2014 inductee
Widow Martha Beard
In Early colonial days the primacy of the man of the house was sacrosanct. If you reviewed the history of Milford Colony you would think that there were man brave men but only two women. This was not the case of course. Milford was full of brave women dedicated to home building and child rearing, and when the need arose, just about anything a man could do. Women in the English system were under their father's until married, then all her possessions were "owned" by her husband; some might say, "as was she." Career women were a rarity, as was any "spinster" who retained control, of her own fortune, usually inherited. The Widow Martha Beard was nearly unique of her gender in her independence. She was one of the first settlers and one of the two women separately accounted on the rolls of the colony, mere wives and daughters being considered simply an annex of the man of the house.
Martha Beard was born ca. 1603 Epping in Essex, England, sailed from England with the Reverends Davenport and Prudden party from England, with her husband and five children, and settled in Milford, CT, in 1639. Her husband, whose name tradition says was James, died during the passage from England to America
She was admitted to the First Congregational Church of Milford on November I, 1640.
This church was organized in 1639' She died June ll,1649-
The names of the first settlers are engraved on the Memorial Bridge and with the names
is inscribed this quotation from Straughton of the Massachusetts Colony: "God sifted a
whole nation that he might send choice seed-grain over into this wilderness."
These first settlers located on each side of the Mill River, today's Wepawaug River, and West End Brook (the almost unnoticed stream which still runs behind today's West Avenue). Their "house lots" were laid out in parallel slips, containing about three acres each. Some had double lots - two slips adjoining.
In consideration of her affliction, the Widow Martha Beard was given an extra amount of "house lott" her share being 4 acres 1 rod. Each planter had to erect a good house on his lot within three years, or it was to go back to the town (presumably for redistribution).
At a general meeting held November 22, l639, it was voted how many acres of "house lott" upland and meadow should be assigned to each of the settlers, of whom only six had as large a portion as widow Martha Beard. she had 6 acres for her house lot, 37-1/2 of upland and 19 of meadow. At three different times, the allotment of land given to her by the town was increased. It is not recorded what service the young woman did for the Town, but it obviously demanded the respect and gratitude of her townsfolk.
Her oldest child, John, fought as a captain in King Phillip's War. After the defeat of the Pequots in 1635, King Phillip and his brother were likened to Kings Phillip and Alexander of Ancient Greece for their military prowess and noble bearing. Phillip, who was really named Metacom, grandson of Massasoit the Wampanoag who welcomed the Pilgrims in 1620, attempted to wage a war of annihilation against the colonists in 1675. Martha Beard did not actually experience the greatest threat to its existence Milford ever faced, she died while still young on June ll,1649.
Another descendant, George W. Baird, served in the Civil War and went on to become a Brigadier General. He received the Medal of Honor for his deeds at Bear Paw Mountain in Montana while battling the Nez Perce Indians under the famed Chief Joseph. General Baird is a Milford Hall of Fame Honoree (2008).
Martha Beard is one of the few, if any, women who was name was independently engraved on the Memorial Bridge in Milford.
Mr. Charles C. Beard, of Shelton, CT, has in his possession a rapier type sword which, tradition says, was brought from England by Martha Beard and her husband.
Omar William Platt
1874 - 1957, a lifetime of service in numerous capacities to town
Omar William Platt is another of Milford's home grown heroes who earned his place on the hall of fame by serving his community all his life not venturing out into the world to make his name. Omar Platt was listed by the local paper, the Milford Citizen, as the most influential person in Milford Politics in the first half of the 20th Century. A unique distinction well earned.
It is hard to find a political post he did not hold. He was Town Prosecutor; Judge of Probate; 40 year member of the Board of Education, chairman for 35 of those years;
Chairman of the Taylor Library Board: Chairman of the Republican Town Committee: Delegate to the Republican National Convention during the Roaring Twenties to Nominate President Calvin Coolidge; Member of the State Republican Central Committee; Chairman of the WWI Memorial Committee; Chairman of the 300th Anniversary, Tercentenary, Committee in 1939; and presided over the Milford Historical Society as its Chair for 30 years.
That is not to say he was just a political animal her also distinguished himself in business serving as president of the Milford Trust Company (bank), and Milford Hospital.
