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الصبور
Gc 974.602 N833G 14644 54
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02211 8589
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofnorwich1866caul
Sagra ed by : . Buttre NewTool
Sam " Huntington
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, LL.W.
THE FRE CH COTTITECTICUT AND PRESIDENT OF JONOUS
HISTORY
OF
NORWICH,
CONNECTICUT:
FROM ITS POSSESSION BY THE INDIANS, TO THE YEAR 1866.
BY FRANCES MANWARING CAULKINS.
Ed.2
" Many of these little things which we speak of, are little only in size and name. They are full of rich meaning. They illustrate classes of men and ages of time."
G.c
974-602
N833C
-
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
F. M. CAULKINS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Connecticut.
TRESS OF CASE, LOCKWOOD AND COMPANY, HARTFORD, CONN.
1464454
PREFACE.
THE History of Norwich, published in 1845, having been for several years out of print, it seems desirable that the publie should be furnished with a new and more complete work,-one that shall not only bring the course of events to the present time, but shall glean over again the records of the past, and be more exhaustive in regard to memorials of former days. The first edition may be regarded as a preliminary foray into a distriet so rich in resources, that the invader could not leave it without a deep-seated determination to return and more thoroughily explore the field.
The History has been entirely re-written, and is, in fact, a new work. The author has considered it an imperative duty to review all the sources of information, and to make it as complete a town history as the materials would permit. This led to a considerable delay in the original purpose which was to have it appear in 1860, as an offering to the two hundredth year. But had it been issued then, it would have closed with the Bi- Centennial festival of the town, without any warning of that mighty con- vulsion which was about to upheave the country, and the closing chapters which display the patriotism, energy and sacrifices of the town in the war for the Union, would have been wanting.
The author is now enabled to speak with more certainty than in the former history upon many points, and particularly concerning the ancestors of families. Yet the work is designed to be strictly a History, not a col- lection of Genealogies. The field was too opulent in narrative materials to leave space for following out the family branches of so large a surface, and to map out the descendants of a few of the fathers of the town and not of all, would make the work a failure.
It has been the aim of the writer to avoid profuse laudation, yet to be- stow praise where it was due, and invariably to speak of men and meas-
iv
PREFACE.
ures historically, without straining the records, or ranking probabilities as certainties. Mistakes are made and errors propagated in history till they become current, and truth is lost by a loose and thoughtless way of para- phrasing the original annals, and giving the transcriber's impressions of the scene, rather than the strict features of the scene itself. The idea thus conveyed is often at variance with the facts. We look at the picture through another man's mind and see it colored with the hue of his prejudices.
This history has not been written as a task, but rather for the pleasure it gave; flowers grew and fragrance filled the air, all along the path of research. The author can but hope that some few readers-aged and lonely people, or those among the stirring and ardent, who turn reverently toward the past, the youth perchance whose curiosity is excited to know what has been done on this spot in other times, and the far off wanderer that cherishes Norwich as his own early home, or the seat of his ances- tors-will experience in the perusal some portion of that satisfying interest which was felt in the preparation.
The work is larger than the author had forecasted ; there is more of it perhaps than is desirable; yet the original manuscript has been much abridged and condensed to bring it within this compass.
LIST OF PORTRAITS.
1. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, LL. D., Gov. of Conn., 1786-1795.
2. WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM, Gov., 1858-1866.
. 3. EBENEZER HUNTINGTON, of the Revolutionary Army ; M. C. 4. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY.
5. BELA PECK.
6. ASA FITCH.
7. Rev. JOHN TYLER, D. D.
8. WILLIAM WILLIAMS.
9. Rev. ALVAN BOND, D. D.
10. WILLIAM C. GILMAN.
11. JOHN BREED.
12. HENRY STRONG, LL. D.
13. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, LL. D., U. S. S.
14. GEORGE L. PERKINS.
15. JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON.
16. MARVIN WAIT, Lieut. 8th C. V.
Several of these portraits were engraved from recent photograplis. That of Mrs. Sigourney is from a painting executed by Alexander, in 1828. She selected this portrait out of several that had been engraved and published at different periods of her life as the one that represented her nearest to her Norwich days, and which she preferred to have asso- ciated with the history of her native town.
The engraving of General Ebenezer Huntington is from a miniature taken at Philadelphia in 1783. That of Dr. Tyler is from a miniature painted by Elkanah Tisdale, of Norwich, probaby about 1802, when Dr. Tyler was 60 years of age.
1 GENERAL INDEX.
Aboriginal History, 28-47, 104-112. .
Academical Institutions, 541-51.
Addressers of Hutchinson, 374, 5.
Africans, slaves and free, 328-31; Vote against them, 568; Sabbath School for them, 556.
Aged citizens in 1842, 586.
Agreement between the Town and its old friend Uncas, 261. Agricultural Society, 644.
Alarm! on to Boston, 376 ; Battle of Bunker Hill, 383.
Allyn's Point, 157.
Alms-house, 574, 5.
Alphabetical list of early Inhabitants, 222-42.
Alphabetical list of early Inhabitants in Long Society and Preston, 243-54.
Alphabetical list of early Inhabitants in Newent, 256-9.
" American Hero,"-its author, 470. Amusements, 331. Ancient fishery in the Thames, 18. Animals, 296-301.
Arnold House,-its history, 410.
Arnold's Letter to Mrs. Gen. Knox, 414. Association against illicit trade, 398. Attorneys, 518.
Autographs ; Fitch, 137, 150; Mason, 144; Lathrop, 217; Birchard, 166; Brewster, 212; Elderkin, 216; Occom, 269, 465.
Balloons, or " New Art of Flying," 521. Baltic Village, 433. Banks, 646-9.
Baptists, 437, 50; 528, 9, 98-501, 61.
Bass fishery, 18, 353. Bean Hill, 21, 78, 322, 61, 5; 510, 11. Beans and puddings, 78.
Belligerent edicts, 479, 82, 4, 94, 8. Bi-centennial celebration, 587-9.
Biographical Sketches : Mason, 140; Fitch, 148; other first proprietors, 148-208 ; second class of proprietors, 208-21 ; Arnold, 409 ; Generals Huntington and other Revolutionary characters, 415-26; Governor Huntington and others after the Revolution, 516-22; several recent citizens, 625-33. (See Index of Names.) |
Blockade of the Thames in 1814, 561. Blue Law, 101. Bomb-lance factory, 623.
Booksellers, 361, 4; 514.
Boston tea-party, 373.
Boston circular, 366, 73. Boswell farm, 540.
Bounds described, 58, 9.
Boundary tree, 59, 250, 4.
Bozrah, 136, 434-8.
Bozrahville, 194, 437, 616.
Brewster's voyages to Conn., 211.
Brewster's Neck, 44, 211, 13.
Brick corner, 538.
Bride-brook marriage, 164. Bridges, 99, 343-52, 4.
Burial places : Oldest, 128-32, 144, 202; Leffingwell-town, 192; Episcopal church- yard, 458 ; Chelsea Society, 460 ; Long Society, 448 ; Jewett-City, 450; Yantic Cemetery, 645; Indian Cemetery, 585.
Business at the Landing, 305-12, 638-40. (See also Trade, Marine Affairs, &c.) Business in the town-plot, 360-3, 511-15. Business men of recent date, 638-40.
Cambridge Platform, 284, 318, 439.
Candidates for the Ministry: Ist Society, Fitch and Flint, 125; Coit, 127; Wil- lard, 287 ; How, 336. Chelsea Society, Curtice and Cleveland, 460 ; Ely and Austin, 469.
Cannon cast and anchors made, 389. Carding machines, 449. Car factory, 623. .
Casnalty at Lathrop's bridge in 1725, 343. Catholics, 472, 605.
Catholic sermon in Cong. Church, 472.
Centenarians, 218, 50; 578-80.
Circulating Library, 514.
Chair of Uncas, 40.
Chaise and carriage ; one-horse chaise of. Gov. Trumbull, 325.
Channel company, 569.
Chelsea, East, 25, 302, 539; West, 24, . 263, 538 ; Plain, or Parade, 23, 533-5 ; Ecclesiastical Society, formerly 6th, now 2d, 460-72, 552-60.
Chelsea in Vermont, 503.
viii
GENERAL INDEX.
Chocolate Mills, 371, 608.
