2012 inductee
George Willard Coy
Civil War injury led to invention of the telephone switchboard
Had George Willard Coy not been wounded in the Civil War, he may not have invented the telephone switchboard, the first great advancement since the invention of the telephone. He would settle in Milford after his important invention in nearby New Haven.
Coy was born in Freedom, Me. November 13, 1836, the next to youngest of seven children. His mother died in 1843, and he was raised by his oldest sister, Olive, in Bridgewater, Mass. He attended public school until 1852 then he went to sea. Returning in 1857, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Rockland, Mass. at the home of another sister, Mrs. Eunice Keane, but broke his shoemaking contract to enlist as a private in the Army in 1858. His five-year term carried him through some early campaigns of the Civil War until his discharge on March 17, 1863. In November 1863, he re-enlisted, again as a private, for three years during which he saw action in major battles at Antietam, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg.
At Petersburg, Va. on June 17, 1864 he was severely wounded by shell fragments in the left arm and shoulder. For the next 10 months he was treated in Army Hospitals in Washington and Baltimore. With his arm permanently incapacitated, he was honorably discharged June 5, 1865 in Baltimore. He returned to again live with his sister, Olive, and her husband in Rockland. There he established a newspaper and tobacco store. He left in 1867 to study telegraphy at a school for disabled veterans in Albany, N.Y.
Completing the course in Albany, he found a job in New Haven as manager of the local office of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company. On April 27, 1877, Coy attended a demonstration at New Haven's Skiff’s Opera House of an exciting new communication invention, the telephone, given by its inventor, Alexander Graham Bell. Bell’s discussion of the implications of the telephone for business and trade, accompanied by music transmitted over a three-way New Haven-Middletown-Hartford connection, spurred Coy to action. On Nov. 3, 1877, Coy applied for and received a franchise from the Bell Telephone Company for New Haven and Middlesex Counties. With Herrick P. Frost and Walter Lewis who provided the $600 capital, on Jan. 5, 1878 he established the District Telephone Company of New Haven, the world’s first commercial telephone exchange.
For this operation, Coy designed and built the world’s first switchboard for commercial use. According to one source, it was constructed of “carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire.” All the furnishings of the office, including the switchboard, were worth less than $40. The office was a rented storefront in a building, since demolished, at the corner of State and Chapel Streets. Before this time, the first telephones were used privately on lines that allowed two people on each end to communicate over a short distance. Coy's switchboard could connect as many as 64 customers! Still it was limited as only two conversations could be handled simultaneously and six connections had to be made for every call.
The District Telephone Company of New Haven started with 21 subscribers, who paid $1.50 per month. By Feb. 21, 1878 when the first telephone directory was published by the company, 50 subscribers were listed. In 1879 he sold his shares in the company which grew to become Southern New England Telephone in 1882. He bought a large house in Milford where he resided almost to the end of his life.
Coy apparently spent time in Milford before buying the house as, on May 18, 1872, he married Malina Nettleton of that city. They had three children: Charles, George, and Bertha. From 1880 onward he was active in telephone affairs in New York City. During these years he was awarded several patents and made many improvements in telephony. He finally retired in 1898.
In Milford, he was active in Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) affairs. In 1888 he was commander of GAR Post 59 and appointed committees, designed and raised funds for the Civil War Monument on Milford Green. During the last few years of his life he lived at the Soldiers’ Home in Chelsea, Mass. where he died Jan. 23, 1915. He is buried in Milford Cemetery.
Henry Augustus Taylor
amassed a fortune; gave back lasting legacies to town and church
Henry Augustus Taylor was born in New York (or Jersey City) in April 1839, the son of a Scottish-Irish Military family heralding from County Tyrone, Ireland and Laura Peters Thomas (1815-1894) Descendant of Connecticut's Fairbanks Family, some of whom arrived as early as 1633 and fought in King Phillips War, the Lexington Alarm and the Revolution, he could also trace lineage to early Dutch settlers at New Amsterdam (NYC).
His father, Henry Johns Taylor, had been prominent in politics, serving as mayor of Jersey City, and a state legislator in New Jersey. Henry declined to be involved in politics. Contemporaneous accounts from the 1890s indicated he was not involved in various social organizations either, though his estate paid a $40 claim for "dues" to the Ansantawae group (presumably the Milford Masonic Lodge).
