Eels-Stow House, Milford, Connecticut:
The Eells-Stow House is believed to be the oldest home in Milford. It is operated as a historic house museum at 34 High Street. Although the house was renovated and painted several times, it has stood since circa 1700, around when it was built by an English settler named Samuel Eells. The house also is also the site of a famous war story.
In 1751, the town doctor and captain of a coastal schooner, Stephen Stow purchased the home from his sister’s husband, Nathaniel Eells. Then during the American Revolution, Captain Stow treated 200 soldiers infected with smallpox who were cast ashore at Milford Harbor from a British prison ship. Stow cemented his legacy as a local hero when he contracted smallpox, died at his home and was buried in a common grave along with 46 soldiers in 1777.
Today, Milford’s Daughters of the American Revolution organization is named after Captain Stow’s widow, Freelove Baldwin Stow. The house was saved from destruction by the Freelove Baldwin Stow DAR in 1930. It has since been preserved as a museum by the Milford Historical Society. The Eells-Stow House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
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