•-VAVVSW.
'^'^ybVVA^AvyA
» »
'>i%-^* '>>y v;^»^ * ' *
»»»>■■'>' .. » M ft t r t , i'Birt
* t »
#" »
^»**
j
r
university of Connecticut
libraries
3 11S3 DlE3fi37S 7
GAYIORORG
THE
MEMORIAL HISTORY
OF
HARTFORD COUNTY
CONNECTICUT
THE
MEMORIAL HISTORY
OF
HARTFORD COUNTY
CONNECTICUT
1633-1884
EDITED
By J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL LL.D.
President of the Connecticut Historical Society
in two volumes Vol. IL
TOWN HISTORIES
PROJECTED BY CLARENCE P. JEWETT
BOSTON
EDWARD L. OSGOOD PUBLISHER
1886
Copyright, 1886, By George Draper.
All rights reserved.
^antbersttg ^.Srcss : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Index to both volumes will be found at the end of Volume I.
CHAPTER I.
Page
Avon. M. H. Bartktt 1
Illustrations : The First Wadsworth Tower (from a drawing by Daniel Wadsworth), 2; Moute Video, 3; The Congregational Church,?; The Meadow at Deer Cliff, Entrance to Deer C'liff,"9.
CHAPTER 11.
BERLiJi. The Rev. W. W. Woodivorth 13
Illustration : Portrait of J. G. Percival, 26.
Fac-simile : Extract from Kensington Society Eecords (1731), 16.
CHAPTER III.
Bloomfield. Mrs. Elisabeth G. Warner 29
CHAPTER IV.
Bristol. Epaphroditm Peck 39
Illustrations : Map of Brist<d in 1776, 41 ; a Deacon's Cap, 46 ; House built by Abel Lewis, 47 ; Relics of Old Times : Inlaid Chest, Parson Newell's Arm-chair, Carved Powder-horn, Sword, and Canteen, 48 ; a Roberts Clock, 52 ; Residence of Edward Ingraham, 55.
CHAPTER V.
Burlington. The Hon. Roland Hitchcock 63
CHAPTER VI.
Canton. From Notes 6// D. B. Rale and Levi Case 67
Illustrations: "Satan's Kingdom," 68; the Orijrinal Collins Works, 72; General View of the Collins Company's Works at Collinsville, Granite Dam, built in 1868, Poli.shing and Packing Department, 73.
vi CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHAPTER VII.
Page East Gran by. Charles Horace, Clarke 77
Illustrations : A Higley Copper, 80 ; Newgate Prison in 1802, 81 ; Newgate Prison as it now appears, 82.
CHAPTER VIII.
East Hartford. Joscjph 0. Goodwin 85
Illustrations : Dr. AVilliams's House, 92 ; the Hartford Bridge, 90 ; Mrs. Mary (Lord) Pitkin, 102; the Elisha Pitkin House, 104.
CHAPTER IX.
East Windsor. The Rev. Dr. Increase N. Tarhox 107
Illustration : The Old Theological School of Connecticut (East \\'ind- sor Hill), 113.
CHAPTER X.
South Windsor. The Rev. Dr. Increase N. Tarhox 129
Illustration : Fitch's Steamboat, 137.
CHAPTER XI.
Enfield. The Rev. George W. Winch 139
Illustrations: Enfield Falls, 140; Map (of 1042), J44; the A. G. Hazard Residence, 149 ; the North Family of Shakers. 1.53.
Fac-similes : Receipt of Thomas Abbe, 148 ; Protest against Slavery (1777), 151.
CHAPTER XII.
r
Farmington. The Re/v. Dr. Noah Porter 163
Illustration : The Present Meeting-House, 178.
Unionville. James L. Coivles 199
CHAPTER XIII.
Glastonbury. William S. Goslee 205
Illustrations : The HoUister House (1675), 208 ; the Talcott House (1699), 209.
CHAPTER XIV.
Granby. William Scoville Case 229
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. vii
CHAPTEli XV.
Page Hartland. From Notes hy Lester Taylor 237
CHAPTER XVI.
Manchester. The Bev. S. W. Bobbins 243
Illustrations : The Cheney Homestead, South Manchester, 245 ; Ruins of the Glass-factory, 247; Wyllys Falls, 254; a Cheney Clock, 255 ; Manchester Centre (Soldiers' Monnineut, Congregational Church, Town Hall), 257.
CHAPTEPt XVII.
Marlborough. Miss Mary Hall 267
CHAPTEPt XVIIL
New Britain. David N. Cam2J 277
Illustrations: The South Congregational Church, 287; the State Nor- mal School, 295 ; the Stanley Works, 299 ; the Works of the Amer- ican Hosiery Company, 305; the Works of the Stanley Rule and Level Company, 3L5.
Fac-simile : School Subscription (1784), 294.
CHAPTER XIX.
Newington. Boger Welles 319
Illustration: The Churchill House (1754). 328. Fac-simile : Receipt of Simon Backus (172G), 326.
CHAPTER XX.
Plainville. Simon ToviUnson 335
Illustration : The " Old Root Place," 336.
CHAPTER XXI.
SiMSBURY. Lueius I. Barber, M.D 341
Illustrations : Tariffville Gorge, 348 ; the Old Bronson House, 359.
Fac-similes : Receipt of Samuel Stebbins (1784), 353 ; Receipt of Ehhu Humphrey (1775), 358.
CHAPTER XXII.
Southington. Steplien Walkley 363
Illustrations : Southington Centre, 365 ; Map of Southington, 369. Fac-simile: Society's Record (1726), Samuel Andrns, Clerk, 368.
viii CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Page
SUFFIELD. Hezekiah Spencer Sheldon 383
Illustrations : The Sheldou House, West Suffield, 405 ; the Connec- ticut Literary Institution, Main Buildings, 409 ; the Judge Gay House, 412 ; Portrait of Sylvester Graham, 413.
CHAPTER XXIV.
West Hartford. The Rev. Franklin S. Hatch 415
Illustrations : Portrait of the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, 419 j the Con- gregational Church, 419 ; the Noali Webster House, 423.
CHAPTER XXV.
Wethersfield. Sherman W. Adams 425
Illustrations: Marks (if Turramuggus and Mantovvese, 432; Map of Wethersfield (1634-1044), 433 ; the Congregational Church, fticing 446 ; Portraits of the Rev. Dr. John Marsh, Silas Deane, and Rector Elisha Williams, 443 ; the Webh House, 478 ; Residence of S. W. Robbius, 487 ; the State Prison, 492.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Rocky Hill. Sherman W. Adams 493
CHAPTER XXVII. Windsor.
General History. The Rev. Reuel H. Tattle 497
Churches of Windsor. The Rev. Gowen C. Wilson 534
Early Windsor Families. Jahez H. Hayden ........ 547
Illustrations : Map of Windsor (1633-1650), 501 ; View of Broad Street, 519 ; Oliver Ellsworth and Wife, 526 ; Portraits of tlie Hon. Oliver Ellsvvorth and Governor W. W. Ellsworth, 527; the Ellsworth Homestead, 527 ; Grace Episcopal Church and Parsonage, 532 ; the Congregational Church, built in 1794, 533 ; Map of the Palisado, 546 ; the Hayden Homestead, 560.
Fac-Rimiles : The Town Lead weighed (1684), 509 ; Extract fi-om the Rev. Samuel Matlier's Note-Book, 539; Votes passed by the Church Society (dignifying the seats and beating the drums, 1735), 541 ; Poquonnock Parish Records (1724-1727), 543.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Windsor Locks. Jahez H. Hayden 561
Illustrations : Map of Pine Meadow (1776), 563; the Ferry to East Windsor, 565 ; the Haskell House, 567.
Index ^^^ °^ Volume I.
LIST OF STEEL PORTRAITS.
VOLUME 11.
Page
Ethan A. Andrews, of New Britain To face 280
Charles Boswell, of West Hartford 422
Elihu BuRRiTi', of New Britain 312
David N. Camp, of New Britain 278
Charles H. Dexter, of Windsor Locks 568
Tiie Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of AV'indsor 130
Cornelius B. Erwin, of New Britain 316
Nathaniel Hayden, of Windsor 532
Augustus G. Hazard, of Enfield 160
Eli as Inoraham, of Bristol 58
James C. Loomis, of Windsor 516
RoswELL A. Neal, of Southington 380
Alfred North, of Berlin 20
Seth J. North, of New Britain 296
Elisha M. Pease, of E:nfield 158
Gen. William 8. Pierson, of Windsor 530
^ Major Samuel Pitkin, of East Hartford. (ArtotyjK.) 103
^The Rev. Timothy Pitkin, of Farmington. {Jrtotype.) 176
President Noah Porter, of Yale College 164
1 The Pitkin portraits are from the "Pitkin Genealogy," in preparation by Mr. A. P. Pitkin, of Hartford.
X LIST OF STEEL PORTRAITS.
Page
The Rev. John Smalley, of New Britain To face 284
W. H. Smith, of New Britain 314
Frederick T. Stanley, of New Britain 310
Henry Stanley, of New Britain 302
John B. Talcott, of New Britain 282
Orrin Thompson, of Tliompsonville 1^6
Gen. Samuel B. Webb, of Wetliersfield 478
E. N. Welch, of Bristol ^^
Samuel Wilcox, of Berlin
Edward Wilcox, of Berlin
Frederick Wolcott, of Litchfield ^36
1 QO
Oliver Wolcott, of Windsor
Oliver Wolcott, Jr., of Litchfield 134
Dr. William Wood, of East Windsor ^^^
MEMORIAL HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF HARTFORD, CONN.
Cotun i^i0torie0*
I.
AVON.
BY M. n. BARTLETT.
AVON was incorporated in 1830. Previously it was the north parish in the town of Farmington, and went by the name of Northing- ton. On the north it is bounded by Canton and Simsbury, and on the south by Farmington, wliile on the east and west it has as natural boundaries the Talcott ^Mountain range and the Farmington River respectively. Until 1845 the western boundary was somewhat to the east of the river ; but in that year the portion of Burlington which lay east of Farmhigton River was annexed to Avon, excepting a block of about eiglity rods square, which was at the same time annexed to Canton.
The area of Avon is about thirty-three square miles. A consider- able portion is level fertile land in the valley of the Farmington River. This river passes through the town twice, first flowing south along its western boundary, and then, after describing a semicircle in Farm- ington, re-entering Avon on its eastern side near the base of Talcott Mountain, and passing to the north into the town of Simsbury.
The northeastern corner of the town is remarkable for the beauty of its natural scenery. Here is the highest ridge, south of Mount Tom, Massachusetts, of that trap formation which intersects the State from north to south. On its highest point, and within the boundary of Avon, which follows the top of the ridge for five miles, stands the observatory known as Bartlctt's Tower, built in 1867, a short distance from the site of the towers erected by Daniel Wadsworth in 1810 and 1840, whicli were successively destroyed, one by wind and the other by fire. Near by, too, is Mr. Wadsworth's former summer residence, called ]\Ionte Video.i Professor Benjamin Silliman, in his "Tour from Hartford to Quebec," published in 1824, speaks of " the beautiful and grand scenery
i Now the summer residence of Jlr. H. C. Judd, of Hartford. VOL. II. — 1.
2 MEMOKIAL HISTORY OF 'HARTFORD COUNTY.
of Monte Video, which makes this villa, with its surrounding objects, quite without a parallel in America, and probably with few in the world."
The view from the top of the tower looks out and down eastward upon a vast plain of a thousand square miles, — the Connecticut val- ley,— stretching from Mounts Tom and Holyoke to the Haddam Hills, a distance of sixty miles, bounded on the east by the Wilbraham and Bolton ranges, and dotted with fifty cities, towns, and villages. In the dim northern outline stand perched upon their summits the houses of Mounts Tom and Holyoke, on cither side of the Connecticut River, as if guarding its entrance to the beautiful valley below ; while above and beyond appears the white tower of Mount Toby, more than fifty miles away in an air-line. In a clear atmosphere and good light the rocky
0 f^r-s'-W^ --71'-
«vl-
»^
THE FIRST TOWER (fROM A DRAWING BY DANIEL WADS WORTH).
summit of Mount Monadnock, in New Hampshire (tlie first land to be seen on entering Boston Harbor), stands out distinctly, although eighty- three miles distant. Nearer appear the cities of Holyoke and Spring- field, while nearer still, and more prominent to the view, stands Hartford, its towers and graceful spires, and, above all, the gilded dome of the Capitol, rising from the elms and maples which shade its streets. Farther to the south, the cities of Middletown, New Britain, and Meri- den appear ; and all through the broad valley, here and there, villages, towns, and farms make up the i)anorama.
Turnino: to the west, a narrower but still lonirer vallev is in view, reachino- from New Haven to Deerfield in jNIassachusetts, a distance of ninety miles, througli which ])asses the New Haven and ISorthampton Railroad. In the extreme north, at the apparent head of the valley, appears the white house on the summit of Sugar Loaf Mountain, not far from the confines of Vermont and New Hampshire. Immediately to
»J" -'^aaaJ
AVON. 5
the west, and almost beneath, lies spread the pictnresqne Farmington valley. All these make up a picture of quiet beauty, of peace and loveliness, rarely seen ; and on every side are exhibited the neatness and order and thrift so characteristic of New England. Beyond this pleasant valley rises range after range of hills ; and over all tops Mount Everett, away among the Berkshire Hills, whose western base lies in the State of Xew York. Apart from the magnificent view thus ob- tained from the tower, one chief object of interest in this remarkable region is the beautifal lake, about one mile in circumference, which lies in a shallow basin almost at the very top of the ridge, and only a sliort Avalk from the tower, being fully eight hundred feet above the Connecticut River.
The history of the community subsequently forming the town of Avon begins with the formation of the parish of Northington (a name contracted from North Farmington). In May, 1746, Preserved Mar- shall, Daniel Wilcox, Joseph Woodford, Joseph Woodford, Jr., John Woodford, and William Woodford petitioned the General Assembly, rep- resenting that they lived in the northern part of Farmington, near the boundary line of Simsbury, and that they attended worship in Simsbury, and wished to be annexed to that society, so that they might ])ay their taxes where they worshipped. This petition was opposed by Farming- ton, on the ground that it would be l)etter to form a society among themselves, as there were thirty-one families, embracing more than one hundred and sixty souls. This remonstrance was accompanied by a petition for "winter privileges," — that is, the right to hire a minister four months in a year, from December 1 to March 31, with exemption from a like proportion of taxes for the support of preaching in the Farmington society. Neither petition was granted at this time, but at the October session in the same year the petition for winter privileges was renewed and granted. After four winters of these privileges, en- joyed from house to house, it was felt that time had come for a sepa- rate religious organization. Accordingly a [)etition to that effect was addressed to the General Assembly at the May session, 1750. The Farmington society declaring its free consent, the petition was granted, and on the 20tli of November of the next year the church was organ- ized. One week later the Rev. Ebenezer Booge was ordained the pas- tor, and continued in the office
until his death, Feb. 2, 1767. The O^ . A^ yiu.r>^^p
new society, named in the act of (jefC/^llti^yr /MnrQO incorporation Northington Parish, ^r
worshipped in the house of Mr. ^
Benjamin Lewis until the completion of the meeting-house in 1754. This house was located on the east side of Farmington River, near the old burying-ground. No relics of it now remain.
Mr. Booge was succeeded by the Rev. Rufus Hawley, whose pastorate continued fifty-six years. During this time occurred the wars of the Revolution and of 1812, which made large drafts on this parish ; yet the number of families had increased to one hundred in 1800, and in 1826 it was one hundred and seventy-five, the population of the parish being about one thousand.
Dissensions which had long existed in the society as to the location
6 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
of a new meeting-liouse led to its division, in 1818, on the passing of a vote by a small majority (44 to 37) to locate the new house on the spot now occupied, in West Avon. This decision was hastened by the burning of the old meeting-house in December, 1817, as Avas supposed by an incendiary. On the passage of this vote the minority seceded, and in the same year organized the parish now known as East Avon, under the name of the United Religious Association of Farmington. The separation was finally made with kind expressions of Christian love and fellowship, and the new church was constituted by the Hart- ford North Consociation, the Rev. Abel Flint, Moderator, as the third church in Farmington. Besides erecting their meeting-house, the new society raised by subscription more than 85,000 for a permanent fund to support preaching. Upwards of $15,000 was raised for church pur- poses, in this population of less than a thousand, within a year after the secession of the new church.
By the addition to the parish of Northington in May, 1817, of the "new lots" known as Lovely Street and Whortleberry Hill, the centre of population had been moved westward, and the division just recorded became inevitable. But by this removal of the old society to the west- ward, and its loss of nearly half of its eastern members, it was placed in a position of comparative hardship and trial. About sixteen years later a church was organized in Collinsville, and in 1841 anotlior in Union- ville ; so that the old parish, now become the first church of Avon, lost, in the twenty-five years following the burning of its first house of worship in 1817, fully two thirds of its territory and more than one half of its financial strength. And yet it has had a large measure of prosperity, and liberally maintained church privileges.
In 1820 the Rev. Ludovicus Robbins became Mr. Hawlev's colleasfue. He was succeeded in 1824 by the Rev. Harvey Buslmell, who became pastor of the church on Mr. Hawlev's death in 182(5, remainino: till 1834. He was followed by the Rev. John Bartlett (1835-1847), wliose successors have been as follows : Rev's Joel Grant, 1848-1852 ; William S. Wright, 1853-1859; J. M. Smith, 1859-1864; William M. Gay, 1864-1866; William M. Atwater, 1866-1868; A. Goldsmith, 1868- 1876 ; William Howard, 1877-1880, and S. D. Gaylord. Of the last five only Mi-. Atwater was regularly settled. The present membership of the church is about one hundred and forty, or four times the number after the separation in 1818.
The pastors of the East Avon (originallv Farmington third) church have been Rev's Bela Kellogg, 1819-1829; Francis H. Case, 1830-
1840 ; Stephen Hubbell, 1840-1853 ; Vi^ ^ J. S. Whittlesey (acting), 1853-1854;
^^A^ M^J^jP Henry M. Colton (acting), 1855-1857 ; c^^e^>^.^^ ^^-^ E. D. Murphv, 1859-1864 ; George Cur-
tis, 1866-1868; H. G. Marshall (act- ing), 1869-1871; C. P. Croft (acting), 1873-1875, and N. J. Seeley. The number of members at the formation of this church was thirty-one. About four hundred and fifty have been added since that time, and the present membership is one hundred and ten.
The Union Baptist Society of Northington was organized Sept. 9, 1817, and built a house of worship in the following year. No church was organized till 1831, when one of twelve members was constituted.
AVON.
It was always a feeble organization, and in 1855 services were discon- tinued and the house sold for other uses.
Professor Silliman, in his " Tour," gives a charming picture of Avon, describing especially a service in the Congregational church.
'^W^'^'*^^^^^^^^ '' ^^
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
The incorporation of the town of Avon in 1830 followed upon the opening of the New Haven and Northampton Canal in 1828, and the consequent prospect of largely increased iDusiness interests. The old turnijilce was the thoroughfare of a large amount of travel and traffic, whicli the canal was expected greatly to develop and increase. To the East Avon people in particular did the canal ])romiso to bring growth of business and population, as at that point it crossed another great thoroughfare, — the Albany turnpike from Hartford. CoUinsville, too, had grown into importance as a manufacturing village, and this was its nearest point of access to the canal. In 1830 a large three-story hotel was built near the canal and turnpike, by Francis Woodford ; and soon after several other buildings were erected, among them one long store where a large stock of dry goods and groceries was kept, and on the other side of the church-green another three-story building f<jr commer- cial purposes. The village then had three hotels, harness, carriage, and blacksmith shops, beside several stores, but no manufactories. It was at this time of stir and hopefulness in the community that the prominent men moved successfully for the incorporation of the town.
A few years later the canal proved a failure, the turnpikes gave place to railroads, and Avon, having no manufacturing interests, made
b MEMUiUAL HISTOKV OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
but slow progress as a town. A cotton-factory with a capital of 120,000 was incorporated in 1846, but did not prove a success. Other minor manufactures have l>een carried on at times, among them those of spokes and hubs, of pedlers' wagons, and of safety-fuse. In 1878 a creamery was incorporated, with a capital of -$4,000, and is now in successful o]>eration. During the summer season over three thou- sand quarts of milk are daily received; this is mostly made into butter, though some cream is sent to Hartford and New Haven. For twenty years there have been two or three tobacco warehouses, buying annually from twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars worth of tobacco from the surrounding farmers. In January, 1884, the Climax Fuse Company was formed, to manufacture safety-fuse, and it is now in operation, with a capacity of one hundred thousand feet a day.
Agriculture has been the leading pursuit of the inhabitants of this town, which is favored by the fertility of most of its soil and by its proximity to good markets. Until recently the principal crops were corn, potatoes, rye, oats, buckwheat, and hay, much attention being also given to the making of butter for the Hartford market. Tobacco has now come to the front rank of agricultural products, the soil of this valley producing a very fine quality of leaf, which is used for mak- ing the wrappers of cigars. The crop from single farms brings from five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars in a season.
Avon has generally maintained good roads. In 1866 and 1867 a causeway two thousand feet long and fifteen or twenty feet in height was built on the old turnpike as it crosses the Farmington River, carry- ing the road above high water. Its town affairs have been managed with good judgment and economy, and it is now entirely free from debt. The population has nut increased appreciably, standing as follows at each census since the town was incorporated: 1830, 1,025; 1840,1,001; 1850, 995; 1860, 1,059; 1870, 987; 1880, 1,058. The number of school-children in town is at present two hundred and fifty-eight, and has probably not been much less at any time since the town was formed. Under the old law there were four schools in the town, managed by as many school societies. Since the passage of the new law abolishing these societies, the number of schools has increased to seven, one being added with new territory set off from Burlington, and two by divi- sion of districts. Literary societies and debating clubs have existed at various times, and during the war tliere was a flourishing Union League.