He worked in Insurance and became developer and part owner of several small railroad lines in the northeast and midwest. Railroading was the technology of the time and a huge money maker for the aggressive and shrewd investor. It was his interest in The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway and Milford real estate that made up nearly all of his wealth at the end of his life. He maintained a home in New York at 47 w75th Street but moved his official, residence to Milford.
Around 1889 after first leasing the property, he purchased (fellow 2012 Milford Hall of Fame inductee) Governor Charles Hobby Pond's estate at 200 High Street in Milford, a High Victorian Gothic mansion built circa 1864. He renamed the estate "Laurelton Hall" for his mother Laura Peters Thomas Taylor and his little daughter Laura Peters Taylor who died in May of 1888 ca. age 5. It continues to this day as the Academy of our Lady of Mercy - Laurelton Hall, a Catholic girls college preparatory school founded in 1905. Laurelton Hall is on the National Register of Historic places.
New York in the gilded age of the 1890's was rife with millionaires. One pundit of the time said that anyone with "just five Millions was merely comfortably poor." Taylor, with approximately one tenth that sum was a small fish in the City. The Irony of buying
the Pond estate was that he became a very Big Fish in the small pond that was turn of the century Milford. In addition to Laurelton Hall and its 23 acres he owned seven cottages on the streets surrounding the estate, a 23 acre farm, another farm of 15 acres and nine or more acres of other Milford land then valued at $60.00 per acre.
His estate showed two cottages on Burns Point (Fort Trumbull). One of these "Cottages" was itself a spectacular mansion and the largest and most elaborate Shingle Style Home in Milford. Taylor was not merely looking for a summer home to get away from the heat of downtown, just a mile to the north. He had a plan to build a series of mansions along the shore to rival the summer resort community of Newport, Rhode Island. He failed. His business associates had no interest in developing the shoreline property. Taylor's own "summer home," was the sole product of his ill-fated scheme. The grand mansion still stands, with additional construction in the 1980's, as a multiple unit condominium at his 6 Seaside Avenue address.
In 1892-3 his children, Henry Augusts Taylor, Jr., John Howard Taylor and daughters Margharita and Mary Elizabeth, funded the Mary Taylor Methodist Episcopal Church (South Broad Street, Late Gothic Revival) as a memorial of their mother, Henry's first wife, Mary Anna Meyer Taylor. Henry undoubtedly contributed as well though his estate showed a mortgage asset from the Mary Taylor Church to him valued at $1,500, so not all of what he personally contributed (if any) was a gift.
In 1893 Taylor offered to donate a second Milford Landmark, the Taylor Library. The Town would furnish the land and the building's yearly maintenance costs. Since there is virtually no mention of the design or construction of the library in the minutes of the Library Board for the years 1893-5, it seems likely that Taylor had the building completed before turning it over to the city. In 1976 the library moved to its current location on New Haven Avenue having outgrown the structure. It still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its design by Bridgeport architect Joseph W. Northrop was inspired by the H.H. Richardson's Romanesque style ("Richardsonian"). Crane Library in Quincy, MA had great influence on Library construction throughout the Northeast. More blocky and simple than its inspiration, Northrop's style emphasized the front arch and over scale masonry with contrasting colors to achieve its landmark status. The 1895 finished cost of the building was $25,000 and boasted gas lamps, a massive fireplace, book alcoves furnished by some of Milford's grandest families, Tiffany glass windows and shelves named for historic luminaries of Milford's past.
After he died on April 8, 1899, just days after his 60th birthday, interesting and even salacious claims arose. His will left $20,000 to his housekeeper, Louise Catherine DeVernay. A tidy sum in 1899 which, using Gold as a common valuation, would be equal to $1.6 Million today. Ms. DeVernay was apparently not satisfied. Claiming to be Taylor's third wife (presumably at common Law) she sued on behalf of herself and her son, who, she claimed, was also his son: "Columbus Taylor." As wife she would have been entitled to dower rights of roughly a third of the whole estate. After four years, the estate settled for the original twenty thousand due under the will and "interest" of six thousand more. She obviously did not prevail in her claim in the days long before DNA.
