History of the Purchase of Stamford/New Canaan and the Landmark at our Davenport Ridge / Ponus Ridge Triangle

From "Portrait of New Canaan" by Mary Louise King

In 1896 the Historical Society branched out in two new directions. It invited the Village Improvement Society to join with it in a widespread planting of shade trees (the Hoyt Nursery on Carter Street provided the trees), and a committee was formed to “designate and restore ancient landmarks, boundaries and localities.” The first landmark to be settled on was the reputed burial place of the Indian chief Ponus off Ponus Ridge, and the consent of the selectman was secured for the erection of a monument in the nearby triangle made by the intersection of Ponus with Davenport Ridge. For the sum of $10, Charles Comstock agreed to move the rough stone found on his Weed Street land and erect it on a suitable base, while a Norwalk monument firm was asked to carve the inscription. Upon invitation, the Ponus Tribe No. 31 of Red Men of New Canaan joined the Historical Society in the dedication ceremonies attended by some 200 people on October 2, 1897.

The inscription on the back reads:

The original name of Stamford was “Rippowam”, called so by the Indians and used by the early European inhabitants.

On the first of July 1640 one Capt. Turner for the New Haven colony signed a parchment that is considered the deed to Stamford. Signing for the native inhabitants, was Chief Ponus. In return for a tract of land that extended from the Mianus River on the west to Bedford and Pound Ridge on the North, Five Mile River on the East (half of what was to be New Canaan) and Long Island Sound on the South, the payment for this land was to be twelve coats, twelve hoes, twelve hatchets, twelve glasses, twelve knives, four kettles, and four fathoms of white wampum.

Ponus appears to have been the overlord of the entire region. But it wasn’t just Ponus who made the deal. Four family groups dwelt on the land and they all agreed to the terms of the land purchase. It is however very doubtful that they fully understood the terms of the deed that they were signing.

Chief Katonah was the son of Onox (the elder) and the grandson of Ponus, Sachem of the Rippowams. Katonah was the sachem of the condensed remnant tribes called the Ramapo. He lived in the area in the late seventeenth century. Records show that in 1708 the Ridgefield settlers petitioned the General Assembly at Hartford to remove the Ramapo. Katonah sold the Ramapo lands of 20,000 acres for 100 pounds sterling to the “Proprietors of Ridgefield”. It started at the Norwalk harbor, mouth of Five Mile River and went to the top of Frogtown Road to Davenport Ridge.