The military history of Avon is necessarily brief, and refers almost wholly to the War of the Rebellion, though for a few years following the Mexican War a volunteer company of seventy-five or eighty men was maintained in the town, and a similar one had an existence for some years after the Rebellion. During the war Avon furnished ninety six men to the army, being seventeen more than her quota, and paid in bounties 1 15,000. At least twelve of her soldiers were killed or died in the service.
The Rev. Rufus Hawley, the second minister of Avon (then North- ington Parish), was a graduate of Yale College in 1767, and was ordained pastor of the Northington church, Dec. 20, 1769. His min- istry continued for fifty-six years, until his death in 1826. He was
|
%' |
|
|
■*4 |
i'.'i!ill'll'i|:n|'.!;^ii|iiWiii'r'''i,.l,.
THE MEADOW AT DEERCLIFF.
'„A,
s^vOiUftH €<^^sb5 -
ENTKANCE TO DEEKCLIFF^ SUMMER RESIDENCE OF MR. RICHARD S. ELY.
AVON.
11
Az^ n^^A^^y^^^T^
was Warren, 1815 to over the
not a man of brilliant parts, but a useful minister, of whom Professor Silliman o-ave a graphic description in his "Tour."
The Rev. John Bartlett was born in Lebanon, August IG, 1784, the son of Deacon John and Desire
(Loomis) Bartlett. He was a descendant, on his mother's side, of John Carver, the first Governor of Plymouth Colony. He pursued his theo- logical studies under the direc- tion of Dr. Dwight, and ordained in 1811 at New York. From 1830 he was settled church in Wintonbury (now Bloomfield), in this county. Resigning this charge on account of ill health, he acted as agent of the American Bible Society till 1885, when he was installed in West Avon. In 1847 he retired from the active work of the ministry, and resided in East Avon until his death in 186G, at the age of eighty-one. He married at Warren, New York, September, 1812, Jane, daughter of Judge David Golden, and had eleven children.
David W. Bartlett, son of the preceding, was born in Wintonbury April 1(3, 1828. He has been an extensive traveller, and has written several books ; among them, " What I saAv in London,"' " Life of Lady Jane Grey," " Paris Avith Pen and Pencil," and " Pen-Portraits of Modern Agitators." For twenty years
he was the Washington correspond- ^^ ^ YV ' f^^'-at.^^^tzt^ j ent of the New York " Independent,"
Springfield " Republican," andT New York " Evening Post," and for ten years clerk of the committee on elections, of the National House of Representatives. He is now American Secretary of the Chinese Lega- tion to this country, residing in Washington.
Yung Wing, the distinguished Chinaman, a graduate of Yale College in 1854, Doctor of Laws of the same institution in 1876, founder of the
Chinese educational mis-
^«^ / / ^__^ sion to the United States,
f \ J // U^ and at one time Chinese
^«e»A^/^ /f^%^ ^ Minister to this country,
^*// ' ^"^^1 M ^ y*"*""™"^ ^'^'^ been a resident of
y /^ l/f' /J /I/ ■* » Avon. His wife is a
native of Avon, being a grand-daughter by her father of the Rev. Bela Kellogg, first pastor of the East Avon church, and by her mother of the Rev. John Bartlett, pastor (as stated above) of the first church of Avon.
The Rev. Bela Kellogg, just mentioned, was the son of Martin Kellogg, of Amherst, Mass., and was born in 1781. He was a graduate in 1800 in the sixth class of Williams College, studied theology with the Rev. N. Emmons, D.D., and was ordained in 1813 over the Congre- gational Church in Brookfield, Conn. He removed to the church in
12 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
East Avon in 1819, and was dismissed on account of ill health in 1830. He died April 30, 1831. He married, June 6, 1805, Lydia, daughter of Samuel Candee, of New Haven, and had six children.
John Brocklesby, born in England in 1811, came with his father's family to Avon in 1820, was graduated at Yale College in 1835, and
received the degree of y- LL. D, from Hobart Col-
^^r^L^ /^-^-O C^/J^sl^^ pmfessor^ofiLhematic''
etc., in Trinitv College, Hartford, from 1842 to 1881, and has written several scientific treatises of high merit and reputation, among them the following: "Elements of Meteorology," " Views of the Microscopic World," " Elements of Astronomy," " Com- mon-School Astronomy." He resides in Hartford.
General Stewart L. Woodford, the distinguished statesman and orator, is of the family of that name which has been so prominent in the annals of Avon. He was born in New York City, but his father and grandfather were natives and residents of Avon while it existed as Northington Parish.
David W. and Edward Kilbourn removed to the West from Avon. They became the most prominent and wealtliy men of Keokuk, Iowa, David being at one time mayor of the city and president of one of its railroads ; both filled with ability various offices of responsibility and honor.
" Deercliff," the summer residence of Mr. Richard S. Ely, of New York, occupies one of the most picturesque sites in the State, on the crest of the mountain, some distance south of the tower. Mr. Ely, a native of Hartford, son of the late William Ely, was formerly a mer- chant in Eno-land and in France, and has since retired from active business. At his farm at " Deercliff " he was one of the earliest breeders of Jersey cattle in the United States, and was influential in introducing them into this country.
11.
BERLIN.
BY THE REV. W. W. WOODWORTH.
BERLIN is bounded on the north by New Britain and Newing- ton ; on the east by Rocky Hill, Cromwell, and Middletown ; on the south by Middletown and Meriden; and on the west by Southington. Its average length is not far from six miles, and its average breadth about five miles and a half. It is divided into the two parishes of Kensington on the west and Worthington on the east. In the southeast part of the parish of Worthington is the small but flourishing village of East Berlin. The scenery is remarkable for varied beauties. The geological formation is the red sandstone, the graceful slope of its hills interspersed here and there witli bold, pre- cipitous ridges of trap. On the south, partly in Berlin and partly in Meriden, rises Mount Lamentation. The Mattabesett River, the head- waters of which are in Berlin and New Britain, flows through the town, and unites with the Connecticut at Middletown.
In January, 168G, the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut granted to the towns of '^ Middletown, Wethersfield, and Farmington all the vacant lands between their bounds and the bounds of Wallingford" (which then included what is now the township of Meriden), for the purpose of establishing a new plantation. The grant covered the tract of land now belonging to Berlin and Ne^v Britain.
The first settler was Richard Beckley. He appears to have been one of the early planters of New Haven, and to have removed to Wethers- field in 1668. The records of the colony of Connecticut show that in that year the General Court granted to Sergeant Richard Beckley three hundred acres of land lying by Mat- tabesitt River. The records of lands for Wetlicrsfield inform us also that he i)urchased his grounds of " Terramoogus [Indian], with the consent of the Court and the town of Wethersfield." This tract of land, thus granted to Richard Beckley, on which he probably settled in 1668 or soon after, is in the northeast part of the town of Berlin, in what from time immemorial has been called "• Beckley Quarter." The Indian of whom he purchased the land belonged to the Mattabesitt tribe, and this was a part of their hunting-ground. Other settlers soon gathered about Beckley, and so the settlement of the Wethersfield part of this toM'U began.
About the year 1686, seventeen or eigliteen years after Richard Beckley settled on the Mattabesitt River, Richard Seymour and others
^S-f,^^
14 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
began a settlement in ^Yhat has for many years been known as Chris- tian Lane, in the northwest part of Worthington Parish, then in " the southeastern bounds of Farmington." For protection against the In- dians these settlers built a fort or enclosure of palisades, within which they erected their cabins, and to which they resorted at nightfall for safety. The well which they dug, and from Avhich they drank, is still in use, furnishing a supi)l\ oi good water. Richard Seymour was the first white person buried within the limits of Berlin, in a lot of ground which tradition tells us he had himself given for a burial-] )lace. He was killed by the fall of a tree. The first settlers in Christian Lane attended church for several years in Farmington village ; and tradition says that families walked the whole distance. — not less than eight miles, — over hills and through forests, carrying their children in their arms, the men going before and behind with loaded guns.
This I'ich basin to which the settlers had come received from them the name of Great Swamp, on account of its low situation. An Eccle- siastical Society was organized in Great Swamj) in 1705. The new society, including in its territorial limits the greater part of the present towns of New Britain and Berlin, was called the Second Society of Farmington. It received the name Kensington by act of the General Assemljly, on the petition of its inhabitants, in May, 1722. Beckley Quarter, which in 1712 was assigned to the new West Society in Weth- ersfield, since called Newington, was in 1715 annexed to the Great Swamp Society ; and so Beckley Quarter became a part of the Second Society of Farmington.
In May, 1718, a petition was presented to the General Assembly, signed by Samuel Peck, Samuel Hubbard, Samuel Gal])in, John Gil- bord, Joseph Harris, and George Hubbard, in whicli they "■ request
that the several inhabitants now
^OfA-V^ ^<CJ
fafn,
dwelling, or that hereafter shall dwell, towards the northwest corner of said township of Middletown with- in one mile and a half S(piare of said ^ ^ItX /V<^^ '^ corner, and also all the ratable ^O-C^dC^^ay estate within the said compass, be <J<^-^^r^ ^/Zy released from ministerial or parish
^^^^^ytCi charge in ]\Iiddletown, and be an- /T' f) ^ nexed to the Great Swamp Socie-
/rjOf) Yl n^ 0 D ^-^ ^^^'-^ 'J'^ie petition was oranted.
t y il- J ^^; ^ \^Q ^J other families — Wilcoxes, Savages,
fi ^ Sages, Johnsons, and others — came
//C> A^nn V ^^^ '^^^*-^ ^^ ^''° Middletown portion
'J ^ { ^^^T 'Y^fS of the parish of Kensington was
''d^CYCi^ ifv^OC^^f^ The Second Society of Farming-
f ^ , J ton was organized, as stated above, in
1705. The church — then the Sec- ond Church in Farmington — was formed December 10, 1712, with ten members, seven males and three females. Their names were William Burnham, Stephen Lee, Thomas Hart, Anthony Judd, Samuel Seymour, Thomas North, Caleb Cowles : these were the seven pillars. With the wives of Stephen Lee, Samuel Seymour, and Thomas Hart, they
BERLIN. 15
constituted the church, to which others were soon added. There were then but fourteen families within the limits of the society, which, however, did not as yet include the settlement in Beckley Quarter. ]\Ir, William Burnham, a native of Wetherslield, and a graduate of Harvard College, who had already preached to them for five years, was ordained the day the church was organized, and acted as their pastor till his death, in 1750.
The society, " by way of settlement," built him a house, he " finding glass and nails ; " and on condition that he continued their pastor for nine years, secured to him, and to his heirs and assigns forever, " three parcels of land," one of which, however, consisting of fifty acres, was given bv the town of Farmington. Tlie house is still standing and occupied, though removed from its original site. His salary was fixed at £50 a year, supplemented by £o worth of labor for four years ; then to be raised to c£G5. Pie was, besides, to have " a sufficient supply of firewood for family use brought home and made ready for the fire." The salary was increased fi'om time to time, until in 1728 it was made XIOO. Mr. Burnham had a large family, and is said to have " accumulated a large estate." He is described as n sound preacher, accustomed to refer much to Scripture in support of his doctrine.
The meeting-house In which he first preached was on a knoll a few rods southwest of where the Middletown railroad crosses Christian Lane. As the population increased, the house was found to be too small and the location inconvenient ; and it was voted, in January, 17-30 (42 in the affirmative and 36 in tlie negative), to build a new meeting-house " on Sergeant John Norton's lot, on the north side of Mill River," more than a mile southwest of the old house. The seeds of forty years of strife were in that vote. Serious difficulties arose respecting the location. Recourse was had in the most solemn manner to the lot, to decide the question. An advisory council was called to decide what the lot did not settle. The council advised that the site indicated by the lot was " the place pointed out by Providence to build the meeting-house upon ; " but the people would not build it there. The General Assembly of the colony was next apj)ealcd to.^ In May, 1732, that body aj^pointed a committee to repair to the parish, view the circumstances, and fix the place for building the meeting- house. The committee fulfilled their trust, and "■ pitched down a stake in Deacon Thomas Hart's home-lot," about forty rods south- west of the spot pointed out by the lot. The society would take no measures for building there ; and in October, 1732, the General Court " ordered, directed, and empowered the constable of the town of Farm- ington to assess and gather of the inhabitants of Kensington ninepence on the pound of the polls and ratable estate of said society, and deliver it to the treasurer of the colony ; who was ordered, on the receipt thereof, to pay out the same to Captain John Marsh, Captain Thomas Sey- mour, and Mr. James Church, all of Hartford, who were appointed and empowered to be a committee, or any two of them, to erect and finish a meeting-house, at the place aforesaid, for the society aforesaid." This Hartford committee " speedily and effectually " did their work. They erected a house " 60 feet in length and 45 in breadth, containing in the
1 For a fac-simile of the indorsement on this petition see page 16.
16
MEMORIAL HISTOKY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
"1
1500 persons, of Berlin depot,
This house was on the road
not
leading-
far from the first to Worthinuton
it rather increased.
whole about
corner east
village.
But the bitterness of feeling was not allayed ;
Petitions to the General Assembly of the colony, praying for relief,
came from distant parts of the parish. But no means of relief were at hand, and the confusion and dissension contin- ued till 1745, when the first division of Ken- sington Parish was made liy the organi- zation of tlie 8ocietv of New Britain. The church in New Britain — the Second Church in Kensiuii'ton — was formed April 19, 1758, with sixty-eight mem- bers. On the same day John Smalley — a name destined to be famous in the history of New England theology — was ordained. His character and work be- long rather to the his- tory of New Britain than to that of Berlin. The church in New Britain received fifty of its original members from the mother clnuch ; but there were one hundred and sev- enty-four members left in a church which forty- two years before had been organized with ten members in a settle- ment of but fourteen families. This shows a rapid growth of popu- lation.
After Mr. Burnham's death, six years elapsed before the Kensington
church secured another pastor. At length, on the 14th of July, 1756,
1 So says the record. Thoughtful men of this generatiou cannot easily see how fifteen hundred persons could be accommodated in a house of that size.
6
BERLIX. 17
Mr. Samuel Clark, a graduate in 1751 of the College of New Jersey, was ordained, and remained pastor of the church till his death, in 1775. His tombstone records tliat " in the gifts of preaching he was excellent, laborious, and pathetic." The division of the parish did not end the strife between the remaining sections. The controversy waxed fiercer and hotter, until, in June, 1771, one hundred and thirty-seven men signed a paper, which sets forth in its preamble that •' the society has long been in a very unhap])y, broken, and divided state, and that various means have been unsuccessfully used to reconcile the subsisting difficulties ; " and then goes on to propose that the wIkjIc matter be submitted to the arbitration of Colonel John Worthington, of .Spring- field, Colonel Oliver Partridge, of Hatfield, and Mr. Eldad Taylor, of
Westfield, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In conclusion, the subscribers solemnly pledge themselves, "laying aside all former preju- dices and prepossessions, and all party and selfish views and designs, to abide by the decision of the arljitrators, and not directly or indirectly to oppose it." The pledge was made, and kept in good faith. The arbi- trators did their ])art wisely. They decided that it was best to divide the society again, drew the boundary Ime, and fixed the sites of the two new meeting-houses. A memorial was presented to the General Assem- bly in October, 1772, asking for this division, which was granted. The West Society retained the name of Kensington, and the East Society took the name of Worthington, as a memorial of the judicious efforts of Colonel Worthington in settling these long-standing difficulties.
Thus ended this bitter controversy. The two societies at once began ])reparations for Ituilding meeting-houses on the sites indicated by the arbitrators. That in Kensington was dedicated Dec. 1, 1774. It has undergone repairs, alterations, and improvements, and is still the attractive and comfortable house of worship of the First Church
and Societv of Berlin. In March, / /v- 'AjC^ .^^^^k^ ^
1779, Mr. Benoni Upson (born in ^ y o^^-^^^^^-^ /^^/tyrD-^ty^
Waterbury, 1750, graduated at Yale College, 1776) was settled as the third pastor of the church in Kensington, the first after tlie division of the parish. j\Ir. Upson was in every sense a Christian gentleman, a lover kA ])eace, and a peace- maker. He was highly esteemed among the ministers of his day. He was a fellow of Yale College, which conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1817. He died Nov. 13, 1826, aged seventy-six years, after a pastorate of forty-seven years, for the last ten of which he had a colleatrue.
Mr. Royal Robbins (born in Wethersfield, Oct. 21, 1787, graduated at Yale in 1806) was ordained as Dr. Ujjson's colleague June 26, 1816, and resigned his charge June 26, 1859. He studied theology with Dr. Porter, of Catskill,"New York, and Dr. Yates, of East Hartford.
VOL. II. — 2.
18 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
To eke out an insufficient salary, he wrote much for the press ; and some of his numerous publications were of a high order of literary
worth. His
a^^ U<^^i^^^ ci''^^^^ work is his
"Outlines of Ancient
and Modern History," which has passed through many editions, and been extensively used as a text-book in schools and colleges. After Dr. Upson's death Mr. Robbins was the pastor of the Kensington church for thirty-three years. He was a judicious and faithful minister, a wise counsellor; as a preacher, less a "son of thunder'' than a "son of consolation," speaking the truth which he lived, in winning forms and in winning tones. His ministry was eminently successful. He died March 26, 1861, aged seventy-three years. Among his children are Royal E. Robbins and Henry A. Robbius, of the firm of Robbins & Appleton, New York, and Edward W. Robbins, of Kensington.
The Rev. Elias B. Hillard, a native of Preston and a graduate of Yale, was installed over this church May 16, 1860, and dismissed Feb. 27, 1867. He had previously Iteen settled in Hadlyme. He re- moved from Kensington to Glastonbury, and thence to Plymouth, where he now labors as jjastor of the Congregational Church.
He was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred T. Waterman, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, and a graduate of Yale, installed June 23, 1869, dismissed June 15, 1874. He is now a minister in Michigan. The Rev. A. C. Baldwin, now resident in Yonkers, New York, the Rev. J. B. Cleaveland, and Mr. C. W. Morrow have since acted each for a time as pastor. The Rev. A. J. Benedict was installed May 3, 1883.
The Worthington society held its first meeting Nov. 23, 1772. Its first meeting-liouse was opened for worship on Thursday, Oct. 13, 1774. It stood for sixteen years without steeple or bell. A vote, passed by the society Nov. 1, 1791, is worth transcribing: —
" Voted, That the thanks of this society be given to our friend, Mr. Jedidiah Norton, for so distinguished a mark of his good-will in giving us an elegant organ, and erecting it in the meeting-house at his expense."
Was not this the first instance in Avhich an organ was used as an aid to the worship of God in song in ih^ Congregational churches in New England ? This was a sweet-toned organ, and was played with very vanous skill, till it was destroyed when the meeting-house was fired by some incendiary in 1848. the liouse was not l)urned down, but afterwards repaired', and is now used for a school-house and town- hall. A new church
was dedicated in ^_^ -,-,*s_ <^ '
1851. The church ^f^^^^::^ tX^^^T>-X in Worthino'ton was ^"^ ^^-^^^rr^M.
§>.
orQ;anized Feb. 9,
1775, with ninety- {J^ lyO-yn £ €^hl-f^ five members. Its first pastor, the Rev.
Nathan Fenn, was ordained May 3, 1780. Mr. Fenn was born in Mil- ford in 1750, graduated at Yale in 1775, and studied theology with
BERLIN. 19
Dr. Smallev in New Britain. He died, after a ministry of nineteen vears, April 21, 1799. His tombstone records that '' in his pastoral ofiice he was faithfnl ; in the duties of piety constant ; in every relation kind and affectionate ; and to all men hospitable and l^enevolent."
In December, 1801, the society voted to call the Rev. Evan Johns, a native of "Wales, and for some time minister in Bury St. Edmunds, England, and to pay him an annual salary of $5 500 and fifteen cords of wood. Mr. Johns was installed June 9, 1802. He was a very different man from Mr. Fenn. With much the stronger intellect, and much the greater eloquence and power in the pulpit, he had also a more irasciljle temper and quicker impulses, and lacked that mildness of demeanor and that judiciousness of counsel and of conduct which had given his predecessor so strong a hold on his people. After a ministry of nine years, he was dismissed Feb. 13, 1811. Mr. Johns subsequently preached in various places, and at length retired to Canan- daigna, New York, where he died in 181:9, at the age of eighty-six.
He was succeeded. May 29, 1811, by the Rev. Samuel Goodrich, a son of Dr. Elizur Goodrich, of Durham, and father of Mr. Samuel G. Goodrich — known as Peter Parley — and the Rev. Charles A. Goodrich. He graduated at Yale in 1783, and was pastor of the church in Ridge- field from 1786 to 1811. He found the piety of the Worthington church in a very low state, from which the revivals enjoyed under his ministry did much to restore it. He was its sole pastor until ^__z:>
1831, when the Rev. Am- ""IT J /? ^ / * /
brose Edson was installed y.^a/^T7yU.C</ <^ O C oCt^c^ry\ as colleague pastor. About three years and a half la- ter both pastors were dis- missed on account of failing health. Mr. Goodrich died Sabbath evening, April 19, 1835, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was a man of sound judgment, solid understanding, and extensive knowledge. His preaching was plain and practical, cordial and affectionate, and delivered with " a pecu- liarly full and solemn utterance."
Mr. Edson was born at Brimfield, Mass., in 1797. His first pastor- ate was at Brooklyn. He was a man of great zeal, and when on his- favorite themes of God's government and man's responsibility, of great power as a preacher. Alter his dismission in 1831 he removed with his family to Somers. While there he published a book of some merit entitled " Letters to the Conscience," which reached a second edition. He died at Somers, Aug. 17, 1835.
James M. Macdonald, a native of Limerick, Maine, was the next pastor. He was ordained, when not yet twenty-three years of age, April 1, 1835. He was dismissed, against the remonstrance and greatly to the grief of his jjcojAe, Nov. 27, 1837, and soon after was installed over the Second Congregational Church in New London. From there he was called to Jamaica, Long Island ; thence to the city of New York ; and thence, in 1853, to the First Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey, where ho continued for twenty-three years, until his death, April 20, 1876. He had many rare qualities as a preacher. A form and face of manly beauty, a voice combining
20 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
melody and power, an intellect of robust vigor, a habit of study and research, a heart, full of sympathy, an unyielding loyalty to truth and to God, — these gave him nmch attractiveness and power. Wliile at Jamaica he was invited to become Professor of Moral Philosophy in Hamilton College, but declined. He published several works of much merit, the last and most important of which was his " Life of the Apostle John."
