Sharon

Guinea Brook, Guinea Road, also called Guna Brook

GPS  N 41-48-509  W 73-23-504

"A community or region:  Goodenough, p. 3  After the Revolution, Robert Starr for his services was given his freedom from slavery;  he had been brought from
the Guinea coast to Danbury;  claimed to have been a body-servant of Washington.  He settled near the old forge in the mill brook valley near the river.
Silver Hill and Sheep Hill were soon peopled by negroes..." (Place Names,  p. 514)

"But Guinea must not be forgotten nor her contribution to the wars.  Its very settlement is due to the wars of the Revolution and its effect upon slavery.
Nathaniel Hunter, Benoni Benson and Elijah Juckett were given tracts of land by their grateful town;  but Robert Starr was given his freedom from slavery.  Early
brought from the Guinea coast to Danbury, Connecticut, he became one with the colony in its spirit and, desiring to volunteer to fight for her liberties,
he was considered worthy of manumission.  His claim to being one of the body servants of Washington has more color from the fact of the stewardship of his
neighbor, Eliphalet Everett.  After serving creditably, he settled near the old Forge in the mill brook valley just as it dashes through the gorge
before reaching the river...This home became the nucleus for the gregarious African and soon both sides of the brook were peopled with their pickaninnies...
Guinea is fast passing away, mouldering houses and cellarways are dotting the brookside..."  (Goodenough   1900:  59-60)

There are some cellar foundations in the area.  Could these have been the homes of miners, charcoal burners?  One sources said that a
"Schagticoke Indian lived in one of them."  The bridge was out in 1936, and the road was closed in the early 1940's.

Furnaces
Sharon Valley (Bradley, Landon)  GPS  N  41-53-13  W 73-29-73
Weed   GPS  N 41-53-13  W  73-25-49

Bloomery / Forge
Skinner's Forge, Joseph Skinner, 1740, located at the dam south of Mudge Pond, Silver Lake Shores Road, dam on Mudge Pond Brook.
Produced the first iron in Sharon, near present Millerton Road.

Hutchinson's Hollow,. east slope of Sharon Mountain, (Now Smith Hill Road), Hutchinson's Brothers, 1760