Early in his career he distinguished himself as a legislator. According to Taylor's Legislative History of the State of Connecticut: "Omar William Platt, of Milford, has had the honor of representing his native town in the Legislature for two consecutive terms, 1901 and 1903. Mr. Platt is an influential Republican and has been prosecuting attorney of Milford since 1901. He is intensely interested in the welfare and prosperity of his town. He is a highly esteemed member of the Congregational Church, and is a Knight Templar. He gained an enviable reputation in the House of Representatives, serving as a member of the Committees on Judiciary and Judicial Nominations, and as chairman of the Committee on New Towns and Probate Districts. He took a prominent part in the debates and won the respect and admiration of all for his prompt, earnest, eloquent and determined manner. He richly deserves continued honors from the hands of his townsmen."
Omar Platt was a direct descendant of the town founders. He is the son of William Platt (b. 11/17/1823) and Almira A. (Hand) Platt of Watertown, CT, born January 30, 1874. Almira was the second wife of William Platt, (his first wife Sarah Oviatt, sometimes thought to be Omar's Mother, died December 14, 1866).
He attended Hopkins Grammar then Yale College, class of 1899, and Yale Law School, class of 1903. He was admitted to the New Haven County Bar in June, 1903. He married Charlotte Baldwin (another descendant of the founders) on 17 November 1904 but had no children. He died in Milford on 22 November 1957
Two anecdotes help define "Judge" Platt. The first, related by Russell Clarke, was that, on one occasion when Omar double parked his car in front of Issie's Newsroom on River Street, (a common practice well into the 1970s), a rookie cop ticketed his car. Omar emerged from the store, took the ticket from his windshield, tore it in half and threw it into the street. He, of course, got away with it. He was, Mr. Clark said, "the King of Milford."
When the old Town Hall burned in 1915, Omar directed one of the firemen to play his hose through a window onto the Town Clerk s vault and, not matter what anyone else told him, to keep his hose on the vault. The town records were at least partially saved though many Milford ladies took the opportunity to reduce their ages as many birth records had to be recreated. An act they would come to regret as retirement benefits started in the 1930s.
William Merrit Merwin
among most successful local businessmen of the 19th century
William Merwin has the distinction of being one of the most successful businessmen of the 19th Century. He was one of the pioneers in the local oyster cultivation industry and an innovator who changed the industry.
Oystering began in 1751 Milford. Oystermen's huts dotted the shoreline especially along the sandy beaches west of the Harbor and along Gulf Beach. Housatonic Indians native to the area summered on Milford Point for the shellfish windfall. Many areas of shoreline along much of the Connecticut coast is often referred to a Peconic or Pequanic, roughly translated from the Algonquin language as "place of shells."
Oystering was so popular that in 1763 laws were passed to prevent oystering out of season. Though long popular, Milford shellfish was pretty much a gift of nature, not an industry. William M. Merwin sought to build the oystering industry by growing oysters in Milford’s Gulf Pond. Many had failed before him. Silt, especially in shallow waters, like the Gulf Pond, could choke the young shellfish. A severe storm in 1875
pushed sand into the oyster beds of the outer waters of the Gulf bay almost wholly
destroying it.
By trial an error and dedication “Through successive attempts in ever deepening water, he found oyster cultivation was most fruitful in depths of 20 to 50 feet.” He initially raised oysters on 200 acres off Pond Point in water from 20 to 60 feet deep, upon which they planted, on gravelly bottom, full grown oysters and shells.
Merwin was soon joined by his sons to found William M. Merwin and Sons. In 1888 William M. Merwin & Sons had a capacity of 950 Bushels of Oysters with their boat(s) captained by E.I. Ford (another descendant of Milford's early days). Over 10 years the company was yielding one million bushels of native oysters that saw a ready sale to home market and a large export trade to Liverpool, England. The Connecticut State Shellfish Commission in November 1891 listed William Merwin and his company as Owners of 1972 acres of Oyster grounds off the Milford shore.
William began his career in the coastal trade then moved onto garden seed cultivation before turning his lights to the Oyster industry. He succeeded with, what his contemporaries described, his excellent habits of living and business and indefatigable energy, worthy ambition and ceaseless labor to overcome difficulties that would have discouraged a less sanguine person.
Since 1878 Mr. Merwin spent his winters at Rock Ledge, Florida, where he actively participated in Development there.