The Rev. Joseph Whittlesey was installed May 8,1838, and dismissed, on account of failing' health, Aug. 9, 1841. He still lives in Berlin.
W. W. Woodworth was ordained July G, 1842, and dismissed May, 1852. He was succeeded by the Rev. William DeLoss Love, installed Oct. 5, 1853, and dismissed Nov. 23, 1857, now of Soutli Hadley, Mass. During the first year of his ministry here one hundred and fifty-five were added to the church by profession.
The next pastor was the Rev. Robert C. Learned, installed here Dec. 1, 1858, dismissed April 1, 1861. He went from here to Plymouth, where he died in April, 18G7, at the age of forty -nine. He was a good man, lovable and loving, with a well-balanced and well-rounded char- acter ; a man, too, of no small intellectual power, lucid in his thinking and in the expression of his thoughts. His son, the Rev. Dwight W. Learned, is now a missionary of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions in Japan.
The next pastor was the Rev. Wilder Smith, afterwards of Rock- ford, Illinois, now residing in Hartford ; the next, the Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, afterward of West Winsted, now a pastor in Portland, Maine ; the next, the Rev. Jesse Brush, now rector of an Episcopal church in Saybrook. After an absence of nearly twenty-four years the Rev. W. W. Woodworth returned to the pastorate of this church in December, 1875.
The history of a country town in New England must, to a very large extent, be the history of its churches and ecclesiastical societies. They are its most important and most lasting and influential institu- tions. In Berlin, as in other Connecticut towns, the Congregational churches and societies were at first, and for a long time, the only ones. But about the year 1815 the Rev. William R. Jewett, a Methodist preacher, began to hold services here. A class composed of twelve or more members was soon formed, and class-meetings and regular preaching services were held. Oliver Weldcn was the first class4eader. Amono- the early preachers were Rev's Smith Dayton, David Miller, and John R. Jewett; and of those that followed these there were several ministers quite noted in their day. At the first ordinance of baptism seventeen were baptized by immersion. The first Methodist house of worship in Berlin was erected in the south part of Worthing- ton village in 1830. In 1871 the society bought the house formerly used by the Universalists, remodelled it, and now worships in it.
The corner-stone of the INIethodist church in Kensington was laid in 1865. The house was built and the ])arsonage procured by means of the gifts of Mr. Moses Peck and Miss Louisa Loveland.
In March, 1864, religious services began to be held regularly in a hall in East Berlin, and in the following May a Methodist class was formed there. A neat chapel was dedicated in the spring of 1876.
In 1829 " The First Societv of United Brethren in the town of
iiif 11111 yMMm
if 1 1 111^1 f • 1 « 1 1 1
i I 1 1 1 1
.
f
m
«
41
♦
Cr^^^L^
BERLIN. 21
Berlin" was formed. In 1832 the name was changed to "The First Universalist Society in Berhn." In 1831 the society began build- ing, and in 1832 met for the first time in the new church. The first pastor was the Rev. John Boyden, who was followed in 1836 by the Rev. William A. Stickney. He was succeeded in 1840 by the Rev. Horace G. Smith. In 1843 Mr. Daniel H. Plumb was ordained, who served the society till 1845. After that, preaching services were irreg- ular, and in 1870 the house was sold to School District No. 5, and the money paid to " the treasurer of the Universalist State Convention of the State of Connecticut, to be used for the benefit of the Universalist denomination in this State."
In May, 1781, a petition was presented to the General Assembly then sitting in Hartford, for a new town, to be called Kensington. The peti- tion was not granted ; but the subject was agitated until in the spring of 1785 the new town of Berlin was formed of parts of the three towns of Wethersfield, Farmington, and Middletown. The town then included nearly all the territory now in the towns of New Britain and Berlin. Towm-meetings were held for sixty-five years in turn in each of the three parishes into which the town was divided. In 1850 the citizens of Kensington and Worthington, seeing themselves out- voted by the increasing population of New Britain, and perceiving, as they thought, a disposition in that thriving village to centre all the town business there, joined in petitioning the General Assembly to be separated from New Britain. The petition was granted. Berlin became a new town with the old name, but with only one representative in the State legislature ; while New Britain has two representatives and the records of the old town. Immediately after the division, the population of tiie new town of Berlin was 1,869 ; by the census of 1880, it was 2,385. Berlin has two town-halls, — one in each of its two societies, — and town-meetings are held the even years in Kensino'ton and the odd
^O"
Worthington. %y fl^f^c^^^C^^t^ J^ Ct'J^'^C^ftJ
years m
It is noteworthy that
since the division of the (^^^
town (and for six years (U eUcrj^ /W^jeyy^-fty
before) one man, Deacon
Alfred North, of Worthington, has until now (1884) held the offices of
town clerk and treasurer, having been voted for by men of all parties.
From the beginning the people of Great Swamp turned their attention to the education of the young, and made provision for the employment of teachers. At first, a teacher was hired for the whole society, to go from one neighborhood to another, teaching in such places as were designated by the committee. Not long after, scliool " sections," or districts, were formed. After the division of tlie society in 1774, education was one of the chief subjects of consideration by the in- habitants of both societies. Berlin Academy was incorporated by the legislature in 1802, and was for many years flourishing and useful. Miss Emma Hart, afterward Mrs. Willard, of Troy, was for a time one of its teachers. In 1831 tlie Worthington Academical Company was formed, and soon after erected a school buildnig. Among the teachers
22 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
in that building were Ariel Parish, since distinguished as an educator in Westfield and Springfield, Mass., and in New Haven ; and Edward L. Hart, who after a few years removed to Farinington, and in company with his uncle, Simeon Hart, conducted there an excellent boys' school. In 1876 he closed an honored and useful life. The town has now nine school districts, Avith nine common schools, in which instruction of about the average quality is given in the ordinary English branches. There is no high school nor academy. Advanced scholars are sent out of town — mostly to New Britain, Hartford, and Middletown — to complete their school studies.
The manufacture of tin-ware in this country probably began in Berlin. About the year 1740, William Pattison, a native of Ireland, came to this place. Soon after, he began the manufacture of tin-ware, and continued in this business till it was suspended by the Revo- lutionary War. After the war, the business was resumed in this and in a number of the neighboring towns, by persons who had learned the trade of Pattison. At lirst, the products of the art Avere carried about the country for sale by means of a horse with two baskets balanced on his back. After the war, pedlers began to use carts and wagons, and went with their wares to every part of the United States.
The author of D wight's Travels tells us that immediately after the war with Great Britain, which closed in 1815, " ten thousand boxes of tinned plates were manufactured into culinary vessels in the town of Berlin in one year." A few years later, the business in this place began to decline. Now there are two shops, in each of which two or three hands are employed, — one in the village of Worthington, and the other in East Berlin.
There are other manufacturing interests of some importance in the town, — two carriage-shops, one in East Berlin and one in Kensington; three grist-mills, two saw-mills, six blacksmith-shops. W. W. Mildrum is doing a considerable business in East Berlin as watch and clock re- pairer, and in cutting and polishing agates as jewels for ship-surveyors' compasses, etc. The agates are mostly found in the trap ledges of Ber- lin. On Belcher's Brook the Blair Manufacturing Company formerly made planters' hoes, garden-rakes, etc. The building is now occupied by Hart, Burt, & Co., wood-turners, who employ seven hands. The Mattabesitt River, where it runs through East Berlin, was utilized more than eighty years ago by Shubael Patterson and Benjamin Wilcox for
spinning cotton yarn, which was put out to women to be woven on hand-looms. Afterward Eli- shama Brandegee engaged in the same business. The build- ings next passed into the hands of a joint-stock corporation which made tinners' tools and machines. The Roys & Wilcox Company took the business in 1845. The establishment was burned in 1846, and not loug after rebuilt. In 1870 the premises passed to the Peck, Stow, & Wilcox Company, which employs in this factory one hun- dred and twenty-five hands. The corporation has now a capital of a million and a half, and employs fifteen hundred hands in its factories in eight towns. Mr. Samuel C. Wilcox, of this company, is a native and a resident of Berlin, a good business man and a public-spirited citizen.
<^l<^^^ >^^^<:^Z^
■»N'^A^^
• ft
^ ^
f.'
paii\-r. compasses iin. On
m
mm
5^.^.'^^o^
!:5'£t::s Scis.sy
BERLIN. 23
The Berlin Iron Bridge Company, formerly the Corrugated Metal Company, also doing business on the Mattabesett River, in East Berlin, was founded bv Franklin Rovs for the manufacture of corrugated shino-les and afterward made fire-proof shutters, doors, and roofs. It now makes parabolic truss bridges. S. C. Wilcox is president of the company, an* C. M. Jarvis cliief engineer and superintendent. It is doino- a thriving business, employing from fifty to seventy-five hands, and tuniino- out from ^00,000 to $200,000 worth of iron-work in a year.
In Kensington, Mill River— a branch of the Mattabesett— furnishes power for manufacturing purposes, which has long been used. Forty or fifty years ago the Moo're Company began to make steelyards, garden- tools etc. In 1812, J. T. Hart began the manufacture of shovels, tongs, and 'a few brass goods. In 1879 the Peck, Stow, & Wilcox Company bought the establishment, and also that of the Moore Company, and now^does the greater part of the manufacturing that is done in Kensing- ton. It employs from two hundred and fifty to three lumdred hands.
In former times there w^as a great deal of " trade " in Worthington. People came from neighboring towns for this purpose. Some of the stores, especially that'^of Elishama Brandegee, enjoyed a high repu- tation in these parts. But iHisiness of this kind has sought other cen- tres. There are now two stores in Kensington, two in the village of Worthino'ton, and one in East Berlin. This is largely an agricultural town. It is well suited for grazing and for the production of hay, large quantities of which, as w^ell as of milk and butter, are carried for sale to neighboring markets. Garden vegetables and small fruits are also raised^ to supply other places. Many fine orchards are scattered over the town. The soil is capable of producing in abundance any kinds of fruit or grain that can be grown in New England.
During the War of Independence what is now the town of Berlin was but a parTsh lying witliiii the limits of three towns, and therefore all military proceedings within this parish were credited to these towns. But the citizens of the parish took an active part in the war. The church records of Kensington and Worthington bear the names of several who died in camp or were killed in battle. Almost every able- bodied man in the parish was in the service during some part of the war. After the affair at Lexington, Lieutenant Amos Hosford, after- ward a deacon of Worthington church, went with sixteen mc_n,_ prob- ably volunteers from the Middletown part of this parish, to join the army at Boston. In the active and patriotic measures taken by Wethersfield and Farmington, men belonging to this parish took a prominent part. In 1775, _ j i .u
Colonel Selah Hart, a citizen of Kensington, was appointed by the General Court as one of a committee "to provide stores of lead as they shall judge necessary for the use of the colony, to contract for and take lead" ore that shall be raised out of the mine of Matthew Hart, of Farmington, and to dig and raise ore in said mine if profit- able and necessary for the use of the colony." How many bullets were made from the lead of that mine does not now appear. Ihe mine is in Kensinoton, on the Mill River. It does not seem to
24 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
yield lead enough to be profitable to work. Colonel Selah Hart com- manded a regiment in 1776, and when Washington evacuated New York he was cut off and captured by the British, and was held a pris- oner for two years, during most of which time his wife knew not whether he was dead or alive. He was afterward promoted to the command of a brigade, which he held till the close of the war.
Major Jonathan Hart, a gallant and distinguished officer, was a native of Kensington. He joined the army at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and continued in service till the war closed and afterward, until ho and tlie greater part of liis command were slain in attempting to center the retreat of the shattered remains of the army, when General St. Clair was defeated on the banks of the Wabash, Nov. 4, 1791.
When, in April, 1861, President Lincoln sent out his call for troops, men here, as everywhere throughout the Northern States, showed them- selves ready to respond to the call. In the course of the war there were one hundred and seventy-one volunteers from this town ; and the town appropriated for bounties -t 22,307.17, and for the support of the families of volunteers, $6,959.58, making a total of -f 29,266.75. Twelve were killed in battle, and twenty-two died while in the army. In Com- pany G of the Sixteenth Regiment there were twenty-seven Berlin men, of whom two were killed and six were wounded at the battle of Antie- tam, and six died in Rebel prisons at Andcrsonville, Charleston, and Florence. More than thirty of the soldiers of the late war are buried in the cemeteries of this town. The soldiers' monument in Kensintrton, "believed to be the first erected to the memory of Union soldiers in this State," commemorates the loss of fifteen volunteers from Kensing- ton. The monument in East Berlin bears the names of thirty -five men ; some of whom, however, were from neighboring districts in Cromwell and Westfield.
The Rev. John Hooker, who succeeded President Edwards as pastor of the church in Northampton, Mass., was born in Kensington in 1729, graduated at Yale in 1751, and was ordained in 1753. He was a de- scendant, in the fourth generation, of the renowned Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford. His wife was a daughter of Colonel Worthington, of Springfield, who gave the name to Worthington Parish, in Berlin. He died of the small-pox at Northampton in 1777, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
Emma Hart Willard was the sixteenth child of Captain Samuel Heart (so the name is spelled in the old records). Captain Hart was a remarkable man. He was descended on his father's side from Stephen Heart, one of the most influential of the first settlers of Farmington ; and on his mother's side from the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford. Captain Hart was prominent in all the affairs of the town, and the first clerk of the Ecclesiastical Society of Wortliington. His daughter Emma was born in Worthington in 1787. Her childhood and youth were full of 1)rilliant promise. At seventeen she was teaching a com- mon school, and at nineteen an academy in Berlin. At twenty she was preceptress of Westfield Academy, and not long after she was placed at the head of the Female Academy at Middlebury, Vermont. At twenty- two she was married to Dr. John Willard, and opened a boarding-school.
BERLIN. 25
Her thoughts and plans were devoted to the education of the young of her sex. In 1818 she sent to Governor CHnton, of New York, her plan for a female seminary, which he recommended to the legislature in his next annual message. The legislature incorporated an academy, to be established at Waterford. She took the charge of it, but after a few years removed to Troy, and, aided by that city, established there her famous school. As the years passed, her school increased in popularity and excellence, until it furnished for four hundred pupils access to nearly all the literature and science taught in the colleges of this coun- try. Dr. Willard aided her in 'all her plans; but after his death, in 1825, she took into her own hands the entire responsibility of the school, and its popularity continued to increase. In 1838 she left this work and devoted herself to literary labors. She published during her life several school-books, " Poems," a " History of the United States," " Jour- nal and Letters from France and Great Britain," " On the Circulation of the Blood," " Respiration and its Effects," " Morals for the Young," and other Avorks. She died in Troy in 1870, in the eighty-fourth year of her ao-e. Her life has been written bv John Lord.
Her sister, Almira Hart, better known as Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, Avas the seventeenth child of Captain Hart, and was born in Worthington in 1793. She received her education in part in her sister's schools. At the age of nineteen she taught a school in her father's house, and not long after took charge of an academy at Sandy Hill, New York. In 1817 she was married to Simeon Lincoln, of New Britain, then editor of a literary paper published in Hartford. He died in 1823, and in 1831 she was married to the Hon. John Phelps, of Vermont, an eminent jurist and statesman, and went to reside in Guilford, and afterward in Brattleboro', Vermont. In 1838 she took charge of a seminary at West Chester, Penn., and afterward one in Rah way. New Jersey. In 1841 she was invited by the Bishop of Maryland and the trustees of the Patapsco Institute to " found a Church school for girls." Here she continued fifteen years, doing, as her sister says, " her great and crowning educational work." Her husband died in 1849. She died in Baltimore in 1884, at the age of ninety-one. From 1816 she was a devoted member of the Episcopal Church. She published many books for students in the various departments of natural science ; the best known of which is her work on Botany, published in 1829, while she was vice-principal of the Troy Seminary,
James Gates Percival, second son of Dr. James Percival, a physician of great merit, was born in Kensington, Sept. 15, 1795. He received his early education in the district school and in his father's library, and perhaps more still from the beauties of Nature, with which he was familiar. He graduated at Yale in 1815. While in college he distin- guished himself as a poet, and not less for his mathematical tastes and abilities. He is commonly spoken of as Percival the poet ; but he was also, and not less, eminent as a geologist, a philologist and linguist, a chemist, a botanist, a geographer, and a mathematician. After leaving college he taught school for a time, and then studied medicine, and began to practise it, but soon left it. He was for a time Professor of Chemistry at West Point, but finding his duties irksome, soon resigned. He was at one time employed in connection with Professor Shepherd to make a geological survey of Connecticut, and his work was a marvel
26
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUXTY.
for thoroughness, and his report of five hundred ]jag'es so profoundly scientific that it is said " even scientific men could hardly understand it." He also rendered very valuable assistance to Dr. Webster in pre- paring and revising his great dictionary. His last work was done as a geologist in Wisconsin ; first in tlie employment of the American Mining Company, surveying their lead-mining regions, and then in the service of the State. He published his first report as State Geologist in 1855, and was i)reparing his second when he died at Hazel Green, May 2, 1856. A complete edition of his poems, with a biographical
sketch, was published by Ticknor & Fields, Boston, in 1859, and his life has been Arritten by the Rev. Julius H. Ward. Mr. Ed- ward W. Rol)bins, of Ken- sington, also, in an article published in the " New Englandcr," in May, 1859, gave an account of Per- cival, derived from origi- nal and authentic sources and from personal recol- lections. Two other Ber- lin bovs were classmates of Percival in Yale. One was Horace Hooker, a descendant in the sixth generation from Thomas Hooker. He was settled as pastor at Watertown, and afterward preached at Middletown and in other places. He was for several years the secre- tary of the Domestic Mis- He spent the last years of his life in
^
sionary Society of Connecticut. Hartford, wher6 he died in 1864
Horatio Gridley, a native of Kensington, was another member of the class of 1815. He practised as a physician for many years in Woj'thing- ton, ranking high in his profession. He was a fellow of Yale College, and at one time State senator. He died in Hartford in 1864.
Dr. Charles Hooker, another descendant of Thomas Hooker, was born in Kensington in 1799, graduated at Yale in 1820, and received his degree of M.D. in 1823. He became Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Yale College. He died in New Haven in 1863. One^ who knew him well says of him : " He was an eminent physician and surgeon, and was distinguished not less for his professional skill than for his active piety and benevolence."
The Rev. Charles A. Goodrich was not a native of Berlin, but he was a son of one of the pastors of the Worthington church, and he spent a
^ Mr. Edward W. RoLbins, of Kensington, to whose manuscript "History of Kensing- ton " the writer of this sketch acknowledcres his great indebtedness.
.v"iK«i-i*i-' ■•y-M','i>;wri
-^'^'.
I
i«A5/*^>CliLl.tS*lJ L* • '"
:!i>.'iHV)i.
(p^a^^^L-t^^ ^^/>^^
^ //^^ ^>C^Jcr^
jLTiQ^l-^ zlB SjiJXs Scm
BERLIN. 27
large part of the most active portion of his life in Berlin. He was born in Riclgefield in 1790, graduated at Yale in 1812, and was or- dained pastor of the South Church in Worcester, Mass., in 1818. After a few years he resigned his charge on account of failing health, and
r^>^^<— » O? • d--^ ^y-^i^C ^^-^ ^
removed to Kensington, where he taught a school for boys. After his father's death he removed to Worthington, where he was eno-ao-ed mainly in Avriting books for publication. He was the author of a num- ber of Avorks which enjoyed a high degree of popularity. His "History of the United States," for schools, went through many editions, and is still in use. His " Bible History of Prayer" was one of the latest and most useful of his books. He was at one time State senator, and always a public-spirited citizen and a fervid Christian. In 1847 he removed to Hartford, where he died in 1862.
Another native of Berlin was the Hon. Richard I). Hubbard, after- ward a resident of Hartford, eminent as a lawyer and statesman, at one time a memljcr of the national House of Representatives, and more recently Governor of the State of Connecticut. He died in Hartford in 1884.
The Rev. Andrew T. Pratt was born at Black Rock, New York, in 1826, but came to Berlin to reside in childhood, and united with the church in Worthington in 1838. He graduated at Yale in 1848, studied both medicine and theology, and was ordained missionary of the American Board in 1852. His field of labor was in Asiatic Turkey, at Aintab, Aleppo, Antioch, and Marash, where he was instructor in the Theo- logical Seminary. In 1868 "his fine literary taste and thorough ac- (juaintance with the Turkish language led to his call to take part in the revision of the Scriptures, and in other literary labors at Constanti- nople. His success in this new field of lal)or was all that had been anticipated;" and his death in 1872, in the midst of his useful- ness, at the early age of forty- /'^y^r^^^y six, was a loss which was deeply <>v^2=^ ^
Simeon North, D.I)., LL.D., 'tA •^^/V/^S^v
was born in Berlin in 1802, but \. J
removed to Middletown when he — — ^
was twelve years of age. He
graduated at Yale, with tlie first honors of his class, in 1825. He was tutor at Yale from 1827 to 1829 ; then for ten years Professor of Latin and Greek in Hamilton College, at Clinton, New York ; and from 1839 for eighteen years president of that college. He retired from the presi- dency of the college in 1857, and until liis death, in January, 1884, he resided at CUinton.
His nephew, Edward North, also a native of Berlin, was cho- sen Professor of Ancient Lano-uages in Hamilton Collcffe when he was only twenty-four years of age, and has filled that office, greatly
28 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
beloved and eminently successful as an instructor, for thirty-nine years.
Deacon A.lfred North, Edward's brother, was born in Berlin, Oct. 3, 1811. With the exception of a few months, he has always lived in his
native town. For more than forty years he has been the town clerk and treasurer of the town of Berlin, clerk and treasurer of Worthiug- ton Ecclesiastical Society, and treasurer of the Second Church in Berlin. He has been a deacon of that church for forty-seven years, and was for twenty years the superintendent of its Sunday school. He is esteemed by all as a man of sound judgment and incorruptible integrity.