Another woman in Henry's life was also disclosed in the estate process. Melatina de Chropovitsky was claimed by the estate to owe the then kingly sum of just under $16,000 by note and claims. The estate instead paid her $2,851.70, without explanation. His daughter Margharita had married the Russian Count Nicholas de Chropovitsy and this may be the source of the financial relationship. The Count died at Port Arthur in 1905 during Russia's war with Japan. Their daughter, Taylor's Grandchild, Maya, born 1899, would marry Hugh Auchincloss of Newport and Washington.
Potentially most damaging to the gentleman's reputation was a federal court suit by the Dayton Railway that he had hypothecated (stolen) close to half a million dollars in bonds of various railway companies that were in fact owned by the Dayton. As reported in the New York Times article of the time, the Dayton Railway company essentially admitted its own fraud by placing the "bonds" in Taylor's name in order to avoid their potential loss to other claimants who were suing the railroad. By inventory the bulk of Mr. Taylor's estate was in Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway common and preferred stock (no bonds were shown in the estate accounts), roughly half of which was held under the name of his attorney, Henry F. Shoemaker. The matter never went to judgment but the stock was sold at private sale for $700,000. Taylor's share was 5/16th of the total and about what the estate claimed the value of his interest to be prior to the suit. The published Dayton claim that Taylor had "no interest" in the assets appears untrue. From the records available, there is no reason to believe that he had in fact done anything other than what they had agreed to do under the lax business rules of the time.
He survived two wives Mary Anna Meyer, ca. 1844-1878, with whom he sired seven children: Christopher Taylor who died in infancy in 1866, John Henry Taylor who also died in infancy in 1869 John Howard Taylor 1870-1926, Margharita Taylor 1872-1942, Mary Elizabeth Taylor 1874-Unk, Henry Augustus Taylor, Jr. 1876-1955 and Laurance Taylor who died in infancy in 1878, and, after her death, married Elizabeth "Lizzy" Prudence Conrey of New York City (1859- Unk.) with whom he had five children. Laura Peters Taylor b. ca 1883 d. 22 May 1888, Washington E. Taylor 1884-1898, Henrietta Augusta Taylor nov 1885- unk., Eleanor Van Vredenburgh Taylor Mar 1885-1925, and Bayard Taylor 1889-unk
His munificence must likely have been affected and inspired by the losses of a wife and many children as just seven of the twelve survived to adulthood. With his wealth came much loss and a relatively short life during which he did much good.
Charles Hobby Pond
prominent sheriff; judge, lieutenant governor & governor
Charles Hobby Pond is part of a distinguished Milford family line. His uncle, Peter Pond, was a famous explorer of Canada. His father, Charles Pond, was a fearless sea captain during the Revolutionary War who transported Nathan Hale from Norwalk to Huntington, Long Island for his ill-fated spying expedition against the British.
He was born in Milford April 26, 1781 and grew into a large muscular youth with a keen mind. He entered Yale University at age 17 and graduated in 1802. He studied law for two years and was admitted to the Fairfield County Bar but ill health overtook him and he never practiced. All that is explained about his ill health is that he contracted it “by bathing when in a heated condition and he was ever after lame,” according to the genealogy “The Ponds of Milford, Connecticut” written by his nephew, Nathan Gillett Pond. The family determined he could regain some of his health by taking an extended voyage on one of his father’s merchant ships. The trip worked out so well that he followed the sea for several years, shipping first as “supercargo” and later as captain.
Eventually quitting the sea, he took up politics and had a fast rise to prominence. In 1819 he was appointed a judge of the Court of New Haven County. In 1820 he was elected sheriff an office he held until 1834. Then he became an associate judge of the New Haven County Court in 1836 and 1837. Pond was elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1850, 1852 and 1853.
During his last term as lieutenant governor, Pond assumed the duties of governor for seven months when Governor Thomas H. Seymour resigned from office to become ambassador to Russia. During his tenure, the U.S. Senate passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which caused great controversy throughout the state. The Bill made slavery legally possible in a vast new area and revived a bitter quarrel over the expansion of slavery, which had died down after the Compromise of 1850. It hastened the start of the Civil War. As for his own position, Pond was in sympathy with the pro-slavery Democrats up to the time of his death. He did not seek re-election as governor and retired from public service.
