Editing Redding, Connecticut (section)

===Early settlement and establishment===
At the time colonials began receiving grants for land within the boundaries of present-day Redding, Native American trails crossed through portions of the area, including the Berkshire Path running north–south.<ref>{{cite web | title=Indian Trails in and around Redding | website=History of Redding, Connecticut (CT) Past & Present | url=http://www.historyofredding.net/HRindians.htm | access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref>

In 1639, [[Roger Ludlow]] (also referenced as Roger Ludlowe in many accounts) purchased land from local Native Americans to establish [[Fairfield, Connecticut|Fairfield]],<ref>{{cite web | title=English Settlement at Uncoway | website=Town of Fairfield, Connecticut | url=http://www.fairfieldct.org/content/10724/12146/12163.aspx | access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref> and in 1668 Fairfield purchased another tract of land then called Northfield, which comprised land that is now part of Redding.<ref name="pdfhost.focus.nps.gov">{{NRHP url|id=92001253}} "National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet, Redding Center Historic District," U.S. Department of the Interior, October 1, 1992. Retrieved 2014-04-30.</ref>

For settlement purposes, Fairfield authorities divided the newly available land into parcels dubbed "long lots" at the time, which north–south measured no more than a third of a mile wide but extended east–west as long as 15 miles.<ref name=Brainard1904>{{Cite book|title=The revolutionary soldiers of Redding, Connecticut, and the record of their services|url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionarysol00grum|last=Grumman|first=William Edgar|date=1904|publisher=Hartford press: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard company|hdl = 2027/yale.39002007175780}}</ref> Immediately north of the long lots was a similar-sized parcel of land known as The Oblong.<ref>{{Google maps|url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1miqx10FBP5c4owKap1oKlexPy8w |title=Redding, CT's Oblong |access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref>

There are varying accounts as to the first colonial landholder in the Redding area; multiple citations suggest a Fairfield man named Richard Osborn obtained land there in 1671, while differing on how many acres he secured.<ref name="pdfhost.focus.nps.gov" /> [[Nathan Gold]], a Fairfield man who would serve as deputy governor of Connecticut from 1708 to 1723, received a land grant for 800 acres in 1681.<ref name="Early Settlement">{{cite web | title=Early Settlement of Redding | website=History of Redding, Connecticut (CT) Past & Present | url=http://www.historyofredding.net/HRearlysettlers.htm | access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref>

The first colonials to settle in the area of present-day Redding lived near a Native American village led by [[Chickens Warrups]] (also referenced as Chicken Warrups or Sam Mohawk in some accounts), whose name is included on multiple land deeds secured by settlers throughout the area.<ref name="Early Settlement" />

According to Fairfield County and state records from the time Redding was formed, the original name of the town was [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], after the town in [[Berkshire]], England. Probably more accurately, however, town history attributes the name to John Read,<ref>{{cite book|title=The Connecticut Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoEyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA334|year=1903|publisher=Connecticut Magazine Company|page=334}}</ref> an early major landholder who was a prominent lawyer in [[Boston]] as well as a former [[Congregationalist]] preacher who converted to [[Anglicanism]]. Read helped in demarcating the boundaries of the town and in getting it recognized as a parish of Fairfield<ref>{{cite web | title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Umpawaug District School | website=NPGallery Digital Asset Management System | url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/9c1948c8-eb26-45ad-bbc7-61dfc0f73166 | access-date=June 4, 2020}}</ref> in 1729. In 1767, soon after incorporation, the name was changed to its current spelling of Redding to better reflect its pronunciation.

In 1809, Congress granted Redding its first U.S. Post Office,<ref>{{cite web | title=Post Offices | website=Town of Redding, Connecticut Official Website | date=August 1, 2019 | url=https://townofreddingct.org/about-redding/post-offices/ | access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref> which made official in 1844 the spelling of the town's name.<ref>{{cite web | title=Redding | website=Connecticut History | date=September 13, 2011 | url=https://connecticuthistory.org/towns-page/redding/ | access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref>