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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
SEYMOUR C+]
AND
TITE
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS,
illiace
BY
CI SHARPE.
RECORD PRINT. SEYMOUR, CONN. 1878.
Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1878, by WILLIAM C. SHARPE, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
FIDA
PREFACE.
In the summer of 1876 several historical sketches were published in the SEYMOUR RECORD, and with a view to put these sketches in more conven- ient form for preservation the type was made up in book form, commencing with page eight, and then proceeding to search the old records for additional matters of local interest, the work has grown to the present form. Owing to to the limited time which could be spared from other duties for this purpose, and having been printed in sections from time to time, as there was oppor- tunity, it is not so systematically arranged as could be desired ; yet it is hoped and believed that the volume contains a large amount of information which will be of interest to all who have resided for any considerable length of time in this immediate vicinity.
In glaneing over these pages some may inconsiderately call this or that statement or date incorrect, but most of them have been verified by old mamiscripts and records, often a considerable time having been spent in sifting down and correcting accounts which have been given from memory or tradition. The writer will be grateful to any persons discerning errors in this volume if they will forward to him the particulars. No doubt there are many old and forgotten manuscripts laid away in garrets or closets, which would be highly valued by antiquarians and fill many an interesting page for the general reader. The composition of such a work as this may be an easy matter, but the collection of the material requires long and patient research in Indreds of volumes and faded, worn and sometimes ahost illegible manuscripts. The writer acknowledges indebtedness to Rev. S. C. Leonard, Rev. Sylvester Smith and B. W. Smith, Esq., for sketches of the several churches, and to C. C. Baldwin of Cleveland, Ohio, and others for much valuable information. The following works have been used for reference or quotation : Savage's Dictionary of the Early Settlers, Dwight's Travels, Lambert's History of New Haven Colony, Trumbull's History of Connectient, Barber's Connecticut Historical Collections, Colonial Records of Connectient, Peters' History of Connectient, and Cothren's History of Woodbury.
Prices of produce, etc., have occasionally been given as a basis of com- parison of values in earlier times and the present, and many comparatively unimportant incidents recorded which may some time be helps in fixing dates or deciding matters of greater interest.
References to the town or its records previous to the division in 1850 will be understood as referring to the town of Derby.
Hoping that the perusal of the work may be a source of pleasure to all its readers, and that our elderly friends who have been familiar with many of the occurrences described may be gratified with the memories of "Antd Lang Syne," the "unwritten history," which will be called to mind, this volume in respectfully submitted.
W. C. SHARPE.
SEYMOUR, Nov. 13th, 1878.
Earliest Mention.
HE early settlers were too much occupied in the arduous labors required in establishing homes in the wilderness to pay any unnecessary attention to the recording of their transactions, and the merest mention here and there, with occasional documents which have been handed down, afford but scant material for a narration of their lives, labors and liberties. This portion of the valley of the Naugatuck was first distinguished by the Falls, as the most remarkable feature of the kind in the length of the river. The long ridge of rock, through an opening of which the water rushed, foaming and tossing, into the depths below, were well known to the whites, as well as the red men, at a very early date. The especially fine fishing below the rocks, and the abundant game on the forest-clothed hills and in the natural meadows of the vales, were grand attractions to the hunter, trapper and fisherman, whether of aboriginal or Anglo-Saxon blood. Dr. Trumbull, is his history of Connecticut, says that as early as 1633 there was a tribe of Pequot Indians at the "Falls of the Naugatuc."
It appears from the early colonial records that the lands were generally purchased of the Indians by the early settlers at a fair valuation ; indeed, Dr. Trumbull, (p. 174-5) says that "many of the adventurers expended more in making settlements than all the lands and buildings were worth after all the improvements they had made upon them." In the account of the settlement of the controversy between Connecticut and Massachusetts in regard to the boundary line, the 107,973 acres awarded to Connecticut were "sold in sixteen shares, in 1716, for *
* a little more than a farthing an acre, and shows of what small value land was esteemed at that day. It affords also a striking demonstration, that, considering the expense of purchasing them of the natives, and of defending, they cost our ancestors five, if not ten, times their value."
In 1664, Okenance or Akenanco was sachem of "Pagassett,"* and Ansantwan (sometimes written Ansantawae,) were chiefs, as appears in a deed given by them to Lieut. Thomas Wheeler, April 4th, 1664. Towtaemoe was then a sachem of another portion of the valley, according to a deed given Jan. 6th, 1664, by Lieut. Thomas Wheeler of Pagassett to Alexander Bryan of Milford. The land conveyed was "bounded with Potatuck river southwest, Naugatuck river northeast, & bounded on the northwest with trees marked by Towtaemoe, sachem, containing forty acres, more or less."
