STAMFORD, stim'ford, Conn., city in Fairfield County, on Long Island Sound and Mill River, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, about 22 miles south west of Bridgeport and 30 miles northeast of New York. The harbor is large enough for large Sound vessels. The city has regular steamer connection with New York, and elec tric lines extend to all the nearby cities and towns. Stamford was settled in 1641 by a colony from New Haven. An Indian village named Rippowam had existed here, • but the name was changed in 1642. It was incorporated as a borough in 1830, and in 1894 was chartered as a city. The surrounding country is devoted mainly to agriculture, but the city has large manufacturing interests, and is the commercial centre of an extensive region. The chief estab lishment is the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, which regularly employs about 2,500 persons. Other manufactures are extracts, type writing machines, woolen goods, lumber, hats, shoes, machine shop products, pottery, dye stuffs, patent medicines, chemicals, hardware and wagons and carriages. The government census of 1910 gives the number of manufac turing establishments as 86; the amount of capi tal invested, $11,926,000; the cost of material used annually, $3,704,000; and the value of the product, $8,740,000. There are a number of
small parks in different parts of the city; three in the residential section. The water supply comes from Trinity Lake in York State. There is an excellent sewerage system and a paid fire department. There arc a large city hospital, Saint John's Hospital and Home, and several private sanatoriums. The educational institutions are a high school (new building erected in 1895), the diplomas from which en title the holders to entrance to several univer sities and colleges; nine large elementary schools, one large parish school, the Catherine Aiken School for girls, the "Betts Academy, founded in 1838, for boys; Misses Low and Heywood School, the King School and the Manor School at Shippan Point. The Ferguson Library is housed in a fine building. The banks have a combined capital of approximately $1,000,000. The government as at present con stituted is administered under a charter which provides for a mayor and a common council, elected biennially in even years. Appropriations are in charge of a board of appropriation. The population of the city in 1910 was 25,138, but the town of Stamford has 28,836 inhabit ants. The 1917 estimate is 32,000 for the city and 36,000 for the town.