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company of Miltia under the command Cap't Joseph Woodruff on Ye alarum Aug't 1757 for the Relief of Ft. Wm. Henry E/c."

In the War of Independence, North Milford as the Bryan's Farms area was later known, furnished 19 men for patriotic duty. Of those who responded to the call as members of Captain Bryant's Company with Colonel Joseph Thompson's Regiment of Militia ordered from Connecticut to aid the Continental Army at Peekskill in October, 1777, are listed: Amos Clarke, Jr., Amos Clarke, John Bryan, Ephraim Lambert, Samuel Stone and Samuel Treat.

Another unit of the Continental Army was Samuel Peck's company. Those from this area included in the muster were Richard Treat, Elijan Bryan and Miles Mallet. A group of militia men from Newport, R.I., led by Duc Luzan, joined Gov. Jonathan Trumbull in New Haven and later passed over the toll road, now the Derby Turnpike, on the way to Yorktown.

Town's First Major Highway

Another excerpt from the records of Milford concerns the highway which is our present Derby Turnpike and it reads in part:

Mar the 28, 1721
We whose names are underwritten have laid out and Highway 3 rods wide through that land known by the name of Hoggs Meadow purchase begining at the Country Road going from New Haven to Derby at a certain Great Rock westerly of said 3 rodds Highway thence extending 70 rods to a certain stake with stones about it thence extending to a certain red Oak tree 56 rodds and 1/2 bearing something eastward from sd stake with stones about it, thence extending 70 rodds to a certain red oak tree bearing something westerly and from thence continueing the same course 3 1/2 rods and from thence extending easterly 36 rods to a certain red oak tree marked, thence extending to a white oak spire about 3 rods from a certin bend in the Mill River, thence extending the same course to the Treats Land, and thence Easterly between the aforesaid Purchase and Treats land to a certain marked tree.
Wittness our hands
George Clark
Samuel Brisco
Nathan Baldwin
Benjamin Fenn
Selectmen
Note the Highway at the North and thereof is 4 rodds wide about 20 rodds Southerly
Recorded Apr 7, 1721
John Ffowler Reginer
Note: the Highway through Hoggs Meadow Purchase from the fifth station namely the end of the 3 rodds and half from a certain Red Oak Tree as appears by Record, unto a certain Red Oak Tree Easterly from the said fifth station is to bend about 2 rods Southerly in the midst of the way from said 5th stake on unto the 6th
And the same course as the Highway runs through Hoggs Meadow from the sixth station to the seventh station so the sd highway extends the same course over the Brook somewhat Southerly of the sd seventh station and from said brook to the Treats land as the Mill River will bear unto a certain station a stake with an heap of stones about it where the said Highway enters said Treats land and from thence namely the said stake and stones with a straight line through the said Treats land unto a certain heap of stones between the said Greats land and the land of William Ffowler and from thence the same course 42 rodds and a half along in the sd Ffowlers land and from thence twenty seven rods, etc--

This certainly is a far cry from the present four lane esplanaded highway which now carries the commuter from Derby to New Haven in minutes.

[picture caption] The original sign from the Derby Turnpike toll house hangs in the New Haven Colony Historical Society on Whitney Avenue.