* This name is spelled in various ways, as Paugassett, Paguasuck, &c. Also the Naugatuck varies in orthography from Nau-ko-tunk to Naguatock. In copying old manuscript records the original spelling of the names is followed, although there are sometimes different spellings in the same document.
6
SEYMOUR AND VICINITY.
Of the grants to settlers by the proprietors, in lawful meeting, the follow- ing from the Derby records is a specimen.
"The inhabitants of Pangassett met together on April the 5th, 1671, and have granted to Ebenezer Johnson a tract of land bounded on the north side with the common land, and on the west side with the great river, and on the south side with the Devil's Jump, so called, and on the east with the common land, and the said Ebenezer Johnson is engaged to build and fence and inhabit on this land within the space of time of two years after the date hereof: and if the said Ebenezer fulfill not the terms hereof the land is to return to the in- habitants again: and the said Ebenezer is to make a sufficient highway between his fence and the hill, and so maintain it."
On the first of April, 1692, "Huntawah and Conchupatany, Indians of Pagnasuck," sold to David Wooster "a certain parcell of land on the north - west side of Naguatock river, in the road that goeth to Rimmon, the long plain soe called in the bounds of Derby, be it bounded with Nagatuck river south and east, and north and west with the great rocks."
'Conquepotana and Ahuntaway, chieftains at Paugusset, on the 17th of June, 1685, in behalf of themselves and other Indians, sold to Robert Treat, Esq., Samuel Eells, Benjamin Fenn, Thomas Clark, and Sylvanus Baldwin, agents of Milford, a tract of land "lying above the path which goeth from New Haven to Derby, and bounded with said path south, and a brook called Bladen's brook, (on the south side of Scucurra,* or Snake Hill,) north, with the line that is the bounds between New Haven and Milford, east, and the line that is the bounds between Derby and Milford, west, which said land was a mile and six score rods in breadth throughout the length of it." The Indians "reserved the liberty of hunting on this ground."'
'A purchase was made on the 29th of February, 1700, by Robert Treat, Esq., Mr. Thomas Clark, Sen., Samuel Buckingham, Sen., Lient. Sylvamis Baldwin, and Ensign George Clark, agents for Milford, of a tract of land "lying northward of Bladen's brook, unto a brook called Lebanon brook, bounded north by said Lebanon brook, east by New Haven land, south by Bladen's brook, and west by the line between Derby and Milford ; said land being a mile and six score rods in breadth." The consideration given for this land was £15 in pay,t and 15s. in silver. The deed was signed by nine In- dians, viz : Conquepotana, Ahantaway, Rasquenoot, Waurarrunton, Won- ountacun, Peqnit, Suckatash, Durquin, and Windham. This tract of land was divided and laid out, in 1759, into one hundred and ninety-five shares or rights and is commonly called the "two bit purchase," from the circumstance of each buyer of a right paying for the same two Spanish bits, of eight twelve and a half cent pieces. This purchase now forms the northwest part of Woodbridge.' (Milford Record, Vol. 11.)
'Another and the last purchase of land within the old patent bounds of Milford, was made by the same committee, on the 23d of February, 1702, of the same Indians, for £5 in money, or otherwise, £7 10s. in pay, ; bound south by Lebanon brook, east by Milford and New Haven line, north by Beacon Hill river or Waterbury line, and west by the line between Derby and Milford ; being a mile and six score rods in width. . This was called the "one bit pur- chase," and was laid out in 1769, into one hundred and eighty-seven whole share rights. This land is now the western part of Bethany. (Milford Record, Vol. 15, page 281.) Thus it appears that Milford once extended twenty miles north to Waterbury line, but its territory has been ceeded to * Now called Skokorat. t See explanation of currency terms on page 8.
SEYMOUR AND VICINITY.
help form other towns, till it is now contracted into a little triangle, of about six miles in length on each side.' -- Lambert's History of the Colony of New Haceu.
On the 15th of Aug., 1693, a tract of land "known by ye name of Aces- quantook and Rockhousehill, bounded south with ye Four Mile Brook, north with ye Five Mile Brook, east with Woodbury road as it now is, and west with ye Great River," was sold to "Wm. Tomlinson, Senior and Junior, and widow Hannah Tomlinson, James Hard, Johnathan Lum and Timothy Wooster," for twenty pounds, by Mawquash, Cheshconeeg, Neighbor Rutt, Cockapatouch, Nonnawauk, Wouson, Keuxon, Raretoon, Tarchun, Rashkan- noot, Chomasfeet, proprietors of Weeseantook, with the consent of their saga- mores. The acknowledgement was made before Justice Ebenezer Johnson. Four Mile Brook is the stream flowing into the Housatonic at Squantuck, and Five Mile Brook is the first considerable stream above.
