Waterbury, CT news and local guide

Algonquian bands lived in the area, which they called Matetacoke, "the interval lands." According to the historian Samuel Orcutt, Puritans from nearby Farmington "found it expedient to purchase the same lands from different tribes, without attempting to decide between their rival claims." The name was anglicized as Mattatuck in 1673, and the first settlement was made in 1674 in what is now the Town Plot section. King Philip's War emptied it in 1675, and when peace returned in 1677 a permanent site was chosen across the river along the Mad River. When the town was admitted as the 28th town of the Connecticut Colony in 1686, it was renamed Waterbury for the many streams that run down the valley sides into the Naugatuck River. It then took in all or part of what became Watertown, Plymouth, Wolcott, Prospect, Naugatuck, Thomaston and Middlebury.

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Growth was slow for a century. Floods along the Naugatuck left little good farmland, a great flood struck in 1691 and disease broke out in 1712, and after 100 years Waterbury had only about 5,000 people. In the 19th century Waterbury became an early industrial power by making brass in factories run by the waters of the Mad and Naugatuck rivers, and the industry drew immigrant workers from around the world. Waterbury was incorporated as a city in 1853. As the Brass Capital of the World it became known for durable goods, and its brass and copper went into countless products, including Boulder Dam in Nevada. Sources Wikipedia: Waterbury, Connecticut