Anson Green Phelps
ANSON GREEN PHELPS
INDUSTRIALIST
CIVIC LEADER
PHILANTHROPIST
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Anson Phelps is probably better known because the city of
Ansonia is named after him, yet it was his business interests in Derby
that got him started in the Naugatuck Valley. Lest anyone think that Derby
has forgotten him however, just take a walk over to "Anson" Street to see
his name kept alive. His wife Olivia also provided Derby with a street
name!
Anson Phelps was actually born in Simsbury in 1781. He
established a thriving business in New York dealing in copper, tin, and
brass. Sheldon Smith induced him to invest in the industrialization of the
area of Derby that came to be called Birmingham. Thwarted in his efforts
to expand his business farther north, he instead settled on the east bank
of the Naugatuck River in what is now downtown Ansonia. That area might
have become "Phelpsville", except that there was apparently another town
by that name, so the new industrial village came to be called Ansonia.
Phelps was a generous and religious man. He donated the
land for the St. James Episcopal Church on the Derby Green.
Phelps died in New York in 1853.
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