2022 Full Year

Redding:

Single Family Homes Sold: 146

Median Sale Price: $799,950

Median Days on Market: 37

Median List to Sales Price: 100%

Ridgefield:

Single Family Homes Sold: 366

Median Sale Price: $870,000

Median Days on Market: 30

Median List to Sales Price: 101%

Given that we benefit from being so close to New York City and that real estate is by definition a local industry, it makes sense that our markets might not be entirely representative of overall national patterns.

In our local markets, persistent buyer demand and low inventory continue to make this a great time to sell a home.

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Dr. David Willard, midwife Laura Stewart, and neighbor Emmeline Fairchild. All attended Susan’s births, but it was Willard’s patient registers that got Susan her pension.

Thirty years later, Special Examiner A. C. Ridgeway, Bureau of Pensions, arrived in Bridgeport, where Susan had moved, to investigate rumors that she was living “in open and notorious adulterous cohabitation” with her boarder, George Holmes. Such “cohabitation” would put her in violation of an 1882 Act of Congress. Her right to continued support depended on an official evaluation of her chastity.

In the late 1800s, widows were morally suspect. Unlike wives and unwed daughters, no man directly controlled them. Additionally, racist norms insisted that Blacks were sexually licentious and dishonest. Certainly, Ridgeway and his superiors assumed Susan’s relationship with George had to be sexual – and that she was definitely lying about it.

According to Susan’s notarized testimony, Ridgeway bullied her into falsely confessing that she had had “connection” with George and was essentially his wife. She pleaded, “I was so embarrassed and flustered by [Ridgeway’s] manner and language that I was unable to understand what I had sworn to.” Unlike in Wilton, Susan found no “respectable” white allies to testify on her behalf. The government revoked her pension. Susan died sometime later and is buried at St. Matthew’s Cemetery in Wilton.

It is infuriating to read about Susan’s experiences and realize that Aggie Fitch – despite her relative privilege and its insulating power – might have suffered, too, had anything happened to question her reputation. It helps to remember that even though Susan ultimately lost her pension, she fought hard and had Wilton allies. And although Aggie waged a quieter war, she maintained her independence far longer than most. Women like these, and the many generations that followed, are the reason we have so many more freedoms today – even as additional battles remain to be won. •

Have You Met?

by Kate Perry