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EARLIEST
INHABITANTS OF THIS
AREA WERE INDIANS.
The
first inhabitants of this area were Indians, mainly of two
tribes --
Paugatucks and Pootatucks. Unlike many areas of this country,
the land
which comprises Oxford was purchased from the Indians, and
written
deeds of transfer were made for five areas of the town.
The principal deeds were for the lands of
Wesquantuck, Rock-house Hill, Camp's Mortgage, the Quaker
Farms
Purchase and the North Purchase.
The Quakers Farm purchase is believed to
have been
made prior to 1689, or thereabouts, as Sharpe, in his History
of
Oxford, Part First, (published in 1885), cites a document
referring to
the original settling of the land in 1689.
Sharpe also cites an old deed dated March
19, 1700
for the Wesquantuck area, now known by the shortened term
Squantuck.
In December of that year a committee
of Ebenezer Johnson,
Wm. Tomlinson and Samuel Riggs
were appointed to buy the mortgage of
Nicholas Camp of Milford. This area was divided among the
proprietors
in 1702 and 1703.
It is also a tradition that the Kettletown
area of
the town was purchased for a brass kettle from the Indians at
a very
early date, and sold a second time in 1679.
Another Purchase, which includes land in
the
Towantic area of town, was purchased on January 31, 1710, by
Samuel and
Lieut. Joseph Hull of Derby, agents, for six pounds of current
silver
money.
The Twelve Mile Hill area was recorded as
sold on
March 15, 1710, consisting of 100 acres bounded by Waterbury.
The area
is now marked by The Twelve Mile Stake on Andrews Mountain.
The following article, loaned to us by Miss
Bernice
S. Hull, is a speech given by Marjorie Woodruff at the Derby
Historical
Society:
THE TWELVE MILE STAKE.....
At the spot where the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers come
together, a
trading post was established in 1642. This was called
Paugatuck. In
1654, a group of people from New Haven came and settled
here, and in
1655, they petitioned the General Court in New Haven to make
this
little settlement a town. In 1675 there were 12 families,
with 11 more
families intending to come and they had procured a minister
and
provided for his support; so the General Assembly on May 13,
1676 made
them a town, which they called "Derby."
The Town
of
Derby, as created by the 1675 charter, covered 14,000 acres,
and the
General Court, in 1671 said, "This Court do hereby grant
that their
bounds shall be; on the south on Milford bounds; on the west
by the
Pootatuck River, and from their south bounds unto the north
12 miles.
Edward
Wooster was leader
of the
first
settlers, who found Derby an unbroken forest, with wolves
and other
wild animals killing much of their livestock.
So Derby, on the south, went to the Milford
town
line, on the west to Pootatuck River and "unto the north 12
miles,"
which as measured by the early inhabitants, was on what is
called
Andrews' Mountain. No one really knows who put the twelve mile
stake in
place. There is a record of a vote granting to John Stanley,
12 acres
of land on the hill, "at a stake set down by Derby men."
