USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > Durham > History of Durham, Connecticut, from the first grant of land in 1662 to 1866 > Part 1
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HISTORY
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DURHAM, CONNECTICUT,
FROM THE FIRST GRANT OF LAND IN 1662 TO 1866.
1 BY WILLIAM CHAUNCEY FOWLER, LL. D.
" I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times."-PSALM Ixxvii. 5.
"Fair scenes for childhood's opening bloom, For sportive youth to stray in ; For manhood to enjoy his strength ; And age to wear away in !"
WORDSWORTH.
ICTON *
PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN.
HARTFORD: PRESS OF WILEY, WATERMAN & EATON. MDCCCLXVI. 18
F104 DaF7
PREFACE.
THE four primitive Towns on Connecticut River, namely, Wethers- field, Hartford, Windsor, and Saybrook; the four primitive Towns on Long Island Sound, namely, Stratford, Milford, New Haven, and Guil- ford, were all settled by Companies of Englishmen, thrown out and off from the mother country by its internal convulsions. They resembled the great primary formations of Geology, thrown up by powerful con- vulsions of the earth, retaining, for a long time, the heat derived from their igneous origin, and showing, in their structure, the marks of the violent forces to which they had been subject.
On the other hand, Durham, a derivative town, settled more than sixty years, or more than two generations later, in more quiet and less heated times, resembled the secondary formations of Geology, which are composed of the fragmentary contributions from the primary, under the working of gentle forces.
In the primary formations of Geology, there is more that is grand, striking, and peculiar, in the scenery. In the secondary formations, there are more of the elements of fertility, and a richer outgrowth of vegetation.
In the primitive Towns mentioned, the spirit of dissent was rife, nearly as much so, in some cases, as when the settlers left England. Parties arose, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing them- selves among themselves, requiring legislative interference in order to settle their religious differences. Secessions took place from the Churches and from the Towns, for the purpose of forming other Churches and other Towns, where the favorite opinions and measures of the seceders might prevail.
Durham, on the other hand, was settled after the spirit of dissent had, to some extent, died out; after the jealousy of Ecclesiastical encroach- ment on the rights of individual Churches was somewhat weakened ; after the controversies about Episcopal forms had passed by ; after the evils of separatism, independency, and Church isolation, and the advan- tages of the Consociation of Churches, recommended by the great synod in Massachusetts, in 1662, and adopted in Connecticut in 1708, were
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HISTORY OF DURHAM.
beginning to be felt. It is not known that a single emigrant to Durham came from out of a heated controversy, or was detached from his former residence, in a primitive town, by the repellency of dissent. A consid- erable number were attracted to one another by personal friendship and the ties of blood.
Guilford and New Haven, and Milford, and Stratford, and Hartford, and Windsor, and Farmington, and Northampton, furnished settlers to Durham; so that it showed the average character of those several Towns and Churches, and not the marked peculiarities of any one of them. Several of those Towns sent some of their best inhabitants to Durham.
Thus it appears that Durham had the advantage of the collected wis- dom of these several Towns; wisdom derived from the experience of two generations in this country. It was settled chiefly by the grand- children of the Pilgrim Fathers of Connecticut. It was settled by Amer- icans, by those who had grown up under Colonial institutions, civil, social, and religious, such as Connecticut had adopted ; and was not as were the primitive Towns, settled by Englishmen, who had every- thing to learn in a new country. The history of Durham shows the progress that had been made in the third generation from the settlement of the two Colonies in Connecticut; what had been lost that was Eng- lish, and what had been gained that was American. In this respect, if not as interesting, it is more instructive, than that of a primitive Town.