William Merrit Merwin, a son of Merritt and Catherine (Peck) Merwin, born in Milford in 1827, was descended from Milford Founder Miles Merwin one of the original planters who died in 1697. His grave was the only one of the first planters marked by a headstone attesting to his considerable property and estate even in those early days of the colony. Among his other descendants was the 44th Connecticut Lt. Governor, Samuel E. Merwin of Brookfield and New Haven, a distant Cousin of William.
William married Sarah C. Peck in 1849, daughter of Harvey Peck. of Orange. He fathered sons Dumond P. Merwin (b. 8/9/1863) and Merritt W. Merwin (b. 2/6/1866) who joined him in the oystering business. Members of the Merwin family remain a part of the Milford Community to this day.
Clark and Woodruff
Seed magnates led industry
One of the most important area business ventures in the 19th century was the growing of garden seeds. Milford and North Milford (Orange since1822) were a hotbed of novel seed development. Another 2014 Hall of Fame inductee, William Merwin, began his career in garden seeds before moving on to oysters. There were many others but the kings of local seed commerce were the Clark and Woodruff families. They each contributed to this industry both as rivals and partners, even within their own families.
Stiles Denison Woodruff, 1837-1906
Stiles D. Woodruff was a native of Orange born on November 27, 1837. He married Elizabeth M. Clark and raised four children. They were, Watson Stiles Woodruff (b. 4-8-1869); Frank C. Woodruff, who graduated Yale College '1888, before joining company with his father; Robert J., Yale 1896 and Yale law 1899, was well known lawyer; and Mary R., the only daughter, a graduate of Wellesley College. S.D. was a member of the Connecticut Legislature in 1880 meeting in the then new Capitol building. Stiles also served as Orange Town Clerk for twenty years and acted as clerk, treasurer and Deacon of the Orange Congregational Church. Preferring farming to other pursuits Father and sons held in excess of three hundred acres in Orange. Stiles Denison Woodruff passed away on April 10, 1906, at the age of sixty-seven years. His wife predeceased him, barely, on March 8, 1906, at the age 66.
Son Frank C. Woodruff Introduced, in 1890, the "Country Gentleman" a sweet corn variety that took Frank Woodruff fourteen years of selective breeding to develop. When it was released, it was immediately well received and persisted for many decades as one of the most popular white sweet corn varieties, for both home and market growers. The stalks average seven to eight feet tall. The ears reach about seven inches with irregular rows of white, sweet, shoe peg-shaped kernels. These Seeds are still available, and prized, today.
The company produced garden seed and became one of the largest dealers of garden seeds, selling both at wholesale and retail levels, in the east. Frank C. ran the New York office of the Company. They not only grew the standard varieties of garden vegetables, but have also done considerable experimenting and originated and introduced several varieties. These included 'Country Gentleman' sweet corn, 'Early Ford Hook' tomatoes and the 'Ensign Bagley' and 'Admiral Foote' potatoes.
Farmers being representative of the wealth of America in the 19th C, Son Watson, who too was to head the S.D. Woodruff & Sons Company in his turn, both farmed and pursued duties as President of the Orange Bank & Trust Co from the date of its organization, Director of the American Bank & Trust Co of Bridgeport, Clerk of the Orange Congregational Church and chairman of the draft board for Orange and Milford.
Another son, Robert became a prominent Attorney in Orange and New Haven.
The business of growing and selling seeds was carried on by Stiles D. Woodruff after his return from the Civil War. He bought the farm of Lyman Treat and immediately began to grow seeds for the wholesale trade. In 1890 he took his sons, Frank C. and Watson S. (b. 4-8-1869), into the business under the firm name of S. D. Woodruff & Sons. They opened an office in New York City under Frank C. Woodruff, while Watson S. Woodruff had charge of the home office. The brothers continued the business after S.D. died in 1906, until the death of Watson in 1930. Frank carried on alone until shortly before his death in 1944 when he sold the business to Hugh C. Laird and Eric Dahlberg. They continued doing business under the original name of S. D. Woodruff & Sons. The Chas. C. Hart Seed Company, founded in 1892 in Wethersfield , Connecticut , acquired the S.D. Woodruff & Son Company in 1958.
The Woodruff Seed Warehouse stood on Old Grassy Hill Road on the old New Haven-Derby Railroad line next to the large home built by Watson S. Woodruff. The warehouse was rebuilt into what was once the only apartment building in Orange
Everett Bryan Clark
The business of the growing garden and field seeds for the wholesale market was conducted for years in Derby by a Mr. Hodge. Hodge sold his interests to two brothers, Enoch and Bryan Clark of Orange.
