NORWALK.
 

225
 

II O ME-L O T   NT T I.

NATHANIEL   ELY

THOMAS   BETTS, Sr.
CHRISTOPHER   COMSTOCK.

The two oldest public thoroughfares in Norwalk (naming them in their probable
order of construction) were, paradoxical as the order may seem (see page 34), " The
Other Highway" and "The Towne Highway." The first of these "ways" was. as is else¬
where in this work intimated, marked out by. it is to be presumed, the Stamford settlers in
their pre-Norwalk pilgrimages between Fairfield and New- Haven. Nathaniel El)- of
Cambridge, in 1632, a resident in 1635 of Hartford and an Plartford official in 1637, but
afterward a Norwalk constituent, constable and a committeeman to set the Golden Hill
boundaries of Nimrod and other Pequonnock (now Bridgeport) Indian lands,' had allotted
to him the eligible home-site bounded by the " Other Highway and the Town Highway,"
or at the northwest corner of the present P2ast avenue and Fitch street. From the old
world Mr. PZly proceeded to Cambridge and Hartford from which latter place he came, in
1650. to Norwalk, having been one of the "Ludlow agreement" signers. Whether he
bore any kinship to Samuel Ely (see page 78) or to  Richard Eh-,-' is not ascertained.     He
 

i.Vbout 1657-9 large' numbers of the Shore In¬
dians removed nothward from the Sound into the
country, so that there remained only about one hun¬
dred wigwams on " Gold," now Golden Hill, Bridge¬
port. A wigwam is- said to have represented some
six souls, and if so, it follow-s that in the neighbor¬
hood of six hundred red men w-ere left in the vicinitv
of " Pequonnock '' to be cared for. The General
Court, consequently, in 1659, ordered that this rem¬
nant should occupy the height in question, and, for
some reason, constituted a committee of Norwalk
men to carry out its order. The Court selected four
of this town's staunchest settlers, viz. : Matthew
Campfield, Thomas Fitch, Richard Olmsted and Na¬
thaniel Ely, to mark out eighty acres of the elevation
referred to and return a report of their doings dur¬
ing the ensuing autumn. The committee did so,
signing the document thus: " Narw-oke, Nov. 2,
1660." .\fter report made the Indians proceeded,
I'cu-thwith, to occupy the premises.

-'Of Lyme, and thought to have been the pro¬
genitor of the late Dudlev P. Ely, one of the saga¬
cious and successful citizens of the present city of
South Norwalk. On May-day, 1861, Mr. Ely took up
his residence in the thriving section of the Norw-alk
township known formerly as "Old Well" but latterly
as South .Norw-alk, and such was his influence that
when the village had grown into the municipality he
was the chosen candidate for the tirst mayoralty. His
brother, Nathan C, was also a .Norw-alk resident, the
»\v(>  having   been   the   last   representatives   of   their
 

generation of the family. Mrs. Dudley P. Ely was a
daughter of Judge J. O. Phelps, of Sinisliury, Conn.
The late Hon. Jon. E. Wheeler, of the extensive
Wheeler manufactory, of Westport, married Harriet
P., the oldest daughter of D. P. Ely. She died in the
spring of 1868, leaving one child, Harry E., who died
the following fall. Mr^;. Wheelers sisters—she had no
brothers—were Charlotte, died tinmarried ; Mary E.
(Mrs. Millard); Augusta A. (Mrs.tien. Russell Fro-t);
Dudline (Mrs. Charles T. Raymond). Mr. Wheeler
married, second, Mrs. Henrietta \' Ells, of New York
city, by which union there were no children. He
died Feb. 7, 1886. With his brother Elonzo S. he
came, in the spring of i860, from Central Conn., to
Westport, and purchasing the already standing Sau¬
gatuck brick building from (Ter-hom B. Bradlev,
there founded, under the firm name of E. S, Wheel¬
er and Co., an important manufacturing plant. Mr.
E. S. Wheeler is still living and is president of the
establishment which in 1896 is known as the Sauga¬
tuck Manufacturing Company. The two brothers,
Hon. Jon. E., and Elonzo .S. Wheeler resided in ad¬
joining homes on the banks of the .Saugatuck and a
little north of the ancient "Rocky .Neck." E. S.
Wheeler married Caroline Smith, of .Naugatuck,
Conn., and had Robinson H., Clarence L., Kate W.,
Bertha C. (Mrs. John Hazelton) and Elonzo Sterne,
who married Elsie, daughter of Thos. R. Lees, of
Westport. Robinson II., son of E. .S. and Caroline
Wheeler, married, first, Sarah F., daughter of Burr
Smith,  Saugatuck, and had   Robinson  L.  and  Caro-