Charles Burr Todd

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Charles Burr Todd (January 9, 1849– ) was an American historian, born at Redding, Conn. In 1895 he was secretary of the committee appointed by Mayor Strong for the printing of early records of New York City. His writings include:

• A General History of the Burr Family (1879; fourth edition, 1902)
• History of Redding, Conn. (1880; second edition, 1907)
• The Story of Washington, the National Capitol (1897)
• The Real Benedict Arnold (1903)
• In Olde Massachusetts (1907)
• The Washington's Crossing Sketch Book (1914)

In 1903 Todd entered a Washington, D.C. police station, claiming that he had been poisoned and that detectives from New York City were pursuing him with the intent of killing him for magazine articles he had written a decade earlier and that offended certain prominent New Yorkers. He appeared otherwise sane but was nonetheless confined to an insane asylum for eight days, whereupon he was released.

Charles Burr Todd was instrumental in the creation of Putnam Memorial State Park, located in Redding CT. As a Redding resident and historian he was interested in preserving the site, which is now a state park dedicated to the winter encampment of Israel Putnam's colonial army in 1778-1779.

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.