The Retired Men’s Association of Greenwich (RMA) will host Missy Wolfe discussing “The Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich,” on Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 11 a.m.
Greenwich, as it existed in the seventeenth century, is a lost world. There were tythingmen and meeting warners here, wild horse hunters, water works makers, cowkeepers, townsmen, pounders and planters. Facing an undeveloped wilderness, Old Greenwich townsmen created the entire town’s original template. They designed six great common fields along our coastline and created our first, 1600s complete town masterplan. They also struggled to newly balance religious and civic authorities, private and common interests and to address financial inequities on each side of the Mianus. The first “strivers” here often found it more challenging to please their own than it was to please their God. They fashioned an idealized, yet still imperfect new society they proudly called the Greenwich Plantation. Author Missy Wolfe details the strategies and setbacks of creating Greenwich in colonial America’s First Period.
This is the third visit of Missy Wolfe to the RMA. A Greenwich native, she is a lifelong student of history, particularly Connecticut in the 1600s. Her research discovered that Greenwich was actually a Dutch territory for its first 16 years and the launch point of the largest Indian massacre in the northeast. Her new book, The Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich details the creation of Greenwich, the product of her comprehensive transcriptions of the town’s extensive 1600s archives. She received her MBA from Columbia University and, after an early career in advertising and raising a family, she pursued her interests in history and design with further studies. Her first book about the founding of Greenwich, Insubordinate Spirit, won the Washington Irving Medal for literary excellence.
The program takes place at the First Presbyterian Church, 1 West Putnam Ave. For additional information, visit greenwichrma.org or contact info@greenwichrma.org
