The River Shaped The Settlement; Early Bridges Helped It Grow

By Marilyn May
Milford History

During the years when the Fowler Mill existed, there were five different buildings. This photo, taken from the east side, is likely one of the last taken before
this building was razed to make way for New Haven Avenue. Photo courtesy of Marilyn May.

Milford’s fortunes began with the Wepawaug River and, for a river that springs from Woodbridge and flows only 12 miles before it reaches the harbor, it has always been a crucial part of the lives of all the people who have settled here.

It is where the Wepawaug indigenous people chose to live. It was a place for them to fish and hunt game animals that were attracted to the fresh water. In the Algonquin language of the Wepawaugs, the word Wepawaug meant “the crossing place.” This river was barely navigable; people just needed to cross it.

The river nurtured the Puritans’ earliest agrarian endeavors and supplied water for farm animals. Much later, it powered gristmills, sawmills, fulling mills, cider mills, a sorghum mill and a bark mill for tanneries. When Milford entered a new era of manufacturing, it was the Wepawaug River that turned the wheels of industry.

The first two bridges built in Milford certainly made clear the priorities of the founders. Meeting House Bridge helped unite a congregation in worship, and the Fowler Bridge, near Fowler’s gristmill, helped settlers get their daily bread.

At the settlement’s second general court, or town meeting, in March 1640 it was voted that a bridge must be built near the Meeting House so that people on both sides of the river could easily travel to services. That bridge was completed in 1641 and today is often called the West River Street Bridge. Initially, the people on the east side had to ford the river in all kinds of weather. The Meeting House was in about the same place as today’s First United Church of Christ, Congregational.

Fortunately for the bridge builders, there was a small island in the middle of the river where they could drive pilings into the silt to stabilize the span. The bridge’s wooden planks and timbers had to be continually replaced, and the whole bridge was rebuilt in 1865. Then as the days of carriages and wagons yielded to the growing popularity of automobiles, a new stronger, wider bridge was needed. So, in 1929 the current 20-ton bridge was constructed by Charles Smith & Son, Inc. of Derby.

It seems there was a small island beyond the bridge. Apparently, “In 1720 Lewis Wilkinson had a clothier’s shop on the island below Meeting House Bridge, according to the 1892 “History of New Haven County, Connecticut” Vol. 2 by J.L. Rockey. Well, that’s a surprise.

In the northwest part of the village, colonists settled along the West End Brook that was later called Beard’s Creek, and still later the upper part was called Tory Brook. The people in that part of town were so keen to get to the church that they fashioned very crude “bridges” to cross parts of the Little Dreadful Swamp. They cut long tree logs, flattened the upper surfaces, added brush to the sides for stability, and thus made narrow, raised pathways. The swamp, however, was not so “little,” so the make-do bridges didn’t lead settlers entirely past the muddy ground. These log bridges were only temporary fixes until West Main Street was laid out.

No doubt, “Yankee ingenuity” meant there were other tree log and small wooden bridges wherever crossings were difficult. The term “swamp Yankee” is usually a derogatory label, but it reminds us that much of southern New England (and Milford) had extensive swamp land.

At that same March 1640 general court meeting, the leaders knew the settlement needed a mill to grind the farmers’ grain. They charged William Fowler with the job of building a mill in exchange for a large plot of land and the promise of labor from every man in town. Fowler’s pay was a portion of the flour he processed.

Building a gristmill was hard work. He had to dam the river, design the millrace, chisel the millstones, order the ironworks from New Haven, and build the workings of a mill by the end of September. He actually finished in November, and the first flour processed was used to make bread for the next Sunday’s communion service.

At certain times of the year it was hard for those living on the west side to reach the mill. One year after Fowler completed this gristmill, he built an adjoining sawmill to cut logs into boards. In 1645, the first sawed boards were laid on tree trunks that reached across the banks, and the first Fowler Bridge was built. The town agreed to do maintenance on the bridge beginning in 1648. We know that the bridge was replaced in 1720, 1800 and 1889.

The bridge built in 1800 was referred to as “Neigh Unto House Bridge.” It was torn down in 1886 to make way for a new bridge started in 1888.

Today we know this bridge as Memorial Bridge. It was completed in 1889 in commemoration of Milford’s 250th anniversary. The bridge and tower were designed by architect William Milne Grinnell of New York City, and the masonry was done by John Beatty of Leete’s Island, Guilford where the granite was quarried.

At one time, the tower had a wrought-iron lantern. That’s now long gone, along with the original door knocker that was stolen from the oak door.

The bridge’s sides were topped with rough blocks, each naming a founding family, because from 1644 to about 1675 those who died were buried in Rev. Peter Prudden’s garden behind his house on East Town Street (now Prospect Street). They used no grave markers, so the granite blocks represent the gravestones of the founders.

The blocks were paid for by ancestors of the families. There is one for George Hubbard, who was the first European to own Charles Island.

In time, the bridge had to be widened to accommodate modern traffic. Memorial Bridge has carried everything from carts to 18-wheelers for more than 130 years and has a rightful place on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the next edition, the stories of bridges from Flax Mill Lane Bridge (Woodruff Street Bridge) to King’s Bridge (Maple Street Bridge) will add to the story of Milford’s growth.

Marilyn May is a lifelong resident of Milford and a member of the Board of the Milford Historical Society.