Samuel C. Wilcox was born in Berliu, December, 1811, son of Ben- jamin Wilcox and grandson of Samuel Wilcox. In early life he taught school, and after that was in business in North Carolina as a mer- chant and a planter. He has been largely interested in manufacturing. From 1842 to 1870 he was one of the ]">rincipal managers and stock- holders of the firm of Roys & Wilcox. Since 1870 he has been a direc- tor and vice-president of the Peck, Stow, & Wilcox Company. He is president of the J. 0. Smith Manufacturing Company, and of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company ; a director in the Southington National Bank, and the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford. He was first selectman of the town of Berlin for seven consecutive years, and represented the town in the State legislature in 1884. He is a public-spirited citizen and successful business man.
Edward Wilcox, his brother, was born in Berlin, April 22, 1815. He spent the greater part of his life in his native town, on the ances- tral farm, and engaged with his brother in various enterprises. In 1850 he was chosen one of the deacons of the church in Worthington ; and he continued in that office a faithful and earnest worker until his death, Aug. 13, 1862, at the age of forty-seven.
The name of Dr. Elishama Brandegee should not be omitted. He was for more than forty years the loved and trusted jjhysician of a
large part of the
^y/ yt y4-) families of the
OzJ^rn/l^^^P^M^ /fp :r^^ty^ town. He was a
A native of Berlin,
where he died in
1884. His father, Elisha Brandegee, was a merchant, and otherwise for
many years an active l)usiness man of true public spirit, who did much
for the prosperity of the place.
m.
BLOOMFIELD.
BY MES. ELISABETH G. WARNER.
BLOO^IFIELD was incorporated in 1835, and consisted of Winton- biiry Parish and a portion of Poquonnock Society in Windsor. In 1840 the town received an addition of a part of Simsburv known as Scotland Parish. As now constituted, it is bounded on the north and east by Windsor, on the south by Hartford, and on the west by Simsbury and Avon, and averages four miles in length and in breadth. On the cast border a forest a mile and a half broad extends the whole length of the township from north to south, and on the west is the range of hills called Talcott Mountain. Tlirough this broad, gently undulating valley run three large brooks, which unite in the south part to form Woods River ; and this, meeting another small river in the southwest part of Hartford, forms Park River, which flows through the city and empties into the Connecticut. These three Bloomfield streams are all of slow current, and overflow their banks several times a year, thus greatly enriching the soil.
Another fact favorable to Bloomfield as an agricultural town is that the climate is naturally warm for so high a latitude. Beyond the moun- tain there is often snow, when only rain falls here. Between these streams lie cultivated fields and orchards, with large intervals of excel- lent mowing-ground. It is a singular fact that on the opposite sides of these brooks in many places there is an entire difference of soil.
The east part of the town is quite level land, with a warm, sandy soil; the middle, from north to south, is principally a clay soil, covered with rich, deep loam, especially good f(jr mowing-land ; and as the ground grows higher, even to rolling hills toward the west, the soil is chiefly red loam, particularly well adapted to fruit culture, and has always produced the finest apples and pears. Formerly it yielded also cherries and plums, and, at certain periods, peaches in the greatest perfection. Appearances indicate the approach of anotiier of these peach-cycles, as they have been aptly called, and many farmers are once more setting out peach-orchards. All this fertile region aljounds in birds. A former resident of the town remembers counting forty-six kinds about her home, among them the scarlet tanager, cuckoo, rose-breasted grosbeak, kildeer, and indigo-bird. It was always the home of the fringed gentian, and of almost every other wild flower of southern New England. Here and there are woods of oak and chestnut, with alluring walks and bridle- paths, and roads intersecting each other in every direction, like Indian trails or cow-paths, as they doul)tless once were; so that the saying came about that every farmer had a road of his own to Hartford. With all this natural Ijeauty the little town seems fitly named. And
30 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
now, since it wisely chose to accept the Connecticut Western Raih'oad, which Farmington rejected, the number of its admirers must have greatly increased. By this means the Tower in Avon, lying only four miles from the railroad station, has been brought within easy distance for excursionists from Hartford. Not far from the Tower are two moun- tain points, — one to the north and one to the east, both in Bloomfield, — called Big Philip and Little Philip. A tradition that on the latter of these King Philip was buried is still believed by many, and some have professed to be able even to locate the grave.
In 1801, as recorded by the Rev. William Miller, wood and hay were the chief marketable productions ; " some hundreds of cords of wood being annually taken to Hartford market, and about two hundred tons of hay." He adds that " cyder, cyder-brandy, and apples are considered market articles ; and that fifteen hundred meat-casks, consisting of hogsheads, barrels, and tierces, were made and marketed in that year, [1801]." It is within the memory of a few^ still living, when corn was raised there to send to the West Indies. A great change has occurred in the last forty years in the productions of Bloomfield, — tobacco hav- ing largely taken the place of grass and grain in its fields. Although a crop involving continual risk and anxiety from its sowing to its selling, and requiring an immense amount of skill and care, its much larger profits lla^•e been the compensation.
It is not known when the first settlements were made in this part of Windsor. A deed of an Indian purchase in 1660 mentions this section as "the wilderness." It is reported that at the period of the first settle- ment on the river an expedition sent hither to explore returned with the report that " there was good land sufficient for the maintenance of three families." In 1738 there were sixty-five families in Wintonbury, numbering three hundred and fifty souls. So it may be supposed that there were some settlers here as early as 1675. There was probably a period of fifty or sixty years during which Windsor was the political, religious, and social centre of this little colony of Messenger's Farms. It was a long way to go to church across the plains and through the thick pine woods, before the days of carriages, and very difficult in winter, with the snow often three and four feet deep lying on the ground from November to March. There is a tradition of the time when Wintonbury families must go the whole way to Windsor, six miles, even to "get fire," when they were so unfortunate as to be out of it in those days before friction matches. A native of the west part of Bloomfield remembers her grandfather pointing out to her an ap])le-tree that he had seen his father bring on his back all the way from Windsor.
This zealous little people came at last to feel that they must have some life of their own, and in May, 1734, " Peter jMills and [twenty- six] others, inhabitants of the southwest part of Windsor, known by the name of Messenger's Farms," petitioned for " winter privileges." They were granted liberty to conduct a separate worship from November to March. It went hard with the old town, liowever, to lose their pecu- niary assistance in church matters, and they won their cause in the face of much opposition. Two years more made their independence com- plete, when the thirty -one persons in Windsor, twelve in Simsbury, and eight in Farmington received, in answer to their petition for " parish
BLOOMFIELD. 31
privileges," a grant of a parish set off from these three towns. It was about four miles square, and its name was taken, according to Connecti- cut custom, from the towns from which it was composed, — a fragment of each, Win-ton-bury.
At the first society meeting, Nov. 16, 1736, it was unanimously voted to build a meeting-house and settle a preacher. The Rev. Hezekiah Bissell, who was ordained in J2l h ^ */!/ JjL February, 1738, so well justified their choice that :i^'^' <V^-«^ his rare excellence of character should be recorded here ; and it could not be done more forcibly than in the simple words on his monument in the old graveyard : —
" Sacred to the Memory of the Reverend Hezekiah Bissell. His birth was at Windsor, of pious and reputable Parents. Yale College was the place of his Liberal Accomplishments, and the Scene of his. usefulness was extended. He was alike unmoved by all the Vices and Errors of the late Times ; Secure against both, his doctrines k, his Life were Exemplary. Remarkable Peace and good order that reigned among the People of his Charge During his Ministry bear Witness to the Prudence and Greatness of his Mind. In domestic connections he was truly a Consort & a Father, and in Social Life a Friend indeed. After the faithful Labors of 45 years in Sacred Offices, his last and best Daye arrived, which was January 28th, a. d. 1783, ?etat. 72."
The simplicity and liberality of his religious teachings are well illus- trated by the fact that baptism was allowed to the children of those who were not " church members," as that term is used, by means of the "half-way covenant," which "admitted all baptized people of civil be- havior to the watch of the church, and to the privilege of presenting their children for baptism without attending the Lord's Supper ; " and by the lack of requirement of any creed in joining the church, this brief and tender covenant — probably of his own composing — being used instead : —
" We do solemnly avouch the Eternal Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be our God, and do devote and dedicate ourselves and children to Him, promising, as He shall enable us by His Grace, to believe His truths, obey His will, run the race of His commandments, walking before Him and being upright, exercising ourselves in y*^ duties of Sobriety, Justice, & Charity, watching over one an- other in the Lord ; and because Christ hath appointed spiritual administration in his home, as censures for offenders, consolations for the penitent, Teachings and Quickenings for all, such as the Word and Sacraments, we will truly countenance and faithfully submit to the regular administration of them in this place, and carefully perform our respective and enjoyned duties that we may all be saved in the daye of the Lord."
The meeting-house was a plain, barn-like structure, forty-five by thirty-five feet, unpainted, with no steeple or the slightest mark to distinguish it as a church. Swallows made their homes in the rafters, and squirrels so abounded that it soon became necessary for the safety of the pulpit cushions to keep them over at the tavern between Sundays. A hewn log lay along the middle aisle for the little children, who gen- erally came barefoot in the summer-time ; and from this they would rise reverentially and "make their manners" as the minister walked among them to the pulpit. The pews, straight-backed and high, were
32 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
annually assigned to the attendants according to tlieir age and rank. In the gallery there was a high pew set apart for colored persons. The traditional tithing-man, from his post in the singers' seat, kept watch over the demeanor of old and joiuig, and not seldom some playful or weary urchin was rapped at with his long stick, or pointed out to notice, or even treated with harsher measures. All the men sat on one side of the church, and all the women on the other. East of the church a great horse-block of hewn logs stood ready to receive from their saddles and pillions those who had come mounted.
To this simple worshipping-place in the woods, called by no bell, nor even drum-beat as in Windsor, the people came, — only about sixty families of them to begin with, — on foot or on horseback, from their equally simple homes. And the shepherd of this little flock received for salary three hundred dollars and thirty-eight cords of wood. In the latter years of Mr. Bissell's ministry several members of his church went over to the Separates, sometimes called Separatists, a sect that dated from the Revival of 1740, and had already made considerable headway in Connecticut. What had gained proselytes to this sect in Bloomfield more than anything else, it is said, was a quarrel between Abel Gillet, a deacon of the church, and John Hubbard. This happened about 1760. Mr. Bissell, being a peaceable man, refused to take either side ; and this, construed by Abel Gillet to show favor to his opponent, so angered him that he withdrew from the church and " turned sepa- rate." They were presently called Separatists, and subsequently many of them became Baptists. " As this sect derived its first strength in this society from a quarrel in a family of some note, so they have, from that day to this," bemoans the good Parson Miller, in 1801, "always gained proselytes, more or less, as a spirit of contention has revived or subsided." He admits a small number to have been conscientious Baptists.
They are first noticed in the public votes of the society in 1782, and in 1786 settled over their society Ashbel Gillet, a son of the above-named Abel. They steadily increased in number, and in 1795 built a small meeting-house, since repeatedly repaired. Elder Gillet was considered one of the best of men, even by those outside of his church. His prayers were believed to have special power with the Most High, so that he was much sent for to pray by the sick ; and if rain Avas needed, especially during haying-season, the remark would be made that there was no use praying for rain until the parson's hay was in. Sometimes the people would turn out and help him when there was an unusual drought, and then send up their prayers. It is told that he once found a sheep astray after shearing, and likely to perish ; he took off his overcoat, wrapped it about the shivering creature, and went to find its owner. And another story of him has come down, — how Par- son Miller, who had often ridiculed the Baptists for their mode of baptism, at last, during a period of partial insanity shortly before his death, left his home on Whirlwind Hill one winter night, and made his way, with bare feet, through the sharp crust, to Elder Gillet's window, a mile and a half away ; of course the good man arose and took him in and devoted the rest of the nia-ht to warming and comforting him.
This Mr. Miller, a man of strong powers of mind and ardent piety, as well as of noble countenance and bearing, was the third pastor of
BLOOMFIELD. 33
the Congregational Church, and he succeeded in restoring the harmony broken by disagreement on the choice of his predecessor, and by dis- satisfaction with the Half-way Covenant. It was during his pastorate that a new meeting-house was built. The first one must have been sadly dila])idated and the people slow to realize it: for the Simsbury preacher, Mr. Stebbins, " a man intelligent, shrewd, and sarcastic," was sent for to stir them up on the subject. His text was, " Surely the fear of God is not in this place ;" and this was one sentence in his dis- course : " When you pass through a village, and see the clapboards on the meeting-house hanging dingle-dangle by one nail, you may be sure the love of God is not in that people."
The new church was dedicated Dec. G, 1801. '•' A joyous day," said the happy pastor in his sermon, — •' not a pew empty, above or below."
During the summer, while the new church was building, the Sun- day services had been held under a group of four great oaks close by, one of which still stands by the
third and present house, dedicated ^ /J Jl/^^ /
in 1858. Mr. George B. Newcomb, ^^<i , '^^' ^'' <^^^^c/l-^'^ - now a professor in the College of
the City of New York, was the pastor of this church for five years, between 1861 and 1866, — a preacher of great ability.
A Methodist society was organized in 1817, its first class consisting of only tiiree persons ; but it grew to a tolerable number, and sixteen years later built a church on the top of Wliirlwind Hill, which in 1854 was rebuilt in the centre of the town.
An Episcopal society, growing out of controversies in the Simsbury Congregational Church, was formed in 1740, and built a small, plain church in Scotland, — a ])art of Simsbury that was annexed to Bloom- field in 1843. A new church was built in 1806, two miles south of the first ; but this was afterward taken down and removed to the old site, where it was rebuilt in 1830, and is the present church.
The public schools of the ])arish were for a long time under the care and control of the Ecclesiastical Society. Great deference was paid to the periodical visits of tlie parish pastors. When they entered the school-room, all the scholars were compelled to rise and make obeisance. And here also sliould be mentioned other regular visits remembered by an old resident as '' such stimulants to our ])ride and ambition," but in tliese days too rare, — visits of the fathers and mothers. But little was taught in the country schools in the early days ; it is some- times summed up Yis " the three R's." But the reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, with the never-omitted spelling, and, for thegirls, sewing on sheets, shirts, and often bedquilts, were taught with a thorouglniess that laid a good foundation for the substantial education of many a youth and maiden.
The teaching of the little children, in the early part of this cen- tury, began with a series of questions as to their names and those of their parents, their age, what town they lived in, what i)arish, what county, what State, and what country ; the name of each pastor of their town, the Governor of their State, and the President of the United States. Great attention was given to spelling; and one of the excite- ments of those days was the strife in the evening spelling-schools.
VOL. II. — 3.
34 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
The society was divided into seven school-districts, in which were built, in or near the year 1800, five school-houses, two of which were quite large and convenient. " One of these two," says Mr. Miller, " is an elegant brick building, and both are provided with a good bell." The upper story of the old school-house on Whirlwind Hill was an- ciently used as a Freemasons' lodge, but was abandoned full seventy-five years ago ; when the outer stairway leading to it was removed, it lie- came thenceforth a habitation for rats, bats, and owls. Early in the century this school had a remarkable teacher, Mr. Lucas, who roused the greatest enthusiasm in his pupils, and who closed his one winter with a brilliant exhibition in the church of the play of Pizarro, " Priest" Miller reluctantly consenting. The schools were generally kept by male in- structors in winter and Ijy female in summer. One of the teachers — an old gray-haired man, and college-bred, which was a rare thing in those days — had the habit of getting liis queue done over during " noon spell " by one of the girls of his "fore class." An interesting old lady, Mrs. Wealthy Gillet Latimer Thrall, who lived all of her nearly one hun- dred years in Bloomfield, used to tell her grandchildren how frightened she was the morning she was promoted to this class, when the mas- ter rapped with his ruler on the desk, and announced before the school that henceforth she was to take her turn at that august task. Her fingers trembled so that she could scarcely tie the 1i)lack ribljon. as she stood behind the master, sitting by the big, open fire, keeping order during " noon-spell." This same little girl had such a good memory for grammar, — all the grammar they had in those days was in the " fore i)art" of tlie spelling-book, — that her teacher delighted in taking her about the streets and into the houses, of evenings, to show off ; when her listeners would exclaim, " What a pity she is n't a boy ! " In her last days, after her strong mind had begun to give way, in wander- ing back to childhood she would repeat sentence after sentence from those old spelling-book pages. After she was grown and mari'ied, she and her husband kept Thrall Tavern, in the Old Farms district, for forty years, and in her old age she never wearied of telling how they once entertained Lafayette at dinner with a hundred other guests ; delighting her eager grandchildren with all the particulars as to looks and dress and bill of fare. Her husband had the fii'st chaise ever used in Bloomfield.
When the Revolutionary War broke out, nearly every man in the town was drafted; and this brave woman — then a young girl — was left by her father and lover, so that when one night her little brother died, taken suddenly with the disease then called hoarse canker, she and a very old man together made the coffin, — " rough, but lined with something soft," she said, — and with her own hands she dug the grave. The night before he died, as she was going up-stairs she " saw a vision in the window, and knew that something was about to happen."
A great many years ago two Ijrothers named Brown made drums, including small ones for toys ; and once tin-ware was made in Bloom- field by Captain Filley, and sent by pedlers into Vermont. There were two sash-and-blind factories, short-lived, and an oil-mill, now gone to pieces. The making of wagons and carriages has for some time been an important industry of Bloomfield.
BLOOMFIELD. 35
Among the Wintonbury records are instances of slavery. One reads of 1754, " Died Fortune, a negro servant, who belonged to John Hub- bard, Jr., and but a little before his death was Jon'* Smith's." The Rev. Mr. Bissell records the baptism of Csesar, " a negro servant of mine," in 1772. There were a few more, probably not a dozen in all, and their bondage must have been of the lightest type.
hi the early days Indians often went roving through the town, sell- ing their baskets and other usual wares, and in the very early times they made their home there, generally harmless and peaceably dis- posed. Traces of an Indian reservation still exist in the Old Farms dis- trict. A native of Bloomlield remembers how a family of Mohegans used to come and settle down to their basket-making by Old Farms Brook, under the hill, on his father's farm. They would say to the little boys that all the land belonged to them, and they could get their basket-stuff wherever they liked. This was as late as 1820; and, as they fished in the stream where many kinds of excellent fish still abounded, they would tell how in the days of their fathers the salmon and lamprey-eels used to run up there from the Connecticut.
The old graveyard has the usual interest of bearing some curious epitaphs, and of testifying, by the manifold Scripture names recorded on its moss-grown and weather-worn stones, to the Bible-loving spirit of our ancestors. A smnll clearing was made in the beginning in the north end of the forest, which continued back a long way from the original church ; and there, in what is now the extreme north corner of the large yard, a low, brown stone tells how soon sorrow came into the little parish.
" Here hes ye
Body of Luce the
Dauo-h*-- of Sem"'
Isaac Skinner who
Died Fel/y ye 23'^'^
1739-40 ageil 18 year
this was ye first Perso"
that was Buried Here."
New England retained for many years the custom of putting both the years to a date from January 1st to ^larch 25th, after which only the current year was written.
"When I was young I did die, Why not you as well as I '? "
What, for startling brevity, could equal this ? And this, for biographi- cal conciseiiess ? —
"Sixteen years I lived a maid,
Two years I was a wife, Five hours I was a mother,
And so I lost my life. My babe lies by me, as you see, To .show no age from Death is free."
Deidamia, Mahala, Lodesca, Lovicy, and Climena are a few of the quaint feminine names; and Reuol, Abi, Amaziah, Zemiah, and Defer, some of the masculine.
A rather showy monument among the simple stones, standing near the highway, marks the grave of Pelatiah Allen, who, dying young and
36 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
leaving no near heirs, bequeathed his property as appears from the following inscription on his monument : —
"This monument to tlie memory of Pelatiali Allen, who died Feb. 5th, 1821, in the twenty-fourth year of liis age, was erected by the Congregational Society of Wintoubury, of which he was a member. Mr. Allen early arrived at maturity in the powers of his mind, and was possessed of more than ordinary energy and decision of character. In the testamentary disposal of his estate good judgment and benevolence were happily united. After several legacies to individuals, he gave ,£200 for foreign missions, £100 annually forever for the relief of the indus- trious poor of Wintonbury, £30 annually for the support of religious psalmody in the Congregational Society, and £200 to £270 annually forever for the support of the gospel in the same society."
The whole property of his father had fallen to him in rather a singular manner. He was tha only son by a second marriage which was so offensive to the children of the first, that they in turn offended their father, and were turned off, each and all, witliout a shilling.
The state and town poor-house was kept for many years early in the century by Captain David W. Grant, who found it lucrative, and ^ , /? 1^^^ ^ handsome property to his only son,
CL^^ ^"--tSs-.***^"**^ Wadswortli, who built the house of rough ■=^ """"■" ""■"--^^*'^ stone in the western part of the town,
and w^as one of Bloomlield's most liberal- minded citizens as long as he lived.
Hiram Roberts, belonging to one of the oldest families in the place, which settled there before 1700, was for many years the merchant of the town and a lead- ing citizen, and was twice sent to the '^/// V State Legislature. ^(l//4^^/?9Z/ He w^as a man of un- '^ ^j^ ^ '
usual judgment and integrity ; and when he died, at only forty-eight years of age, he w^as widely mourned.
Some others of the leading men of the place — several of them cap- tains in the War of 1812, some of them representatives of the town in the State Legislature, and nearly all substantial farmers who died at a good old age — were: Elihu Mills, who is remembered as never having failed to be in his seat at church twenty minutes too early, and who was the last man to give up the custom of standing during prayer ; Elijah Oris- wold, a noted singing-master, and one of the two publishers of an early singing-book, " Connecticut Harmony" (printed about 1800), the engraved copper-plates and little press for which are still in existeiice ; the three Bidwell brothers, the Hitchcocks and BroAvns, and cajjtains Lord, Goodwin, Filley, Loomis, and Rowley. The last named outlived all i\\G, rest of the old soldiers. These captains drilled the old militia company, which mustered from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty men, and was disbanded just long enough before our Civil War for it to find only ra^v recruits ; but of these Bloomfield sent her share. The wdiole number who went to the war was one hundred and ninety- two, and this was thirteen above her quota.
