Part of Indian land bought in 1638 for New Haven, North Haven was incorporated in 1786. Its center area was settled in 1670 by the Humiston, Thorpe, and Blakeslee families, and a separate parish or church society was formed in 1716. The Reverend James Pierpont gave the Green for a meetinghouse, burial ground, and drill field. In the old cemetery lie veterans of the Revolutionary War, including Sergeant Jacob Thorpe, killed at East Haven in 1779. The Reverend Benjamin Trumbull, patriot and historian, lived here from 1760 to 1820. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale from 1778 to 1795, and Hobart B. Bigelow, Governor of Connecticut from 1881 to 1883, were born here. Theophilus Eaton, a founder of New Haven, opened a brickyard here in 1640, and bog iron also was mined near Pool Road after 1656. What first was a humble farming village later developed small manufacturing enterprises, helping lead to present-day North Haven as a thriving industrial and residential town.