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Hallock
Newtown
CONNECTICUT
Gc 974.602 N472 2050645
750 Sty
M. L ..
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
= ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01150 5721
J-50
THE COCK ON THE COVER, drawn by Robert Hallock, represents one of the distinguishing fea- tures of Newtown-the weathervane atop the steeple of the Congregational Church. The rooster dates back at least to Revolutionary days. Beyond that his age is mere conjecture. This proud chanticleer is enormous, measuring 5 feet high by 6 feet from tip to tip. He was originally covered with gold leaf but is now simply gilded. His famous bullet holes were once filled in by a painter who took down the vane to re-gild it. The painter, however, was ordered to punch out the solder-such was the esteem of cer- tain people for the antiquity of the venerable bird!
I
NEWTOWN CONNECTICUT Past and Present
Cover Design and Twelve Illustrations by Newtown Artists
FIRST EDITION
Published by THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS of Newtown
III
COPYRIGHT 1955 by LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS Newtown, Connecticut
Printed by The Walker-Rackliff Company
New Haven, Conn., U.S.A.
IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE PAST
THE PRESENT
CHAPTER 1 The Present Town
2050645
CHAPTER 2
Economic Life of the Town
CHAPTER 3
Town Government
CHAPTER 4 Schools Playground and Park
CHAPTER 5
Religious, Cultural and Community Life
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7.50 good speed 9 aug 1-1777 PO 1 1296
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/newtownconnectic00unse
COVER DESIGN
Robert Hallock
ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece, Purchase from Indians
John Angel
An Old House
Harrie Wood
Meeting House
Nina Blake
Flat Swamp School
E. von Jarochowski
Rochambeau
Joseph Low
Ye Town Flock
Elizabeth S. Keeler
Yoked Swine
Paul Webb
The Fabric Fire Hose Company
Joel King
Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Norman Fedde
Country Store
Norton Stewart
Edmond Town Hall
Herman DeVries
Library Doorway
Henry Schnakenberg
VII
FOREWORD
This book has been compiled by the League of Women Voters of New- town.
It contains a brief outline of our picturesque historical background, a description of the present town, our government, our educational system and a list of our religious, cultural and civic organizations.
The League, which is non-partisan, provides accurate information on local, state and national issues, after careful study and discussion. It strives to encourage citizens to take an active and informed part in our democratic form of government.
In conformity with the usual policy of the League, this book has been prepared by the joint efforts of a Committee, consisting of Mrs. Jerome P. Jackson, Chairman, and the following members: Mrs. James Brunot, Mrs. Raymond L. Hall, Mrs. M. Fridolf Jacobson, Mrs. Frank L. Johnson, Mrs. William H. Knox, Mrs. Malcolm R. McClintock, Mrs. Frank C. McGlinchy, Mrs. Bradley Randall.
The Committee is grateful to the many townspeople who have helped with this publication; the town officials, librarians, artists, scientists, the "Bee" staff and numerous others.
The purpose in publishing this book is to stimulate interest in the affairs of our town, so that in planning for its future development, Newtown may become an even more beautiful and desirable place in which to live.
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John angel 195
The Purchase From The Indians 1705
THE PAST
THE EARLIEST YEARS
Although this year we celebrate Newtown's 250th Anniversary, in com- parison with the founding dates of other nearby towns, ours is not so venerable after all. Neither is it the first "Newtown" in the State. The Con- necticut Colony was established in 1632 by intrepid souls from New Town, now Cambridge, in Massachusetts, who followed Thomas Hooker westward through the wilderness and settled on the shore of a broad and beautiful river, and called their colony Newtown. Not until several years had passed was the name changed to Hartford.
Later groups settled along the sea coast: Stratford in 1636, New Haven in 1638, Milford and Fairfield in 1639 and Norwalk in 1640.
In those early days, the rivers of course provided the easiest means of travel, and it was not long before the colonists at the mouth of the Housatonic explored the upper reaches of the river, navigable as far as New Milford. The value of its fertile valley and of the abundant water-power of its tributary streams was quickly realized, and settlers ventured to establish themselves in Derby, Woodbury (at that time comprising our neighbors, Southbury, Rox- bury and Bridgewater) and New Milford.
What is now Newtown was not, in the late 1600's, unexplored wilderness. The territory - known as "Quanneapague" - was held by the Pohtatuck Indians, but they were friendly in their dealings with the white men.