Choirs introduced, 340.
Churches burnt : Chelsea Congregational- ist, 552, 55; Town-plot, 526; Main Street Congregationalist, 529; Grecne- ville Baptist, 529.
Classes for raising soldiers, 396, 9.
Clerks, Town, 82, 133, 594; County, 87 ; City, 595.
Clock and watch-making, 372, 512, 608.
Comity of Episcopalians and Congrega- tionalists, 455.
Commerce and trade, 288, 303-14, 97; 475.
Commissioners, or'Justices, 86 ; cases be- fore them, 277-81.
Confiscation of tory property, 371.
Congregational ordination, 149 ; struggle with Presbyterianism, 461.
Congregational Churches : 1st Church or- ganized at Saybrook, 55 ; 2d, or Chelsea, 460 ; 3d, now extinet, on the Plain, 558 ; 4th, now 3d, at Greeneville, 538 ; 5th, or Main Street, now 4th, or Broadway Congregational, 539.
Constables for the first 25 years, 83.
Continental soldiers, 391.
Contribution for soldiers, 392.
Contraband trade, 397.
Controversies : with Preston respecting bounds, 271, 94 ; with New London for half-shire, 273 ; Town-plot versus Chel- sea, for the courts, 570; Gas Compa- nies, 573.
Cork-cutting, 614.
Corn stalk molasses, 389.
Cotton manufacture, 446, 9, 50; 512, 609 -16, 19-21. Court House, 22, 523.
Courts, 86, 8 ; 267, 8 ; 273, 4; 570 ; trans- ferred to the Landing, 572.
Crows and blackbirds, 55; bounties for their destruction, 297.
Cushion and calash, 334, 5.
Customs of former times, 75, 80, 121, 325, 33, 517.
Date of purchase and the price, 57.
Deacons, 155, 172, 184, 288.
Death, 73, 336, 58 ; 501 ; by fire, 529. Debts of town in 1718, 271.
Deed of Norwich, 57; of Preston, 243, 255 ; Indian deeds, 261 ; mortgage deed, 137.
Deputies, earliest, 84.
Descriptive sketch, 17-26.
Disasters at sea from tempest, wreck, pi- rates, privatcers, tropical fevers, and belligerents, 493-502.
Distrainments, 323, 4.
Division of the town, 428.
Divorce case, 205.
Donation to Boston, 376.
Druggists, 326, 413, 26 ; 637, 8.
Durkee's expedition to Wethersfield, 365 ; start for Boston, 376.
Eagleville, 446. Early marriages, 177.
Ecclesiastical difficulties, 284, 318, 461, 553.
Elderkin's mills and meeting-houses, 72, 117, 216.
Emancipation, 229, 61 ; 520 ; proclaimed and honored, 677.
Emigration, 309, 421, 44 ; 503-9 ;
Episcopal Church, 451-9; at Yantic, 605 ; at Jewett City, 419 ; Christ's Church, 455; Trinity, 457; at Poquetannock, 451.
Epitaphs : Adgate, 129 ; Mrs. Arnold, 409; Barkus, 160; Baldwin, 163 ; Bil- lings, 500 ; Bushnell, 215 ; Calkins, 172; Fitch, 148, 448; Gager, 131 ; Gif- ford, 176 ; Griswold, 178 ; Huntington, 129, 183; Jewett, 450; Kinney, 564 ; "aged nursing mother," 191; "Jenteel woman," 191 ; Lathrop, 218, 221 ; Post, 195; Rude, 250; Smith, 200; Tracy, 203, 345; Governor Trowtrow, 330; Tyler, 458; Wight, 448; Samuel Uneas, 587 ; Waterman, 206.
European trade, 486-92.
Excise money, 342.
Exports, 476.
Extent of the town, 19, 58, 128; of the first parish, 128.
Extracts from Norwich Packet, 358.
Extraordinary coincidence, 240.
Falls, 18, 22 ; plunge over, 34, 610. Falls Village, 22.
Family meetings, 645.
Fast and Covenant extraordinary, 110, 123.
Fashions, 75, 7 ; 121, 325, 33-5, 67 ; 520 ; change at the Revolution, 335, 67.
Female Academy, 546.
