Reading, Connecticut
Fairfield county. This town was incorporated in 1767, and derived its name from Col. John Read, one of its first settlers. The soil of the town is good but the surface is rough and hilly. The business of the people is chiefly agricultural, who live scattered about on their farms. Considerable attention is paid in Reading to the growing of wool. It lies 15 miles N.W. from Bridgeport, 60 S.W. from Hartford, and 9 S. from Danbury. Population, 1830, 1,686. It is watered by Saugatuck and Norwalk rivers.
Joel Barlow, L.L. D., was born in this town, 1755. He died in Poland, 1812.
America has produced few men, more justly deserving of immortality than Barlow; and none, it is believed, who have made their title to it more sure. He lived in an eventful period, and acted a conspicuous part in both hemispheres; and as a poet, a man of science, a politician, a philosopher, and a philanthropist, his name will long be revered by the friends of civil liberty, and of science, throughout the civilized world.
