From Ridgefield Middle School Students Honor Former Enslaved Residents
Dinah, Peter, Lidia and Quash were some of the enslaved people known to have been held captive in the house originally built and owned by David Scott, an Irish immigrant and patriarch of one of Ridgefield’s founding families.
The house, which originally stood at the southwest corner of Catoonah and Main streets, was relocated to face Catoonah Street in the 1920s before it was dismantled in 1999 and reconstructed at its current location at 4 Sunset Lane.
The eighth-graders started working on this year’s Witness Stones Project at the beginning of the school year and found that the records of Dinah and Peter were very limited, Ridgefield Historical Society collections manager Betsy Reid said.
“The only document we have that proves they even lived here is a bill of sale dated 1740, when David Scott sold Dinah and Peter to a man named Vivus Dauchy … for 200 English pounds,” she said.
