The Newtown Historical Society’s newsletters include much more than a message to members, upcoming events, and updates on active projects.

Essays –

Daniel Cruson, Newtown Historian and Newtown Historical Society trustee writes the entertaining and informative essays that appear in each issue of the newsletter. Some resent examples include:

Ezra Bryan: Colonial Furniture Maker -

This three page essay inspired by an old, disbound, leather account book is a story that was subsequently picked up by The New York Times and The Newtown Bee which feature it on their front page. A resident of New Brunswick, Canada who had been following The Newtown Bee’s website contacted Dan for help in researching a blanket chest with a Newtown connection that had been purchased in an estate sale in Fredrickton, New Brunswick. Dan’s research and trip to Canada led to the next essay.

The Bryan Chest  -

An essay with photos showing the details of the chest including the carved initials of Annis Brown whose “husband’s political sympathies were with the Crown when hostilities broke out in 1775”. Zachariah Brown served as a lieutenant in Delancy’s Brigade, a Loyalist unit and after the Revolutionary War, the Brown’s “were among the earliest settlers of Fredrickton, an American expatriate settlement” which accounts for how the chest got to Canada.

Katie Camp and the Shoshoni Indians –

This three page essay includes excerpts from letters, Dan’s visit to the reservation where he talk with tribe members and he found the building where Katie had lived and worked, and begins with the words: “It all started with six hand written letter and ended with a two thousand mile trip to the Shoshoni Reservation in Fort Hall, Idaho where for two days the local history of Newtown interacted with that of an Idaho Indian Reservation. The letters were found in a box of Johnson memorabilia which had been kindly donated to the historical society by Irene Coad for curation. They were written on a light blue stationary with the letterhead, “Mission House: Church of the Good Sheppard: Ross Fork Idaho” and each letter recounted the trials and tribulations of Katherine “Katie” Camp who was teaching in the boarding school maintained by the Episcopal Church at the Shoshoni Reservation at Ross Fork.

There is little known about Katie. She was born in Newtown on January 5, 1850 to Beach Camp and Catherine Foote Camp. She had three siblings, the eldest of whom was Dr. William Camp who married Ophelia Randall and settled in Roxbury. Her eldest sister was Julia Ann Camp who married Ogden Tuttle and moved to the frontier city of Minneapolis, MN. Her other sister was Jane Eliza Camp who married Ezra Levan Johnson and settled with him in their native town of Newtown. Ezra Johnson became the town’s first unofficial historian when he wrote a series of historical articles for The Newtown Bee. These were later collected by Eliza Jane and published in 1917 under the title “Newtown’s History and Historian”. It was to he sister Eliza Jane that five of the six letters were written.

A Look Back –

a frequent photo feature that recently showed a rare interior view dated 1870 of the old St. John’s Church in Sandy Hook and an unusual view of Ronald’s Castle as it appeared before a fire that necessitated rebuilding the structure.

Help the Historian –

Dan Cruson selects pictures from an extensive postcard and photograph collection and writes an informative caption quoting any written or printed text and describing historically significant features. Dan provides a follow up paragraph acknowledging anyone who provides the requested information.

CORRECTIONS TO A MOSAIC OF NEWTOWN’S HISTORY
by Daniel Cruson

One of Newtown’s Tercentennial projects was to gather about sixty essays that first appeared in The Rooster’s Crow and publish them all under one cover with an index. This compilation, A Mosaic of Newtown’s History has been on sale since the fall of 2005. Unfortunately, once in this form, the history recounted in these essays is fixed and permanent. Local history, however, is dynamic and changing. As new documents come to light, new information becomes available that can alter the sequence of events and their interpretation. Thus, the essays rewritten, corrected, and published in 2005 are already dated, and further corrections need to be made as research continues. This column offers these corrections. In this manner, the book plus the newsletters become a living source of Newtown history, continuously corrected and refreshed.

Historical Notes  -

[Click here for examples]