Regarding his personal life, he outlived his whole family including his wife, Martha, six daughters and a son, Charles, who died while a student at Yale on June 9, 1828. He died in the same house where he was born April 26, 1861, the same month the Civil War started, and is buried in Milford Cemetery. As Nathan G. Pond said in his genealogy, the governor was “the only Pond of Milford who reached manhood and died under the roof where he first saw light.” Today a small plaque marks the former location of the house in front of 69 Broad Street.
A prominent man who knew Governor Pond said: “He was a man more deeply versed in the political history of the country than any other within the circle of his acquaintance. His talents were of the very first order, and his pen – whenever he wielded it – was marked by the reflection of a powerful mind, and purest patriotism. No man was wiser in council – none more devoted to the true and lasting interests of his country. His intellectual strength, his genial and generous heart, his true and steady friendship, and ready wit, made him the favorite of every circle, whether old or young.”
Thomas Tibbals
one of Connecticut’s first residents; prominent in Indian Battles, and founding of Milford
A resident of Wethersfield, Connecticut’s first town and then part of Massachusetts Colony, Thomas Tibbals was one of Connecticut's first residents having sailed at age 20 to Massachusetts in 1635 aboard the "Truelove." He passaged as a "person of Quality" mainly meaning that he paid his fare and wasn't a servant of any other passenger(s). According to Henry Whitmore of Brooklyn, New York in the 1800's, The name Tibbals derives from Theobald, one of the castles used by Queen Elizabeth 1st. It was shortened to Thebald then Tebald and in this country, the phonetic spelling Tebais or Tibbals. In English records it is sometimes spelled "Tibaiz" in phonetic spelling." According to "English Church Times" of April 11, 1938, "Theobalds" is pronounced "Tibbals".
At the time he arrived in America, a powerful Indian tribe dominated Southern New England. Well organized and aggressive warriors, the Pequots under Sassacuss, ruled from Narragansett Bay to the Hudson, Block and Long Islands. A number of Pequot killings of white settlers and traders starting in 1634, including Capt John Oldham a founder of Wethersfield while trading at Block Island, and a Capt Stone, who would occasionally drink and thus be unsuitable for Puritan civilization but nevertheless was English. Violence escalated in what could only be termed a war of annihilation against the settlers.
Early in 1637 Pequot raiders killed seven farmers, a woman and child and abducted two young women at Wethersfield. Both Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies mobilized and the Court at Hartford on May 1, 1637 authorized war against the Pequots. Capt. Mason with 90 men from Wethersfield, including Tibbals who served as an Indian expert and scout, and 70 Braves under “Mohegan” Chief Uncas, moved to Saybrook to fight. From there the party took their boats to the Thames where a powerful Pequot force was ensconced on the ridge at Groton. Seeing a frontal assault uphill as not propitious, Mason sailed back out of he Thames and moved east.
Thinking they had won, Sassacus led a body of several hundred to destroy Wethersfield and Hartford. Far from giving up, Mason with Uncas and the Saybrook men under Capt. Underhill sailed to present day Rhode Island landing on Narraganset Bay. Joined by Narraganset Indians, they moved 38 miles through the wilderness to attack the Pequot fortified village "Misistuck" near Mystic. Attacking into the two entrances of the fort the men quickly got bogged down in close quarter combat and started suffered casualties. Mason withdrew and used the ultimate weapon of the age, he fired the village.
The result was more massacre than a battle; 600-700 men, women and children were killed. Only swift young braves escaped dodging the surrounding troops and their muskets. Many Pequots, abandoning the strong Harbor fort on the Thames, raced to the village to fight only to be cut down in open battle having given up their geographic advantage. Pequot survivors, joined by the Wethersfield raiding party recalled after the battle, fled west. Hot on their heels, Mason, bolstered by newly arrived Israel Stoughton’s 120 Massachussans and their Mohegan allies, pursued them on land and sea.
At the Connecticut River, Pequots found two or three white trappers, possibly Dutch, tied them to a tree and gutted them as a warning. The grisly sight did not deter the English who followed with all dispatch and, if anything, even more determination.
