THREE TOWN SIGNS

From Branford’s Plaque (pictured left):
In 1638 the New Haven Colony traded ‘eleven coats of trucking cloth and one coat of English cloth made in the English fashion’ to the Mattabesec Indians fro land known as Totokett (Tidal River). The first permanent settlement was established in 1644 when people from Wethersfield came to Totokett, later renamed Branford after the town of Brentford in Middlesex County, England.
The Sound provided many of the settlers with a livelihood of shipbuilding and coastwise trade. Industry began in 1655 when the first iron furnace in Connecticut was set up and operated at Lake Saltonstall. Yale College was founded in 1701 when ten ministers met and made a contribution of books. In 1852 upon completion of the railroad, industrialization flourished.
Two leading manufacturing firms were founded during this era: the Malleable Iron Fittings Company in 1854, and the Branford Lock Works in 1862. The twentieth century has brought some changes to Branford, but much of its historical heritage remains in the form of old buildings and well-preserved villages.
Erected by the Town of Branford and the Connecticut Historical Commission in 1981.

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From Guilford’s plaque (pictured left):
This town, the seventh oldest in Connecticut, was founded in 1639 by an oppressed but optimistic band of English Puritans. Henry Whitfield, a minister in Ockley, near London, was the moving spirit behind their emigration.
About forty of his friends and sympathizers formed a joint stock company to sail across the Atlantic. They were mostly young and energetic men, farmers, well-educated, and all of them persons of high standing in their community. In a deed of sale dated September 29, 1639, the Whitfield Company purchased the lands between Stony Creek and East River form the Squaw Shaumpish, Sachem of the local Menunkatuck Indian tribe. Whitfield’s stone house at first served as a fortress and meeting place. Guilford Green was inspired by the typical 17th century English common.
In the fall of 1641 the settlers purchased from the Indians land beyond East River that included most of what became East Guilford.
East Guilford, now Madison, was set off as a distinct church society in 1703, North Guilford in 1720, and North Bristol (North Madison) in 1753. Two good harbors and two tidal rivers assured success to Guilford in Connecticut – New York coastwise shipping and the West India trade during the 18th century.
In the American Revolution, British troops landed several times and burned two houses.
The famous Sachem’s Head Hotel (1832-1865) and Guilford Point House (1797-1897) made this town the center of society for many years.
John Beattie’s granite quarries at Leete’s Island employed as many as three hundred workmen and supplied stone for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
Famous sons of Guilford include William Leete, an early Governor of Connecticut; Fitz-green Halleck, one of the noted Knickerbocker Poets; and Abraham Baldwin, a signer of the united States Constitution and Senator from Georgia.
Erected by the Town of Guilford, The Guilford Foundation, the Guilford Keeping Society and the Connecticut Historical Commission in 1980.

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From Madison’s plaque (pictured left):
This area, formerly part of Guilford and knows as East Guilford, was first settled about 1650 on land bought from the Nehantic and Mohegan Indians in 1641. With population increasing, settlers have sought separate parishes and the Society of East Guilford was incorporated in 1707, the Society in North Madison, called North Bristols, in 1753.
The Town of Madison, names for President James Madison, was incorporated in 1826. This was once a center for fishing, shipping, shipbuilding, farming, and crayon manufacturing. Famous people born here included Thomas Chittenden, first Governor of Vermont; philanthropist Daniel Hand; artist Gilbert Munger; and chief sponsor of the Civil War ironclad warship Monitor, Cornelius Scranton Bushnell.
Erected by the Town of Madison and the Connecticut Historical Commission in 1975.

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