In the primitive Towns, at their first settlement, there were those who looked back, with yearning hearts, across the waters to their first home. Some actually returned thither. Others wished to do so. And numbers who left England under the monitions of conscience, in the spirit of adventure, in the hot blood of controversy, or in the bad blood of resentment for injuries, real or threatened, would, in the sun-set and twilight of age, look back with softened hearts and tearful eyes to the home of their childhood; to the Church-yard, where their parents were sleeping ; to the Churches and Cathedrals in which they had offered their youthful devotion. Methinks some of those aged pilgrims, in moments of fond recollection, exclaim,
" Oh thou queen, Thou delegated Deity of earth, Oh dear, dear England : "
But their grand-children, such as settled in Durham, knew but one country, that of their birth and of their residence. Theirs was no divi- ded love. Under these western skies, on colonial soil, amid institutions
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PREFACE.
formed here, they had their birth and breeding. They knew nothing better. They breathed no sigh for the past and the distant. They did not, from their grand-sires, inherit the incompatible ideas, the incompat- ible feelings generated in the religious and political ferments of England. They did not inherit all the diversity of sentiment in the minds of the leaders in the two Colonies in Connecticut. Their ideas were practical ; their feelings were chastened in the school of daily labor, under the teachings of the stern monitress, necessity. They had become largely assimilated to one another in their opinions and feelings, by their com- mon experience and by their common destinies. Marriages had exten- sively united families together. The people were bound together by something more than a common love of religious liberty, and a common hatred of prelacy.
By these remarks, I do not mean to detract one particle from the pre- eminence of a single primitive Town; but only to show what is the true position of Durham. I would not, willingly, fall into the mistake of the simple shepherd, Tityrus, in Virgil, who fondly imagined that Mantua was equal to or like great Rome. Still, Mantua has its place in Roman history, though not as large a one as Rome.
In the course of events, it so happened, a few years since, that a large number of documents, connected with the early history of Durham, fell into my hands. Ever since I first examined these documents, many years ago, there has been a growing conviction in my mind that they ought to be put into some permanent form for preservation, before "de- cay's effacing fingers" shall have done their work upon them, or the accident of fire shall have reduced them to ashes.
Was I not bound to do something for their preservation ? My ances- tors, on both sides of the house, were proprietors of the Town. My ancestor, Deacon John Fowler, of Guilford, for public services, received the grant of a farm in Durham, from the Colonial Legislature. I spent ·the years of my boyhood, and am now spending the years of old age, here. Here I am expecting to sleep the long sleep, on a sunny slope in " God's acre."
Accordingly, I digested these documents, and other materials collected elsewhere, into a shape for publication, and offered them to the Town in Town Meeting assembled. The Town readily accepted of the offering, and promptly provided the means for the publication. This action of the Town deserves especial notice and commendation, inasmuch, as it is be- lieved to be the first instance in the State, and in the United States, of a Town's publishing, at its own expense, its own History. The Town having acted thus, measures were taken to canvass all of the School Districts for subscribers for the book, which they were to receive at cost,
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HISTORY OF DURHAM.
or not above cost. In this way, so many subscribers were obtained that the Town Treasury is relieved from what might be deemed a bur- den. In this movement, Durham is a model Town. Let other Towns go and do likewise. If all the Towns in the State should do thus, the History of the State would be written.
It should be stated that the whole subject of publishing was placed under the direction of the following Committee :- William C. Fowler, William Wadsworth, Joseph Chedsey, and Simeon S. Scranton. The following is their Report :-
" TO THE CITIZENS OF DURHAM.
The Committee appointed in accordance with the Resolution adopted by the Town, have had the subject of publication under consideration, and, as the result of their examination, they herewith present you with the HISTORY OF DURHAM, written and compiled by Professor William C. Fowler.
WILLIAM WADSWORTHI, JOSEPH CHEDSEY, S. S. SCRANTON."
In acknowledging my obligations to the other Members of the Com- mittee, for their attention and assistance, I would beg leave to say, that I have endeavored to write a history composed of facts and not of fan- cies. Had I introduced fewer prosaic facts, and more poetic fancies, it might be more read, and yet be less valuable, because less reliable. President Timothy Dwight used to repeat a story of Voltaire, who in his histories sometimes sacrificed truth in order to be readable. When an Abbé, in gentle terms, charged him with this literary sin, he replied,- " Monsieur L'Abbé, I must be read." There are editors of newspapers, and letter writers, and reviewers, and even historians, now-a-days, who seem to have adopted the rule of Voltaire, in their compositions, whether they ever heard of it or not. It should be kept in mind, that a principal object of the Town, in publishing this book, was to preserve the Records, and place them in the hands of the inhabitants in a form convenient for reference,
The spelling, I have adopted as I found it. In acknowledging my obligations to many for aid, I ought especially to mention Ralph D. Smith, Esq., of Guilford, Rufus W. Matthewson, M. D., of Durham, and Leveret Norton, Esq., of Suffield.
