then being one
hundred and twenty-five. The first vote of the town to build a meeting
house was passed in 1716, but work was not commenced upon it until 1719,
and it was not completed until 1731, after infinite struggling. It was
forty feet long, thirty wide and twenty feet in height between joints
and was provided with galleries, pews and a pulpit. Long before
completion, when it was first used for religious purposes, the
congregation was accustomed to sit upon its outer sills, which were able
to accommodate every man, woman and child in the town with a little
squeezing. In 1713, the town voted to build for the minister a dwelling
house forty feet long, twenty-one wide, two stories high, and fourteen
feet between joints. In 1726, thirteen years later, the house was still
unfinished. The first Sabbath day house was not built until 1745.

In 1721, when there were but thirty-five families residing here, a
public school was ordered by the town to be kept for four months the
winter following, one-half of the expense to be borne by the town. The
children were taught reading, spelling after a phonetic fashion,
writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic. In 1725, it was voted
to build a school-house twenty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and seven
feet between the joints.

The first settlers crossed the Housatonic to their lands on the west
side by fording it at a point near the mouth of Rocky River, about a
mile above the settlement, or at Waunnupee Island in times of very low
water. In 1720 the town built a boat for the purpose, which was used
until 1737 when the first bridge ever built across the Housatonic from
its source to its mouth was constructed at what is now the foot of
Bennett Street.

The settlers for many years crushed their grain by hand in mortars or
carried it to mill at Danbury, Woodbury, or Derby, and brought back the
flour and meal. In 1717, John Griswold, under an arrangement with the
town, built a grist and sawmill on Still River, at what is now
Lanesville.

It is said that in 1713, there was but one clothier in the colony. The
most that he could do was to full the cloth which was made in the homes.
A great proportion of it was worn without shearing or pressing. He lived
at Woodbury, and thither the early inhabitants of this town resorted to
have their cloth fulled. People, to a very large extent, wore clothing
made from the skins of animals. They also wore wooden shoes and
moccasins, or went bar