July 18, 1640 is the date associated with the purchase of land in the area now known as Old Greenwich for "twentie-five coates" from sachems of the local Siwanoy indian tribe by English settlers including Daniel Patrick, John Feakes and his formidable wife Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feakes (fictionalized as "The Winthrop Woman" by Anya Seton) under the auspices of the New Haven Colony . Two years later in 1642, these same settlers joined the Dutch New Amsterdam Colony lead by peg-legged Governor Peter Stuyvesant, where Greenwich stayed until 1650 when the town rejoined the New Haven Colony later incorporated into Connecticut.
In 1644 most of the local Siwanoys were massacred on the Strickland plains by a joint English-Dutch force led by Captain John Underhill. In 1672 twenty-seven proprietors purchased land west of the "Myanos River", then called "Horseneck", from the few remaining indians.
Fast forward to July 18, 2013, three hundred seventy-three years from the founding, and Greenwich is one of the most preeminent communities in the nation. So on Thursday we should expect picnics, barbecues, bonfires, fireworks and parades, right?
Well, maybe not, but there may be a flag raising at Town Hall at 9:00 am (although it is not on the town website calendar). On Sunday (Bastille Day) there was a Founders Day celebration at the First Congregational Church, gathered in 1665, in recognition of that congregation's role in validating Greenwich status as a town independent of Stamford, which required an established Puritan congregation.
So my suggestion is that on Thursday you celebrate Founders Day by taking a Siwanoy to lunch. In the likely event you are unable to find one, you may dine with a Puritan or, failing that, a Dutchman, and toast our wonderful town.
