By Marilyn May
Milford History
A portrait of Moses Wheeler painted by Stuart Gilbert.
The mighty Housatonic River flows north to south for about 150 miles from western Massachusetts to Long Island Sound. But in the 17th century, like today, many travelers just wanted to across the river by going east or west. As long ago as the mid-1640s there was talk about running a ferry boat service in Stratford. It was in Milford’s interest to have the service, because the route was always pretty much the same: Stratford to Milford and Milford to Stratford.
In 1648, Moses Wheeler, a ship’s carpenter, was given a contract to do the work. He had to build a ferry and wharf, clear a causeway and agree to keep everything in good repair. More than 200 years later, when a bridge was needed on I-95 to connect Milford and Stratford, the span was named in his honor: it’s the Moses Wheeler Bridge. It is one of the longest and most heavily traveled bridges in Connecticut.
When Wheeler started his ferry service around 1670, one crossing might have had three or four passengers and some horses. Today, the Moses Wheeler Bridge carries 111,000 cars and trucks across the same span of water every day, according to state estimates.
He would be surprised to hear what is happening on “his” bridge.
He would be even more surprised to hear that the Washington Bridge (sometimes called the Devon Bridge) that is part of Route 1 carries 23,000 cars a day, and the Sikorsky Memorial Bridge that’s part of Route 15 is used by more than 79,000 cars.
That’s more than 213,000 vehicles a day crossing the same river between the same two towns as Wheeler once serviced. And those figures don’t take into account the number of people crossing each day by way of the railroad bridge.
President George Washington crossed the Housatonic by ferry several times, so when a bridge was built, it was named in his honor. The current Washington Bridge was dedicated 100 years ago in 1921.
The original ferry boat agreement Wheeler signed made it clear that no other private boats or canoes could take paying passengers across the river. Wheeler had a 21-year lease that was renewed, and as he got older, the lease was passed on to his sons. It remained in the family for three generations – almost 100 years.
When Wheeler and his family moved from New Haven to Stratford, he purchased a land lot from the native people, and his was the first deed recorded in the Stratford land record book. Later he added vast tracts of land, becoming one of the area’s largest landowners. As a result, Wheeler became an influential man in town.
He was described as being tall and strong, ably fit to ferry his passengers across almost half a mile of river known for gusting winds, strong currents, ice flows and floods.
Wheeler is believed to have been the first white European centenarian in New England. He lived from 1598 to 1698 and is buried in the Stratford Congregational Church cemetery. His gravestone reads:
Moses Wheeler
Age 100
Dyed Jan. 15th
1698
FERRY RELEASED
Marilyn May is a lifelong resident of Milford and is on the board of the Milford Historical Society.