A hill town on the Aspetuck River, set off from Weston in 1845, where Samuel Staples' free school opened in 1798, a stone from a meteor came down in 1807, and Ida Tarbell and Helen Keller later made their homes.

Fairfield County · Record checked October 8, 2026

7,605Population2020 census1
1845Became a townset off from Weston in May2
1798The free schoolStaples' school, a dollar a quarter3
30 lbThe meteorstone shown at town meeting in 18074
3National Registerplaces, all still standing5

Then and now

The same town 159 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

Property map of Easton, Connecticut from 1867 by F.W. Beers, restored by KNOWOL

1867

The 1867 property map

By F.W. Beers

Easton laid out in 13 districts with every plot marked with its owner's name, along with places like Osborn's Groceries, Sherman's Distillery, Bennett's Boots, Lyon Carriages, a leather tannery and Easton Mills.6

See the 1867 printMore about this map
Map of Easton, Connecticut in 2026, with Easton center, Aspetuck, the Ida Tarbell House and 27 numbered landmarks

2026

Easton today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Plattsville and Livermore Pond down the Aspetuck River valley, roads from Sport Hill Road to Black Rock Road printed by name, the Hemlock Reservoir, and a guide of 27 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.7

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Easton

The stone that fell in 1807

At daybreak on December 14, 1807, a fire-ball crossed the sky over western Connecticut and exploded with a tremendous report. Pieces of stone came down across Fairfield County. One large piece landed in the part of Weston that is now Easton, and a mass of about thirty pounds was carried to town meeting and shown around that very day. A sample went to Yale, where Professor Silliman held a magnet to it and found it was iron. The Connecticut Journal believed it was the first time anywhere in the United States that the stuff of a meteor had been picked up off the ground, and it asked people all over the state to write in with what they'd seen.4

A dollar a quarter at Staples' school

Samuel Staples died in 1787 and was buried in Easton. His gravestone says he gave a plentiful fortune to pious and charitable purposes, above all a free school for poor children. The school opened in 1798. Its first advertisement promised English grammar, writing, Latin, Greek, oratory, geography and mathematics, strict attention to manners and morals, and a price of one dollar a quarter, with the poor taught free. Isaac Toucey, who became governor of Connecticut and a United States senator, learned his first lessons there, and he offered five hundred dollars toward a monument to Staples. Old Staples Academy is marked at the center of town on the 2026 map, and the elementary school still carries the founder's name.317

When the British came through

When the British marched to Danbury in 1777, they came up the road that's now the Black Rock Turnpike, and Easton families told the story for generations. A young officer caught a small boy named Miles Merwin and threatened to take him along, until an older officer told him to let the boy go. Soldiers drove off Samuel Wakeman's oxen. Samuel Wheeler, a farmer, was taken prisoner and let go after being carried two miles. Gould Dimon, who wanted no part of the war, hid between a timber plate and the chimney of an old house. Soldiers fired several balls into the plate and dragged him out. When that house came down years later, the balls were still in the wood.891011

Through the years

23 moments from 1670 to today.

  1. 1670The Aspetuck people, who lived along the river, sell land here to English settlers.12
  2. 1757Families from Fairfield join the North Company and begin settling North Fairfield, now Easton.13
  3. 1762The North Fairfield Society is formed, the parish that grows into Easton.1
  4. 1763The Congregational church is gathered on December 13.14
  5. 1763A plain Episcopal church goes up at Gilberttown. Never finished, it stands until about 1850.15
  6. 1777British troops marching to Danbury carry off Easton farmer Samuel Wheeler, then free him two miles on.9
  7. 1784Rev. Philo Shelton becomes rector of the Episcopal church.15
  8. 1787Weston, which takes in today's Easton, becomes a town.1
  9. 1798Staples' Free School opens, a dollar a quarter, with poor children taught free.3
  10. 1807A meteor explodes over Fairfield County and a 30-pound stone lands in what is now Easton.4
  11. 1831The Baptist church is formed with 67 members.16
  12. 1844The Methodist church at the center is built.16
  13. 1845Easton becomes a town in May and holds its first town meeting on the green in August.17
  14. 1848About 75 Easton Baptists leave to found the Baptist church at Stepney.16
  15. 1863Easton Mineral Water, from a spring in town, is sold by the bottle and the gallon in Bridgeport.18
  16. 1867F.W. Beers maps Easton plot by plot, with every owner's name.6
  17. 1873Christ Church builds a new chapel near the academy at the center.15
  18. 1890Easton counts 1,001 people, mostly farmers, with post offices at Easton, Aspetuck and Plattsville.2
  19. 1906Ida Tarbell buys the farmhouse she calls Twin Oaks.19
  20. 1912The Bridgeport Hydraulic Company buys the Bradley farm and floods much of it for a reservoir.10
  21. 1946Helen Keller's house is built on Redding Road in Aspetuck.12
  22. 1993The Ida Tarbell House is named a National Historic Landmark.19
  23. 2009A 76-foot Norway spruce from an Easton yard becomes the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.1

