ut in each side of the house to let in light, and, as glass
was difficult to obtain, greased paper was used to keep out the storms
and cold of Autumn and Winter. Holes were bored at the proper height in
the logs at one corner of the room, and into these ends of poles were
fitted the opposite ends, where they crossed, being supported by a
crotch or a block of the proper height. Across these poles others were
laid, and these were covered by a thick mattress of hemlock boughs, over
which blankets were spread. On such beds as these the first inhabitants
of this town slept and their first children were born. For want of
chairs, rude seats were made with axe and auger by boring holes and
inserting legs in planks split from basswood logs, hewn smooth on one
side. Tables were made in the same way, and after a time, the floor, a
bare space being left about the fireplace instead of a hearthstone.

No sooner had the first settlers taken up their abode here than they
were called upon to defend the title to their lands in the courts of the
Colony. About thirty-seven years before, the General Court had granted
permission to certain Stratford parties to buy land from the Indians and
settle a plantation at this place, and they had bought over twenty-six
thousand acres hereabouts. Apparently, however, no attempt was made
towards a settlement of the same until after the purchase of same tract
from the Indians by the Milford parties in 1702, and the grant for a
patent for the same to them by the General Court in 1703. Soon after the
settlers first broke ground here in 1707, a suit was begun against them
by the Stratford people in the County Court at New Haven in May, 1708,
and it was carried thence to the General Court. It was tried sixteen
times. The first fifteen times, the plaintiffs won on the strength of
their Indian title. The sixteenth, the defendants won on the strength of
their Indian title, the patent from the General Court, and occupation.
This incident is particularly interesting because one of the plaintiffs
and the lawyer in this great case was the famous John Read, one of the
ablest men and most remarkable characters which New England has
produced. Some notice of him will not be inappropriate here, as he was
one of the earliest inhabitants of this place.

He was born at Fairfield, June 29th, 1679, and was a brother-in-law of
Governor Talcott. He graduated at Harvard in 1697, became a minister,
preached in Woodbury as a cand