Soldiers chasing the fleeing Pequots passed through "Quinnipiak," called by the soldiers “Red Mount,” undoubtedly for East Rock. Peaceful Quinnipiac Indians, whose camp fires had brought the colonist's attention, were left unmolested. Massachussans who tracked through the area deemed it the finest land in all of New England.
The final battle in the Southport area swamps decimated the remaining Pequots. Not wishing the repeat the carnage at the Mystic village, women, children and non-Pequots mostly Mattabesic whose village, Sasqua, was nearby, were allowed free exit but the Pequot braves fought on. Only a relative handful escaped in the fog the next morning but found few friends or safety. Mohawks, historic Pequot enemies and constant threat to the peaceful Iroquois (including the Wepawaugs), took the head of Sassacus and presented it as tribute to the English.
Sgt. Thomas Tibbals, returning from the swamp victory found a most appealing land with a brook with a good harbor. He returned to Wethersfield, his job done, but remembered the pleasant coastal lands he had traversed.
in 1637 two parties of Puritans escaping the religious oppression of Charles 1st's England sailed from London to Boston. All were welcomed and invited to stay in Massachusetts, but the two Reverends, Peter Prudden and John Davenport, sought to establish their own colony and, with God's help, find their piece of heaven on earth. Hearing of the good reports of the "Red Mount" area to the South, a group led by Theophilus Eaton, Davenport's co-leader, scouted the south shores of New England looking for a suitable site. They found the headwaters of the Quinnipiac. The Prudden and Davenport parties sailed there the following spring, 1638, to found the Colony of New Haven.
Peter Prudden was an inspiration to the puritan English settlers of New England. His stay in Boston netted him a number from Roxbury and Dorchester, MA, who joined the New Haven settlers including John Astwood, Thomas Baker, John Burwell, Benjamin Fenn, Thomas Sanford, and Thomas Uffott. He eventually preached in Connecticut's first town, Wethersfield, then still part of Massachusetts Colony. Richard Miles, Andrew Benton, John Fletcher, Thomas Tapping (Topping), George Hubbert, John Sherman (Sharman), Robert Treat and one Sgt. Thomas Tibbals also joined Prudden in New Haven. All would become Milford Founders.
In New haven, friction arose between the two reverends and their supporters. Sgt Tibbals with his experience in the Pequot War, suggested the Wepawaug area as a suitable place to remove the Prudden community. Sgt Tibbals and several men went to scout the area and indeed found it quite suitable.
A group of Prudden followers met with the Indian Sachem Ansantawae (2008 Hall of Fame Inductee) on February 12, 1639 to purchase the land encompassing nearly all of present day Milford, Orange and parts of Woodbridge.
Still in New Haven, the Prudden party met at Robert Newman's Barn on August 22, 1639 to found the First Church. After approving the members who would move to the new colony, preparations were made. When the time came, Sgt Tibbals, who had then been to the Wepawaug area several times, led the bulk of the party through the woods on winding Indian trails with their animals, food and personal possessions. Bulky items, farm and personal utensils and the pre-fabricated frame work for the common house was transported by sea. Nearly a third of Milford's founders were Colonists from the Boston area and Wethersfield, including Tibbals, who, inspired by Prudden, joined his Hertfordshire Immigrants at New Haven then Milford.
In commemoration of his knowledge of the area in suggesting the Wepawaug as the home of the new colony and guiding the Society to this promised land, Sgt Thomas Tibbals was granted founder's lot #53 (and, possibly, two other parcels) and the status of one of the 44 original free planters. He had two wives Mary, d. 6/18/1644, and Sarah (?) and sired seven children, Mary, Samuel, John, Thomas, Josiah, Sarah and Hannah. It was said he also had an Indian sweetheart who lived in the Milford area and that he married her, but we have no proof of this. At least one report indicates he was a Free Mason by 1669 so he may have been a "free thinker" by Puritan standards.
After 1665 he would be called "Captain Tibbals" indicating either esteem of the community, or a high position of Milford's civic defense, probably both. Indian raiding, particularly Mohawk, was a constant threat well into the 18th Century. Milford, in addition to the surrounding stockade, had a well trained and active militia, military training and constant watches assigned to its citizens on a rotating basis.
After he died at age 88 on April 8, 1703, his dear friends, Governor Robert Treat (HOF inductee) and Daniel Buckingham, served to oversee his will.
