Town Historian Ben Cruson presented “Newtown in the American Revolution” on July 9 at C.H. Booth Library.

The event was part of a series the library organized to celebrate the Semiquincentennial.

Over 50 people gathered to listen to Cruson’s presentation. Ahead of the lecture in the meeting room of the library, guests were invited to help themselves to pastries and pink lemonade. Attendees arrived early; some conversed among themselves, and others spoke with Cruson ahead of his lecture.

As the lecture began, Cruson introduced the topics he would be discussing, three stories from the Revolutionary war: the 1775 raid on Newtown, the hanging of Robert Thompson, and the French coming to Newtown.

“For the most part, the revolution was pretty quiet in Newtown as far as military action," Cruson said in his opening. "There were some other events that happened here too and some of those really exemplified the conflicts that were going on in towns all across the colonies during the revolution.”

Cruson then set up the primary conflict between the patriots and loyalists, as it was woven into each story he told. He showed the audience a map of Connecticut's political geography in an effort to display the division of the state's political loyalties.

Transitioning into the first story, the 1775 raid on Newtown, Cruson said the topic is “one of these things we wouldn't even know about except for one little piece of paper that told a brief story about it that my dad came across when he was town historian.”

Cruson's father, the late Daniel Cruson, was the first officially appointed Town Historian for the Town of Newtown.

The current Town Historian continued his presentation by providing provided background for the raid, detailing a town meeting in which attendees denounced support of patriots. The patriots in Newtown learned they were badly outnumbered if the loyalists were to rise up and claim Fairfield County for the British.

“The committee of observants in Fairfield ordered Ichabod Lewis, who was a militia officer in Stratford, to gather 200 men and come north to the Newtown area to disarm all the unfriendlies in Newtown and then Redding. This was going to be a forceful action to take away all of the weapons of the loyalists in this area,” he explained.

He then read a brief account written by an anonymous author detailing the events of the raid.

Cruson transitioned to his next story and introduced the audience to Robert Thompson.

“He is offered a job by agents of the king; he's offered a commission in the British army in exchange for recruiting people from Connecticut for the loyalist cause. Just to be clear, this is treason,” he explained.

Thompson was a spy for the British army and eventually caught, put on trial, and sentenced to death. He was hung in Newtown, likely somewhere on Main Street.

Cruson then introduced what he described as the most exciting and memorable thing that happened in Newtown during the revolution: the French arriving in town.

Cruson said the French recognized the power of the American army. He detailed the French making their way into Connecticut, crossing the Housatonic River from Southbury into Newtown, roughly where the Rochambeau Bridge today carries I-84 over the river.

He displayed a map of French encampments in Newtown and mentioned the top of Castle Hill as an ideal vantage point for the French Army.

"As odd as it seems and as exciting as it was, or frustrating if you were a loyalist, we don't have any firsthand accounts of this event by any Newtown residents,” he noted.

While there isn't a firsthand account from any Newtown residents, Cruson read an account from the French perspective including their impression of Newtown.

“’We saw much poverty there among the inhabitants as well as ruined fields and houses," he read. "This is the capital of Tory country and as you may well imagine we took great precautions to protect ourselves from their acts of cruelty. They usually strike by night when they go out in bands, attack a post, and then retire to the woods where they bury their arms.”

As he started to bring the lecture to a close, Cruson displayed a photo of the rooster weathervane that sits on top of Newtown Meeting House on Main Street. He explained how the visible bullet holes through the rooster are thought to have been put there by French soldiers as they marched through Newtown.

Cruson went on to half heatedly debunk this legend as being probably untrue, though he said the story is part of the revolution's legacy in Newtown.

“That is a part of the fun of researching this type of history, is seeing how some of these traditions that we still have today are influenced by the revolution,” he remarked.

“The politics of the era really pervaded everywhere even if you were nowhere near a battlefield," Cruson said. "The American Revolution touched your town.”

Cruson then allowed time for questions. In response to one person asking if Robert Thompson is buried in Newtown, Cruson admitted while he is unsure of Thomson's final resting place, he is potentially in Newtown Village Cemetery. In response to another attendee asking about 18th Century letters or journals and whether they "ever pop up,”

Cruson said they are rare or undocumented because oftentimes the town isn't listed.

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Emily Braun is a journalism major at Fordham University interning with The Newtown Bee this summer. She can be contacted through editor@thebee.com.