The story is told of how members of eight Norwalk, Connecticut families walked to the area now known as Danbury and Bethel in the summer of 1684. Legend has it that one of their number, John Hoyt, was sent ahead as a scout to find suitable ground for a settlement. Hoyt reputedly passed his first night in our area, sleeping beneath a rock of what has come to be known as Hoyt's Hill.

Although these first European settlers chose the area now constituting Danbury's Main Street as the spot to establish themselves, they had laid their eyes on Bethel.

The first colonists to reside on land now within Bethel's boundaries most likely arrived sometime around 1700 and may have set up housekeeping in the part of town known as Grassy Plain. This seems likely given the area's close proximity to the initial settlement site at the corner of South and Main Streets in Danbury.

By 1759 there were enough families in Danbury that overcrowding was a problem at the only house of worship, that of the Congregationalists. So it was that in April of that same year several parishioners living in the Eastern portion of Danbury petitioned the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut to have their portion of Danbury set off as a second parish. Although not all of the parishioners were in agreement on this endeavor, the General Assembly granted the request the following October and the First Ecclesiastical Society of Bethel was formally organized on November 12, 1759.

Over the next 96 years, the parish of Bethel tried several times to establish itself as a town in its own right, but none of these attempts proved successful. Finally, on June 21, 1855, after a successful campaign led by state representative and resident Oliver Shepard, Bethel officially became Connecticut's 154th town.

Although other industries, such as comb making (utilizing cow horn) and shoemaking were at one point important local activities, the manufacture of hats for men, women and children provided the axis on which all activity in Bethel would revolve until the last facility run by Barton Rough Hat Company closed in the mid 1960's.

Another highlight of our town's history is that the great showman P.T. Barnum (of Barnum & Bailey Circus) was born here on July 5, 1810. Barnum remained in town only until the age of 24, but during his stay he managed to run a successful fruit and confectionary store, operate a lottery, publish the town's first newspaper, and spend 60 days in the Danbury jail on a libel conviction. He was later mayor of Bridgeport, built a mansion there and opened his circus in Brooklyn, New York. He visited Bethel often, however. And in 1881, Barnum presented his birthplace with an enormous bronze fountain that was Bethel's centerpiece for the next 42 years, until it froze, cracked, and was replaced with the Doughboy statue.

The Doughboy statue was dedicated in 1928 to honor the Bethelites who served in World War I. The statue was sculpted by E.M. Viquesney (1876-1946) of Spencer, Ind. There are at least 100 confirmed "twins" of the statue, known as the Spirit of the American Doughboy, across the country.

In the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, Bethel adopted technological advances and expanded its civic facilities. The railroad first came to town in 1852, connecting Bethel to Norwalk and the growing metropolis of New York City. Another line, known as the Shepaug Railroad connecting link was established in 1872, enabling Bethelites to travel to the northern town of Litchfield (this line was discontinued in 1911). A town-supplied water system was created in 1879 utilizing the Eureka Resevoir, and electricity began to be available in the late 1880's (although many townspeople would not have their homes electrified until the 1920's.)

A horse-drawn trolley system was inaugurated in 1887 and continued service until January 1, 1895, when it was replaced by an extended electric trolley line that would continue to operate until 1926. A permanent home for the public library was found in 1914 through a generous donation made by the Seelye family of the homestaead on Greenwood Avenue. A public high school was first built on South Street in 1887 to service the increasing number of scholars who pursued their studies beyond the eighth grade.

Special thanks to Town Historian Patrick Wilde for contributing the majority of this introduction.