CWTA - Resources - History Of Connecticut's Water Trails



Connecticut Water Trails Association

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.

- Dakota

Table Of Contents

Connecticut Water Trails

Basic Concepts

History Of Connecticut's Water Trails

Native Americans

Connecticut Water Trails Program

History Of Connecticut's Water Trails

Native Americans

The Cupheag

Location

Derby, Milford, Shelton and Stratford

Name Origin

Cupheag - "a harbor" or "a place of shelter," "literally a place shut in."

Language Spoken

Connecticut Village Locations

Derby, Fairfield, Milford, Shelton and Stratford

Population

Culture

Upon the shores of the Sound they spent the summer months in fishing and clamming, and were daily consuming more of the large, rare oysters of this locality, adding their shells to those immense shining piles, the accumulation of years of oyster eating-the one at Great Neck and the other near Sandy Hollow, at the place long known as Shell-Keep-Point; retiring in the winter months to the sheltered valleys of the inland wilderness, where they secured their daily food by the hunters sport, and then in the spring of the year, they returned to their old seaside haunts, just as their white successors now, in the same season of the year, leaving the hot weather of the inland valleys to the cool breezes of the New England coast.

History

Long before the arrival of the first settlers to the site of Stratford township, the shores of Long Island Sound (Sewanhacky, the Island of Shells), with the inflowing rivers of sweet water, the many inlets and land-locked retreats, were for many long centuries one of the favorite haunts of the Cupheag. Here were rich meadows with the deposits and forests overlooking some of the most picturesque scenes in New England. Here, too, were fresh springs, rivers, ponds, and streamlets of pure sweet water, and sweeping as far as the eye could reach from east to west rolled the blue waters of Long Island Sound, across which, against the southern horizon lay Sewanhacky, the Island of Shells or "Long Island". For many years this most beautiful haven, formed by the broad mouth of the Housatonic River, Milford Beach and Stratford Point.

When the English first came to Stratford they found here several clans or settlements of Indians. On the site destined to become the future village of Stratford, dwelt the Cupheags (Stratford Harbor). The clan was small and was governed by Okenuck, who soon after their arrival, if not at that time, resided at Pootatuck (Shelton). Most of his people removed soon after Stratford Village was settled. Okenuck was the son of Ansantaway, who was sachem or chief at Paugasitt, now Derby.

Here upon the shores of the Sound they spent the summer months in fishing and clamming, and were daily consuming more of the large, rare oysters of this locality, adding their shells to those immense shining piles, the accumulation of years of oyster eating-the one at Great Neck and the other near Sandy Hollow, at the place long known as Shell-Keep-Point; retiring in the winter months to the sheltered valleys of the inland wilderness, where they secured their daily food by the hunters sport, and then in the spring of the year, they returned to their old seaside haunts, just as their white successors now, in the same season of the year, flee from the hot breath of the inland valleys to the cool breezes of the New England coast.

By a town vote of October 10, 1664, it is ascertained that the Indians' wigwams, or some of them at least, were located in the southwest part of Stratford Village, west of Main Street, along the path from Beardsley's Gate that went to the mill at the "Eagle's Nest". A tract of land there was called Wigwam Meadow, in consequence of the wigwams having stood there.

As early as 1637, white men had visited these shores. From the pursuing of Pequots through the Cupeag’s land – killing some , to Saco Swamp, in Fairfield, the site of "The Great Swamp Fight" which ended the Pequot War of 1637. The English pursuing the Pequot’s, killed Cupheag divers at New Haven and Milford. The fight with the Cupheag was probably at Pequonnock River. The conquered Pequots and likewise some of the Cupheag Indians, who were their allies, selling some of their women into servitude in Massachusetts Bay.