Another name to be remembered in connection with this town is that of Francis Gillette, the son of Elder Aslibel Gillet. The son was led to change the spelling of his name by a request received when in
BLOOMFIELD. 37
college from a distant relative, who had ascertained tlie original spell- ing of the name, whicli is French. His Bloomficld life was interrupted for several years by the death of his father when he was only six years old. His mother, at her second marriage, two or three years after, removed the family to Ashfield, Mass. There, in the face of many obstacles, he fitted himself for Yale College. ^^^^^ After graduating (1829), .^X^-^^:^^^
and being thwarted by weak lungs in his at- tempt to study law, he took up life again in his first home as a farmer, and in 1834 built his house of unhewn stone brought from the near mountain-side. It is still a striking feature of the town, s-et far back from the street, and entered from two directions through winding: avenues of trees.
This is the west half of his father's farm, of two hundred acres or more, lying a mile and a half from the Centre, on the Hartford road. Here for eighteen years he lived, his health entirely re-established by much out-of-door life, and his mind deeply devoted to the interests of Bloomfield. At the incorporation of the town he suggested the new name, which was at once adopted. He did all that lay in his power for its educational improvement, bringing about the building of the neat brick school-house in his district in the place of the ancient little wooden one in the hollow, with its knife-hacked desks and awkward benches, where he had learned his first lessons. More than once when in his possession \\\q old stone house welcomed and gave shelter for a night to the Hying slave, whose stories and songs, as he warmed and cheered himself by the fire, made a lifelong impression upon his young listeners. Mr. Gillette's earnest advocacy of the Antislavery cause showed itself first in a fearless speech on striking the word "white" from the State Constitution. This was in the legislature, where he had been sent by Bloomiield in 1838. He had been sent there once before, in 1832, at the age of twenty-four, by Windsor, before "Wintonbury had become an incorporated town. In 1841, against his will, he was nomi- nated for governor by the Liberty party ; and during the next twelve years the Liberty and Free-Soil parties frequently rej)eated the nomi- nation. In 1851 he was elected United States Senator for the remain- der of the term of the Hon. Truman Smith, who had resigned. Mr. Gillette's election was just in time for him to cast his vote against the Nebraska Bill, which was })assed at midnight of the day of his arrival in Washington. He was also active all his life in the cause of temper- ance and in the promotion of education. Hartford had been his home for thirty years, when he died there, on the 30th of September, 1879, at the age of seventy-two. He was l;)uried in Farmington.
Of other natives of Bloomfield who have recently died, a most ex- cellent and Widely loved man was Jay Filley, a son of Caj^tain Oliver Filley. He spent his last years in Hartford. Other sons took more or less prominent positions in the West, one of them having been mayor of St. Louis.
Samuel R. Wells, the well-known phrenologist, lecturer, and author, was born in Bloomfield.
3S MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Of those still living, James G. Batterson is one of the leading citi- zens of Hartford and a prominent business man of New England, the head of the New England Granite Company, president of the Travellers' Insurance Company, and one of the pioneers of Accident Insurance in the United States, — a man of great energy and public spirit.
Lester A. Roberts, a man of unusually wide intelligence and some literary note, is now a resident of Brooklyn, but still makes Bloomfield his summer home.
The population of the town, by the census of 1880, was 1,346.
(SiuaJtd Q: ^hu-ict^
IV. BRISTOL,
BY EPAPHRODITUS PECK.
THE town of Bristol lies in the soutliAvestern part of Hartford County, touching Litchfield County on the west and New Haven on the southwest ; it is bounded north by Burlington, east by Farm- ington and Plainville, south by Southington and Wolcott, west by Plym- outh. From 1806, when the Burlington parish w^as set off from this town, till 1875, when its symmetry was destroyed by the annexation to its territory of a single farm, formerly a part of Southington, it was exactly five miles square. In surface hilly, in soil rocky and somewhat unfertile, it has of necessity become a manufacturing rather than a farming town. With Fall Mountain for its southern boundary. Chip- pins (modernized form of Cochipianee's) Hill on the northwest, and Federal Hill occupying all the centre, there is left but a narrow valley, sloping down from the higlier land in Terryville to the eastward plains. Through this runs the Pequabuck River, furnishing power for most of tlie larger factories. On the plains, at the east side of the town, lies the village of Forestville, which has come to furnish an important part both of the population and of the business of the town.
The history of the town began with its settlement by white people in 1727. To the Indians, as to the early settlers of Farmington, it had been the Great Forest, — too thiclvly covered with woods, and too valua- ble as a hunting-ground, to become a place of residence. It is probable that no considerable number of Indians ever lived within the present limits of the town. They inhabited the more level regions to the east- ward, and came hither for their supplies of game and fish. The rich- ness of these woods in game, large and small, was very soon discovered by the settlers in Fai'mington, and "• there are men now living," wrote Dr. Noah Porter in 1841, " who remember when venison was sold in our streets at twopence the pound."
The earliest mention of any ownership of the land now included in this town is on the Farmington records of 1663 ; and then jirobably for the first time had the people of that town become so numerous as to extend their farms to the border of the Great Forest.
" Att a towne meeting held att ffixrmington, their was graunted to John Wads- worth, Richard Bnuupson, and Thomas barns, Moosis Veutruss, flForty acors of meddow Land Lying att the pla(;e we commonly Call Poland, beginning att the Brook att the hither end of it and so up the Eiuer on both sides ; which was giuen upon Consideration of thirty acors that was taken out of their farm at Paquabuck."
40 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
This district of Poland was probably in tlie northeastern part of the present town of Bristol, and this record indicates a much greater an- tiquity to the name of Poland than has been generally ascribed to it. Popular tradition has supposed that the name, which now belongs to a little stream, Poland Brook, in East Bristol, was derived from the name of an Indian who lived upon its bank sixty years later than the date of this record. It may be sui)posed that " their farm at Paqua- buck " lay within the present town of Plainville ; with the lapse oi time the name has been moved seven miles toward the west.
" Jenewary, 16G4, their was giueu to John Langton and Georg Oruis twenty acors a piece at poland, after John Wadsworth haue taken out his forty acors, if it be Not their to be had to Looke out other Wheer they may find it, and so to Repay er the town for the graunt of it."
Evidently the " meddow land " at Poland was not very abundant, if there Avas danger of its being exhansted by the ai)proj)riation of " fforty acors." For many years after this the people of Farmington extended their farms in other directions, and the Great Forest was undisturbed except by the hunters, who found in it still an inexhaustible supply of game.
In 1721 the eighty-four original proprietors of Farmington made partition among themselves of the undivided lands lying to the west of their settlements. The land was surveyed into six divisions, each a mile wide and five miles long, running from north to south. The last five of these divisions constitute the present limits of Bristol. For six years more no settlements were made ; but in 1727, by a deed bearing date November 22, Daniel Brownson, of Farmington, bought a farm lying near the present corner of West and South streets, known as (toosc Corner; and there, in the same year, the first house was built. This house has not been standing for many years.
The next year, 1728, Ebenezer Barnes, from Farmington, and Nehe- miah Manross, from Lebanon, bought lands, built houses, and moved
hither their families. Mr. Barnes's house P C? /yr !^ ^^''^^ never been removed, and now forms the
<^Qf y^:2e:^' b^i^^f^S' central part of Julius E. Pierce's residence
in East Bristol ; this was undoubtedly the earliest house of which any part now remains. Mr. Barnes's descend- ants have always remained here, and have been among our best-known families. Mr. Manross's house stood a short distance south of the pres- ent dwelling-house
and^'^ar'irng'ao-li Q/4JiJLArU ^i^fi^ "fjiaJLA^O^^ destroyed. Captain ^
Newton Manross, whose death at Antietam was so much lamented, was one of his descendants, and others still reside here. It is probable that a house was built on the east Fall Mountain road in this year (1728) by Abner Matthews, a little south of the one now occupied by Munson Wilcox. This house was afterward bought by Elias Wilcox, but for many years no part of it has been standing. In 1729 Nathaniel Mes- senger, from Hartford, and Benjamin Buck, from Farmington, built houses near Neliemiah Manross, — Messenger on the east side of the road and Buck farther north, near the site of J. C. Kurd's present
BRISTOL,
43
residence. Neither of their houses is now standing, nor do any of their descendants remain in Bristol. The next year John Brown, from Colchester, bought land and built a house' north of Ebenezer Barnes, on the east side of the road. The land bought by Mr. Brown included the site of the Bristol Brass and Clock Com- pany's rolling-mill, and the house he then built remained till 1878, when it was pulled down. It is not known that any other settlers came here till 1736, when Moses Lyman, of Wallingford, bought land and built a residence on Fall Mountain, on the place now occupied by A. C. Bailey.
In 1738, or thereabout, Ebenezer Hamblin, of Barnstable, Mass., built a house on the road to Farmington, near Poland Brook, farther to the east than any house had yet been built. The cellar-place may still be seen. Three years late/ he built another house, between Nehemiah Manross and 'Benjamin Buck. This man was somewhat prominent among the early settlers, but has left no descendants in town, and no part of either of his houses is standing.
Two Gaylord families came to Bristol in 1741 or 1742. Joseph
Gaylord settled on Chippins Hill on the place which has been owned by his descend- ants until lately ; and David Gaylord, afterward one of the first deacons, built a house on the lot where Henry A. Pond now lives, on East Street, near the railroad.
Benjamin Hungerford, who, through his daughter, was an ancestor of another Gaylord family of Bristol, settled upon Fall Mountain, near the site of Hiram Gillis's
^C^M^
Cr^
f^exk
house, in 1746. About 1747, Zebulon Peck, from whom most of those here bearing that name are descended, built a house near Daniel Brownson, and nearly back of G. S. Hull's present tenement house, and very soon began to keep a
tavern there. Ben-
4»j> jamin Brooks, Ger-
/^ /lyij^^J^ jt^f'7 t.yf shorn Tuttle, and
X^'' ^JTI/UtTU <^ /^^'^ZCe^ Caleb Matthews set-
J •"■^--% ^jgfl Q^ Chippins
^ _ Hill at about the
same time as Joseph Gaylord, and that corner of the parish played for many years quite an important part in local history.
The men whose names and the dates of whose settlement are still preserved were probably the more ]>romincnt of the inhabitants, but others before this date had come hither, and had erected houses, of which nothing is now known. Several houses were built very early, perhaps before the middle of the century, on the road which runs east from N. P. Bucll's house. An early settlement was also made in what is called the Stafford District, and houses still standing there show
44 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
great age in their materials and workmanship. The houses in the eastern and central part of the town were framed, built with the mas- sive timbers of that age. Log houses were built on Fall Mountain, and it is said that when the heavy doors were ojjen during the day the women used to pin up blankets across the doorway, that it might not be entirely open to the bears and the Indians. It was still not an uncommon event for the more isolated families to see bears proAvling about near their housi3s; and so late as 1750 a huge bear was killed near her father's house by Abigail Peck, a sturdy girl of fourteen, who had been left at home from meeting by her parents.
The Indians, who had found these woods a fruitful hunting-ground for many generations, were greatly enraged at the white men, who had driven away their game and were levelling the forest ; and the set- tlers whose houses were remote from neighbors were in constant fear of injury from the savages. Gideon Ives, of Middletown, was on a hunting-tour on Fall Mountain at one time with a Mr. Gaylord, when they discovered an Indian trying to shoot them. They separated, and the Indian, following Mr. Gaylord, was shot by Mr. Ives. The two men buried his body, not daring even to keep the valuable weapons which he wore. The locality was named from this Indian, and is still called Morgan's Swamp. Early in the history of the town a Mr. Scott, who had begun to clear a piece of land on Fall Mountain, intending to move hither from Farmington, was seized by a party of Indians and horribly tortured. His screams were heard a long way ; but the In- dians were so many that no one dared to go to the rescue, and a consid- erable number of the settlers, fearino: an attack from the infuriated Indians, hid themselves all day in the bushes near the river.
These early families were all Congregationalists. Every Sunday a little procession went through the woods eight miles to the old church at Farmington. A few families had two-horse carts, in which all rode together ; but more often the father rode on horseback and the mother behind him on a pillion, while the young people walked, taking great care not to break the Sabbath by any undue levity.
In 1742 the hamlet had become so numerous that the people felt able to maintain preaching for themselves during a part of the year ; and in October of that year a memorial was presented to the General Assembly reciting the distance from the place where " publick Worship of God is sett up," and asking the " Liberty of hireing an Authordox and suitably quallifyed person to preach y** Gospel " for six montlis of each year. This petition was granted, and the desired jjermission was given. The first meeting of the inhabitants was held Nov. 8, 1742, to organize, and take necessary action in compliance with the Assem- bly's resolution. This meeting voted to have preaching, so long as the Court had given them liberty, and to hold the meetings at John Brown's house. Edward Gaylord, Nehemiah Manross, and Ebenezer Hamblin were elected the society's committee.
At a meeting a month later they voted to hire Mr. Thomas Canfield to preach during the winter. This clergyman, the first to preach the gospel in this town, was born in 1720, graduated at Yale College in 1739, was settled at Roxbury in 1744, and died there in 1794. He preached here only one winter ; the next fall (1743) the society
BRISTOL. 45
empowered the committee to choose a preacher for the coming winter, and it is not known who was hired. This same fall of 1743 the people began to consider the subject of asking for incorporation as a regular ecclesiastical society, and appointed a committee to seek an act of incor- poration from the General Assembly. In 1744 the consent of the first society in Farmington was obtained, and another petition was sent to the Assembly with the same request.
Among the signatures to this petition are several which did not appear on the former one ; those which probably denote the settlement in the parish of new families are Hezekiah Ifew, Joseph Graves, Caleb Abernethy, Ezekiel Palmer, ^fo ^
Zebulon Frisbe, Thomas Hart. Of these, Heze- if^Z: VC^^ kiah Rew, afterward one of the first deacons of
the Cono-reo-ational Church, lived on the corner where Elias Ingraham's residence now^ stands. Caleb Abernethy, in 1742, built a house near
Nehomiah Manross and Nathan-
^ /} , iel Messenger, on the south
•» ^ ff n f J^ A corner, opposite N. P. Buell's
(aa^ J\J^^^m^^J^ present house; Thomas Hart
V- ^ ^^ was one of tlie first settlers
in Stafford District, so called. The General Assembly granted the petition, and gave the society the name of New Cambridge. The first society meeting was holden June 4, 1744, and at this meeting it was "Voted,
That we would apply ourselues to the next ^-^l^p dC-,^ -^
Assosiation for aduice in order to the bring- (Al^ WUX) jtXM^ ing in a minister amongst us as soon as Con-
uenontly may be." Three days after this the society voted to apply to Mr. Joseph Adams as a candidate for settlement in the ministry. He graduated at Yale College in 1740, and died in 1782. Apparently he was not acceptable to the people, for his name is not mentioned again.
In September the society voted to invite Mr. Samuel Newell to preach with them until December 1. Mr. Newell was a stanch defender of the Calvinistic doctrines, and on this account he was strongly opposed by some of the society. In December of the same year a resolution to liire Mr. Newell, in case it should be the advice of the Association, received seven opposing votes, and the council which was summoned advised the calling of some other minister, in hopes that the society might be more united. Accordingly, in 1746 Messrs. Ichabod Camp and Christopher Newton, men whose doctrinal views agreed with those of the opposition to Mr. NcAvell, were successively invited to preacli. They appear to have had no better success ; and in March, 1747, another call was given to Mr, Newell, subject to the advice of the council, the vote standing thirty-six to ten. This council advised the settlement of Mr. Newell, and he was ordained Aug. 12, 1747.
" And here it must be noted," says the record, " that Caleb mathews, Stephen Brooks, John hikox, Caleb Abernathy, Abner mathews, Abel Royce, Daniel Roe k Simon tuttel jjublikly declared themselves of tiie Church of England and under the bishop of london." Nehemiah Royce and Benjamin Brooks followed in a few months, and these ten men formed the first Episcopal society in New Cambridge. Abner Matthews afterward returned to the Congregational Church, and again became
ir's salary ^ as good
dred pounds is now." ^n ^ ^^/y i^ i fflPl
, him a bouse (the ^J/ / /// 1/ / /- / ^> V"^^^
known as the " Dr. "^
46 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
a leading member. These seceders were among the prominent men of the society, and tlieir secession must liave been a severe loss.
The society contracted with Mr. Newell to pay him a sum grad- ually increasing from <£1-1:0 in 1747 to ^300 ill 1758, and there- after. This sum was to be ])aid in bills of credit of the colony or in grain, and the society agreed to make each year's salary ^ as good to him as 3 hundi They also built old house now k
Pardee place '') and furnished him with firewood. The extent to which our local currency had depreciated is shown by the fact that in 1759 a committee arbitration agreed on ^£55 a year in silver as a full equiva- lent for the £300 salary due to Mr. Newell in bills of credit.
Hitherto the meetings had been held at private houses : the houses of Ebenezer Barnes, John Brown, Stephen Barnes, Abner Matthews,
and John Hickox having each been
^*^ _^ « used for that purpose. In Mav, 1745,
Ol^^p^LC^ JirJ^,fZS the society voted by a more than
two-thirds majority to build a meeting- house " as soon as with Convenience may be." In October, 1746, a committee of the General Assembly, which was at that time the general director of Congregational churches, selected a site about sixty feet northeast of tlie present church building, and drove there a stake to mark the centre of the building. Here the society " with all convenient speed " built the first meeting-liouse, forty feet by thirty. It was northeast of where the meeting-house now stands, and almost directly in the present line of Maple Street. It was furnished with the great square pews then in vogue, the best one of wliich was re- served for the deacons and the poorest for the negroes. The church expenses were then paid by general taxation, and each year a committee assigned the pews among the members of the congregation according to their wealth. In order, however, to ])ay proper respect to age and official rank, it was provided that every person should be allowed fiftv shillino-s for each vear of his age, and that a captain should be al- lowed in addition twenty pounds, a lieu- tenant ten, and an ensign five. This custom was called "■ diffuifvinsi' the meet- ing-house." It furnished a convenient official designation of the social status of the different persons and families of a community. After the gallery was put into the meeting-house the negroes were directed to sit there ; and so when the theatres established their gallery regulations they were really borrowing an old rule of the church. The children were seated on benches in the aisles ; the old men ill front, each one with a white starched cap uj)on his head. In 1752 it was voted that the men and women sit together in the pews ; seeming to indicate th;it tlie sexes had liitherto been seiiarated. In 1753 it was
DEACONS CAP.
BRISTOL.
47
voted that the young people should be seated in the meeting-house (that is, in the pews instead of on Itenches), " meukind at sixteen \-ears of age, and female at fourteen.'' \Mien the church was gathered for the fast preparatory to the ordination of Parson Xewell, it included about twenty families. These, with the eight or ten families who had de- clared themselves Episcopalians, probably constituted almost or quite the entire population of the parish. Parson Xewell is said to have been an able preacher. His fame spread through the neighboring towns, and many families moved hither to listen to his preaching. He remained pastor of the church till his death in 1789.
The second Congregational meeting-house was completed in ITTO, sixty-five feet by forty-five in size, nearly upon the site of the old one ; and in 1831 the third building was erected, which, having been twice remodelled inside, is still in use.
For some time after the withdrawal of the ten members to the Church
'i. \.>.
/r!
/
"^^ ^-?~ L»\^?' ,_-^;J=*
-,,i,iiffi)'i'i'
m.j^
HOUSE BUILT BY ABEL LEWIS. ^
of England they seem to have had no rector and no regular place of meeting. They protested against the payment of the ecclesiastical taxes, and in 1749 the society compromised with them, the Churchmen agree- ing to pay half their tax until they should have a pastor of their own to support. Most of the Churchmen, as they were called, lived on Chippins Hill, near the borders of Xorthljury (now Plymouth), and attended service in that town. In 1758 they hired Mr. Scovel to preach for them a part of the time. The charge of this clergyman included the parishes of Waterbury, TTestbury (now Watertown), Northbury. and New Cambridge: and in 1762 his time was further di^^ded by the addition of Farmington to his charge. A small Episcopal church building had been completed in 1754, opposite the Congregational meeting-house,
1 The arched windows were taken from the old Episcopal Church.
48
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
north or northwest of the present First District school-house. In 1774 Mr. Scovel was succeeded by the Rev. James Nichols, who acted as rector until the outbreak of the Revolution. The Episcopalians were nearly or quite all fierce Tories, and bitter hatred was felt toward
them by their more loyal neighbors. The excitement was
so great
that attempts are said to have been made upon the life of the rector and of one at least t)f the laymen. Some of them went to New York, others stayed very quietly at home, and public services were abandoned until 1783. Attempts were made in that year, l)ut without success, to build a new church, and services were again held in the old building, Revs. James Nichols, Samnel Andrews, James Scovel, and Ashbel Bald- win successively acting as rectors. In 1790 the Episcopalians of North- bury, Harwinton, and Bristol united, and built a house for worship which is still standing, known as Plymouth East Church, and for forty- four years no Episcopal services were held in Bristol. It has been a
es
^f^ ."^- ;fh
INLAID CHEST BROUGHT TO KEW CAMBRIDGE, 1744-47. — PARSON XEWELL'S ARM-CHAIR.— CARVED POWDER- HORN, 1755. —SWORD AM) CANTEEN, USED BY LIEU- TENANT ROGER LEWIS IN THE REVOLrTION. CANTEEN PIERCED BY A BULLET AT MONMOUTH COURT-HOUSE.
RELICS OF OLD TIMES.
local tradition that the church property was confiscated as belonging to the Bishop of London, and therefore forfeited by the war ; but this is a mistake. The church building and land were sold (after the removal of the church) to Abel LcAvis, who used the building as a barn. The win- dows are still used in the tenement-house of Mrs. Theodore Stearns.
