History of Danbury Connecticut Settled 1685

 These are translations of the mottoes on the official Seal of Danbury
“We have Restored”  “Let Us Go Forward”

Danbury was Incorporated on April 19, 1889 when Governor Morgan Bulkeley signed the document making the City of Danbury official. Henry Hoyt helped design the Seal which can be seen on all the “Welcome to Danbury”  road signs when entering the City from the towns that border Danbury, like Bethel, Ridgefield, Brookfield, New Fairfield and Brewster in the State of New York. The central motto, on the red diagonal band which divides the seal, is “Restituimus” or “We have Restored”. Underscoring this point, atop the shield, is a phoenix rising from a fiery crown. The bird has in its beak a second motto, on a Yellow band “Perege Modo”, translated from the Latin as “Ever Onward” or “Let Us Go Forward”. The Seal also depicts a locomotive the railroad line established in 1852.    Danbury, Connecticut (wiki)  

A Derby Hat on the Seal symbolizes the City’s Hat Manufacturing Industry, which during the 1800's and all the way up to 1950, Danbury was known as the Hat city of the world and it is said that the first hat made in the U.S. was made in Danbury. Danbury shops led the country in fur hat production and were exporting 20,000 hats annually, all hand made in small shops. Between 1808 & 1809, there were 56 hat shops in operation selling hats from $6 to $10. In 1849 a machine was introduced, which could form fur felt hat bodies, nearly eliminating all the small shops which gave way to larger factories that were concentrated along the banks of the Still River from West Street to East Liberty Street and eventually helped increase production levels to over 5,000,000.  The Still River  played a huge part in the success of hat manufacturing because the hat making process needed to use a lot of water and also have a place to dump it's waste.

There are 2 references on the seal to the British burning of Danbury when it was burned and looted in April, 1777 by the British under Major General William Tryo because Danbury was an important military depot for the American Revolutionary armies. In the lower left of the Seal is the Wooster Monument, which can be seen entering the Wooster Cemetery's Main entrance on Ellsworth Rd., it was erected in 1854 to honor General David Wooster who was wounded and died in Ridgefield defending against the British. Water on the Seal symbolizes the flood caused by the breaking of the Kohanza Reservoir dam in 1869, which is now lower Kohanza Lake. The Elm trees on the Seal are in reference to Elmwood  Park, which is located on Main St.

It's been said that Danbury began when eight families came from the Norwalk and Stamford Ct. area in 1685 to settle in Danbury which the Indians then called "Pahquioque" or "Paquiaqe" meaning open plain or cleared land. Though the settlers had chosen the name "Swampfield" the general court in October 1687 decreed the name "Danbury" which came from the English word Danebury. Beans and other crops helped Danbury become an inland trading center by 1750 with a population of 2,000 which then increased to 7,234 in 1850, then to 19,473 in 1890, 30,337 in 1950, 50,781 in 1970 and today has grown to over 65,000. In 1928 a group of local aviation enthusiasts purchased a 60-acre tract near the Fairgrounds  known as "Tucker's Field" and leased the property to the Town of Danbury for an airport which later became Danbury's Municipal Airport.  Candlewood Lake,  which is Connecticut’s largest lake, was man made in 1929 on private property near where Wood Creek and the Rocky River met with the Housatonic River. Connecticut Light and Power Company had acquired the entire valley for a pumped storage hydroelectric reservoir to serve a generating plant in New Milford.
 

More of Danbury's History by Danbury Students

Tarrywile Park

   Danbury Greeting Cards, Postcards & Photo Magnets      Danbury Collage Poster
 

Danburite Stones (Wiki)

Danbury Links    Danbury Photos     Adventures in Connecticut

Senior Citizen Stories "Experiences of a Lifetime"

  Danbury Museum and Historical Society       Memory Lane Collection

Interesting Danbury Video Clips
This is an old Seinfeld Episode where Elaine mentions Danbury Connecticut

The Doors Live At Danbury High School, CT. October 11, 1967 (youtube)

Dave King - Danbury Fair (video)

Video of a Plane ride over Danbury