Like S.D. Woodruff, Everett B. Clark fought in the Civil War with the Connecticut 27th Volunteers. Clark was captured and interred in the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, VA. Like most of those captured early in the war, he was returned north in an exchange of prisoners and returned to private life. E.B. was a farmer who joined his uncles' Seed business shortly before the Civil war. In 1864, Everett B. Clark succeeded his father, Bryan Clark, as head of the business and enlarged the scope of the business. He grew seeds on his own farm but also engaged other farmers to grow seeds for him. While his farms were in Orange, his business headquarters was in Milford. As his sons grew older, he took them into the business with him.
By 1918 the Everett B. Clark Seed Company had 800 acres under cultivation in Orange and facilities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho, and Colorado. E.B. Clark joined with competitors N.B Keeney & Sons and the John H. Allen Seed Co, to form the Associated Seed Growers Inc., Asgrow, in New Haven in 1927.
Frank H. Woodruff
Frank H. Woodruff was reputed to be another son of Stiles D. Woodruff, not likely as SD was twelve when Frank was born. In any event he went off on his own. F. H. Woodruff & Sons, Inc., was established in 1903 by Frank H. Woodruff, (b. in Orange, 1849 d. Milford 1927), and his two sons, William H. and Harold F. Woodruff. The business was begun in a barn on the home farm, with billing and bookkeeping done by lamplight at a desk in the dining-room of the farmhouse after the day's work. From this simple beginning the business grew rapidly until today the concern has branch warehouses in several States, with its main warehouse in Milford. Although the company specialized in vegetable seeds, by the 1930s it had developed notable lawn grasses and added flower bulbs to its list of products.
In 1957 Asgrow merged with F.H. Woodruff & Sons operating in Milford. The combined Asgrow then accounted for over Five Million acres of plantings in eighteen states. The merger announcement cited F.H. Woodruff & Sons as being 79 years old. Not hardly, since it was founded in 1903, but I could find no record of a Woodruff or Clark seed company founded in 1878 to match the boast. In 1968 Asgrow became a part of Upjohn Pharmaceuticals and, since 1996, became a branded subsidiary of Monsanto.
The F.H. Woodruff fields were along the Boston Post Road where I-95 and the Westfield Connecticut Post Mall now stand. Many of Milford's "old timers" worked the fields as teens, especially at harvest times. After a day picnicking at the nearby campground (in a glen, now destroyed, between Rte 1 and the current Barnes & Noble Building) others used the fields as a good place for pranks or to take their best girls to smooch.
For decades, representatives of E.B. Clark, S.D. Woodruff and F.H Woodruff could be expected to knock on farmers doors all across the great plains to sell the best seeds in the country. E.B. Clark produced hybrid sweet corn seeds for the western USA farmers. The production of a hybrid sweet corn proved valuable to the canning industry as it produced an evenly maturing crop and gave a larger yield per acre.
The headquarters facility stood well into the 20th Century on Railroad Avenue just west of High Street in downtown Milford. The Building still stands, having been converted to condominiums in the mid 1980s.
In the 1960's Asgrow built an office overlooking the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Orange. In 1971 this attractive building was sold to the Harvey Hubbell Company, maker of electrical equipment. They kept the (renamed) decorative plantings scheme seen from the parkway. Today the large campus is being readied for residential, park and educational purposes.
