The toll house on the Derby Turnpike and Everett’s Tavern, circa 1885, were located near the Maltby lakes. The posters on the shed adjacent to the tavern promote appearances of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the area. Photo from History of Orange – Sesquicentennial 1822-1972.
By Brandon T. Bisceglia
The town of Orange is celebrating the bicentennial birthday throughout 2022, having been incorporated by an act of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1822.
Events are being planned for later this year by the Bicentennial Committee, which was formed in late 2021 and has begun holding meetings in recent weeks.
But of course Orange, like so much of Connecticut, has a rich history that predates 1822. People lived in the area that would become Orange for generations before that.
The earliest known settlers to the area were the Paugusett group of the Algonquian people. By the time Europeans came to the area, the Paugusetts inhabited much of Connecticut’s shoreline from near present-day Bridgeport to West Haven.
The earliest white settlers called the area that included Orange Wepawaug, a Native American word meaning “small crossing place.”
According to Mary R. Woodruff’s “History of Orange, North Milford, Connecticut, 1639-1949,” the Paugusett had several substantial settlements in the area of Orange, including a fort and a burial ground at Turkey Hill.
The land that would become Orange was first incorporated by the European colonists in 1639 – as part of Milford. That year the Rev. Peter Prudden purchased the land for six coats, 10 blankets, one kettle, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives and a dozen small mirrors.
As the central part of Milford became more populated, settlers continued to move to more rural sections, including what was then called “North Milford.” They slowly displaced the natives, though there are records of individuals who continued to live in the Turkey Hill section into the early 1800s.
One of the first areas settled in Orange, just north of where the Boston Post Road now runs, was known as Bryan’s Farms, named after the family of English settlers who moved there in the early 1700s. The Bryan-Andrew House, a historical museum-home on the National Register of Historic Places built around 1750 and still standing today, is maintained by the Orange Historical Society.
Colonial Milford, like all of Connecticut at the time, was defined by deeply religious “Puritan” institutions, centered around the Congregationalist Church. In 1810, the Orange Congregational Church was built on Orange Center Road in the center of town, giving residents an alternative to traveling the long distances to attend services in Milford.
Thus by the early 1800s Orange had become sufficiently populated and distinct from Milford that its residents requested political separation.
The residents chose the name to honor William III of England, Prince of Orange. William III was seen as a hero of sorts in Connecticut, having succeeded James II after his defeat in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II was infamous for appointing Sir Edmond Andros as governor of New England. Connecticut had been the most politically independent of the colonies, and the appointment led to the famous “Charter Oak incident,” in which colonists hid the colonial charter from Andros’s attempts to seize it.
So in 1822, the Connecticut General Assembly granted a charter to this new town, and Orange was born.