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Branchville is a Ridgefield, Connecticut neighborhood crossing into portions of Wilton and Redding, Connecticut,〔https://www.google.com/maps/place/Branchville,+CT+06877/@41.2674994,-73.442222,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e801f548ea76cb:0x15a1ba87d690a0cb Google Maps, Branchville, Connecticut. Retrieved 2014-05-02.〕 and is also the name of a Metro North railroad station (Branchville Station).〔http://m.mta.info/mt/as0.mta.info/mnr/stations/station_detail.cfm?key=274 "Branchville," MTA.com. Retrieved 2014-05-02.〕 Some people consider Branchville a part of Georgetown, Connecticut, an adjoining, non-incorporated community at the intersection of Redding, Ridgefield, Wilton and Weston, noting many residences and businesses there share Georgetown's 544- telephone number exchange. Others disagree, pointing to a community vote in the 1950s not to be served by the Georgetown Post Office, which is closer than the Ridgefield Post Office. == History == Branchville was named for the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad's “branch” line extending west to Ridgefield village,〔http://www.hvceo.org/transport/railhistory.php "Danbury Branch Rail Line History," Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials. Retrieved 2014-05-02.〕 a four-mile (6.4 km) run on a long incline (elevation is 〔http://www.theridgefieldpress.com/25484/when-trains-ran-up-to-town/ "When trains ran up to town," Ridgefield Press, 2014-01-26. Retrieved 2014-05-02.〕 while the old village station was about above sea level ). Native Americans had previously referred to the southeast corner of present-day Ridgefield as Wheer Cock.〔http://books.google.com/books?id=ugcWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=%22wheer+cock%22&source=bl&ots=5in9oJHcgC&sig=3TnXS4p9yrOQwl8qGllq30R3nog&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4tFjU-yaKc2gyAT9oIGQCw&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22wheer%20cock%22&f=false Teller, Daniel W., ''The History of Ridgefield, Conn: From Its First Settlement to the Present Time,'' Danbury: T. Donovan, 1878. Page 5.〕 Later it was called Copps Corner, after the Norwalk man who surveyed the town in the early 18th century and was the first town clerk.〔http://jackfsanders.tripod.com/names-C.htm "Ridgefield Place Names beginning with C." Retrieved 2014-05-02.〕 When workers completed in 1852 the railroad line from Norwalk to Connecticut, the neighborhood was at first called Beers Station or Ridgefield Station, after the stop there.〔http://www.historyofredding.com/HRBranchville.htm "Branchville, CT's History Page: The History of Branchville, Branchville's Mining Industries, The Branchville Mica Mine and more!" Retrieved 2014-05-02.〕 The first recorded use of the term Branchville appears in an 1870 deed for “lying in the town of Ridgefield at Branchville.” It was the same year that the branch line was built, suggesting that the railroad rather than neighborhood residents had invented the name to distinguish the station from the new one at Ridgefield center. Previously, the station at Branchville had been known as Ridgefield Station or Beers Station. An 1893 atlas labels this territory as “Plattsville,” possibly a mapmaker’s error. While the area had been mostly farmland and a mill or two, the coming of the railroad sparked the development of a booming, albeit small-scale, industrial community. It included mills, stores, a hotel, a machinery factory, and a post office. In 1876, after A.N. Fillow began extracting mica at Branchville, two Yale University mineralogists noted the presence of previously undiscovered minerals lodged in pegmatite there and furnished funds to expand the operation. Historians say the mine produced between seven〔http://connecticutexplored.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/CONNECTICUT-EXPLORED_CONNECTICUT_PEGAMITE.pdf Pawloski, John A. Sr., "The Industrial Might of Connecticut Pegmatite," ''Connecticut Explored,'' Vol. 8 No. 3, Summer 2010.〕 and nine minerals until then unknown. Over time, the mine would produce quantities of quartz, feldspar, mica, beryl, spodumene and columbite.〔http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/arc/cnbranchville.htm Shainin, Vincent E., "The Branchville, Connecticut, Pegmatite," ''American Mineralogist,'' Volume 31, 1946. Pages 329-345.〕 Passenger service on the Ridgefield branch line continued until 1925; freight service lasted until 1964. Most of the track bed, complete with gravel but missing its rails, is today the path of the Northeast Utilities high-voltage line and the town’s “Rail-Trail,” developed in the 1990s for walkers. Some of the other sections along southern Florida Road have been sold to adjoining landowners. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Branchville (Ridgefield)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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