In the two wars which took ])lace during the latter half of the cen- tury the peo]^le of New Cambridge took such jiart as their numbers allowed. At the outbreak of the French and Indian war of 1755 Parson Newell vigorously defended from the puli)it the claims of the British
BRISTOL. 49
Crown, and several of liis people entered his Majesty's army. A militia company had already been organized, of which Zelnilon Peck was captain. He and his son Justus were among the New Cambrido-e members of the British army. These volunteers were stationed in the nortliern part of Vermont.
At the onthreak of the Revolution a strong division existed in the community. Parson Newell sujjported the colonial cause, and his parishioners were strong Wliigs. The Einscopalian settlers, on the other hand, were Tories, and meetings of the friends of King George throughout tlie State were often held secretly ou Chippins Hill. At one time the Whigs heard that such a meeting was to Ijc held, and stationed sentinels on all the roads leading to the rendezvous. One party of these sentries arrested a well-known Tory, Chauncey Jerome by name, and after a summary trial found him guilty of treason and sentenced him to be hanged. They accordingly brought him down to the whipping-post, which stood across the road from the meeting-house, and hanged him to the branches of a tree which stood by the post. It was now daylight, and the executioners rode away. A few minutes later an early traveller found Jerome lianging nearly dead, cut the rope, and brought him back to consciousness.
Another of the Tories, Moses Dunl)ar, was more regularly and com- pletely hanged. He was arrested in 1776, charged with secretly enlist- ing soldiers for King George's army, tried by the Superior Court at Hartford, found guilty of treason, and hanged there March 19, 1777. The great majority of the society, however, were standi Whigs, and a considerable number of men enlisted in the colonial army. It is impossible to tell how many, l)ut it is said that nearly all tlie men of proper age either volunteered or were drafted. It is known that some of the New Cambridge soldiers were with Washington on Long Island, during his retreat to New York and New Jersey, the attacks on Tren- ton and Princeton, and through the dreary winter at Valley Forge.
No steps toward the establishment of a separate town organization are recorded till Dec. 24, 1781, when it was voted '' that we wish to be incorporated into a town in connection with West Britain." Com- mittees were ap|jointed to confei' with the West Britain society and with the town of Farmington. The town opposed the separation ; but, arrange- ments satisfactory to the two societies liaving been made, a petition was sent to the General Assembly in May, 1785, praying for a separate town organization. This petition states the grand list of the two societies at £17,218 17.S. 2d.
The request was granted, and an act passed the same month incor- porating the town of Bristol. This name appears for the lirst time in the act of incorporation, and was apparently selected by the Assembly.
The first town-meetino; was
^^^^^ ^/S'j^^^^^^T^
^n
<^^y / /^ ^ '^^^^^ ^* ^^^° ^^^^' Cambridge
^yj::,-d^X(»X r^' "^^-^ meeting-house June 13,
*"y 1785. Joseph Bymgton,
Deacon Elisha Manross, Zebulon Peck, Esq., Simeon Hart, Esq., and Zebulon Frisbie, Jr., were chosen the first board of selectmen; of these, Manross, Peck, and
VOL. II. — 4.
50 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Byington represented the New Cambridge society, and Frisbie and Hart, West Britain. Thereafter, town-meetings were held alternately in the two parishes, and the town officers were divided nearly equally
between them. The union seems never to have been very harmonious, A '^'^ COf (/^ cf ^^^^ ill ^^ay, 1806, the West Britain Oy parish was made a separate town by
the name of Burlington. The year after the removal to East Church of the Episcopal society, another ecclesiastical body was organized, taking a part of its member- ship from this town. April 13, 1791, a small number of Baptist believers from Northbury, Farmingbury (now Wolcott), and Bristol, met in Northbury, at a house belonging to Edmond Todd, near the corner of the three towns, and organized the Second Watcrtown Baptist Church. This building is still standing, now an old barn. Meetings were held alternately in Northbury, Farmingbury, and Bristol. In 1793 Elder Isaac Root became the pastor of this church ; it is not now known whether or not they had any earlier pastor. At first the Northbury members were in a majority, afterward Wolcott and Bristol. In 1800 the allotment of services, one half to be held in Bristol, one third in Wolcott, and one sixth in Plymouth, shoAvs that the Bristol part of the church had become the strongest. About 1795 Elder Daniel Wildman began to act as jjastor, and # —
to his zealous labors the ^^ * . ^^^/^
prosperity and rapid growth ^x^ ^S^z-z^o^^ ^^^.^ah'^i/l^Xyyi^ of the early church Avere
largely due. In 1798 the membership of the church was sixty-six, and in 1817 it was considerably over one hundred. In 1800 the erection of a meeting-house was determined upon, and the work Avas begun the folloAving year. Tliis building Avas forty-tAvo by thirty-tAVO feet in size, and stood upon land Avhich had l^een giA^en to the society for that purpose by Elder AVildman. In 1830 a larger building upon the same site took its place. The old church became the case-shop of the Atkins Clock Company, and is still used for that purpose by its successors in business. This second building Avas used till 1880, when the society buil^ the handsome brick church AAdiich they now use.
At the beginning of this century the toAvn of Bristol Avas a consid- erable farming hamlet. The population, by the census of 1800, Avas 2,723. The New Cambridge society was a very little stronger than West Britain, and had probably a population of about fourteen hun- dred. Upon the hill stood the Congregational meeting-house confronted by a row of " Sabba'-day houses." Some of these Avere built about 1754, and were still standing in the first decade of the century. Hither, at noon, Avent each family that lived at a distance from the meeting- house, to eat their lunch, replenish their foot-sto\'es, and indulge in such decorous conversation as Avas suited to the sacred day. Near these houses of public comfort stood the majesty of the law in the shape of stocks and Avhipping-post. The former of these Avas occa- sionally used, the latter almost never. In 1828 a negro boy Avas sen- tenced by a village justice to receiA^e ten lashes on his bare back at this post, and the punishment was administered in presence of a large
BRISTOL. 51
crowd. This was certainly the last, and perhaps the first, use of the post. A mile distant, in the valley, stood the Baptist meeting-house, and between Elder Wildman and Parson Cowles the battle often waxed hot in discussion of the merits of baptism by sprinkling and of the necessity and expediency of infant baptism.
New Cambridge, like every other New England parish, had very early supplied itself with schools. In 1754 liberty was given by the Farmington town-meeting to build two school-houses in this parish, — one on the hill, near the site of the present Eonian Catholic parson- age, the other on Chippins Hill. Before this there had been a school, probably meeting at some private house. In December, 1747, the society voted that a lawful school should be kept, and three months later it was "Voted, That we would have a school kept in this society six months ; namely, 3 months by a ]\Iaster and 3 months by a Dame." In 1768 the parish was divided into five districts; and, not long after, school4iouses were standing, one north of Parson Ncwell's residence, one near the south graveyard, one on West Street not very far north from Goose Corner, one on Chippins Hill, and one in the northeastern part of the parish. Here were taught the elementary branches of education, always including the Westminster Catechism ; once a week Parson Newell called upon the school and examined the children in the Catechism.
A few of the farms in town were cultivated by slave labor. The Jerome family, living in the northeastern part of the town, in the house still owned by their descendants, kept three slaves ; and one Isaac Slielton, who lived on Chippins Hill, near the west line of the town, OAvned a larger number. Their condition was certainly a very mild form of bondage. The negroes went to church and their children went to school. Early in the century a gradual emancipation act was passed, which put an end to slavery here, as elsewhere in the State. About this time witchcraft caused much excitement in Bristol, and greatly frightened some of the good people. One young girl, Norton by name, on the mountain, declared that she was bewitched by her aunt, Avho, she said, had often put a bridle upon her and driven her through the air to Albany, where great witch-meetings were held. Elder Wildman became interested in this girl, and had her brought to his own house that he might exorcise her. She stayed overnight, and after midnight the Elder, thoroughly frightened by the awful sights and sounds whicli had appeared to him, begged some of the neighbors to come and stay with him. One bold unbeliever, who offered to go with him, was frightened into convulsions by what he saw and heard, and was sick a long time in consequence. Deacon Dutton, of the Bap- tist Churcli, incurred the enmity of the witches, and an ox which he was driving one day was suddenly torn apart by some invisible power. Other people were tormented by unseen hands pinching them, sticking red-hot pins into their flesh, and bringing strange maladies upon them.
"So the old chronicles say, that were writ in tlie days of the fathers."
Before 1800, Bristol people had no way of receiving mail except through the Farmington post-office. About that year a post-rider began to go through the town weekly, carrying papers and letters in saddle-bags. In 1805 the stage-route was built, and thereafter Bristol
52
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
J^U^ J$J^r/^
had easier communication with the outside world. A militia company was organized in 1747, of which Caleb Matthews was the first captain. Judah Barnes was afterward captain for several years, and the annual training was held on the level ground east of the Barnes tavern ; after- ward an artillei-y company Avas organized, and trainings were held for many years on the green near the Congregational meeting-house. The first tavern kept in New Cambridge was at the Ebenezer Barnes house. In 1745 we find this mentioned on the town records as a then exist- ing institution. This tavern was kept by the Barnes family till their removal in 1795, and afterward by the Pierce family. Soon after the settlement of Parson Newell, Zebulon Peck came here, attracted by the fame of his preaching, and began to keep a tavern back of the Daniel Brownson house at Goose Corner. Both these men were prominent in town and church, the latter being a deacon. In the early part of this century there were in the New Cambridge society, besides the Pierce tavern, one on Fall Mountain, kept by Joel Norton ; one on West Street, kept by Deacon Austin Bishop ; one near the Con- gregational meeting-house, kept by Abel Lewis ; one kept by widow Thompson, in the house now owned by Carlos Lewis ; one at Parson Newell's former residence (the Dr. Pardee place), kept by his son's widow ; one on Chippins Hill, kept by Lemuel Carrington ; and one near the south line of the West Britain parish, kept by Asa Bartholomew.
The Barnes family, before 1745, established a saw-mill and grist- mill near their tavern, taking their power from the Pequabuck River, about where the present dam of the Bristol Brass and Clock Company stands. A distillery, saw- mill, and grist-mill were also running in Polk- ville, in the early part of this century, on the present G. W. k H. S. Bartholomew site, but they were probably started half a century later than the Barnes mill. Of the other industries carried on at this early time very little can be
said. Mention is frequently made of " shops " in different parts of the town. These were prob- ably small black- smith, tin-ware, or cobbler's shops, manufacturing no goods for market. A very small beginning was made about 1800 in the clock business by one Gideon Roberts, who lived on Fall Mountain. He made the columns and pinions on a small foot-lathe, cut out the wheels with his jack-knife and hand-saw, and painted the dial-face on a piece of wliite paper wliich he afterward pasted upon the clock. When he had finished a few, he mounted his horse, with the clocks fastened about him, and started
A ROBERTS CLOCK.
BRISTOL. 53
out to peddle them. Many clocks made by him are known to have done good service for many years. He made clocks in this rude way several years, and handed down the business to his sons. Very little is known as to the number of clocks made by this family or the leno-th of time they continued in the business.
In the second decade other clock-makers began business and con- ducted it on a much larger scale. Joseph Ives made wood movements as early as 1811, in a small building a little way north of the present site of Laporte Hubbell's shop. It is said that Chauncey Boardman began the next year to make clock movements in a shop south of the Burner shop site. It is certain that he was established here a few years later, doing a considerable business. In 1838 he began to make brass clocks, and continued this until his failure in 1850. Charles G. Ives also made wooden clocks during this decade in the small shop still standing on Peaceable Street. The Ives Brothers, five in number, began in 1815, or thereabout, to manufacture clocks a few hundred feet north of the present Noah Pomeroy shop, on the same brook ; and, still fartlier up the stream, Butler Dunbar and Dr. Titus Merriman carried on the same business. In 1818 Joseph Ives invented a metal clock, with iron plates and brass wheels, and began its manufacture in a shop near the present Dunbar spring-shop. This clock was large and clumsy, and never became very successful. Al)out the amount of business done by these early makers little information is now avail- able. They made the old-fashioned clock, which hung up on the wall, with the long pendulum swinging beneath. In 1814 Eli Terry, of Plymouth, invented and Ijegan to make a shelf-clock. This very soon drove the old hang-up clocks out of market, and the manufacture of clocks in Bristol entirely ceased about 1820.
Lack of space forbids a detailed account of the many firms which afterward carried on the clock business with greater or less success. Soon after the cessation of the business in 1820 it was revived by Chauncey Jerome, the most prominent of our early manufacturers. In 1822, he built a factory at the old Pierce mill site, where the Bris-
'^/^
tol Brass and Clock Company's dam now stands ; and in 1825, another small factory near the present spoon-shop site. The next year Main Street was laid out, and a bridge built across the river to accom- modate travel to this factory. Mr. Jerome's business was thought to be very great, as he made nearly ten thousand clocks .a year. Duriiig the next fifteen years Samuel Terry, the Ives Brothers, Rollin and Irenus Atkins, Bartholomew k Brown, Elisha Manross, George Mitchell, Ephraim Downs, Charles Kii-k, and possibly others, began making clocks or clock parts ; but all of these, except Jerome and Terry, were either ruined or severely crippled by the panic of 1837. In 1838 Mr. Jerome invented the one-day brass clock, which made an epoch in the clock business. Hitherto one-day clocks had been made only of wood, and were therefore much less durable and much
54 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
more expensive than the brass clocks invented bv Mr. Jerome, and were also incapable of transportation by water. The success of the new clocks was so great that in 1843 Mr. Jerome built two large fac- tories, one on each side of Main Street, just below the river. In 1842 he sent Epaphroditus Peck to England to introduce there the Yankee brass clock. Mr. Peck found the cheapness and small size of his clocks the greatest obstacle to their sale, dealers thinking these a suf- ficient proof of their worthlessness. The British Government, sus- pecting the low valuation which was put upon them at the custom-house to be fraudulent, confiscated the first cargo, paying therefor, in accord- ance with the custom-house regulations, the importer's valuation with ten per cent addition. Mr. Jerome, well pleased to sell his clocks by the cargo, sent another load, which was seized on the same terms. A third cargo was allowed to pass, and after much trouble was sold in small quantities. A good English market was finally made for the clocks, and Mr. Peck stayed in England, selling for Mr. Jerome and other Bristol makers, till his death, in 1857. In 1845 these two fac- tories, and also a large factory of Samuel Terry, which had replaced Jerome's first one on the Pierce site, were burned. Mr. Jerome moved to New Haven at once, and the town seemed to have received a crush- ing blow. His one-day brass clock, however, had revived the business of all the clock-makers, and a new succession of small manufacturers entered the field, nearly every one of whom failed in 1857.
The settlement of the village of Forestville was begun in 1833 by the firm of Bartholomew, Hills, & Brown. They built a factory at what is now the centre of the village, on the south side of the river, and made wooden clocks there. Mr. Hills and Eli Barnes, one of the workmen, built there, in 1835, the first dwelling-houses. The name of Forestville was selected as appropriate to the little opening in the woods. This factory, after passing through several intermediate hands, became the nucleus of the present business of the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company. This company was formed in 1864, and has since added to its plant the factories originally built by the Forestville Hardware Company and by the Forestville Machine Company. It has been for several years the leading clock manufactory in Bristol.
The firm of Welch, Spring, & Co. was formed in 1868, and has since been engaged in the clock business, making a very high grade of goods. Its business has been done in the Manross shop at Forest- ville, which was burned down and rebuilt in 1873, and in the old sash- factory at Bristol, which had been occupied for thirty years by Ives & Birge, Case & Birge, and by John Birge alone, in the same business. Mr. Elias Ingraham began manufacturing clocks in 1843 in partner- ship with Deacon Elislia Brewster. Mr. Ingraham originally came to Bristol in 1827, having been hired by Mr. George Mitchell to design and make clock-cases. He was then twenty-two years old, and a cabinet- maker by trade. Brewster & Ingraham made cases in a shop ])uilt by Ira Ives, and movements in the old " Burwell shop," built by Charles Kirk. This firm was succeeded by E. & A. Ingraham, and the latter, in 1856, by E. Ingraham & Co. The last-named company, having lost the Ira Ives shop by fire, bought and moved ui:)on its site the Bristol Hardware Company's factory, which it still occupies as a movement- shop. It afterward bought for a case-shop the old building which,
BRISTOL. 57
originally the meeting-house of the West Britain society, had been early moved to Bristol and used as a cotton-mill, and afterward by George Mitchell as a clock-case factory. Having reorganized in 1880 as a joint-stock corporation, it is still conducting a prosperous business.
Bristol capital was, until the panic of 1837, almost exclusively de- voted to the clock business ; but during the latter half of this century other branches of manufacture have come to be of almost equal local importance. The largest manufacturing company in town is the Bristol Brass and Clock Company, which was oi'ganized in 1850 with 8100,000 capital. The next year it built its rolling-mill and began the brass- foundry business. In 1857 it bought the spoon-shop which had been built in 1846 by the Bristol Screw Company, and afterward occupied for the manufacture of German-silver spoons, forks, and similar articles by Holmes, Tuttle, & Co. In 1868 its capital was increased to $230,000, and it bought the toy-shop of George W. Brown & Co., in which it began making lamp-burners. This shop was burned in January, 1881, and was replaced by the new three-story building, whicli is now the largest and finest factory building in Bristol. The com- pany still owns these three shops, and carries on very successfully its three distinct lines of business.
The Bristol Manufacturing Company was formed in 1837, with a capital stock of 875,000, to make satinet cloth. It built in the same year the factory building on Water Street. When satinet went out of use, it began making stockinet underwear, and has continued this business there prosperously ever since.
In 1850 the Bristol Knitting Company was organized, which bought the Benjamin Ray shop at the north side, and began the knit under- wear business. At the end of fifteen years this company dissolved, having sold its business to Xathan L. Birge, who still continues it.
The trunk hardware factories of J. H. Sessions & Son were built by Mr. Sessions in 1869. He had before that manufactured wooden-clock- trimmings, in the northern part of the town, on a much smaller scale. After his removal to Bristol centre he carried on the manufacture of small hardware goods in his new shop. Mr. Albert J. Sessions was then making trunk hardware in the old North Main Street shop, which had been built for an iron-foundry by Deacon George Welch, and after- ward occupied by Welch & Gray for the same purpose. It was here that Elisha N. Welch began his manufacturing career. After the death of his brother in 1870, J. H. Sessions united the two establishments, and for a few months occupied both shops. During that year, however, the National Water-Wheel Company was organized, and it bought from him the old shop, which it occupies in the manufacture of turbine water-wheels. In 1878 Mr. Sessions organized the Sessions Foundry Company, which bought and enlarged the Terry Foundry on Laurel Street, and began the iron-casting business in the autumn of that year.
There are now about thirty factories in Bristol, nearly one half of which are occupied for the manufacture of clocks and parts of clocks. Among the many classes of goods which have at different times been made here for market are candles, wire and horn combs, hoop-skirts, cutlery, melodeons, ivory goods, musical clocks, mechanical toys, and raw-hide belting. The list of unsuccessful ventures, of bankrupt firms, of broken corporations, would fill a long roll.
58 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
A rich vein of copper ore underlies the soil of the town, and at two places mines have been sunk and attempts made to realize a profit from this metal. Neither attempt was successful ; but there are many who believe that the failures were due to bad management, and that copper-mining might be carried on with success. The North copper- mine was opened by the Bristol Mining Company, a corporation organ- ized in 1837, with a capital of $60,000. The company soon spent its capital and stopped business. In 1851 the stockholders reorganized, and tried again to make the mine successful ; but their expenses were so great that they were forced to abandon it to mortgagees in New York. Still another attempt was made to work the mine by its new owners, and Professor Silliman, of Yale College, for a while superintended its operations ; but the plan was finally abandoned, and the mine property, having a long time lain unused, was finally sold out in 1870. The old buildings still give an appearance of ruin and desolation to the land- scape. The history of the South mine was very similar. So much capital was required in opening the mine, and the machinery used was so expensive, that the operators were ruined before they had really begun to take out any metal.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion the people of Bristol were quick to take their part in the great contest. On the 11th of May, 1861, at a special town-meeting called for that purpose, a committee was appointed, to see that the volunteers from this town were supplied with necessary comforts, and that their families were not allowed to suffer, and five thousand dollars were appropriated to be used for these pur- poses. In July, twenty Bristol men were mustered into Company B of the Fifth Regiment, and in October another little body of Bristol volun- teers entered Company C of the Fifteenth. Almost every regiment which left the State had some of our citizens in its ranks, and within a year over one hundred men had entered the army. When, in July, 1862, the President issued his call for three hundred thousand three- years men, it was thought that Bristol ought to send a company filled and officered by our own citizens. The town voted a bounty of one hundred dollars to every volunteer, and stirring war-meetings were held in Crinoline Hall. Newton S. Manross, at that time Professor of Mineralogy in Amherst College, took the lead in this movement, and
he was elected Captain of the Bristol company, — K, of the ^a^^i-^U^^ Sixteenth. All the officers of this company and seventy-four of its members were from Bristol. In about a month another call was made for three hundred thousand men to serve nine months, and Bristol again took lier part in the response which followed. Com- pany I of the Twenty-fifth was entirely officered by Bristol men, and forty-nine of its eighty-five original members were from this town. Bounties of three hundred dollars were paid from the town treasury to all who entered this company, or who at any time thereafter enlisted or furnished substitutes.
_ The whole number of men credited to the quota of this town by the adjutant-general was three hundred and eighty-seven. The enlistments and re-enlistments from our own citizens numbered two hundred and
'e) / -r
•le mine successtui
•per-
ally
thou^
i ooii tiie
yT^
I
f^'^ ^^//^
^^M^.^ J^"^ ^
i^-
<hv ES.Ba:is Sons.?^u-Jirk.
