Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
large factories, lived Captain John Brown, a noted Revolutionary
soldier, and here was born in 1800 his grandson, "Old John Brown of
Osawatomie."
Yet farther southward, but still among the hills, west of the
Housatonic Valley and near the New York boundary, is Danbury, famous
for its hat-factories, a town of about twenty thousand people. The
first hat-factory in America was opened at Danbury in 1780 by Zadoc
Benedict, three men making three hats a day. The factories now turn
out several thousand a day. In May, 1777, the Hessians attacked
Danbury and destroyed a large amount of the Revolutionary army
supplies, and it is recorded of the tragic event that Danbury was
"ankle-deep in pork-fat." On that memorable occasion it is said that
when the raiders were advancing up a hill a bold and reckless Yankee
farmer rode to its crest and shouted loudly, "Halt, the whole
universe; break off by kingdoms!" This demonstration alarmed the
Hessians, who thought a formidable force coming, and they halted to
defend themselves, deploying skirmishers and getting up their cannon
to the front. It was in an attack upon these raiders near Danbury that
General Wooster was mortally wounded, and the Danbury Cemetery
contains his monument. The constantly broadening Housatonic River
winds among the Connecticut hills in its steady course southeastward
to its confluence with the Naugatuck, a smaller stream coming down
through a pretty valley from the north, its Indian name meaning "one
tree," referring to an ancient tree on its banks which was a landmark
for the aborigines. The Naugatuck tumbles over a waterfall in the
Indian domain of Paugussett, furnishing power for the mills of
Ansonia, noted for its clocks. Near the confluence of the rivers is
the great Housatonic dam, six hundred feet long and twenty-three feet
high, constructed at a cost of $500,000 for the manufacturers of
Derby, who make pins, tacks, stockings, pianos and many other
articles. Commodore Isaac Hull, born in 1773, was the most
distinguished native of Derby, the commander of the frigate
"Constitution" when she captured the "Guerriere" in 1812. Then in
stately course the broad Housatonic flows southward, to finally empty
into Long Island Sound. The beauties of the Berkshire hills, so much
of which are made by the Housatonic's wayward course, have been the
theme of universal admiration, and their praises abound in our best
American literature. It was after a visit there that Robert G.
Ingersoll made his happy phrases in contrasting country and city life:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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