There is nothing spectacular about the Connecticut Indians of this region. Those of the Housatonic valley probably came from the shores of the Hudson
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River, and were Mohicans. One tribe, the Paugussetts, was divided into five clans with the tongue-twisting names of Wipawaugs, Unquowas, Pohtatucks, Pomperaugs and Naugatucks. They settled first in Kent, calling their place "Schaghticoke," and later spread down the river to the shore, for the fishing. About 1680 they migrated back up the Great River and settled first in Derby, then Newtown, Woodbury and New Milford.
They moved about mostly on foot, but they did have dugout canoes. (One was found some years ago in the lake at Putnam Park). One historian says of the Pohtatucks, "Their insignificance is proved by the almost total silence of authors concerning them, and by their noiseless disappearance."
It was not unsafe then, for the white men to enter the territory of the Pohtatucks. The direct overland route between Boston and New York went through Hartford, Newtown and Norwalk, whence the traveler usually pro- ceeded by water to the great seaport. Well-defined paths, undoubtedly de- veloped from Indian trails, used by horseback riders and drivers of ox-carts, crossed this area in several directions. Those courageous travelers must early have observed the fine forests here, as well as the meadows whose soil was invariably described as "gravelly loam which is very productive."
The Colonial Government of Connecticut owned all the land. Upon peti- tion it made grants to individuals and to towns, and seven grants had been made in the area of present-day Newtown before 1705. The names of several of these first settlers - Sherman, Botsford, Burr, Shelton, Hubbell - have a familiar ring in our ears today.
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THE PURCHASE OF 1705
Unlike many New England townships, ours was not settled by religious zealots determined to have their own community where they could worship in freedom; on the contrary, its founding was based upon a speculative land deal, and a rather shady one at that.
William Junos (or James), a yeoman, and Capt. Samuel Hawley, Jr., were Stratford men, Justus Bush was "a mariner" from New York. We do not know how they came to be interested in the territory hereabouts, nor what were their relations with the Indians. Probably they had paddled up the Housatonic from Stratford and were impressed by the fine land adjacent to the thriving farms of the seven who had been granted plantations by the Colonial Court. At any rate, on July 25th (Old Calendar) 1705, Junos, Hawley and Bush met with three Sachems of the Pohtatuck tribe, Mauquash, Massumpas and Nunnawauk, at the Indian encampment at the junction of the Housatonic and Pohtatuck rivers. Acting without the authority of the Colonial Court, which alone had the power to give title, the three speculators bought from the Indians "a Certain Tract of land Butted and Bounded by Stratford, Fairfield, Danbury, New Milford and the Great River-", an area about eight miles long and six miles wide. In the Land Records of Newtown is recorded the deed, and the purchase price was "four guns, four broadcloth Coats, four blankitts, four ruffelly Coats, four Collars, ten shirts, ten pair of stockings, forty pounds of lead, ten pounds of powder and forty knives."
It was not long before the General Court of the Colony learned of this transaction, and at its session in New Haven shortly afterward the following vote was passed: "whereas some persons, contrary to the laws of this Colony lately purchased of the Indians some thousand acres of land, this Court doth recommend that the offenders be prosecuted for their illegal purchase -. " By May of 1706 it appears that Junos had already offered to surrender to the Court his holdings in the deal, and as the other two parties to the transaction made satisfactory restitution, all three escaped without further prosecution. Before long Junos, probably glad to be rid of this hot potato on his hands, sold out part of his interest. Samuel Hawley, however, more confident of the value of the tract in which he still held a third portion, joined with other valiant Stratford citizens and bought out Junos' remaining claim and all that of Bush. Forty-eight Rights in the land were thus bought, and the ancient deed' is copied into the Newtown Records. A more picturesque way of acquiring land in those far-away days is shown by the action of the Court in Hartford, when in 1678 that august body "grants John Hubbell in consideration of his loss of one of his fingers and one ear, etc., one hundred acres of land -. " We shall never know how Hubbell's injury was incurred: an Indian? A wild beast ?- but it is reassuring to learn of so kindly an action on the part of the Government. It was not until 1710 that Hubbell's sons claimed the grant, and then chose one hundred acres in Newtown.
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A CHARTER IS GRANTED
By the year 1708 Newtown was evidently in the good graces of the Gen- eral Court of the Colony because upon petition of thirty-six settlers, a Charter was granted, bestowing Town Rights upon the community. The area was of- ficially defined and it was decreed that it "shall be one entire town, called by the name of Newtown." Lost in legend was the Indian name, Quanneapague. The General Assembly appointed a Committee to survey "said Tract of land and consider what numbers of inhabitants the Tract will conveniently ac- commodate and accordingly determine where ye Town Platt shall be and lay out a suitable number of home lotts." The boundaries of ye Town Platt were Queen Street and Carcass Lane (Wendover Road), on the East, Deep Brook on the South, "The Great Hill" toward the West, and the road to Danbury on the North.
