Rippowam

Rippowam was the Indigenous name for the country around the river and harbour later known as Stamford, on Long Island Sound. The Siwanoy lived here before English settlement, and the river gave its name to the first colonial plantation. In 1640 Nathaniel Turner of New Haven reached an agreement for land with the sachems Ponus and Wascussee.

English settlers arrived in 1641 and soon ordered a dam and gristmill built on the Rippowam River. Their town was renamed Stamford after an English town in Lincolnshire. Land was divided among the colonial households partly according to their contributions to the purchase. The agreement was renegotiated more than once; in 1700 Catoona and Coee, believed to be descendants of Ponus and his family, confirmed earlier grants to the settlers.