Fillmore and the pirate, 229; descent of Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the U. S., 229, 30.
Fire-lands, 507.
First-comers, 61.
First born child and other early births, 73, 182, 7 ; first born male, 182.
First incident, 47.
First houses on the Plain and in Washing- ington Street, 532-7.
First marriages and deaths, 74.
First military organization, 88.
First masters of vessels, 303.
First steam-boats in the Thames, 566.
First turnpike in U. S., 530.
Fitchville, 437, 617, 18.
Fitting out for boarding school, 334.
Flag before the Revolution, 378; of the 18th C. V., 678.
Flag-raising for the Union, 656.
Foreigners, 605.
Franklin, 136, 429-33.
Franklin-Square, 540.
Free Academy, 549-51.
Freemen, 85, 6 ; 274, 281.
ix
INDEX.
GENERAL
French officers visit Norwich, 393, 4. French neutrals, 310. Freshets, 352-5. Fright of Mrs. Brewster, 46. Fulling mills, 98, 371, 608.
Golden weddings, 641. Grants lavish and indefinite, 95.
Grants at the Landing, 303 ; to Owaneco, 256.
Grave-stone memorials, 314, 458. (See epitaphs.) Greeneville, 26, 558, 618.
Green's proclamation against Norwich and Windham, 377.
Half-century Ministers, 459. Hanover Society, 444. Hemp mannfacture, 610, 11. High prices, 389.
Hill-top, or Zion's Mecting-house, 21, 119- 22, 6-9; 316.
Home-lots, 63-9; first alienated, 102 ; parts that have not been alienated, 65, 6,8; 167.
Horse-jockeys and their cargoes, 478.
Hour-glass of the pulpit, 283.
Huguenot exile, 288 ; Huguenot bell, 282. Hungry march, 111.
Imports direct from Europe, 310, 477, 92. Impressments, 484, 564.
Indian fugitives ; great meeting to dispose of them, 114, 15. Indian deeds, 261 ; forts, 23, 81, 302.
Indian graves, 30, 73, 263, 585 ; relics, 263. Indian plunge into Yantic Falls, 34.
Indian raid upon the pioneer settlers, 46 ; do. upon Reynolds and Rockwell, 109. Indian totems, 264; Attawanhood, 58; Owaneco, 58, 255, 6 ; Uncas, 58, 262. Indian village at Pawcatuck destroyed, 145.
Inns and Inn-keepers, 100, 331, 360, 512. Inoculation, 427, 8.
Installation in the open air, 462. Instruction to deputies, 369, 95, 9. Insurance, 310; companies, 649. Invasion apprehended, 400.
Inventories, 157, 8, 68, 72, 5, 91 ; 204, 10, 48,89; 333. Irish population, 643. Iron works, 389, 606, 12, 53.
Jail, 273, 547, 72. Jewett City, 448. Johnson, Vermont, 207. July 4th, 1865, 677. Justices, 86.
Killingworth, 176, 8. Kinsman, wide range of meaning, 193.
Labrador tea, 367. LaFayette in Norwich, 393.
Landing-place, 99 ; original condition, 302, 5 ; first grantees, 303, 4. Lathrop Bible, 77 ; Lathrop ballad, 220. Law-books and election sermons, 276. Lawyers, 160, 518, 630, 3. Laurel Hill, 25, 575, 6. Lebanon, 136, 151, 166. Lebanon, N. H., 208, 503. Leffingwell-town, 192. Leffingwell's staff, 190.
Letters : Mrs. Arnold to her son Benedict, 410 ; Arnold to Mrs. Knox, 414; Elder- kin's petition, 120; Col. Mclellan to Major Leffingwell, 400 ; Occom's Well and Farewell, 465 ; Washington to Col. Rogers, 382 ; Taylor love letter, 154.
Liberty Tree, 366, 8, 74, 6.
Library of a clerical student in 1724, 210.
Lisbon, 137, 429, 45.
Litigation, 87.
Longevity, 188. Long Society, 243, 447. Lotteries, 347, 50, 2, 63.
Mackerel, 18. Magistrates, 90.
Manufactures, 367, 9, 71; 446, 9; 564, 606-24.