Home Lots of four acres each were laid out, 41 at first, and later others were added. "Ye names of the Petitioners for ye Lands" are sturdy Anglo- Saxon ones, and the bearers of them, along with the seven of the earlier grants, were the original Proprietors of Newtown.
"PITCHING" FOR THE LAND
Each of the Proprietors had the right to "pitch", which is to say, to draw lots, for the 4-acre Home Lots and for other divisions of the common land as soon as they could be "layed out." Distribution by this method "was construed as leaving the judgment to God." The Rights to the land were bought, sold and divided again and again, and the deeds of the transactions are available to the student, many addressed "To all Christian people to whom these presents shall come."
In the early spring of 1710, twenty-two Stratford men holding Rights to the land "took their pitch" for lots further from the center of town. Every effort was made toward a fair division of the "pitches." Acreage was "equally divided to each proprietor by a Sizer, and what is wanting in quality to be made up in quantity." Most of these lots contained twenty acres, but in some cases adjustments were made, as in the following examples: "Josiah Burit the north lott, Abraham Kimberly the south lot, only Kimberly's lot contains but 9 acres and is to have 11 acres more adjoying to the west side" and "Note that John Griffin in lieu of ye home lot layed out to him accepts of land layed by his dwelling house and hath two acres layed at the east end of his twenty acre lott and two acres on the west side of Mr. prindle's home lott adjoying to it."
Pitching for the common land continued for many years, until all was used up, and the early Records are largely concerned with these transactions.
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Swamp land was considered even more valuable than upland because winter hay could be cut there. Meadows had been kept cleared by the Indian custom of burning them over for untold years. Another method of making brushy land fit for meadow use was to "drown" it. This killed off the tree growth and in time it could be reclaimed for pasture or crops. What was too rocky for plowing was used for sheep pasturage. We read of "10 acres on ye hill called Hawley's Folly," which meant Hawley's fallow, or cleared, woodland, and "Beers'es folly" is also mentioned.
As each division of land was made-ever further removed from ye Town Platt, notice was given to "all ye inhabitants," and it was "voted that if any of ye proprietors don't agree when ye time comes for to pitch they shall lose their pitch and ye next shall take it successively." Notifications for such town affairs were posted "at three certain places ten days before sd meeting, namely at ye oak tree near Sargeant Joseph Botsford, one at ye pound, and one at ye oak tree near Johnathan Booth's house which shall be sufficient warning to ye inhabitants of Newtown." People were also summoned to public gatherings by "ye beat of ye drum" until as late as 1764, and for years Stephen Parmalee was hired for this service.
Pitching for land did not always proceed without controversy. In Febru- ary 1712 a vote was taken "to revoke and disallow ye lot that was drawn in January because of some unfair dealings by some persons .- Peter Hubbell protests against it." And five years later a dispute arose over a division of one and one-quarter acres apiece, and the record refers to such contending and jarring over the matter that it was known as "the Jangling Division." It was agreed that "all should have 11/4 acres-excepting John Glover who has no right to this little Division of land. If he pretends he has, he may expect trouble as to his 60 Acres illegally granted to him by ye Town.'
One early pitch records the order of drawing the lots as "Josiah Curtis ye 1, Job Sherman ye 2,-minister ye 13"-one wonders if the superstition concerning that number figured in the lottery, and if it were felt that the minister could safely cope with the sinister share.
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HARR
1
THE TOWN IS RECOGNIZED
The year 1711 is a momentous one in Newtown's history. It was then that the General Court of Connecticut Colony granted the settlement power to elect its own officers and to enjoy all the rights and privileges "as all other towns in this colony generally have and enjoy."
The first business meeting was held at the house of Peter Hubbell on September 24, 1711. Hubbell was voted Newtown's first Town Clerk, Abraham Kimberly constable, Ebenezer Prindle and Thomas Sharp surveyors of high- ways, Joseph Gray and Daniel Foote fence viewers, and Johnathan Booth field driver or hayward.
The General Court appointed "ye figure 7 to be ye town Brand Mark for their horses," and also decreed that the Annual Town Meeting should be held in December. Consequently, on December fourth following, at the house of Daniel Foote, the "inhabitants" met and elected Ebenezer Pringle to be the First Selectman, with Samuel Sanford and John Platt "Townsmen" for the year. Also elected were "listers and collectors," (Ebenezer Prindle-he of the varied spelling,-John Platt and Samuel Sanford), and a "brander of horses," (Abraham Kimberly). Also a committee of five to lay out divisions of land and highways.
