WOOSTER STREET
By Sandy Clark

During the Revolutionary War, the Wooster family was suspected of being hostile to the Colonies. A committee was appointed, in Salem Bridge, by the recommendation of the Association of the General Congress. The committee was made up of Captain Gideon Hotchkiss and John Lewis. Their job was to observe the conduct of families suspected of being loyal to England. The Gunn, Wooster, and other families were promptly recognized and “condemned” as enemies of American liberty.

The Wooster family was implicated in the kidnapping of Chauncey Judd. Chauncey recognized Henry Wooster, son of David Wooster, as one of a band of Tories walking on Gunntown Road with contraband. At one point in the abduction of Chauncey he was hidden in the basement of the David Wooster home. Chauncey’s father sued David Wooster and Jobamah Gunn for Chauncey’s abduction and mistreatment. It cost David Wooster about 500 pounds. These events occurred in 1780.
In 1825, David Wooster (son of David and Ann Doolittle) along with Lucian Judd set up a factory along Fulling Mill Brook for the drawing of iron wire. The wire was made for the Brass Industry in Waterbury. Wooster and Judd became one of the earliest manufacturers in Naugatuck and the first to draw wire in this area. Wooster and Judd also manufactured pewter buttons. They were a type made only in Connecticut, significant for their flexible wire eye shanks, unique designs and affordability.*

In 1840, Jesse Wooster (David’s brother) purchased, his share of the firm of Spencer, Hotchkiss and Co., Clock Makers, from Giles Hotchkiss. Jesse Wooster, Francis Spencer, and Rueben Beebe formed a new Clock Company called “Spencer and Wooster and Co. By 1845, the Clock Company was defunct and Beebe, Wooster and Wooster’s son, Walter, were partners in another firm called “Jesse Wooster and Co.” This firm did not make clocks.

Henry Baldwin tells in his “Personal Recollections of Naugatuck” of another Wooster family living on Pond Hill. That was Sheldon Wooster, his wife, Lockey, and his sons, Leraine, Ozro, Gilber and Gilyard. “Ozro”, writes Baldwin, “was the oddest and most fearless one in Pond Hill School. He won the esteem of all the girls and boys by his skill in steering a board about 15 feet long. The winter was the most favorable time for coasting that I ever knew”. Sheldon later took the family, minus Ozro, out west to Utah for a short time. Son, Ozro, went to Utah and brought the family back. Sheldon lived here until his death in 1866. He is buried in the Wooster Family Cemetery, a burial ground for the descendants of the Wooster family.

Marilyn Nichols reported that she has seen these rare ¾ inch coat sized buttons with a Judd and Wooster hard white back mark. The buttons came in three designs.

1. a twelve pointed star in a basket weave center and ribbon border

2. a center of 5 carved compound leaves on a stippled background a plain inner border and an outer border of tiny florets.

3. A plain center with a dotted floret border.

Source - Naugatuck Historical Society Newsletter, March–April 2006 issue