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 2Helen Keller ParkSoutheast of the center. Named for Easton's famous resident.
  • 7Bradley-Hubbell HouseBlack Rock Turnpike. 1816 farmhouse above the reservoir.Visit their website
  • 10Aspetuck Historic DistrictAspetuck. 22 houses from 1750 to 1850.
  • 14Trout Brook Valley Conservation AreaSouthwest of the center. Protected land in the hills.Visit their website
  • 15Christ ChurchNorth of the center. Episcopal parish dating from 1763.
  • 16Easton Town HallEaston center. Seat of town government.
  • 17Ida Tarbell HouseValley Road. Twin Oaks, Tarbell's home from 1906.
  • 18Old Staples AcademyEaston center. Named for the free school of 1798.
  • 19Easton Baptist ChurchNorth of the center. Church formed in 1831.
  • 27The Congregational Church of EastonEaston center. Church gathered in 1763.

On the National Register

All 3 places in Easton on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.5

  • Aspetuck Historic District

    Built 1750 to 1850 · Listed 1991 · Redding Road and Old Redding Road along the Aspetuck River (shared with Weston)

    About 80 acres of farmhouses, barns and wide yards on the banks of the Aspetuck River, the oldest section of Easton. It's valued as a farming community that has changed little, and it holds the house Helen Keller lived in during her later years.12

  • Bradley-Hubbell House

    Built 1816 · Listed 2003 · 535 Black Rock Turnpike

    A center-chimney farmhouse built for Aljah and Elizabeth Bradley, with oval gable windows and rope molding on the stairs. The water company bought the farm in 1912 for a reservoir, and two people who grew up here wrote memoirs of life in the house. The Easton Historical Society has owned it since 1998.10

    Visit their website

  • Ida Tarbell House

    National Historic Landmark

    Listed 1993 · 320 Valley Road

    The simple farmhouse the journalist Ida Tarbell called Twin Oaks, bought in 1906 with royalties from her history of the Standard Oil Company. She did most of her later writing in its first-floor study and made it her retirement home in 1924.19

In their words

“This academy, which for more than three-quarters of a century has ranked among the leading educational institutions in New England”

History of Fairfield County, 1881, on Staples Academy3

“Why place a meeting-house among a lot of Church of England folks, and leave us out in the cold?”

The Congregationalists of Easton Centre, as told in Sketches of church life in colonial Connecticut, 190220

“This is, we believe, the first instance in the United States in which the substance of this species of meteor has been found on the earth”

The Connecticut Journal, December 1807, on the stone that fell in Easton4

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Easton, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Register and manual of the state of Connecticut (1893), Internet Archive
  3. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Staples Academy, Internet Archive
  4. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the meteor of 1807, Internet Archive
  5. National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  6. Vintage property map of Easton, Connecticut from 1867, restored by KNOWOL
  7. Map of Easton, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  8. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), Easton chapter: settlers and the Revolution, Internet Archive
  9. Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1899), on the Wheeler family, Internet Archive
  10. Bradley-Hubbell House, Wikipedia
  11. Battle of Ridgefield (Tryon's raid on Danbury), Wikipedia
  12. Aspetuck, Connecticut (and the Aspetuck Historic District), Wikipedia
  13. A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1886), on Edward Lacey, Internet Archive
  14. Early Connecticut marriages as found on ancient church records prior to 1800 (1896), Internet Archive
  15. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Christ Church, Easton, Internet Archive
  16. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Baptist and Methodist churches, Internet Archive
  17. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Easton's first town meeting, Internet Archive
  18. The Connecticut war record (1863), advertisement for Easton Mineral Water, Internet Archive
  19. Ida Tarbell House, Wikipedia
  20. Sketches of church life in colonial Connecticut (1902), on the Gilbert Town church, Internet Archive