Photo 2018 MHB Hughes
​We all want  pictures to go with the words! Joe Hamilton's house (above) did not exist, although the Knapp house  and the Dibble house did. A small house built on Lambert Lockwood's grandfather's property in 1790 formed my model for Joe's cottage.
Below right  is the Dibble house, once a lovely home to shelter whatever master opened the door. Picture taken the day before it was torn down. It's twin is the Knapp house, p. 97 in the book, where Sarah lived in real life, its picture drawn in the 1840s.

​      Below map courtesy of WCSU

​In olden times, you just asked where somebody lived. About 1855, people began to need maps for police, school officials, and deliveries of items that came on the train. Those maps contained the homeowners' names. Map above is from 1858.

In 1870s Danbury, the newspaper editor described "who lived next door to whom" back in the day. Severe searching  translated such words as "lived where Amzi Barnum lives now" and "where the news office is now." Western CT University helped the author form the map in the book.

                 

Bear Mountain - The Hamilton Family Farm

The Hamiltons moved to the Pembroke area north of Danbury in the time of Captain Hamilton's grandfather. The family continued accumulating land. With four sons (Silas, Jr., Paul, John, and James) plus two daughters (Elizabeth Lindsley and Orpha Barnum),  land  insured inheritance. (No stock market existed, no CDs, no savings accounts, and for sure no US government bonds!)
​ The home farm is still there: Bear Mt. Reserve in Danbury, which is as you see it. The cabin had disappeared by 1835.
                                                                                                     Photo 2018 MHB Hughes