BRISTOL. 59
seventy ; of this number about twenty were re-enlistments, leaving the total number of Bristol men who were in the service very nearly two hundred and fifty. The services of the different regiments are a matter of state and national rather than of local history. The Six- teenth was hurried to Washington, furnished there with arms, and rushed into battle at Antietam almost entirely ignorant of military discipline. In this battle fell Captain Manross, killed instantly at the head of his company. A young man of high character, an earnest and successful student, having just been appointed to a seat in the faculty of Amherst College, he gave up the brilliant prospects before him to enter the army, only to fall in his first meeting with the enemy. His body was brought home and buried witli military honors, attended to the grave by the newly enlisted soldiers of the Twenty-fifth, who had not yet left Bristol. A monument has been erected to his memory in the Forestville cemetery by the students of Amherst College. Com- pany K, with the rest of this regiment, spent the following year in hard campaign work, marching, and building fortifications, rather than in sharp fighting. April 20, 1864, they were captured at Plymouth, N. C, and sent to Andersonville prison. Of the seventy-four Bristol men who went out in this company, twenty-four died in Rebel prisons, most of them at Andersonville ; and those who came back came as from the brink of the grave, shattered in body and mind, shadows of the robust men who had gone out three years before. Captain T. B. Robin- son, with two companions, escaped from Andersonville and made his way to the North, hiding by day, travelling by night, depending on the negroes for guidance and for food.
The Bristol company of the Twenty-fifth went with its regiment to Louisiana, took part in the battles of Irish Bend and Port Hudson, and was mustered out of service Aug. 23, 1863, a part of the men re-enlisting in other regiments. Our volunteers in the Fifth and Tenth went through much of the hardest fighting of the war, were with Sher- man in his famous march through Georgia, with Grant at Ap])omattox Court House, and took part in the victorious occupation of Richmond. Our soldiers' monument bears upon its side the names of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Newbern, Gettysburg, Plymouth, Fort Wagner, and Irish Bend, — battles in which Bristol soldiers were killed. Of our two hundred and fifty volunteers, fifty-four died in the service. Of these, sixteen were killed or mortally wounded in battle, twelve died of disease, two were lost at sea, and twenty-four starved in Rebel prisons. Of the entire number, only thirteen are buried in Bristol ; the rest sleep, most of them in unknown graves, at the South.
During the last year of the war the building of a monument to our dead soldiers began to be discussed, and in May, 1865, immediately after the fall of Richmond, a meeting was held and a Monument Asso- ciation organized. Subscriptions were at first limited to one dollar, that the sorrow and gratitude of the whole people might find expression, but afterward larger sums were taken. During the autumn the work was finished, and on the 20th of January, 1866, our soldiers' monument was dedicated. It is of brown Portland stone, twenty-five feet high, bearing upon its sides the names of those to whose memory it was raised, and the battles in which they fell. This was the first soldiers' monu- ment raised in Connecticut, and, it is said, the first in the country.
60 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
The mercantile and general prosperity of the town has, of course, kept pace with the development of its manufactures. Most of the early settlers built on what is now called King Street, in East Bristol, and the tavern there became the centre of what business and social life existed. Later, the building of the stage-route transferred the business centre to the north side, and the few stores were grouped about the post-office and tavern on the turnpike road. In the middle of this century the stage-road was succeeded by the railroad, and business again shifted itself to the neighborhood of the railway station, where it has ever since remained. The block of old wooden stores near the station, in which most of our merchants were then located, was burned to the ground in January, 1870. It was immediately replaced by a substantial brick block, but this too was burned in April, 1873. In February of the same year Laporte Hubbell's shop was burned, and in April, only two days after the burning of Nott & Seymour's block, the Forestville Welch & Spring shop was entirely destroyed. The burn- ing of H. A. & A. H. Warner's small shop in May completed a disas- trous list of fires. Nott & Seymour's block was rebuilt in the autumn of 1873. It has ceased, however, to be the only or the principal busi- ness building, and the centre of the town is now Avell filled with substantial and handsome stores.
In 1870 the Bristol Savings Bank was incorporated, and in 1875 the Bristol National Bank, both of which have been very valuable agents ill promoting the general prosperity. In 1871 our first permanent newspaper was started, — the "Bristol Press," — which has thus far maintained its position as a reliable local journal. At various times prior to this there had been irregular publications of small sheets, but little deserving the name of newspaper. The population of the town has increased gradually during the century of its existence, a considerable gain having been made in every decade since 1820. In 1790 the total number of inhabitants was 2,462, and in 1800, 2,723. In 1810 the number fell to 1,428, the town having been lately divided, and in 1820 a further loss to 1,362 was reported bv the census. Since that time the figures have been as follows: 1830,"l,707 ; 1840, 2,109; 1850, 2,884 ; 1860, 3,436 ; 1870, 3,788 ; 1880, 5,347. It will be noticed that during the last ten years the increase was over forty per cent, a much greater gain than in any former decade, and a gain equalled by very few towns in the State.
The history of the Congregational and Baptist churches has been sketched, and that of the early Episcopal Church. After the long sus- pension of Episcopal services which followed the removal to East Church, the society reorganized in 1834. They immediately built a small church building on Maple Street, north of Daniel S. Lardner's house. The Rev. George C. V. Eastman was their first rector, and they continued to hold services there till 1862. In that year they built the church building which they have since occupied on Main Street, and soon after sold their old liuildiiig to the Forestville Methodist society.
During the great Methodist revival period in the early part of this century several itinerant preachers came here and taught the doc- trines of that then novel sect. A few converts to their preaching organized the Methodist Church iu 1834. A '• class '' had already been
I t
(
t
•^^•^^^^^
.rill873. rned, arid
Mil
, U,
In
2 728.
t *■ u-f
/;
r?
Cy
BRISTOL. 61
formed, including at first only four members. So great was the hos- tility to Methodism in the other denommations, that the land tor a church building could be bought only by concealing the tact that it was to be used foi^ a Methodist Church. The building was completed in 1837, and was occupied by the society until they built their new church in 1880 This church has grown continually and rapidly, ihe tirst relio-ious services that were held in Forestville were led by itinerant Methodist preachers about 1850, and in 1855 fourteen members organ- ized a church there. They held services irregularly for_ several years at private houses, and in 1864 bought the chuix;h building winch he Episcopal society had lately vacated, and moved it to Forestville. ihis
building they still occupy. -u i^ „v,-...f isao <,i-
The first Roman Catholic services m town were held about 1840, at the North copper-mine, by priests from New Britain and Waterbury When mining^operations stopped, and the building of the railroad th ough the town began, many of the Roman Cathoics moved to Bristo cLtri and mass wis said for several years , m a bm ding below John Moran's house on Queen Street, and m Gndleys Hall In 1855 t e Roman Catholic residents, still constituting a mission attached to the New Sritain parish, built their churcli building. E even years Mer Bristol was made an independent parish, and the Rev M. B. Rod dan became the first pastor. He was afterward ahsent a few yeais, but returned, and is still in charge of the parish. ■ . • a
In 1S58 a Second Advent Church organized; they maintained services several years in private houses and m public halls and in 1880 ha'Tn- united with a body of seceders from the Methodist ^ & bouoht the old meeting-house from which that church had 1;!^ moved; and have since had a settled pastor and a regular place
""^ Li'adJhtion to the regular services of these seven Christi^an churches, occaibiral meetings are^held by the SpirituaUsts, a considerable num-
bpr of whom live here. , , , i • •
In Jlosino- this sketch the writer wishes to ackn.wledge his in- debtedness, fTiid the public indebtedness, to previous workers in the sal held The writings of Tracy Peck, Esq. are ot eyecial value, r man of great accuracy, and deeply interested m everything pertam- hig to our local history, he had the advantage of living a a time wh n thS memorv of old residents went back nearly to he settlement of the wir Li writing of the first fifty years, one can hardly do more than repeat the details that he collected. Assistance has also been receive from Mr. Roswell Atkins's History of the Bristol Baptist Church, and from a series of sketches published by the '' Bristol Press during it.
^"'Vre^'hiftolSn 'of Bristol has no thrilling events to record, no famous names to euh.o-ize. He has to deal with the commonplace acts ot com- nSace people. But while none of our citizens have attained to more Si^rcal fame, we have been remarkably free from that dense igno- nnce and squalid povertv often to be found in a manufacturing town. Britol has been fortunate, in that the clock business, in which i has been so largely engaged, is one which reqmres a high degree of intel- ligence and^skill in the operatives. Until very late y there has been nS distinctively "factory settlement" in town, and our pleasante.t
62 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
streets have been lined by comfortable and handsome residences owned by our skilled mechanics.
The intellectual and moral growth of the community, the most interesting and most valuable part of every history, can hardly be touched upon in such a paper as this. The organization and disso- lution of business firms, the building of factories, the establishment of churches, — these make up the tangible details of a history whose reaL interest lies in the constant growth from the quaint farming hamlet of 1742 to the brisk manufacturing town of the present time, preserving continually those characteristics which have made the political and social life of New England remarkable and unique.
Two well-known Bristol citizens who have done much to build up the place are Messrs. Elias Ingraham and Elisha N. Welch.
Elias Ingraham was born in 1805, and came to Bristol in 1826, in the employ of Mitchell & Hinman. He died at Martha's Vineyard, Aug. 16, 1885, He had been for thirty years at the head of the Elias Ingraham Company, and was the originator of many valuable designs and methods, a man of fine business capacity and of high Christian character.
Elisha Niles Welch was born in East Hampton, Feb. 7, 1809. He removed in 1826 to Bristol, and has since been extensively engaged in manufacturing and also in farming. He is now president of the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company, Bristol Brass and Clock Company, and Bristol Manufacturing Company, and is also a director in several other important concerns. He was representative in the State legislature for two terms and State senator for one term.
V.
BUELINGTON.
BY THE HON. ROLAND HITCHCOCK,
Ex- Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut.
THE territory of which this town and Bristol were formed, belonged, many years ago, to Farmington, and was called Farmington West Woods. It was part of the land purchased of the Tunxis Indians by the original proprietors of that town, and was by them sur- veyed, and divided into tiers of lots ; the interest of each proprietor therein being determined by the amount of his interest in the whole purchase.
For many years after the " reserved lands " of Farmington were settled, this territory remained a wild, unbroken forest. Hartford and Windsor, by colonial grant in the time of Sir Edmund Andros's at- tempted usurpation, were the proprietors of Litchfield and Harwinton, which were settled earlier tlian Farmington West Woods. Credible tradition relates that the path of such proprietors to those towns was through West Woods, and it is possible (as some have claimed) that along this wild path settlers might have been found as early as 1740 ; but they were very few and widely scattered. It is certain, however, that several permanent settlers were in this territory between 1740 and 1755. Among these were, in the western part, Enos Lewis, Asa Yale, Seth Wiard, Joseph Bacon, and Joseph Lankton, Sr., though the last named afterward lived at the Centre ; Abraham and Theodore Pettibone, extensive landholders, and men of much influence, in the northern part ; Nathaniel Bunnel and one Brooks in the southern part ; and John and Simeon Strong
in the eastern part. But the settle- /^ ^ /7
ment was slow ; the land was infested off /C^ ^^^ /?^ by Indians as they retired westward y/
from the settlement of the white man
along the natural meadows of the Farmington valley, and it was not until about 1750 that the permanent settlement to any considerable extent began. In 1774 the General Court, by separate enactments, established in Farmington West Woods the ecclesiastical societies of West Britain and New Cambridge, each having well-defined limits. In 1775 these were incorporated as the town of Bristol, and thereupon ceased to belong to Farmington. In 1806 Bristol was divided ; the part of it within the limits of West Britain was incorporated as the town of Burlington, and the part of it embraced in the limits of New Cambridge I'emained, and was constituted the town of Bristol.
64 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Parsuant to the act of incorporation, the first town-meeting of Bur- lington was held June 16, 1806. Abraham Pettibone was moderator, and the town was duly organized by the election of the ordinary town ofticers. Since its incorporation part of the township has been annexed to Canton and part to Avon ; its population, as well as its assessment list, has thereby been much reduced, and it is believed that its eastern boundary has been thrown back to the Farmington River.
The first religious society organized in what is now Burlington was a society of Seventh-Day Baptists ; the Ecclesiastical Society of West Britain was established (as has been remarked) in 1774, but no reli- gious society was formed under it till 1783, when the Consxregational Church was formed. It appears from " Clark's History of the Seventh- Day Baptist Church in America," tliat '•'• a church of that denomination was organized on the 18th of September, 1780, at Farmington West Woods "[afterwards (1785) called West Britain ; afterwards still (180G) incorporated as the toAvn of Burlington], l)y the Rev. Jonathan Burdick and Deacon Elisha Stillman, consisting of nineteen members." They came — about twenty families — from the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, and their settlement and meeting-house were about two miles north from the village now called Burlington Centre. They were ex- emplary and industrious people, ardently attached to their faith, and had much influence in the affairs of the town in its early history ; many of its influential members ultimately removed with their families to the State of New York, and there joined a church of their faith. This weakened the old pioneer church to its ruin, and after a precarious existence of forty or fifty years it became extinct. ]\fany of the dwell- ings built by these people are still standing, though none of the well- remembered builders, none of their descendants, none of the faith so dear to tliem, and for which they endured so much, remain to care for the graves of the many they left in the silent city of their dead.
The Congregational Church was formed July 3, 1783, with twenty- six members, and still worships harmoniously in the faith of the fathers. The Rev. Jonathan Miller, from Torrington, the first minis- ter, was ordained Nov. 26, 1783, and continued his ministrations until a few years prior to his death (July 21, 1831). The first meeting- house was located at the foot of what is called Meeting-house Hill, on the northern slope of a hill nearly opposite the corner of the roads where stood tlie old tavern of Zebulon Cole, and about twenty rods across the road, in a southeasterly direction from it ; the locality is now overgrown with wood. The second meeting-house Avas located about thirty rods northeast from the first, one ; the heavy bank wall
which constituted its northern foundation ' y V* yO^ ^"^^ stands, a lasting monument to the f/^e^^^t^ /^^^ sturdy, earnest men who more than seventy
years ago erected it. This meeting-house was dedicated Dec. 25, 1808, and stood, with its long row of horse-sheds on either side of the road and its steeple high among the clouds, until 1836, when it was removed to where it now stands, remodelled, and on the 14th of December of that year re-dedicated.
The Methodist meeting-house was built in 1814; it was located in the southerly part of the town, on the elevated ground a few rods
BURLINGTON. 65
northeasterly from the south cemetery, and was removed to its present location in 1835. Nathan Bangs (afterward president of Wesleyan University), Laban Clark, and Daniel Coe (pioneers of Methodism in the State) were among the early pastors of tlie church of that faith in the town.
The township is eighteen miles west from Hartford, is bounded on the north by New Hartford, east by Farmington River, south by Bristol, and west by Harwinton, and is about six miles long and five in breadth. In most parts it is well supplied witli streams and s})rings of excellent water ; it has hills and valleys, and in many parts is rugged with stones
and rocks. The soil is not unlike that of the other granitic parts of the State, produces substantially the same kinds of fruits and ce- reals, and with proper cultivation yields to the farmer a good return for his industry. The natural "growth of timber is walnut, oak, birch, maple, and chestnut, which were quite evenly mingled in the primitive forests.
The inhabitants are generally engaged in agricultural pursuits, and are intelligent, industrious, thriving, and happy, in their quiet homes. The affairs of the town have been managed generally with ability and goiid judgment, and it is now free from debt, after having paid all its expenses and met all its burdens growing out of the late Civil War and the depreciation of property consequent upon it.
Convenient access to the town is furnished by a branch of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, which runs through its eastern part. At the census of 1880 its population was 1,224.
West Britain from its small and sparse population furnished several soldiers for the country in the War of the Revolution. After its incor- poration as Burlington the town furnished many in the War of 1812 ; and though the pensioners of those wars who belonged to the town have passed, with their honorable scars upon them, to " the undiscov- ered country," they are held in respectful remembrance by all who knew them. In the late Civil War the town furnished its full quota of soldiers, many of whom will return no more.
" The leaf to the tree, the flower to the plain, But the young and the brave they come not again."
The narrow limits to which this sketch must be confined forbid extended reference to the noble men and women who were the early inhabitants of the town. Much of pleasant reminiscence and merited respect might properly be said of them. Their personal appearance, their characteristics, and their many virtues awaken in one who knew many of them feelings of mingled pleasure and sadness as they return in memory. The names Alderman, Barnes, Beach, Beckwith, Belden, Bronson, Brooks, Brown, Bull, Bunnel, Butler, Cleaveland, Cornwall, Covey, Crandal, Culver, Curtis, Elton, French, Frisbie, Fuller, Gillett, Griswold, Hale, Hart, Hitchcock, Hotchkiss, Hum|)hrey, Lowry, Marks, Mathews, Moses, Norton, Palmiter, Peck, Pettibone, Phelps, Pond,
VOL. II. —5.
C0
66 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Richards, Roberts, Session, Smith, Webster, West, Wiard, Woodruff, and many others not less worthy belonged to inhabitants honorably identified with the early history of the town, and whose energy in their respective spheres contributed much to its first prosperity.
Dr. Peres Mann, the first physician of the town, was a native of Shrewsbury, Mass. He acquired his profession in Boston, and settled
in West Britain about 1780. Dr. Aaron ^, Hitchcock was his professional successor ;
I^^^^^Tf*^ he settled in his profession in Burlington
about 1806.
The Rev. Romeo Elton, D.D., was a native of the town, and received his rudimental education in its common schools. He graduated at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, in the class of 1813. Much might be said of him to encourage young men in their struggle against repelling circum- stances, did the space per- ^^^ mit. He was a modest, y^r^^ ^ya^
retiring man. His chief ^C?^^'^'^'^^^'^^^ delight was the study of the ancient and modern languages, to which his unobtrusive life was unre- mittingly devoted, both in this and foreign countries. It is believed the country has produced few if any more thorough linguists, few of purer literary taste. His fine personal appearance, cultivated diction, and musical voice placed him among the most agreeable of public speakers. He died at Boston, Feb. 5, 1870, at the age of eighty years. His pub- lished works, besides occasional sermons, are an edition of J. Callcn- der's " Historical Discourse " (on the early history of Rhode Island) with a memoir of the author, notes, and a valuable appendix ; the " Literary Remains of the Rev. Jonathan Maxcy,D.D., with a memoir of his life ; and a " Life of Roger Williams," printed in London in 1852.
Simeon Hart, for many years principal of the celebrated Farming- ton Academy, was a native of Burlington, and received his common- school education there. He graduated at Yale College in the class of 1823, and soon after became principal of the academy above referred to, to which he gave much celebrity, and in the management of which he gained for himself high reputation as a teacher. His useful life closed at Farmington, where for the most part it had been spent, and where his students have erected a fitting monument to his memory.
Dr. Willinm Elton, a native of the town, has been for several years the resident physician. He is a gentleman of good literary taste, and well qualified in his profession.
VI. CANTON.
FKOM NOTES BY D. B. HALE AND LEVI CASE.
CANTON! measures eight miles north and south, with a breadth east and west varying from one and a half miles at the north to three miles at the south. It is bounded north by Barkhamsted and Granby ; east, by Simsbury ; south, by Avon, Burlington, and New Hartford ; and west by New Hartford and Barkhamsted. It has in its territory four post-offices, seven churches, eight school-houses, hfty-five miles of puljlic highway, and about four hundred dwelling-houses. The Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad, and a branch of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, commonly called the Canal Road, pass through the town.
The surface of the territory is much broken by hills. There are Rocky, Rattlesnake, Onion, Crump's, and Wildcat mountains. The valley of the Farmington River in the southwest part of the town is fertile, and Cherry Brook valley, where Canton Centre lies, is noted for its fine farms, though the most valuable agricultural land in the town limits is said to be in the low plain near the eastern boundary. The great "Jefferson flood" of 1801, which made many changes along the Farmington valley, washed away much of a very valuable tract, called the Hop Yard, that lay between Cherry Brook and Farmington River, and the river at that time took permanent possession of the channel of the stream.
Rattlesnake Mountain derives its name from the fact, or tradition, that an early settler, Mrs, Wilcox, while driving home her cows, met near there a very large number of rattlesnakes. She killed forty of them (all full grown) and came unharmed out of the conflict ; but the mountain, by a curious freak of history, takes its title from the defeated forces. Crump's Mountain, one and a half miles north of Canton Centre, is named from Crumpus, a noted Indian who had his wigwam on its summit for many years after the whites came. Indian Hill, near the New Hartford line, was for some time the home of a band of Indians, — a peaceful set who were much troubled by other Indians, that lived in and gave the name to that part of ^ew Hartford known as Satan's
1 Canton, originally West Simsbury, includes Canton Centre and Collinsville, and has a territory of about twenty-three square miles. Settled, 1737 ; made a parish, 1750 ; incorporated as the town of Canton, 1806. Changes of area have been : the early acquisition of a mile tier from New Hartford on the west, and the setting off in 1873 of about one eighth of the town, to Simsbury on the northeast. In 1758 there were 64 tax-payers ; in 1880 there were 2,299 inhabitants. Principal industries, the niauufacture of edge tools at Collinsville, aud agri- culture.
68
MEMOKIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Kingdom. Cherry Brook and Cherry Pond — the latter a considerable body of water a mile south of Canton village, extending into Avon — were named from an Indian called Cherry, who, it is said, acquired that name from his fondness for cherry-rum. He was finally horse- whipped and driven from the place, because when intoxicated he threatened to scalj) Oliver Humphrey, keeper of the public-house, for refusing to sell him more rum. He lived on the bank of the brook. Indian relics are frequent in the town and Indian traditions abound. One is that Silas Case, of East Hill, received from a dying Indian in- struction in the nature of herbs and diseases that made him for years a famous healer of the sick.
''Satan's kingdom."
The first permanent white settler in West Simsbury was Richard Case, who in 1737 took possession of land on East Hill, granted to his father, Richard Case, of Weatogue (Simsbury). A part of this grant has remained ever since by direct inheritance in the possession of his descendants, and so has never been deeded.
The following historical sketches of the first settlers were prepared by the late Ephraim Mills, Esq., and they were published in Phelps's " History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton," in 1845. They are now revised for this work.
Richard Case removed from the old parish to West Simsbury in 1737, and is supposed to have been the first settler, and to have erected the first dwelling- house. His son, Sylvanus, has ever been reputed to be the first English child born within the limits of West Simsbury. He had ten sons and two daughters. His descendants are numerous in Canton, Granby, and Barkhamsted.
