Samuel Staples Elementary

Mr. Samuel Staples, the benefactor for whom our school was named, was a hardworking farmer and canny investor. Owning 1128 acres, Mr. Staples rented and leased part of his land to tenants and sold some to new residents. Before his death in 1787, he left a large portion of his estate for the establishment of a school of higher learning where the poor, as well as the comfortably rich could send their children. Wanting very much a free school in the parish of North Fairfield (now Easton) near the meeting house, Staples Free School was founded in 1795 in the Greenfield Hill area.