History study presents treasure trove of data

Friday, 23 October 2009 09:30

Most people, when they think of the history of Easton, would think of the past 300 years or so of settlement. Those familiar with the history of the town may think of the past 160 years since Easton separated from Weston.

But the authors of a recently published study took a wider view of history. They combed the land — and area libraries — to document what’s where and why. They found artifacts 10,000 to 12,000 years old.

The “Historical and Archeological Assessment Survey of Easton” was commissioned by the Easton Planning and Zoning Commission and funded in part by the town of Easton and by a grant from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation.

What they set out to do was to identify cultural and historical resources in Easton for the land-use agencies to consider when they determine future development, said Kathleen von Jena, one of the archeologists involved in the study.

Von Jena, along with her colleague Stuart Reeve and Easton archaeologist David Silverglade, authored the study.

Von Jena presented the 700-page document to the Historical Society of Easton at its Oct. 8 annual meeting at the Easton Public Library.

“It’s a very large, very intimidating document,” she said in a subsequent phone interview. “I was showing them the way it was put together.”

“People were simply thrilled,” said Silverglade, who is also president of the Historical Society. Von Jena demonstrated to the 40 or so people in the audience how they can use the document to find out about the history of their own home.

She asked people to name any address in Easton, and then she looked it up in the study’s appendix and told them the history of it.

“We evaluated over 2,000 properties,” von Jena said. She and Silverglade took on the archeological assessments while Reeve combed area libraries.

According to the study’s executive summary, they recorded 129 new archeological sites, of which 103 revealed pre-historic Native American artifacts. Silverglade said they designated approximately 200 archaeology sites as a result of this project.

They registered each site with the Connecticut Historical Commission and Office of State Archaeology, which maintains a Register of Historic Places. The register is an inventory of prehistoric and historic archaeological sites.

However, in the absence of a cultural resources ordinance in Easton, the designation means nothing other than that it has been noted.

It will not prevent development from taking place, Silverglade said, although clearly the authors hope it will sensitize land-use agencies to the historic significance of some of these places, especially those along the rivers, where pre-historic and early European settlers tended to live.

Archaeological sites are a non-renewable resource, Silverglade said. If all the trees in Wisconsin are being cut down to make paper, they will grow again, he said. But archaeological sites are gone forever.

As an example he cited the construction of the new Samuel Staples Elementary School, which was built on a large prehistoric settlement that went unexplored to make room for the school, according to Silverglade.

The study may be a land-use tool, but as a side effect it produced a treasure trove of historical information.

When Weston separated from North Fairfield, all the land records pertaining to Easton stayed in Fairfield. When Easton separated from Weston and became its own entity in 1845, all the land records stayed in Weston.

What Reeve did was photocopy all those records and bring them back to town, Silverglade said. They are currently in the possession of town planning consultant John Hayes.

“That’s a tremendous amount of data we brought back to this town,” Silverglade said.

They found, for instance, that in the 19th Century Easton had a booming shoe-making industry. Along with it came intense cattle farming, which they believe served the shoe-making industry for its leather.

Silverglade said today’s property owners should have the right to enjoy their home as they see fit, but he hopes there will be an interest in preservation of historic features.

“Somewhere between the two rights — the right to own and the right to preserve — is an equilibrium,” he said.

Copies of the study are available for review at the Easton Public Library, the land planning office in Town Hall and from the Historical Society of Easton. Silverglade makes copies for $100, or $50 without appendices.