There were four brothers of the Barber family, who removed from the old parish in 1738, — Samuel, Thomas, Jonathan, and John, — all of whom settled on lands contiguous to each other, within the limits of the old Centre school district in Canton. Dr. Samuel Barber had eleven sons and three daughters, all of whom lived to adult years. Some of his descendants are now living in this town.
Sergeant Thomas Barber had five sons and five daughters, all of whom lived to adult years. Some of his descendants now reside in the town.
CANTON. 69
Jonathan Barber had two sons and one daughter. He died in early life (1745), at tlie siege and capture of Louisburg. None of his descendants reside ill tliis town.
John Barber had five sons and one daughter. He died in 1797, aged seventy- seven years. His sou Eeuben died in 1825, and was the first person buried in the new cemetery in Canton Centre.
Deacon Abraham Case removed from the old parish to West Simsbury about 1740, and died in 1800, aged eighty years. He had two sons and five daugh- ters. He settled on the East Hill.
Amos Case, brother of Abraham, settled on the East Hill about 1740. He had five sons and four daughters, all of wliom lived to adult years. He died in 1798, aged eighty-six.
Benjamin Dyer, a schoolmate of Dr. Franklin, came from Boston to West Simsbury about 1741. He had five sons and two daughters. He resided one mile northeasterly from Collinsville. The house built by him is said to be the oldest in town.
Samuel Humphrey came here about 1741. He settled in Canton village. He had three sons and three daughters, all of wliom lived to marry and leave children.
Joseph Mills, aged thirty, married Hannah Adams, aged fifteen, and came here in 1742 or 1743, and settled in Canton Centre. He had ten sons and four daughters, all of whom he lived to see married and have children. He died in 1783, aged eighty-nine.
Ezra Wilcox came here about 1740, and settled on the west side of the Farmington Eiver, opposite the mouth of Cherry Brook. He had five sons and four daughters.
Dudley Case was a brother of Daniel, Zaccheus, and Ezekiel. He came here in 1742, and built a public-house in Canton village, afterward long known as the Hosford House. He had seven children. He died in 1792.
Oliver Humphrey, Esq., came here about 1 742, and settled in Canton village, and was the first magistrate in West Simsbury. He had eleven children, all of whom lived to adult years. He died in 1792.
Nathaniel Alford came here in 1742, and settled on the East Hill. He had one son and five daughters, all of whom were married and left children.
Lieutenant David Adams came here about 1743, and settled in North Canton. He had four sons and five daughters. He died in 1801.
Sergeant Daniel Case came here in 1743, and settled in Canton Centre. He had four sons and five daughters. He built the first grist-mill in the place. He died in 1801, aged eighty-one.
Captain Ezekiel Humphrey came here about 1744, and settled in Canton village. He had five sons and five daughters. He died in 1795.
Captain Josiah Case came here about 1743, and settled on the East Hill. He had two sons and four daughters. He died in 1789, aged seventy-one.
Isaac Messenger came here about 1743 or 1744, and settled in Canton Centre. He had ten sons and three daughters, all of whom were married and left children. He died in 1801, aged eighty-two.
Ensign Isaac Tuller canie here in 1744 or 1745, and settled near Cherry Brook. He had three sons and eight daughters. He died in 1806, aged eighty-six.
Captain Zaccheus Case came here about 1749, and settled in Canton Centre. He had one son and six daughters, all of whom married and had children. He died in 1812.
Deacon Hosea Case came here about 1752, and settled on the East Hill. He had four sons and seven daughters. He died in 1793, aged sixty-two.
Captain John Foot came here in 1753, and settled in Canton Centre. He had two sons and four daughters, all of whom had children. He died in 1812, aged eighty-two.
70 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Captain Joliii Brown came here from Windsor in 1756, and settled in Can- ton Centre. He liad four sons and seven daughters, all of whom had children. He died in 1776 in the American army, at New York.
Solomon Humphrey came liere about 1755, and settled near Canton village. He had three sons and two daughters, all of whom had children.
Among people born in Canton who have made their mark in the country are judges, college presidents, members of Congress, mayors of cities, lawyers, doctors, and clergymen, teachers, and successful men of business. The father and mother of the famous John Brown were natives of Canton.
Canton has never been lacking in patriotism. In the French and Indian War tw^enty soldiers went from tliere (West Simsbury), and only ten came back ; in the Revolution there were between seventy and eighty soldiers from the place ; in the War of 1812, about fifty ; and in the recent Civil War, two hundred and fifty-seven, • — a large number of whom w^ent never to return, or came home to die from injuries received in the service.
The people of West Simsbury began holding Sunday services in private houses about 1741. In September, 1746, at the house of Richard Case, they organized an ecclesiastical society ; and at the May session, 1750, the legislature created West Simsbury a distinct parish and the First Congregational Church was formed. Between 1747 and 1750 there was preaching liy the Rev's Adonijah Bidwell and Timothy Pitkin. When the church was formed, the Rev. Evander Morrison was called, at a salary of <£250, "old tenor," and thirty cords of wood, — the church to build him a house if he would furnish nails and glass. As the result of a quarrel he was dismissed in eleven months, and the house was not built. Succeeding pastors have been the Rev's Gideon Mills, 1759 to 1772, when he died ; Seth Sage, 1774, to his dis- missal in 1778 ; Jeremiah Hallock, 1785, to his death, after forty-one years' pastorate, in 1826 ; Jairus Burt, 1826, to his death in 1857 ; and since then, the Rev's W. C. Fisk, Charles N. Lyman, A. Gardner, and David B. Hubbard. There was a secession from the church in 1778, led by the Rev. Mr. Sage. Meetings were held in private houses in the north part of the town for some years, and in 1783 a meeting-house was built on the Granby road, half a mile north of the present North Canton Methodist church. The organization was scattered at Mr. Sage's death. In 1783 another schism occurred, when the " Separat- ists " left the church ; and in 1785 these again separated, and the Bap- tist society was then established. Their first pastor was Elder Jared Mills. Their church was moved and rebuilt in 1839. A Methodist church was built in North Canton in 1871, and one in Collins ville in 1868 ; but this was closed in 1878. As early as 1751 there was a movement into the Episcopal church, but the withdrawing members joined the church in Scotland (Bloomfield). It was not until 1875 that a society was organized here. The Episcopal church was built in 1876. The Roman Catholic church in Collinsville was built in 1852.
Congregational service in Collinsville began in 1831, with preaching in Collins & Co's hall by the Rev. George Beecher, who died in Ohio
from the effects of a gunshot. He was a son of Lyman Beecher. The church was organized in 1832 by the Rev's Dr. Joel Hawes, of Hart- ford, Allen Mc- ^ ^ ,
Lean, of Sims- ^ ^^/^C- , <X>-a--t..»-t^<:^-VM..--^V-^^ bury, Jairus '
Burt, of Canton Centre, and H. N. Brinsmade, who had been preaching
there since 1831. The Col-
Q?. (^. T'T^o.^.^'CiAtA^aj^JL.--^ J^'^' Company built the first
Congregational churcli ni 1836. Among its pastors have been the Rev's Cornelius C. Van Ars- dalen, Frederick A, Barton, ^ ^^
Charles Backus McLean, Alex- c::p^ ^ ^^ /^^ ander Hall, and E. L. Lamb. The Cherry Brook meeting-house was built in 1763, and the present ^ house of worship took its place
W^^<^ //, ^CA^ otcuA.^^%^ Canton was incorporated by
the legislature as a town in 1806, because of the inconvenience that its inhabitants suffered in having to go to Simsbury to vote. James Hum- phrey was town clerk until 1829 ; William H. Hallock succeeded him. In 1837 Hallock's house was burned, and all the town records destroyed. As Collinsville grew in size, its inhabitants, like those of West Sims- bury at an earlier date, objected to going to Canton to vote. In 1860 the people of both villages agreed to hold their meetings alternately at one and the other place. In 1866 Collinsville was made a separate voting place for " electors' meetings," that is, general elections ; but the old New England town-meeting is still held alternately at Canton and at Collinsville.
As in all Connecticut towns, schools have formed from the beginning an important feature of life in Canton. Until 1796 the Ecclesiastical Society managed them, appointing the school committees yearly. Then the School Society was created, and appointed committees, inspectors, and even district committees. In 1839 the districts were allowed to choose their own committees, and in 1856 the general supervision of school matters was given to the town. The school question has been at the bottom of many of the most exciting controversies that the town has known, and the interest in it has been constant. The early school- houses, with their huge fireplaces for burning four-foot wood, are yet remembered by some of their surviving scholars, who recall how, before matches were introduced, great endeavors were made to keep the coals alive over night ; for if there were none there in the morning, some one must go to the nearest house for " fire." Not only in school-houses, but in all houses, the fire had to be kept burning, or else new fire must be got outside. The town of Canton appropriates about '|5,000 a year for schools, including the allowance from the State. Careful of their schools, the people have always been orderly and law-a])iding. There has never been a murder in the town, nor was there one in the parish before it became a town. Agriculture was the early occupation. Every farm had its flock of sheep, and every farm raised flax, and everybody wore and used woollen and linen that were made at home by the women of the household. The usual cereals were cultivated. There were many
72
MEMOKIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
apple orchards. Immense quantities of cider were made and everybody drank it. What was left was converted into cider-brandy, and this was sufficient to maintain a large number of distilleries, — at one time, about forty. The cider-brandy business was an important source of income to the farmers ; but it has been practically discontinued, and the cul- tivation of tobacco takes its place. To the moralist, who mourns the spread of tobacco-culture, this fact is not insignificant. From cider- brandy to tobacco is certainly no descent in morals.
With the facilities that its ample water-power has furnished. Canton has always had manufactures of more or less importance, — at first
THE ORIGINAL COLLINS WORKS.
to meet the few wants of the local population, and later to supply the growing demands from outside ; until now. with the vast development of the works at Collinsville, it has come to be one of the great manufac- turing centres of the State, whose products are known and used all over the world. The first forge for the manufacture of iron was started in 1774 by Colonel Talcott and Messrs. Forbes & Smith. It was just below the present covered bridge, near the house of Julius E. Case. This forge, and that set up in the south part of the town in 1792 by the brothers Captain Frederick and Colonel George Humijhrey, were carried off by the flood of 1801. There have been grist-mills of Daniel Case, on Cherry Brook ; of Ambrose Case, in the north part of the parish ; of Joseph Segur, near the present Collinsville covered bridge (he crossed daily to his mill by canoe) ; and of Orville Case, near the junction of Albany turnpike and Cherry Brook road. At one time there were seven saw-mills in Canton. The blacksmith's trade, of course, and wood-working and wagon-making were among the local industries. There was a flax-mill about sixty years ago on a stream south of the present residence of G. Woodford Mills. There have been several carding-mills in the town. Of the industries that have
t?3 O
o
M
cc
o
o
o W
!» ;>
o
M
<^
CANTON. 75
disappeared, the most important were the manufacture of those two great forces, gunpowder and brandy, wliicli have had so much influence upon society and human history. In 1825 there were not less than forty distilleries in Canton ; now, with double the population, there are less than half a dozen. The first powder-mills were built by Jared Mills and Edmund Fowler, on the Nepaug stream, near its junction with the Farmington. Here the manufacture was carried on for sixty years, and not less than thirty people were killed in its successive explosions. In 183-1 another powder-mill was built on Cherry Brook, near the North Canton cemetery, by Swett & Humphrey. This ran about twenty years. The whole business of powder-making was abandoned in the town about 1865.
The great body of the population of Canton is now gathered in Collinsville, about the extensive works of the Collins Company, which is practically the source and centre of all the activities of the place. The company directly or indirectly supports 2,500 of the inhabitants of the towns of Canton, Avon, and Burlington. Nearly all of Collinsville lies in the town of Canton, but the boundary lines of Avon and Burlington pass through its southern part.
The Collins axes, of which no less than fifteen million have been manufactured, are known and used all over the world. Before 1826 every axe was the hand-work of the common blacksmith. It was ham- mered out on the anvil and sold without an edge, so that half a day's grinding was needed to make it useful. This circumstance is the cause of the notion which still prevails on many farms, that an axe must be ground before use. The fact is, that no one can improve upon the edge which the skilled workman puts upon the finished tool. A blacksmith of Somers, in this State, named Morgan, whose axes had an excellent reputation, bought the steel for them from David Watkinson & Co., of Hartford. This attracted to axe-making the attention of David C. Collins, a nephew of Mr. Watkinson, and a clerk in his store, and he experimented in making some all ready for use, ground and polished, when sold. He soon determined to undertake the business, and formed the firm of Collins & Co., with his brother Samuel W. Collins and their cousin William Wells. This was in 1826. They bought the Humphrey grist-mill privilege, in the south part of Canton, on Farmington River. In December 1831 the post-office of Collinsville was established at what had been South Canton. Wages in the new factory, which were paid once a year, ranged from il2 to $16 a month, with board, and eight forged axes were a day's work. Now, one man with a helper forges from one hundred and fifty to two hundred.
In 1829 the use of Lehigh coal was introduced, these being the first edge-tool works in the world to use the fuel. In 1832 the factory was very much enlarged, and in that year Mr. E. K. Root, from Chicopee, Mass., was made the superintendent. He was a man of peculiar mechan- ical skill, and several of his many inventions, though made forty years ago or more, have never been supplanted or improved. One of these is the very essential machine for punching the heads of solid axe-polls. Mr. Root remained at Collinsville seventeen years. In 1834 Collins & Co. were succeeded by a corporation, the Collins Company, with a capital then of -$150,000. Its capital has been increased by cash con-
76 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
tributions to $1,000,000, and it has paid a dividend every year of its existence since 1835. In 1867-1868 the company built a number of important works, inchiding one of the most remarkable and finest dams in the country. It is three hundred feet long and eighteen feet high, and is made of massive blocks of native granite, fastened togetlier and set into a groove cut in the solid rock-bed of the river bottom. The daily product of the works exceeds three thousand tools. More than five hundred tons of steel and two thousand tons of iron, a large part of which is manufactured by the company, are every year made into tools there, and, in grinding an edge upon these, over six hundred tons of grindstones are worn to dusto
The success of the company is very largely due to the ability of the two remarkable brothers whose name it bears. Samuel Watkinson Collins and David C. Collins were the sons of Alexander Collins and Elizabeth Watkinson, of Middletown, where the father practised law. He died in 1815, and his widow and family moved' to Hartford.
David C. Collins was born in 1805. Upon the removal to Hartford
as a boy he was taken into the family and the store of his uncle, David
^^ ...^ ^ ^ Watkinson, in the iron busi-
OO^Cc-^xjLc^ ^5 (^i^ m} "f^"^^-*^ -^ M- ness. His energy and keen
business judgment are evi- dent in the manner in which, when only twenty -one years old, he pro- jected the axe manufacture and organized the firm of Collins k Co. Both brothers devoted their lives to this company.
Samuel W. Collins was born in September. 1802, at Middletown. He went to live with Edward Watkinson, for whom he became clerk. Here he developed such capa- city for business, and so much executive ability, that before he was of age he was taken into partnership, the firm being Wat- kinson & Collins. In 1826 he became one of the new firm of Collins & Co., and from that time devoted his great energies to the axe business. Mr. Collins, as the resident manager and head of the com- pany for so many years, occupied a most important part in shaping its course, and also the affairs of the community. He was singularly correct in his estimates of men, an admirable judge of character, and quick to recognize talent and to encourage it. In all his intercourse with his employes he commanded their respect and secured their affec- tion. He was always interested in their welfare, and was such an earnest opponent of strong drink, that he bought out at least two hotels and one drug-store to stop their liquor-selling, and paid one man to sign a promise never to live within ten miles of the town. In all the deeds under which he sold land to employes or others he inserted a clause prohibiting the manufacture or sale of liquor there, under penalty of forfeiture of the land. Mr. Collins died in 1871, in the beautiful home which he had built upon the west side of Farmington River. He had the satisfaction of seeing the work which he began in so small a way reach its great dimensions, and of having the name of Collins known round the world, and recognized as a synonym for honest work.
VII. EAST GRANBY.
BY CHAELES HOKACE CLAEKE.
EAST GRANBY was incorporated in 1858, out of Granby and Windsor Locks. Granby was set off from Simsbury in 1786, and Windsor Locks from Windsor in 1854. The individual history of East Granby is chiefly that of the Turkey Hills Parish Society, which was the Northeast Society of Simsbury. This society was created in 1736, and in 1737 a part of the Northwest Society of Windsor was added to it ; this part was taken from Windsor Locks and incorporated into East Granby when the town was established.
As early as 1793 an effort was made to have East Granby set off as a separate town, because Granby at that time reconsidered the vote under which the town-meeting was held once in three years at Turkey Hills. The limits then asked for the proposed town were practically those which were at last fixed upon.
The town embraces about eighteen square miles ; being four and a half miles east and west, and averaging four miles north and south. Its population in 1860 was 833 ; in 1870, 853 ; in 1880, 754 ; showing a decrease in the last decade of more than twelve per cent. This decrease was due almost wholly to the decline in value of agri- cultural products, especially tobacco, which followed the close of the War of the Rebellion, and the extended culture of that product in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A more economical production was necessary, and there was consequently a limited employment of farm laborers. The Talcott range of mountains divides the town from north to south into nearly equal parts. That west of the moimtain is rolling and somewhat hilly ; that east of the mountain slopes gradually down to a plain, and is of peculiar natural beauty.
As early as 1710 iron was manufactured at a mill on Stony Brook, in the extreme nortlieast part of the town, close by the Suffield line, and this is believed to have been the first manufacture of iron from ore procured in the colony. About 1728 a furnace called the " new works" was set up a mile farther south, on land now owned by Oliver M. Holcomb. The ore was from surface stone gathered in that part of Windsor which still retains the name of Ore Marsh. The manufac- ture of wire-cards began about 1820, on the Farmington River, and other industries followed. In 1846 the Cowles Manufacturing Company made spoons, and it is claimed was the first to make a practical success of electric plating. Its works gave the name of Spoonville to the site, and that remains, although spoon-making ceased there about thirty years ago.
78 MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
The town is free from debt, and an average annual tax of seven mills has been sufficient to support all public burdens during the last ten years. Tlie town has two ecclesiastical societies, — the Congrega- tional, having its church edifice in the Centre, just at the foot of the eastern slope of the mountain ; and the Methodist Episcopal church, situated about a mile north of the old Newgate prison, on the west side of the mountain. The former was established in October, 1736, after a long and bitter controversy extending through many years. The final result was the division of Simsbury into four parish societies, of which Turkey Hills was one, — each to have independent ecclesiastical privi- leges. June 16, 1737, the parish of Turkey Hills voted to build a church, and applied to the legislature for a committee to locate its po- sition. John Edwards, James Church, and Joseph Talcott, Jr., having been appointed such committee, selected the site for the church at an " oak staddle," on land of Samuel Clark, upon the west side of the north and south highway, some ten rods south of the present dwelling- house of Charles P. Clarke, and about the same distance north of the intersecting highway leading eastward. Out of the bitter church con- troversy referred to there grew a topographical map of ancient Sims- bury. ^ This map shows that about 1730 there were living in the parish twenty-eight families, — twenty-three east and five west of the moun- tain. In 1709 there were but two families, — those of John Griffin and Joshua Holcomb, — both of whom lived near the Falls.
The church building was begun in 1738. It was taken down in 1831 by George Burleigh Holcomb, who used some of its timbers in the build- ings on the place where he now resides. The present edifice was begun in 1830 and completed in 1831. The first clergyman employed in the parish was a Mr. Wolcott, who preached in 1737. The Rev. Ebenezer Mills was settled in 1741. From 1754 to 1760 there was preaching by candidates. The Rev. Nehemiah Strong, afterward professor in Yale College, was settled as pastor, Jan. 21, 1761, and dismissed in 1767. The next settled pastor was the Rev. Aaron Booge, November, 1776. The society appointed seventeen tavern-keepers for the day of his ordination ! He was dismissed in 1785, but supplied the pulpit four years longer. The Rev. Whitfield Cowles was ordained in 1794; but dissensions arose, he was tried for heresy, and the society fell into discord, and for a while lost its legal existence. The next regular ministers were the Rev's Hervey Wilbur, 1815-1816, and Eber L. Clark, 1816-1820, who were also chaplains at Newgate prison. There have been frequent changes of ministers since then. The Rev. Joel H. Lindsley, who found tlie church in 1865 in a very reduced condition, owing to quarrels and dissensions arising from the questions of the war, did much to revive it and to endear himself to the people. At that time the church building was renovated and improved. The pulpit is now supplied by the Rev. D. A. Strong.
The Methodist church at Copper Hill was built in 1839, and in 1859 was thoroughly repaired, and moved about five rods westward. Like all Methodist churches, it has had regular changes of pastor. In the
1 This curious and very interesting map is now in the State Library in the Capitol in Hart- ford, and would be reproduced here in fac-simile but that its peculiar proportions make that impossible. It is a topographical and genealogical chart for a considerable part of Simsbury as then settled.
EAST GRANBY. 79
ministry of Lemuel Richardson, in 1871, there was an extensive revival of religion, attended with remarkable manifestations. The writer, at a single evening meeting in the church, which lasted from seven o'clock until midnight, witnessed as many as fifteen persons who became appar- ently unconscious. Some were stretched upon the floor; others were lying or being supported upon the seats. This visitation of "the Spirit" was regarded as a great blessing, and it certainly did strengthen the church in numbers. Mr. Richardson was a large, powerful man, full of strength, zeal, and boldness, and possessed of a strong, loud voice, which he used in singing as well as in preaching and prayer.
The celebrated Simsbury copper-mine, where afterward was located for fifty-four years the Connecticut State prison called Newgate, was first known to the inhabitants of Simsbury in 1705. Two years later there was an association of such proprietors of the town as chose to subscribe to articles of agreement for the purpose of opening and work- ing it. The location of the mine was about a hundred rods from the west ledge of the Talcott Mountain, at its highest point in East Granby, which is a point nearly as high as any in the same ridge in the State. The position is one of much picturesqueness and beauty. The period of greatest mining activity was from 1715 to 1737 ; during these years it