In Pursuit of Paradise: History of the Town of Stratford, Connecticut

Local history can be fun! Lew Knapp's look at Stratford's history shows people as they were, with ideas and aspirations, frailities and flaws the same as ours. It is the story of the early planters in search of religious freedom, and of their bound indentured servants, of men in terror of witches, wolves and Indians, who hang a witch, hunt the wolves and tell the Indians to come explain why they are afraid of white men but, if they won't, to compell them to come by violence; of colonists who fought the French and then the Birtish for liberty and finally freed their slaves. This book also traces evolution of our government - throughWilliam Samuel Johnson, one of 39 to sign the constitution; David Plant and Pierrepont Edwards, instrumental in creating the state constitution; and DOnald Sammis, who led the fight for council-manager town government. Also described are educators, merchants, engineers and inventors. Knapp grew up during the depression and worked 45 years for United Aircraft Corp. He graduated from the University of Bridgeport's first engineering class and held patents for helicopter design patents as ex-chief of new product engineering at Sikorsky. He was also an environmentalist, and helped prepared a town conservation plan. He was a yachtsman, historical society president and eventual town historian.