Contents     Previous Page     Next Page

THE MIDDLE YEARS
was such a regular attendant at church that even his old horse caught the spirit. It was told that one Sunday when the good Deacon was too ill to go to church, the old horse heard the church bell ring, and, since no one had come to get him, he jumped the fence, trotted to church, and took his accustomed place in the horse sheds.
FIRST TOWN HALL
All of the town meetings and elector's meetings were held in the meeting house of the North Milford Church for the first twenty-five years. In 1835 permission was granted by the General Assembly to strike out the clause in the original charter, which decreed ''that all meetings of the town shall be held at or near the meeting house of North Milford.'' However, they continued to be held there until May 22, 1848, when a special Town Meeting was called to be held at William Woodruff's Tavern. At this meeting it was voted that a small Town Hall should be built, as near William Woodruff's as possible. A building committee was appointed who were instructed to have the building completed by October 1. This Town Hall was used for the next forty years.
By an act of the Legislature on June 25, 1869, the Town was divided into two voting districts-- "That portion of the town within the limits of the North, Union and West school districts shall be and remain the First District. That portion within the limits of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th school districts shall be the Second voting District." After the erection of the new Town Hall in West Haven in 1893, the town meetings were held in that building.
TOWN RECORDS
As far as can be learned, the early town records were kept in a pine box in a house on the Milford Turnpike
72