ANSONIA  , a

city of New Haven county, Connecticut, U.S.A., coextensive with the township of the same name, on the Naugatuck river, immediately N. of Derby and about 12 M . N.W. of New Haven . It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by interurban electric lines running N., S. and E . Pop . (190o) 12,681, of whom 4296 were foreign born; (1910 census) 15,152 . Land area about 5.4 sq. m . The city has extensive manufactures of heavy machinery, electric supplies, brass and copper products and silk goods . In 1905 the capital invested in manufacturing was $7,625,864, and the value of the products was $19,132,455 . Ansonia, Derby and Shelton form one of the most important industrial communities in the state . The city, settled in 184o and named in honour of the merchant and philanthropist, Arson Green Phelps (1781—1853), was originally a part of the township of Derby; it was chartered as a borough in 1864 and as a city in 1893, when the township of Ansonia, which had been incorporated in 1889, and the city were consolidated .