Coastal and West Indies Trading as Wharves and Village Expand

Wheeler Wharves - Fancher's Dock - FYC c 1880-90.jpg

1702 THE PORTS' IMPORTANCE TO MARITIME PROTECTION & TRADE  

In 1702 Fairfield was named one of Connecticut's eight official ports, with John Edwards appointed Customs Officer. Fairfield boasted two ports at the time, the original 1639 port on the Uncoway River (today's Ash Creek) and Wheeler's family port on Shipharbour Creeke (Black Rock Harbor).  

  

1703 FIRST WHARF BUILT 

In 1703 John Edwards and John Sturges won permission to build the first public wharf on the Uncoway River. The wharf remained important for coastal shipping well into the mid-1700s, when the Wheeler wharves blossomed into a major West Indies trading port. 

  

1733 The naming of Ash Creek (separate from other copy, boxed in) 

The first known use of the name Ash Creek appeared in 1733, when permission was given for a warehouse to be built at the lower end of the sandbars "at Ash House Creek." The timing of the name change, decades before the British burned Fairfield during the revolution, makes clear the name had nothing to do with wind-born ash from the British torching of the town. The ash in question likely arose from a nearby colonial soap works and its lye-producing ash pits used in the soap-making process of the time. 

  

1740 WEST INDIES TRADE EXPANDS 

By 1740, early coastal trade had expanded to the West Indies, and business at Black Rock's deep water harbor began growing at the expense of the shallower Ash Creek port. Though early Black Rock Harbor was a slave trading center, few details have come down to us. More lucrative was the trade in molasses, desperately needed in the colonies for making rum -- the sole commodity the colonies could produce freely and sell to the British. Also in demand were lumber, grains and local horses, renowned for their quality and traded at home and abroad. West Indies trading from the wharves of Black Rock would fuel the local economy and daily village life for another century. 

  

1740 LARGE SHIPBUILDING BEGINS  

Capt. Ichabod Wheeler, the first shipwright of Black Rock and great-grandson of Black Rock's first settler, began building vessels at the Wheeler family wharf as a teenager. By the 1760s his yard was producing large vessels capable of sailing to the West Indies and as far as India, China and Madagascar. He built six ships over 90 tons in his lifetime, all on family land settled by his great-grandfather. 

 

1750 PENFIELD MILLS AND ITS "CORDUROY ROAD" BUILT 

In 1750, Peter Penfield constructed tide-powered grist mills and two dams on “Ash House Creek” near today's Jennings Marina. The Penfield Mills and bakehouse would play a critical part in the Revolution, providing food and cannons not only to the town, but to soldiers all over New England, giving Connecticut its first nickname, “The Provision State.” Penfield also built a "corduroy road," made of logs laid horizontally side by side (resembling the wales of the fabric) to provide easy-- if bumpy -- access to his mills from Fairfield center. Penfield's corduroy road is one of only two still in existence in the state, and is a State Archaeological Preserve.                  

  

1761 PERMISSION GRANTED TO BUILD THE BLACK ROCK'S UPPER WHARVES 

Capt. Ichabod Wheeler, more interested in building ships than running a port, won permission to build Black Rock's Upper Wharves in 1761, but promptly sold 5/6 ownership to local investors. Ownership changed hands multiple times over the next century, as ship captains, local merchants, and various Fairfield families -- even future Culper Spy Ring principal Caleb Brewster -- invested with the hope of  financial gain through shipping, storehouses, and ship ownerships. 

  

1765 BRIDGE BUILT OVER “ASH HOUSE CREEKE” 

Black Rock harbor's fortunes changed dramatically after 1765 with the construction of a wooden bridge over Ash House Creeke. Built to connect Penfield's corduroy road on the west side of the creek to Balmforth Street on the east side, Squire's Bridge finally opened up a fairly direct route from Fairfield to the Wheelers' long isolated Black Rock port. The bridge meant Black Rock soon replaced Ash Creek as Fairfield’s main trading port. Wooden remnants of the road and rock remnants of the bridge foundations are still easily visible at low tide.                  

  

1765 SQUIRE’S WHARF BUILT 

 With the bridge up, Samuel Squire lost no time acting on the permission he'd received years earlier to build Squire’s or Lower Wharf. Squire wharf -- the one pictured in the Black Rock mural -- soon became a busy center of commerce, and remained in the Squire family for three generations, until about 1850. Later part of the George Hotel, the land is now the site of the Black Rock Yacht Club. 
 
1767 MIDDLE WHARF BUILT 
With better access to Fairfield, Black Rock Harbor's burgeoning trade and wharf activity attracted new investors. In 1766, a group of thirteen Fairfield citizens was authorized by the town to acquire land to build a wharf adjoining Capt. Ichabod’s. Instead, they built their dock on land purchased from David Wheeler III when he deeded family land for a new road to the town. This became Middle Wharf, located at the corner of today's Beacon Street and Seabright Avenue.  

1770 GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE 
By 1770 the three wharves along the western shore of Black Rock Harbor – Upper, Middle, and Squire -- had turned Black Rock into a maritime center. With shipping greatly expanded, regular voyages to the West Indies and the Orient supplied residents with rum, spices, exotic produce, silks and other sundries. By 1779 there were only nine families living in Black Rock, but growing commerce and road development made change inevitable. Once David Wheeler III, great grandson of the first settler, opened Wheeler family land on Grover's Hill for sale, ship captains soon built family homes there with clear views of their ships in the harbor below.