Drive. This was the site of the
first West Parish Common, the first schoolhouse, and
the first meeting house. Up the drive is Clapboard
Hill. |
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