It was moreover enacted that "all persons who refuse or neglect to attend ye town meetings shall pay ye sum of three shillings to ye treasury of ye town." Perhaps we today should follow this example.
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"A TREATE FOR YE INDIANS"
One is greatly impressed by the conscientiousness and enterprise of these Founders of ours. At a time when travel was always difficult, often impossible, communication subject to endless delays, the vital needs of life itself depen- dent upon their own labor and skill, they still followed orderly procedure in establishing a Town, a Town government, and laws imposing restrictions upon themselves for the benefit of all. The land, of course, was their primary in- terest. A man's land was his very existence. All boundary lines were important, and as early as December, 1712, we find this action taken at a Town Meeting: "-The Inhabitants Afore sd made choyce of John Glover, James Harde, Jeremiah Turner and John Platte, A committy to measure ye land & settle ye bounds with ye indians of That Purchuce which William Jeanes purchased of ye indians with his asotiates in ye boundaryes of Newtown-Also to procure four Gallons of rume to treate ye indians and to refresh ym selves & charge ye Towne debter for the rume .- " It would seem that our forebears lacked neither astuteness nor diplomacy, for the boundaries in question were amic- ably established.
THE OLD CEMETERY-AND LATER ONES
Another duty which had to be undertaken even before the first Town Meeting was the sad one of providing a "buring place for our dead." Ac- cordingly, on March 24, 1711, one and a half acres in the lower part of the community were set aside as a Town Plot. This is the southerly or "old" section of the Newtown Village Cemetery, (still owned by the Town). Al- though the earliest gravestone there is dated 1741, it is reasonable to assume that numerous burials preceded that date. Those were the days of brief life spans and high mortality rates, especially for children, and probably many little Newtowners were laid to sleep there on the gentle slopes so beautifully cared for now. But at that time the cemetery presented a different appearance, judging from the Town Record of 1711 when it was voted "Stephen Pearmelee to have the use of 11/2 acres, which is the burying place or yard provided he clear the bushes and fences it and sows it with English grass seed." Provision for further care was made in 1769 when it was voted that "Mr. John Chandler shall have the liberty to fence the burying ground for pasture so long as he will keep it in good fence."
The graves of Newtown's first two ministers, the Reverend Thomas Tousey and the Reverend John Beach are in this old cemetery, as well as several other
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early preachers, and there is reason to believe that some French soldiers were buried there during the Revolution-poor souls, so far from home.
The elaborate epitaphs on many of the 18th century headstones give ". interesting side-lights on Newtown's later history, and some others touch the heart with their ingenuous inscriptions. One especially quaint one is as follows :
"Here lies interred the
body of Mrs. Jane, the dear wife of Richard Fairman Esq., who dw elt together in the mar ried state 30 ye ars, wanting 23 days,
And was in his opinion a
woman of the best sense and
judgement that he was e ver acquainted with, a nd he believes truly pious, who dep'r'd this life in the 58th yr of her age May 16 1775"
The Town Plot was very far from the people living in the northwest part of the village, so in 1748 they presented a petition to the Selectmen asking for "60 rods for a burying place" of their own. This is the Land's End cemetery, still in use today. Jeremiah Turner who, tradition holds, was the first white child born in Newtown, is buried there, and the renowned Dr. Thomas Brooks of Brookfield also.
The next cemetery was established in the opposite part of the growing settlement, in Zoar, and was a private enterprise. Samuel Adams in 1767 sold an acre and a half out of the lands of the great Zoar farm to a group of citizens of the district. Three years later the Town voted "that the farm called Zoar shall have the old burying cloth, and that the selectmen shall proceed to pro- cure a new one for the use of the town." This refers to the pall which was draped over the dead when, often interred without coffins, they were carried on farm wagons to their graves.
The Taunton cemetery, made up by two purchases of land totalling 64 square rods, was set aside in 1787.
The Huntingtown cemetery was also established that year, the forty-eight square rods of ground being sold "for the sole purpose of a burying ground so long as it should be used for that purpose."
The same stipulation was made when half an acre in Sandy Hook was sold for $60.00 in 1810 by Abijah Merritt to the Selectmen of Newtown. The Sandy Hook Cemetery Association which cares for it now, was formed in 1923.
