Early History
Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Native American inhabitants to the region, and the very first European settlers to the area also referred to it that way. The name was later changed to Stamford after a town in Lincolnshire, England. The deed to Stamford was signed on 1 July 1640 between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus. The land that now forms the city of Stamford was bought for 12 coats, 12 hoes, 12 hatchets, 12 glasses, 12 knives, four kettles, and four fathoms of white wampum. The deed was renegotiated several times until 1700 when the territory was given up by the Native American inhabitants for a more substantial sum of money.
In 1641, Rippowam was settled by 29 Puritan families who had chosen to leave Wethersfield. The group had formed "The Rippowam Company" and contracted with the New Haven Colony to settle the Rippowam area. Hence initially the settlement was a part of the New Haven Colony, as was Greenwich to the west. The name of the settlement was changed to Stamford on April 6, 1642. In 1642, Captain John Underhill settled in Stamford and the following year represented the town in the New Haven Colony General Court. Stamford was included in the creation of a New Haven confederation called the United Colonies of New England. Other towns or plantations in the United Colonies of New England included Milford and Guilford in Connecticut as well as Southold on Long Island. Shortly after the restoration of Charles II of England, in a session of the Connecticut General Court held on October 9, 1662 the former New Haven "plantations" of Stanford (sic), Greenwich, Guilford, and even Southold were to be recognized as Connecticut Colony towns with constables sworn in.
The first public schoolhouse in Stamford was a "crude, unheated wooden structure only ten or twelve feet square". It was built in 1671 when settlers tore down their original meeting house, which they had outgrown after three decades, and used some of the timbers to put up a school near the Old Town Hall on Atlantic Square. On the nearby common they built a new 38-foot-square (12 m) meeting house, which also served as the Congregational church.
One of the primary industries of the small colony was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamford's proximity to New York.
Starting in the late 19th century, New York residents built summer homes on the shoreline, and even back then there were some who moved to Stamford permanently and started commuting to Manhattan by train, although the practice became more popular later.
The densely settled portion of Stamford incorporated as a borough in 1830, and later as a city in 1893. The city consolidated with the rest of the non-city portions of the town of Stamford in 1949 to become the present city of Stamford.
Read more about this topic: History Of Stamford, Connecticut
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