Monday, July 31, 2006

BY SYDNEY SCHWARTZ

Copyright © 2006 Republican-American

BRIDGEWATER — In July 1856, 150 years ago this month, residents of the "Shepaug Neck" section of Bridgewater decided a day's journey was too far to travel for town meetings.

They had already built their own church, school and general store and had a thriving hatting industry and tobacco crop. The 1,000 or so residents decided it was high time for "the Neck" or "Sheep Pasture," as it was also known, to become its own municipal entity.

This September, the 150-year-old town of Bridgewater will celebrate its sesquicentennial birthday with a period Town Hall meeting, picnic and exhibit outside the Bridgewater Historical Society's 1820 Elijah Peck House.

There will be skits, music, dance and celebrations of what makes the 2,000-person town distinct.

"When Bridgewater broke away from New Milford in 1856 it was a big deal," said Brigid Carney, who's organizing the festivities. "It's just going to be a couple of hours dedicated to fun and dance and just celebrating that we are so uniquely ourselves."

The town was first settled in 1722, and the name Bridgewater used in 1803, when the General Assembly established the Ecclesiastical Society.

The name may have come from travelers' need to "bridge water" to enter the town: the Shepaug River on the East and the Housatonic River on the South and West, according to a Bridgewater Historical Society pamphlet put together for the centennial in 1956.

Coincidentally, the Bridgewater Historical Society is renovating and cataloging its collection this year — and will likely continue the sesquicentennial festivities when it reopens its downstairs floor this winter.

"It was serendipity," said Eileen Buchheit, vice president of the Bridgewater Historical Society, who happens to be Carney's mother. "It's a wonderful time capsule, it really is."

For more than a year, Buchheit and other volunteers have been cataloging and reorganizing the Elijah Peck House collection room-by-room — going through old books, instruments and papers ranging from an old iron kitchen stove to a Sturdevant spinning wheel to a wedding slipper from 1775 to ribbons residents brought back from President Lincoln's funeral.

They plan to store away some clutter and display the collection on a rotating basis. They have also bought six new mannequins and several heads to display vintage clothing and hats. One is already dressed in a World War II nurse's uniform with Buchheit's mother's own hat.

"We've got some really exquisite pieces. They do tend to get lost when there's so much," Buchheit said. "One of our goals now is to maintain a revolving display."

They have finished the entry way and "document room" and are almost done with the kitchen. They're also archiving old pictures and manuscripts into acid-free books.

In the process, they've stumbled upon some photographs from the Centennial Anniversary Celebrations in 1956.

That year, there was a Town Hall reenactment and dinner dance. People came in costume and took pictures. But the population in 1950 was only 639 people, up from 432 in 1930, Buchheit said.

This time around, there's a much larger population.

For more information on the 150th anniversary festivities, contact Brigid Buchheit Carney at (860) 625-6225.

"It gives us an opportunity to go back to the old records and really make it very thorough. We're just hoping to have some fun with it," Carney said. "(We'll) have some dancing, listing to some music, just having a nice time enjoying how beautiful Bridgewater is."

For more information on the 150th anniversary festivities, contact Brigid Buchheit Carney at (860) 625-6225.