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To the list of the burying grounds in the Town should be added two in the Flat Swamp district, both of which have been unused for many years. One was a private family lot, the other was shared by the neighborhood.
Bradley cemetery in Half Way River district is very small and was established solely for family use, as was also the Platt cemetery on Hatter- town Road, not far from Morgan's Four Corners.
The 1820 burying ground in Botsford (Cold Spring) is another which began as a family reservation but soon was thrown open for public use.
The little cemetery in Hopewell district on Poverty Hollow Road, near the Redding line, carries the sinister tradition that it was set aside, as far from the center of Town as could be, for the burial of victims of smallpox.
St. Rose cemetery, consecrated in 1862, has been enlarged several times and is described more fully in a later chapter.
MILL WHEELS BEGIN TO TURN
It was not only care of the dead but the needs of the living which had to be met at the earliest period of the new settlement's existence. A grist mill was of vital importance to the colony, but its erection seemed to run into difficulties. Without a local mill, farmers had to grind their own grain with mortar and pestle (which probably meant that the farmers' wives did the grinding), or the grain had to be transported on horseback or by river to mills in Danbury or Stratford.
In the year 1711 it was "voted that Benjamin Sherman, Ebenezer Prindle and Samuel Sanford should view ye pond (Taunton) and see if it would contain a grist mill." Jeremiah Turner was elected to build the mill, and forty acres adjoining it were granted to him. For some reason Turner did not build, and a year later the colony induced Samuel Sanford "to get a grist mill upon ye Pond Brook", and grind sufficient supplies for the fifty families then in Newtown. But again the undertaking failed. Finally in 1714 a committee agreed with Sanford and his heirs and assigns forever to erect a grist mill "for ye youse of ye Town at ye bend of ye brook commonly called Pohtertuck Brook", and no other grist mill was to be built "to ye damage of sd Sanford so long as he doth supply ye sd Town with good mills." Evidently the matter was concluded satisfactorily because the grist mill does not come to our atten- tion again for a number of years, and then it is when a welfare problem ap- parently had presented itself in connection with one of Sanford's heirs and assigns. The record for October 6, 1740 reads that three men "shall be a committee for ye building a house for ye keeping Job Sanford in when said
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Sanford hath his fits," and to "see that the Incombs be paid to such person as shall keep Job Sanford & also to Keep sd mill in Good repare at ye cost of ye Town." The end of the story comes in 1741 when a committee is appointed to sell land conveyed by the late Job Sanford to the Selectmen of Newtown.
Next to food came the need for shelter, and the erection of a saw mill occupied the Town officials early in 1712. In March permission was given to "get a Saw mill on ye deep Brook South of ye Town", and the next year another was built "on ye Half Way River, so called, North west of Darby down near Stratford, or on Pohtatook River-provided they will saw for ye town to ye halves all such timber and logs as ye inhabitants shall bring for two shillings sixpence in pay" and also that they should have "convenient passage to ye Great River."
Still more mills were permitted that busy year, another saw mill on the rushing Pohtatuck Brook "anywhere within 60 rods of the Great River," and Joseph Dudley was granted liberty "to have a fulling mill on the Deep Brook above the sawmill provided he do not damnify the saw mill." "Fulling" is a process of shrinking and finishing woolen cloth :- cloth woven of course, by the women of the settlement.
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1
NINA WHEELLA DLAKE
"YE WORK OF YE MINISTRY AMONG US"
One of the first duties of the Town Fathers was to secure the services of a minister :- a non-conformist of Presbyterian (nowadays we would use the distinction "Congregationalist") persuasion. Accordingly, at that first Town Meeting held on Sept. 24, 1711, at the house of Town Clerk Hubbell, it was "Voted to invite Mr Phineas Fisk for six months trial as minister to settle among us."
As one looks back through the years on this endeavor there are a number of puzzling aspects concerning it. Over and over again at Town Meetings the people of Newtown made generous offers to induce Mr. Fisk to come. They voted to give him a Petition Right to the land, to build him a house 40ft. by 20, 2 storeys high and 16ft. between joists. Also to provide a comfortable house until his own was built. They offered yearly supplies of wood, to move his family and goods without charge, to fence, clear and plant four acres, as well as a "sallary" increasing to 60 pounds in the sixth year. Still he seemed to keep the Town in a state of uncertainty, and finally after two years the officials sought advice from other ministers and decided to give up Mr. Fisk. Upon investigation it appears that the gentleman was not an ordained minister at all at the time when Newtown was urging him to take the post, and was only a tutor in Yale College, then located at Saybrook. At this late date the episode is difficult to understand.
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