Marine Affairs, early, 306, 10 ; during the Revolutionary war, 402-8 ; after the war, 475, 502, 65, 95 ; 652, 3.
Mashipang, or Gardner's Lake, 227.
Masonry, 524.
Mason controversy, 266-70.
Mason versns Richardson, 88.
Mayors, 625-30.
Medical Society, 359, 638.
M. C.'s, 631, 2.
Meeting Houses, 21, 63, 119, 126, 216, 82; 340, 527, 60, 88 ; 601, 3; at West Farms, 284, 430, 2 ; at Newent, 440, 2 ; at Pant- ipaug, 433, 8 ; at the Landing, 462, 563, 6, 9.
Merchants and merchandise, 100, 310, 14, 60. 97.
Merchant's Hotel, 539.
Methodist, 433, 7, 42, 59; 602, 3; Free Church, 603. Methodist Chapel swept down the river, 354. Mike-apple, 239. Militia, 88, 214, 377, 8, 91 ; 400. Mills, 72, 97, 216.
Mining company, 624.
Ministers originating in Ist Society, 560. Minister's Rates, 124, 288, 323, 41 ; 471. Mission School, 557.
Mission of Occom and Whitaker, 464.
Missions and Missionaries, 590-3. Model substitute, 673.
Mohegans, their original seat and removal, 29, 30 ; attempts to Christianize them, 104, 14. Monuments : Lady Fenwick, 53; Mian- tonomoh, 31, 8 ; Uncas, 586.
X
GENERAL INDEX.
Nailery, 371, 607, 12.
Names : Indian, 48 ; Puritanical and local,
80 ; of families, 281 ; of vessels, 485. Narragansett fort fight, 108, 179.
Navy recruits, 675.
Necrology of the late war, 680-92.
Newent, between the rivers, first grant, 120, 197, 256-60, 439-43 ; its ancient Sanctuary, 442.
New-light excitement, 316-24 ; Whitaker's sermon against it, 467.
News from Lexington and the rush to arms, 380.
News from Bunker Hill and the Sunday scene, 383-6.
Newspapers : Norwich Packet, 357; list of 18, 580-4.
Nine half-pay officers, 425.
Non-importation agreement, 366-70.
Norwich, why thus named, 71 ; link con- necting it with Norwich in England, 180; towns growing out of it, 136 ; indicted by the Grand Jury for want of a school, 93 ; inhabitants hungry, 390.
Norwich Packet, 357-64; Courier, 582, 4 ; Aurora, 583 ; Bulletin, 584.
Norwich in Vermont and Massachusetts, 503; in New York, 507.
Norwich City, 23, 99, 302, 5 ; its streets, buildings, and prominent citizens, 533- 40 ; incorporated, 625 ; its present limits, 572.
Norwich Light Infantry, 689.
Occom Company, 620.
Oil mill, 606.
Old age of Dr. Lord, 336, 7.
Old customs, 75-80, 121, 267, 325, 31.
Old fashioned comforts, 75.
Otis Library, 577.
Owaneco's brief for charity, 265; quit claim to Preston, 255; agreement re- specting Newent, 226.
Oxford, N. Y., 507.
Pachaug, 448.
Paper enrrency, old and new tenor, 293-5.
Paper-making, 367, 8 ; 607, 13, 19, 20.
Parsonage land, 63, 277, 342.
Patent of the town, 134.
Patriotic and war committees, 367, 74, 96; 563.
Pautipang, or 8th Society, 432.
Peace, 401, 475, 565; Treaty carried to France by the Spy, 403.
Peculiarity in the foundation of the town, 70.
Pew-holders at the Landing, 463, 7.
Philip's war, 105-13; only five persons killed in Connecticut, 113.
Physicians, 193, 203, 359, 426, 514, 634-7.
Plains : in the town plot, 63, 119, 275 ; Chelsea, 23, 63, 263, 307, 533-5 ; Great Plain, 31; Sachem's, 36, 7. Poll-tax condemned, 395, 6.
Pomfret, 137.
Poor of the town, 272, 94; 574.
Population, 26, 356, 522 ; of Franklin, 433; Bozrah, 437 ; Lisbon, 445.
Poquetannock, 44, 211, 453.
Porto-Rico trade, 653.
Post-office, 371, 593.
