Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

Another New Home -- Lindencroft -- Progress of My Pet City -- The Chestnut Wood Fire -- How It Became Old Hickory -- Inducements to Settlers -- My Offer -- Every Man His Own House-Owner -- Whiskey and Tobacco -- Rise in Real-Estate -- Pembroke Lake -- Washington Park -- Great Manufactories -- Wheeler and Wilson -- Schuyler, Hartley and Graham -- Hotchkiss, Son and Company -- Street Names -- Many Thousand Shade Trees -- Business in the New City -- Unparalleled Growth and Prosperity -- Probabilities in the Future -- Situation of Bridgeport -- Its Advantages and Prospects -- The Second, if Not the Foremost City in Connecticut.

For nearly five years my family had been knocked about, the sport of adverse fortune, without a settled home. Sometimes we boarded, and at other times we lived in a small hired house. Two of my daughters were married, and my youngest daughter, Pauline, was away at boarding school. The health of my wife was much impaired, and she especially needed a fixed residence which she could call "home. " Accordingly, in 1860, I built a pleasant house adjoining that of my daughter Caroline, in Bridgeport, and one hundred rods west of the grounds of Iranistan. I had originally a tract of twelve acres, but half of it had been devoted to my daughter, and on the other half I now proposed to establish my own residence. To prepare the site it was necessary to cart in several thousands of loads of dirt to fill up the hollow and to make the broad, beautiful lawn, in the center of which I erected the new house, and after supplying the place with fountains, shrubbery, statuary and all that could adorn it, I named my new home "Lindencroft. " It was, in truth, a very delightful place, complete and convenient in all respects, and there is scarcely a more beautiful residence in Bridgeport now.