W. C. F.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I .- TERRITORY .- 1. Colonial Grants .- 2. Ownership .- 3. Present Ownership .- 4. Petition for a Town Plot .- 5. Petition Granted .- 6. Change of Town Plot .- 7. Doings of the General Court respecting the Town Plot .- 8. The name changed .- 9. The Patent .- 10. The Patentees .- 11. First Town Meeting .- 12. Lands Granted for Public Uses .- 13. Highways and Roads .- 14. Boun- dary Lines .- 15. Proprietors .- 16. Other Proprietors voted in .- 17. Proprietors' Meetings .- 18. Proprietors' Meetings distinct from Town Meetings .- 19. Encroachments on Public Lands .- 20. Evils of these Encroachments .- 21. Mode of Distribution .- 22. Pictur- esque appearance of Durham.
CHAPTER II .- MINISTRY OF REV. NATHANIEL CHAUNCEY .- 1. Town Action in giving him a Call .- 2. Liberty to form a Church .--- 3. Renewed Call .- 4. His Ordination .- 5. Laying out of the Or- dination .- 6. The Wood furnished .- 7. How his Salary was paid .- 8. His Ministerial Authority .- 9. Specimen Letter of Dismission .- 10. His Relations to his People .- 11. A Primitive Pledge .- 12. Life and Death of Rev. Nathaniel Chauncey.
CHAPTER III .- MINISTRY OF REV. ELIZUR GOODRICH, D. D .- 1. His Statement .- 2. His Ordination .- 3. His Life and Death.
CHAPTER IV .- MINISTRY OF DAVID SMITH, D. D .- 1. His State- ment respecting his Settlement .- 2. His Statement respecting his Salary .- 3. His Dismission .- 4. His Life and Death.
CHAPTER V .- ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETIES .- 1. Separation of the Ecclesiastical Society from the Town .- 2. Ministry of Rev. HENRY GLEASON .- 3. His Statement .- 4. His Life and Death .- 5. Since the Division of the Society .- 6. Who have been Deacons .- 7. Methodist Episcopal Church .- 8. Church of the Epiphany.
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HISTORY OF DURHAM.
CHAPTER VI .- MEETING HOUSES .- 1. First Meeting House .- 2. Seating the Meeting House .- 3. Second Meeting House .- 4. Third Meeting House. Methodist Episcopal Church. The North Con- gregational Church. The South Congregational Church .- 5. Sta- bles, or Sheds, on the Green .- 6. Sabbath-day Houses .- 7. Pest House .- 8. Singing Schools .- 9. Burial Ground.
CHAPTER VII .- EDUCATION .- 1. Common Schools .- 2. The book Company .- 3. Ethosian Library .- 4. Men liberally Educated .-- 5. Will of Ebenezer Robinson.
CHAPTER VIII .- DURHAM IN THE WARS .- 1. The Indian Wars .- 2. The French War .- 3. Volunteers to Nova Scotia .- 4. Revolu- tionary War .- 5. War of 1812 .- 6. Mexican War .- 7. War of 1861.
CHAPTER IX .- OCCUPATIONS AND CUSTOMS .- 1. Agriculture .- 2. Commerce .- 3. Manufactures .- 4. Flax .- 5. Sheep .- 6. Slavery. -7. Town Offices .- 8. Architecture .- 9. Domestic Customs .- 10. Clothing .- 11. Diet .- 12. Social Enjoyments .- 13. Holidays .--- 14. Execution of the Laws .- 15. First Temperance Society .- 16. Merriam Manufacturing Company.
CHAPTER X .- Character of the Early Inhabitants.
CHAPTER XI .- EMIGRANTS FROM DURHAM .- 1. Change of Popula- tion .- 2. Change of Homesteads .- 3. Places to which the Emigrants went .- 4. Letters concerning the Emigrants .- 5. Principles of the Emigrants .- 6. Deed of Coginchaug from Tarramuggus .- 7. Addi tional Statements .- 8. Sanitary .- 9. Extract of a Letter from Dr. Kirtland.
