style="width:100%"> </div style> History The founders of Woodbury came from Stratford, Connecticut, in the early 1670s. Ancient Woodbury consisted of the present towns of Woodbury, Southbury, Roxbury, Bethlehem, most of Washington and parts of Middlebury and Oxford. Two groups of settlers came from Stratford. The first group, religious dissidents unhappy with the church in Stratford, was led by Woodbury's first minister, the Reverend Zachariah Walker. The second group, led by Deacon Samuel Sherman, had been given approval by the general court to purchase land from local Native Americans in order to establish a new settlement. The two groups, consisting of fifteen families (about fifty people), arrived in ancient Woodbury, known as "Pomperaug Plantation", early in 1673. In 1673, these original settlers drew up an agreement called the "Fundamental Articles", which proclaimed that as many settlers as could be accommodated would be welcomed to the new settlement. The Fundamental Articles stated that expenses of establishing the settlement would be shared by its inhabitants, and that no one was to be given more than twenty-five or less than ten acres of land. Other sections of the articles provided for common land and for land saved to be divided up for future inhabitants of the settlement. Signers of the Fundamental Articles: The settlement was named Woodbury, which means "dwelling place in the woods", and was first recognized as a town in 1674. Deacon and captain John Minor was the first leader of the community during Woodbury's early years. Minor was the first town clerk and, along with Lieutenant Joseph Judson, served as the first deputy to the Connecticut General Court from the town of Woodbury. On October 9, 1751, the town of Woodbury was transferred from Fairfield County at the formation of Litchfield County. On March 25, 1783, a meeting of ten Episcopal clergy in Woodbury elected Samuel Seabury the first American Episcopal bishop, the second presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, and the first bishop of Connecticut. The Woodbury Songbook The German composer Hanns Eisler, who had taken asylum in the United States after fleeing from the Nazi rule in Germany, spent three and a half months (from June 15 to September 30, 1941) in Woodbury as the guest of another German refugee, Dr. Joachim Schumacher, and his wife Sylvia. Joachim Schumacher taught classes in art history, musicology, philosophy, and other subjects at the Westover School in Middlebury.