front side of marker
Eight families came from Norwalk in 1685 to settle this area which the Indians called Pahquioque. They built their first homes a half mile south of here and made this green their common. The General Court in October 1687 decreed the name
"Danbury" although the settlers had chosen "Swampfield." Beans and other crops helped make Danbury an inland trading center by 1750 with a population of two thousand.
At the start of the American Revolution this town became a hospital and supply base. General Tyron led a British force of two thousand in a raid on Danbury on April 26
- 27, 1777. Three young men, one a Negro, died in defense of the town near the north end of the green. The British burned nineteen houses, a church, twenty-two barns and many supplies.