CHAPTER XII .- RECORDS .- 1. Town Clerks .- 2. Justices of the Peace .- 3. Representatives to the General Assembly .- 4. Senators. -5. Delegates to the Federal Convention .- 6. Delegates to the State Convention .- 7. Those who took the Oath of Fidelity .- S. Free- men .- 9. Rev. Mr. Chauncey's Record .- 10. Rev. Dr. Goodrich's Record .- 11. Rev. Dr. Smith's Record .- 12. Proprietors' Record. -13. Town Record.
HISTORY OF DURHAM.
CHAPTER I.
TERRITORY.
GEOGRAPHICAL
POSITION.
THE TERRITORY between Middletown on the North, Had- dam on the East, Killingworth and Guilford on the South, and Wallingford on the West, was, for a long time, supposed to belong to these Towns. It was a terra incognita, an unknown region. But when these Towns were surveyed, it was found to belong to none of them. Even after this discovery, as it was considered too small for a Township, it did not attract very much attention.
COLONIAL GRANTS.
But the Colonial legislature granted in it a large number of farms to distinguished men, in different parts of the Colony, for civil, military, and ecclesiastical services. As early as 1662, the General Court made a grant of land to John Talcott and others ; and in 1669 to Samuel Talcott; in 1670 to soldiers that had served in the Pequot war ; in 1672 certain lands were surveyed, and assigned to Governor William Leete, Rev. Israel Chauncey, and others. For a period, if a public man merited the grati- tude of the Colony by wisdom in council, bravery in battle, in the Pequot war, or by preaching a good election sermon, he was rewarded by the grant of a farm in COGINCHAUG, as the terri- tory was called. In this way the Colony could show its grati- tude to public men, without taxing the people; and those men could keep the lands, thus granted, until they should become valuable for themselves or their heirs.
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HISTORY OF DURHAM.
The Colonial Assembly, styled the "General Court," granted the south eastern part of the territory to Killingworth. In the Col- onial Record, 1686, is the following entry : "The Court grants to the Towne of Kenilworth, all the lands north of their bounds and Guilford, and west of Haddam bounds up to Coginchaug swamp, which are not formerly granted to any Township or per- ticular person." This tract was, after considerable negotiation, restored to Durham by Killingworth, that is the jurisdiction of it, in 1708, for the consideration of sixty acres, in fee simple paid by Durham. Henry Crane lived in Killingworth which had been taken off from Coginchaug, where Henry E. Nettleton now lives. In 1773 a tract from Haddam was added to the northeast part of Durham, which is still called " Haddam Quar- ter." The inhabitants there, for a long time, perhaps from the first, attended meeting in Durham. Thus in 1734, Thomas Fair- child, Stephen Smith, Abner Newton, Nathaniel Sutliff, John Smith, John Coe, Simeon Parsons paid their ministerial tax in Durham.
Thus it appears that Durham is made up of territory belong- ing to Coginchaug or Durham propriety, Killingworth propriety, and Haddam propriety. Moreover portions of it belonged to three Counties, namely, the Coginchaug portion to New Haven County, the Killingworth portion to New London County, and the Had- dam portion to Hartford County. Afterwards for a long time, by the request of the inhabitants, the whole town belonged to New Haven County. It was, at the request of the inhabitants, annexed to Middlesex County in May, 1799.
This territory was, by the Indians, called Coginchaug, a name in their language descriptive of the long swamp, or the thick swamp, in its central portion extending from south to north. In 1704 it was, by the act of the General Assembly, called DURHAM, from a city and county seat in the north of England, according to some tradition the residence of the Wadsworth family.
OWNERSHIP.
The Indians were the original owners of the soil, namely, the Mettabesset Indians, who resided in and about Middletown, and who frequented Coginchaug as a hunting ground. Of these Indians the grantees of laud in Coginchaug purchased the
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TERRITORY.
territory. In 1672, January 24th, in the Colonial Record of Lands," Vol. I, p. 411 is the following : "Mr. Samuel Wyllis, Capt. John Talcott who, besides his own grant, had purchased the right of a soldier by the name of Bunce, Mr. James Richard, Mr. John Allyn, all of whom held lands in Coginchaug under grants from the General Court, purchased the native right of the whole tract from the Sachem Tarramuggus and others. They valued these signatures of the natives, notwithstanding Governor Andros had said that the "signature of an Indian was no better than the serateh of a bear's paw."
