DANBURY  , a

city and one of the county-seats of Fair-field county, Connecticut, U.S.A., in Danbury township, in the 794 south-west part of the state, on the Still river, a tributary of the Housatonic . Pop . (1890) 16,552; (1900) 16,537 (3702 foreign-born); (1910).20,234 . In 1900 the population of the township, including that of the city, was 19474, and in 1910, 23,502 . Danbury is served by three divisions of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway; by the Danbury & Harlem electric railway, which connects at Goldens Bridge, New York, with the Harlem division of the New York Central; and by an electric line to Bethel, Connecticut . Lake Kenosia, about 21 M. from the centre of the city, is a pleasure resort . A state normal school was opened in Danbury in 1904, and there is a home for destitute and homeless children under private (unsectarian) control . The city has good water-power, and the municipality owns the water works . The principal industry is the manufacture of felt hats, begun in 1780, and in 1905 engaging about thirty factories, with a product for the year valued at $5,79$,107 (71.9% of the value of all the factory products of the city, and 15.8% of the value of all the felt hats produced in the United States) . The city ranked first among the cities of the country in this industry in 190o and second in 1905, and in 1905 no other city showed so high a degree of specialization in it . Silver-plated ware (mostly manufactured by Rogers Bros.) is another important product . At Danbury is held annually the well-known agricultural Danbury Fair .

The township was settled in 1684 by emigrants from

Norwalk, and received its present name in 1687 . When the War of Independence opened, Enoch Crosby, believed to be the original of Harvey Birch, the hero of J . F . Cooper's The Spy, was a resident of Danbury . A depot of military supplies was established in the village of Danbury in 1776; in April 1777 Governor William Tryon, of New York, raided the place, destroying the military stores and considerable private property . During his retreat he was attacked (April 26th) at Ridgefield (about 9 M. south by east of Danbury) by the Americans under General David Wooster (1710-1777), who was fatally wounded in the conflict (being succeeded by General Benedict Arnold), and to whose memory a monument was erected in Danbury in 18J4 . Danbury was chartered as a borough in 1832 and as a city in 1880 . In 1870 the Danbury News was established by the consolidation of the Jeffersonian and the Times, by James Montgomery Bailey (1841-1894), from 1865 to 1870 proprietor of the Times . He wrote for the News humorous sketches, which made him and the paper famous, Bailey being known as the " Danbury News Man "; among his books are Life in Dan-bury (1873), The Danbury News Man's Almanac (1873), They All Do It (1877), England from a Back Window (1878), Mr Philip's Goneness (1879), The Danbury Boom (1880), and History of Danbury (1896) .