On May 29, 2026, neighbors, scholars, and community leaders gathered on the grounds of the Old Staples Academy, in the heart of Easton, for the dedication of a William G. Pomeroy Foundation Historic Marker in honor of Samuel Staples, an enduring benefactor to our community. The day also opened the doors of a new America 250 exhibit celebrating Easton’s early history. The ceremony brought together members of the Historical Society of Easton, town and state officials, and community members to unveil the sign and celebrate.
The Man Behind the Legacy
Samuel Staples lived in what was then the North Fairfield Parish, and his influence on this town endures to this day. A man of uncommon foresight, Staples established the Free School that bore his name, an institution committed to providing education to the children of this rural community regardless of their families’ means. He believed that educating the youth was essential for the success of our nascent country. His vision, enshrined in the Staples Free School Trust, expanded the educational opportunities for countless children and set a standard of public generosity that later generations have striven to honor.
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation awards cast aluminum roadside markers to recognize sites and figures of historical significance. To receive a Pomeroy marker, each application undergoes rigorous review, and the foundation’s imprimatur carries scholarly weight. That Samuel Staples and his Academy were deemed worthy of this distinction is a testament to the depth of the historical record assembled from the archives of the Historical Society, the Congregational Church, and generations of local researchers.
The Dedication Ceremony
Remarks from speakers at the event traced the legacy of Samuel Staples’s 1781 bequest: the establishment of a place of learning for charity scholars, co-educational from the start, at a time when such opportunities were scarce for the poor and for women.
This achievement carries significance well beyond Easton. After Staples’s death, questions about its permanent location were resolved, and the Academy was incorporated in 1793, with its building completed in 1795. It stands today as Connecticut’s first incorporated secondary preparatory school and its earliest co-educational institution. Nationally, it ranks among the earliest preparatory academies in the United States, and as the nation’s second free private academy chartered to provide a premium education regardless of a student’s ability to pay.
Staples’s 1781 bequest placed his estate, including substantial landholdings and tenant rents, into a trust managed by trustees he named. After his death in 1787, the Academy operated until 1900, when the building closed as a school. The Staples Free School Fund, however, still draws on the original endowment to grant college scholarships today, more than 240 years later.
The Old Academy’s importance to Easton extended well beyond education. After the town’s separation from Weston in 1845, it served as Easton’s first town hall, and it also housed the town’s first library and an early performance space, anchoring civic and cultural life at this site for generations.
The America 250 Gallery: Easton’s Story in Objects and Words
Immediately following the outdoor ceremony, guests were invited inside the Old Academy building, which has served as the Easton Congregational Church Hall since 1937, to explore a newly refurbished gallery featuring artifacts that trace Easton’s history from pre-contact indigenous tools to nineteenth-century documents.
The gallery features artifacts drawn from the Historical Society’s collections, the Congregational Church archives, and private donors. Items contributed by local collectors demonstrate how families have preserved pieces of Easton’s past for centuries. Highlights include the original portrait of Captain James Johnson, who rebuilt the Congregational Church in 1835, alongside historic furniture and objects reflecting the farming, military, and religious life of the town.
Interpretive panels throughout the gallery place these objects in context, exploring topics that range from agricultural life on the Long Lots to the founding of the North Fairfield Parish and Easton’s separation from Weston in 1845.
The exhibit’s research and concept were developed by Elizabeth Boyce, curator and president of the Historical Society of Easton, with its installation brought to life through the collaborative work of the Staples Academy Foundation and numerous Congregational Church volunteers.
Easton and the American Semiquincentennial
The gallery’s opening is timed to coincide with the national commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary of independence, observed in 2026. For Easton, that anniversary isn’t just a celebration of any single moment or ideology, but an occasion to look closely at the people, generation after generation, who have called this place home.
Indigenous peoples inhabited this landscape for thousands of years before European settlers arrived and began to farm it. Generations of farmers worked its rocky hillside soil through centuries of agricultural life, while community leaders helped guide investments in education, faith, and civic life. This exhibit brings these stories together: a reminder that the history of a nation is, at its core, the history of the people who lived it, each generation no more or less important than the last.
Thanks, and Looking Forward
The Historical Society of Easton extends its deep gratitude to the Staples Academy Foundation and the Easton Congregational Church for lending the space to make this project a reality. We thank the William G. Pomeroy Foundation for its recognition of Samuel Staples and his Academy. We thank the town officials, community members, private collectors, and volunteers whose contributions of time, expertise, and treasured objects brought the gallery to life. And we thank all those who joined us on May 29th for the dedication ceremony and celebration.
The Old Academy is open to visitors by appointment, during scheduled Historical Society events, and on Sundays this summer from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We encourage every resident of Easton, and every visitor to our beautiful corner of Connecticut, to come read the Pomeroy marker and step inside this historic building. Both the building itself and the gallery within it offer a connection to the people who once called this town home, our neighbors from the past.