The General Court also granted farms, in addition to those already mentioned, to Rev. Samuel Russell, James Steele, Esq., Commissary of the Connecticut forees, in Phillip's war, Rev. John Whiting, Governor Gurdon Saltonstall, Gov. William Leete, Deacon John Fowler, Deacon William Johnson, ancestor of the celebrated William Samuel Johnson, Lieut. Joseph Seward, Deacon John Graves. The farms of the last four were called the Guilford Farms, and lay in one piece in the southwest part of the town. Two hundred acres also were granted to Rev. Joseph Elliott of Guilford, son of the apostle John Elliott, and one hundred acres to Abraham Pierson, the first president of Yale College. John Stone, Esq., Rev. Timothy Wood- bridge, and others, received similar grants. Besides these, there was the ungranted land in possession of the General Court. The high character of these owners of lands inspired confidence and at- tracted respectable men to settle in Durham. Such owners, too, could hardly fail of being successful, in their application to the General Assembly, especially when one of their number was Governor of the Colony.
PRESENT OWNERSHIP.
The present ownership, or title to the lands in Durham is derived 1. From purchase of the Indians. 2. From the patent of Connec- tieut under the great seal of England. 3. From the grants made by the Colonial Legislature to individuals, which those individuals had power to convey by deed. 4. From the patent of Durham under the seal of the Colony, which gave power to the proprie- tors of Durham to make allotments of land to individuals, who had power to convey these lands thus allotted, by deed.
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HISTORY OF DURHAM.
PETITION FOR A TOWN PLAT.
A petition dated April 29, 1699, was addressed to the General Court, by a number of inhabitants of Guilford, some of whom were owners in the above named grants, as follows :
" To the General Court sitting in Hartford, May 1699 :
We whose names are underwritten, do humbly request of this Honorable Court, that you would grant that the tract of land commonly called Coginchaug, bounded northwardly by Middle- town, easterly by Haddam, westerly by Wallingford, and south- erly by Guilford, and Kenelworth, may be by this Honorable Court granted, and settled for a Township ; and to that end, and for the encouragement of your humble petitioners, and such others as shall be thought meet to join with them, that you would grant that all the common lands unlaid out, be granted to this Township. The Grounds and Reasons of your humble petition- ers moving thus to petition are as follows:
1st. It having pleased this Honorable Court formerly to grant sundry farms which have been laid out in the forementioned Tract of Land, the Country filling up with People, one family having already gone from Guilford to that place, and sundry more hav- ing strong inclination moving that way, Provided this Honora- ble Court would so far favor it, that it may be probable with all convenient speed, the ordinances of God might be settled there, it being considerably remote from any other town, and looks to be very difficult if not almost impossible for any comfortable at- tainment of them, which should be the greatest thing that we should have regard to in our settling here in this Wilderness.
2d. If people should settle out on the great farms already laid out, it must always be very scattered and distant from each other, and very probably be long before they can imbody themselves either for the enjoyment of ordinances, or for defending them- seles if any trouble should arise in the country, which this Hon- orable Court has seen the sorrowful experience of formerly ; now if this Honorable Court should in your wisdom think meet to grant our petitions, we desire there may be a Committee by this Court appointed and empowered to make search for, and lay out a Town plat where it may be judged most advantageous to accommodate those farms already layed out. And your peti- tioners will ever pray.
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TERRITORY.
Caleb Seaward, William Stone, John Collins, Jr., Joseph Grave, William Jones, Abraham Bradley, Thomas Maycock, Nathaniel Stone, John Collins, Sr., John Parmele, Thomas Cook, John Hall, Sr., Nathaniel Grave, James Benton, Abraham Fowler, John Seaward, Josiah Rossiter, William Johnson, Com- fort Starr, Peter Tallman, Joel Parmele, Jacob Doude, Ezekiel Bull, Joseph Seaward, Stephen Bradley, Sr., John Grover, Thomas Wallstone, James Hooker, Samuel Johnson, Obadiah Wilcoxen, John Hall, Jr.
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