NUGGET #26
Ziegler, Electa Matilda Curtis (1841-1932), a native of Schuylerville, N.Y., was an heiress who owned Hawley Cottage/Ashton Croft (now Wesley Hall, part of Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church) on Main Street from 1912-1924; she was a benefactor of the blind, publishing a magazine and books for the visually impaired, and founding the E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation for the Blind which, to this day, provides millions in grants for research into blindness. Her husband, William Ziegler (1843-1905), was a millionaire leader in the baking powder industry whose mansion on Great Island, Darien, became one of the most expensive estates in the nation.
From Jack Sanders, Who Was Who in Ridgefield.
