North Branford - Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project

War Memorial Boulder, Northford
– Dave Pelland, CTMonuments.net

Bordering on the Lake Gaillard reservoir, North Branford is a town in southeastern New Haven County. This early mill and farming community incorporated from Branford in 1831. The year prior, Maltby Fowler had opened a button-making shop. Its success along with the inventiveness of his six sons—who devised a range of machines to produce such things as screws, embossed silk, pins, and horseshoe nails—saw the rise of new manufactories along the town’s Farm River. By the early 1900s, North Branford’s abundant supply of trap rock, a material used for making roadways, made quarrying a growth industry. Today, the town’s manufacturing sector is concentrated in electronics and electronic components.

Featured

North Branford Vied for the Title of “Shredded Coconut Capital of the World” – Who Knew?

Patents granted to North Branford residents included one for a device used for paring coconut meats in 1875. …[more]

Learn More

Websites

“Greater New Haven Labor History Association,” 2017. Link.

Places

“Totoket Historical Society,” 2012. Link.

Documents

Connecticut State Library Digital Collections. “North Branford - WPA Architectural Survey,” 2015. Link.

“North Branford Collection.” Connecticut Digital Archive, n.d. Link.

Smith, Edward, and E. Chapman Maltby. Patent Number 165,959 - Improvement in Machines for Paring Cocoa-Nut Meats. 165,959. Northford, CT, issued July 27, 1875. Link.

Books

Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County, Connecticut. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. Link.

Totoket Historical Society, and Janet Gregan. North Branford and Northford, 1850-1950. Dover,  NH: Arcadia, 1998.

Totoket Historical Society, and Janet Gregan. North Branford and Northford, 1950-1981. Charleston,  SC: Arcadia, 2003.

Miller, Herbert. The History of North Branford and Northford. North Branford, CT: Totoket Historical Society, 1982.