The Clark and Woodruff Seed families of Milford
It may look like watching grass grow, but Seed growing was a rough and tumble business. The four large area seed companies in 1927 (along with many others too) was required to provide samples for testing by State authorities to rank the ability of their seeds to germinate. This is a sample list (and summary results) of what the various Woodruff and Clark families had available 87 Years ago:
S.D. Woodruff & Sons, Orange:
Woodruff's Rival Parsnip, Davis White Kidney Wax Beans, Round Pod Kidney Beans, Fordhook Bush Lima Beans*, Early Wonder Beets (introduced in 1911), Columbia White Corn, Extra Early Dighton White Corn, Osage Muskmelon*, Scarlett Globe Radish*, Viroflay Spinach*,
F.H. Woodruff & Sons, Milford:
Stringless Refugee BeansDetroit Dark Red Beets, Woodruff's Early Wonder Beets*, Bagley Carrots, Wonderful Celery, Black Seeded Tennis Ball Lettuce*, Early May King Lettuce, Special Stock Lettuce, World Beater Pepper, Scarlett Globe Radish*, Round Thick Leaf Spinach*, Woodruff's Hot Weather Spinach*, Giant Summer Crookneck Squash*, Greater Baltimore Tomato
E.B. Clark Seed Co. Milford:
Black Valentine Beans*, Green Pod Long Beans, Detroit Dark Red Beets, Early Wonder Beets, Bagley Carrots*, Chatenay Carrots, Early Blanching Celery, Bloomsdale Savoy Spinach*, Giant Thick Leaf Spinach, King of Denmark Spinach*,
David L. Clark & Son:
Egyptian Beet*, Long Island Beauty Corn*, Malcom Sweet Corn, Whipple's Sweet Corn, Cromer's Special Sweet Corn*, Early Scarlet Radish,
*deemed by State testers (1927) to be "below standard" because of low germination rates. See graded on a curve or hundreds of samples. Below standard could still mean a 90% germination ate in a very competitive field though often "below standard" could mean as little as 40% germination; a real problem for a seed seller in a very competitive industry!
Dr. William J.H. Fischer
a founder of Milford Hospital wa known as the dean of Milford’s medical scene
Dr. William J.H. Fischer came to Milford after graduating from Yale Medical School in 1911 and interning for a year at St. Raphael’s Hospital in New Haven. General practitioners back then only needed a year of residency after medical school. He made house calls in his early years by horse and buggy. By the time he retired in his late 70’s he had helped found Milford Hospital, which opened in 1924, and was known as dean of Milford’s medical community. He continued making house calls right up until retirement. He did many different kinds of surgeries including hernias, appendix, broken arms and legs, all kinds of wounds, not to mention delivering thousands of babies.
Dr. Fischer was born in Danbury Sept. 1, 1882, and attended Concordia Collegiate Institute in New York City where he earned a degree in pharmacy in 1905. He practiced pharmacy for several years and was admitted to Yale Medical School without ever actually attending college. His pharmacy training must have helped him gain admittance. While practicing in Milford, he was one of the few area physicians who was also a licensed pharmacist. His son, William Fischer Jr. and grandson, William Fischer III, both became doctors.
Patients who wished to see the Dr. Fischer in his office came to a small building next to his house where he and his wife, Emma, settled at 3 Lafayette Street. The building had only three rooms: waiting, consulting and examining. No appointment was needed. Just come in, sit down and wait your turn. In addition to general practice, he had a strong interest in pediatrics and was head of that department for many years once Milford Hospital was built. He was later chief of medicine, a position in which he served until age 75.
His skill as a physician impacted Milford in many other ways. In 1914, he became the town’s medical examiner, a post he held for 39 years. He later was police surgeon, fire surgeon and health officer. When World War I came, he was examining physician for the local draft board and then entered the service as a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps. With World War II, he was chairman of the medical examining board of the draft board and director the Civil Defense Medical Unit. He received a United States Congressional Citation for service in wartime.
His work was not confined to Milford. H represented the Connecticut Medical Society at national conventions five times. He was a member of the executive committee of the Connecticut State Medical Examiners, president of the New Haven County Medical Society, member of the New England Pediatric Society, American Medical Examiners Association and American Academy of General Practitioners.
The Milford Hospital Society was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly approved May 10, 1921. The hospital opened June 5, 1924 with 50 beds, 15 bassinets and a nursing staff of nine.
Dr. Fischer was selected as Milford’s Man of the Year by Devon Post 7788, Veterans of Foreign Wars in June 1953 when a new wing, for which he had long labored as chairman of the building committee, was dedicated. By this time he was the only surviving member of the group of doctors who had established the hospital. He was widely loved by thousands of people whose ills he had cured, whose lives he had saved or at whose births he presided.
As chief of medicine in his later years at Milford Hospital, Dr. Fischer presided over what was unofficially called the “Rendezvous Room.” It was where doctors would change into operating clothing, was strictly a male bastion, and everyone entering and leaving the hospital used this room. He made sure all newcomers to the medical community knew that there was to be no “fee splitting” in Milford. This was the term applied to monetary kickbacks to referring physicians from treating physicians.
Upon his death in 1964, his picture was displayed on Milford Hospital’s pediatric floor. In addition, the William Fischer Memorial Lecture in Pediatrics was established in his honor, but has since been discontinued.