For his service his name appears prominently on the Memorial Bridge. Many generations of his descendants still reside in the area. Tibbal's store, belonging to a descendant, was a fixture of downtown Milford through much of he 19th to early 20th centuries.
William Fowler
Early settler and one of the ‘Seven Pillars’
Hailing from Aylsebury, England, William Fowler was a Puritan seeking to escape the repression of Charles the 1st and the established Anglican Church. Puritan leader Reverend Davenport's party sailed in May 1637 from London to Boston Aboard the "Hector." They would be joined by a second group hailing mostly from Hertfordshire sailing from London five months later led by Rev. Peter Prudden. William Fowler was among this group. All were welcomed and invited to stay in Massachusetts, but the two Reverends sought to establish their own colony and with God's help, find their piece of heaven on earth. A group led by Theophilus Eaton, Davenport's co-leader from England, scouted the south shores of New England looking for a suitable site. They found the headwaters of the Quinnipiac in an area then known as Red Mount. A party of nine was left to hold the claim and a report was sent back to Boston with the bulk of the party. The balance of the Prudden and Davenport parties sailed there the following spring, 1638 founding the Colony of New Haven.
Eventually friction arose between the two reverends even though Prudden's English immigrants, of whom Fowler was one, had their own area of the Town known as the Hertford section. Prudden was quite the inspiring preacher and acquired many followers from among the previously settled in the Boston area and Wethersfield, then still part of Massachusetts Colony. One such recruit was Sgt. Thomas Tibbals, who from his experience in the Pequot War, suggested the Wepawaug area as a suitable place to retire the community. Fowler and several men went to scout the area with Sgt Tibbals and found it suitable.
Fowler also was among the group which on February 12, 1639 met with the Indian Sachem Ansantawae (2008 Hall of Fame Inductee) to purchase the land from the East River to the Housatonic including "Charles Island" and north to Derby encompassing nearly all of present day Milford, Orange and parts of Woodbridge. The East River is now known as the Indian River. Ansantawae and his people remaining south of it on the ridge overlooking Bayview and other beaches. Later Purchases expanded the community even further.
Back at New Haven, the Prudden party met at Robert Newman's Barn on august 22, 1639 to found the First Church. William Fowler, reportedly a learned gentleman, was chosen to be one of the "seven pillars" responsible for selecting and approving the membership which would move to the new colony. The bulk of the party, then still living in New Haven, followed Sgt Tibbals through the woods on winding Indian trails with its animals, food and personal possessions. Bulky items, farm and personal utensils and the pre fabricated frame work for the common house was transported by sea. Little more than moving, building the common house and settling down was accomplished at the end of summer and fall of that year.
On November 20, 1639 at Milford, the settlers met in the first Court, choosing William Fowler as one of their six judges. Judges were more than judicial officials during those days as they also served a legislative duty in choosing the direction, rules and purposes of he community. Forty four free planters were acknowledged and nine others added to the rolls of the settlement that day in preparation for the work that would be done the following spring.
A second Court was held in March 1640 and the need for the grinding of grain addressed. William Fowler and his family was tasked with the duty to build the mill. Land along the Wepawaug river rapids at today's Memorial Bridge and Fowler building was allotted to him for this purpose. He and his family had to dam the river, build a culvert, obtain, move and manufacture the grinding stones, build the mill and go into operation and do it all promptly enough that he could retain his concession. They did.
The Town, actually then a church society, retained the right to buy out his operation. Apparently fully satisfied, they never did. The judges of the common court set his wages for milling: three quarts of raw grain for every bushel brought to mill.
Fowler would soon add a saw mill which must have been very successful. In the years that followed, so much wood was taken out of the native forests for shipment back to England that the town had to embargo lumber exports for a time out of fear it would not have enough for its local needs.
The Mills remained in operation by the Fowler family until 1887; nearly two and half centuries. Of the early Fowler family, brother John Fowler was listed in the Lambert 1838 History of New Haven County as a founding person but not a free planter. He does not show up in early Milford records, but his home is listed on the 1646 of the town as does the Home of William near the Mill site.
William Fowler would go on to help found the city of Newark, NJ, with other pious members of the Branford and Milford societies. He would return to Milford and many generations still resided in the area.
