100 Years of Preserving Stratford History

The Stories We Tell

By David Wright
Town Historian

For over three generations prior to 1925, there had been ongoing discussions in town about creating an historical society to preserve Stratford’s treasured artifacts and history. The need for such an organization became even more apparent during Stratford’s 250^th anniversary celebration in 1889, and after the publication of Rev. Samuel Orcutt’s A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport Connecticut in 1886. But Stratford is a modest and conservative place, where change happens very slowly.

By the early 1900s, with newcomers flocking into Hollister Heights, Avon Park, Knowlton Park, and Floral Park, these newest town denizens brought with them a natural curiosity about their adopted town and desired to learn more. The newcomers agitated for movement on the formation of an historical society. They also were exerting a great deal of pressure on the political institutions of this old, storied town.

The David Judson home at Academy Hill was erected in 1723 and had been owned by descendants of William Judson, Stratford’s first settler (1638), from 1723 onward. The Curtis(s) families in Stratford could trace their linage back to William Judson and the first Curtisses who settled Stratford. Cornelia and Celia Curtis, descendants of those founding families, had purchased the David Judson home in the late 1800s for the express purpose of preserving the home, in perpetuity, for future generations.

Cornelia and Celia, both unmarried women, had written their wills naming Donald Sammis, their next door neighbor, Harold F. DeLacour, World War I decorated combat hero, and John T. Curtis as trustees. Celia Curtis made it clear that upon her death an historical society must be formed to receive the home. Also, Celia indicated that this society would need to obtain sufficient funding to manage and preserve the David Judson home in perpetuity within five years.

So it was that an organizational meeting was held Friday, July 10, 1925, in Stratford’s old town hall in Stratford Center for the purpose of forming an historical society. Like so many other seemingly innocuous things in town, the formation of the society sparked a great deal of controversy.

Objection is made in many quarters as to the methods of calling the preliminary meeting to complete the temporary organization and now the argument has been reopened as to just who are the best people in Stratford rather than how many of the townspeople could be induced to interest themselves, in the history of Stratford.

Very little public notice was given the initial meeting and those who attended were for the most part handpicked. The steering committee evidently consulted their individual copies of “Who’s Who” in issuing their invitations to meet in town court room last Friday.   These invitations were mostly by telephone and in a number of instances censorship was used in eliminating the undesirables whom this committee did not think constituted the upper strata of Stratford society.  (From The Bridgeport Telegram, July 14, 1925.)

Once the dust settled, as it is also always prone to do in town, the following temporary officers were appointed:  President John C. Wilcoxson, Vice-presidents, Mrs. Stiles Judson, Charles E. Wheeler, Charles H. Welles, Treasurer Elliott W. Peck, Recording Secretary Emma G. Allen, and Corresponding secretary Frederick C Beach.  The trustees in the deed of gift by Miss Curtis, are Harold F. DeLacour, Donald S. Sammis and John T. Curtis, all of whom also hold membership in the committee on constitution together with Sterling Bunnell and Mrs. Frank Blakeman.

With those organizational matters out-of-the-way, the Society moved forward, accepting the David Judson home from Celia Curtis’s will in December of 1925, and hasn’t looked back. Today, with the Katharine Bunnell Mitchell Museum behind the David Judson home, the Society is an absolute treasure trove of Stratford history and artifacts.

During 2025, the Society will observe its 100^th anniversary with events every month.  For more information on the celebration events, visit the Society’s website at stratfordhistoricalsociety.org, or its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StratfordHistoricalSociety. In future, follow-up Crier articles we will reflect on how the Society observed its 25^th, 50^th, and 75^th anniversaries.