Powder-house blown up, 523.
Praver for rain, 116. -
President Adams in Norwich, 513; do. Jackson, 585.
Presidential electors, 631.
Preston, 243, 55 ; 447 ; Plantation act, 254.
Preston, N. Y., 507.
Prisoners from St. Domingo, 525.
Proprietors : first class, 61; 2d class, 68 ; surviving in 1702, 135; of Chelsea, 305-8 ; Long Society and Preston, 243- 54; Newent, 257-60.
Pumpkins, 79.
Quinebaug, 17, 49.
Railroads, 531, 2; 650, 2.
Rates, 119, 24 ; 341, 455, 472.
Rattle-snakes : death from their poison, 128 ; bounties for their destruction, 298.
Reason for removal, 55, 6.
Records imperfect, 60, 82, 3, 95, 6.
Refugees from Boston, 379.
Regulations prudential and municipal, 95.
Remonstrance against the five years' pay to officers, 399.
Revolutionary Sabbath, 657.
Rivalry between Norwich and New Lon- don in business, versus harmony in so- cial affairs, 79, 90, 273.
Rogerene episode, 290-2.
Rolling mill, 612, 24.
Rustication of an English noblemen, 573.
Sabbath-day journey, eight miles to meet- ing, 439.
Sabbath School in Ist Society, 527; at the Landing, 566 ; both Societies, 693. Sachems succeeding Uncas, 264, 5.
Salaries, 341, 557.
Salem Town House, 457.
Sampson Fox, or Woollaneag, 297.
Saw-mills, 97.
Saybrook, its early history, 51-4, 141.
Saybrook platform, 284, 7 ; 318.
Scarcity of sugar, molasses, salt and wheat, 389, 90.
Scenery, 19, 69, 515.
School fund of the State, 547.
Schools and school-masters, 92-4, 275, 541-8 ; consolidated and graded, 548. Schooner sent to Ireland in 1732, 306. Sealing and whaling, 489.
Seamen plenty, 481.
Seating the people and dignifying the seats, 126. Sentry Hill, 65.
xi
GENERAL INDEX.
Separatists, 318-24; reasons for separa- | Town Clock, 340.
tion, 320 ; list of their preachers, 322 ; first members, 321.
Settlements : at Pequot Harbor, now New London, 41 ; Brewster's Neck, or Po- quetannock, 44, 211-13 ; Saybrook, 51 ; Lebanon, 151; Windham, 136, 159; Newark, 181 ; Canterbury and Plain- field, 138, 59 ; Preston, 254.
Seven pillars of the Church, 439, 71. Seven expeditions in Philip's war, 112. Shad, 17.
Shantok, 39. Sheep-walks, 103, 302-5.
Shetucket ferry, 97, 204.
Ships, shipping and ship-building, 303, 402-8, 475-502, 505, 95-7; 653; first ship-masters, 303-14. Showtucket Indians, 115, 256.
Sign-posts, 102, 274, 307.
Slavery, 328, 61 ; 520.
Sleighing, 331.
Smuggling, 397. Society before the Revolution, 333, 58. Soldier farm, 170.
Soldiers' Aid Society, 676.
Soldiers for frontier service, 313 ; in the war for the Union, 660-80.
Soldiers and patriots of the Revolution, 333, 58.
Sons of Liberty, 374; address to them, 379.
Sprague, 402, 29, 45 ; 595-7.
Stage-coach, 368, 507, 13.
Stamp-act, 365.
Steam-boats, 566,'7 ; 651.
Stocking looms, 607.
Surface and contents of the town, 19. Summary of Churches, 605.
Summary of forces in the war for the Union, 675.
Surrenderers, 97, 257 ; great meeting to dispose of them, 113-15. Surrender of Gen. Lee, 676.
Survey of Bean Hill and Town Plot, with notices of persons and things, 510-22; do. of the Plain and Chelsea, 533-40. Swine, 98.
Sympathy with Boston, 373, 6.
Tape-making, 372. Tarring and feathering, no case in Nor- wich, 291. Taxation, 373, 95. Tea-drinking, 366. Temperance, 568.
Thames, its fisheries, 18; its name, 19; navigation, 85. Thamesville, 25, 653. Thanksgiving, 80, 331, 92. Tories, 370, 4-6, 9 ; 385-8. Tory molasses, 389. Tory timber, 405.
Town House, 273, 4. Townsmen, or Selectmen, the earliest, 84.
Town Plot, 21, 62, 3 ; 510-15.
Tradition, its uncertainty exemplified, 179. Trade : with West Indies, 310, 475-85 ; Europe, 486-90; East Indies, 490.
Trading Cove, 212, 67.
Train-bands, 89, 377, 8.
Training day, 214, 378.
Trespass, cases of, 277, 281.
Turnpikes, first in U. S., 550.
Uncas : besieged at Mohegan, and relieved by Leffingwell, 41 ; at Niantick, and re- lieved by Brewster, 45; at Shantok, " diverse times," 46 ; his death and char- acter, 117, 261, 2.
Uncas Cemetery and Monument, 585-7.
Universalism, 324, 472-4, 604 ; books in its favor published in Norwich, 474. Uprising for the Union, 657-60.
Vernett grape, 512. Veteran Guards, 391 ; veterans of the war of 1812, 674. Veteran Missionary, 592. Volunteers for Boston, 381, 2, 91.
Votes, 522, 654.
Wardrobe of a lady in 1757, 333.
War : Mohegans and Narragansetts, 30- 47 ; French war, 313, 58; war of the Revolution, 365-401 ; war of the races in St. Domingo, 480, 525 ; with Great Britain, 561-5, for the Union, 655-692. Warwick Patent, 51.
Washington in Norwich, 393 ; his funeral solemnities, 525.
Waureegun Hotel, 645.
Waweekus, or Waweequaw's Hill ; two of this name, 50, 103, 115, 297, 300, 624; at the Landing, 23, 81, 452.
Wears, 101.
Weddings, 332, 67; wedding in Court, 219 ; at Windham, 367; at New Lon- don, 332.
Wequanock Company, 621.
West Farms, 136, 188, 429.
West India trade; its beginnings, 304, 310, 475-85.
Western Reserve, 507, 22, 47.
Whaling vessels, 490. Whitefield in Norwich, 321.
Wigwams, 62 ; the last in the Town Plot, 115.
Wilkesbarre, 421, 504.
Wilkes and Liberty, 368.
Williams Park, or Chelsea Plain, 534. Winter of gloom, 108. Windham, 136, 159, 205, 33.
Woolen mills, 614, 16.
Wyoming, 503-6.
Yantic Village, 20, 615. Yantic Cemetery, 645.
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY AND DESCRIPTIVE.
NORWICH, when purchased of the Indians, June 6, 1659, consisted of a tract of wild land nine miles square, in the heart of the Mohegan terri- tory, at the head of what was then called Mohegan or Pequot river. This area comprised the present towns of Norwich, Bozrah, Franklin, Lisbon, Sprague, and the western border of Griswold and Preston, embracing Jewett's City, Long Society, and a part of Poquetannock.
The Shetucket river flows in a semicircular sweep through the eastern portion of this area, receiving the Quinebaug about three miles before it reaches the Thames. The Quinebaug comes down with a rapid current through a country abounding in hills and valleys, rugged and abrupt, and has its channel frequently encumbered with ledges of rock. Its name in the Indian tongue signified Long Pond,-the flowing river bearing with it in its course the name of its fountain head. It is a larger stream than the Shetucket, yet the Indians, after the junction, continued the name of the minor branch, and this practice has been very properly retained, since the united stream, both in its course and the nature of its current, seems to be a continuation of the Shetucket rather than of the Quinebaug.
The Shetucket was formerly noted for its abundant supply of shad. Just below the mouth of the Quinebaug they were caught in April and May by driving the river. Pens were constructed in the shallow waters, and the fishermen, plunging into the river with bushes in their hands, drove the fish into these inclosures, where they were caught by hand and thrown into baskets. Shad and other fish are still found in the river, but not of the size and flavor of former times, and far less abundant.
The Yantic is a small romantic stream flowing east and southeast, affording by its declination and consequent rapidity various sites for mills and manufacturing establishments. The brooks and rivulets that swell it to the size of a little river come from Lebanon, Colchester and Bozrah.
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