On the 16th of April, 1700, Cockupatain, sachem, and Runsaway, gentle- man Indians of Derby, for four pounds ten shillings, sold to Capt. Ebenezer Johnson and Ensign Samuel Riggs a piece of land "bounded southward with ye littel river, eastward & northward with David Wooster his land & ye above sd Captain's & Ensign's land & nugatnick river, westward & north with * * indian purchase." The same day "Cocknpatain and Huntaway, Indians of Derby," sold to Capt. Ebenezer Johnson & Ensign Samuel Riggs "a certain parcel of meadow and upland lying at ye upward of Chestnut Tree Hill, containing twenty acres, more or less.
Derby, including what is now Seymour, was taken from Milford, one of the six towns of the New Haven colony. It was incorporated by the authority of New Haven in 1675, when there were in it only twelve families. The bounds between Derby and Milford were not laid out till 1680.
The following list contains the names of all settlers of the town who had taken the freeman's oath down to 1708.
Maj. Ebenezer Johnson, Stephen Pierson,
John Riggs, Francis French,
Ens. Samuel Riggs, Joseph Hawkins,
Timothy Wooster,
Dea. Abel Holbrook.
John Thoobals,
John Johnson, Ebenezer Harger,
Joseph Moss,
John Durand,
William Tomlinson, John Pringle,
Samuel Conors,
Eus. Joseph Hulls, Samuel Nichols,
Josiah Colding,
David Wooster, Johnathan Lum,
Deacon Isaac Nichols,
Henry Wooster,
James Hard.
Jolın Davis,
Ephraim Smith.
That wolves and panthers were still common is evident by the passage of an act by the General Assembly in October, 1713, offering a bounty of forty shillings to any person who should kill a wolf, catamount or panther, "and half as much for every wolves' whelp."
In 1720, "it being moved by the proprietors of, and within the town of Derby, that a deed of release and quit-claim of and in the lands of said town," the Assembly granted that such deed be executed.
Among the military appointments by the General Assembly were those of Joseph Hulls as ensign of the local "trainband" in May, 1707, lieutenant in 1809, and captain in 1716. Serjt Thomas Wooster was by the General Assem- bly appointed Lientenant in October, 1706, and commissioned accordingly.
-
Lieut. Thomas Wooster, William Nashbon,
Samuel Brinsmaid,
Edward Riggs,
Jolın Chatfield, Jeremiah Johnson,
8
SEYMOUR AND VICINITY.
Samuel Nichols was appointed ensign in 1709. In 1716 John Riggs was appointed lieutenant, and in 1722 was made captain. He was one of the deputies to the General Assembly in 1717, and again in 1722. Ebene- zer Johnson was a lieutenant colonel in the expedition to Port Royal, (N. S.), in August, 1710, and soon after was promoted colonel. Ebenezer Johnson, Jr., was appointed ensign in 1816, and lieutenant in 1722. Samuel Bassett was appointed ensign in 1822.
The duties of the train-band were often difficult and dangerous. The In- dians were numerous, and the history of the colony in those early days shows but too well that constant vigilance was a condition of safety.
The tract of land just over the Oxford line and west of Little River, con- sisting of about one hundred acres, and known as the Park, was enclosed about the middle of the last century by a Mr. Wooster for the purpose of keeping deer. On one side of the inclosure there was an overhanging rock from which the hunted deer would sometimes leap into the inclosure, much to the discomfiture of the disappointed huntsmen. This was one of the parks referred to by Peters in his history of Connecticut published in 1781.
In the olden time they were particular to give every man his title : mag- istrates and ministers were called Mr., church members were called brethren and sisters, and those who were not in church fellowship were simply good- man and goodwife. As there were frequent demands npon the military, they were held in high respect and all military titles were scrupulously observed. The early records abound with the titles-ensign, sergeant, lieutenant, cap- tain and colonel. In christening infants scriptural names and religious terms were most common, as for example, Content, Charity, Deliverance, Desire, Experience, Faith, Grace, Hope, Justice, Love, Mercy, Makepeace, Patience, Pity Praisegod, Prudence, Rejoice, Sillence, Thankful, &c.
On account of the lack of money paynents were often made in produce of various kinds. The following extract from the "Travels of Madam Knight," who made a journey from Boston to New York about 1695, gives a good representation of the currency of the time.
"They give the title of merchant to every trader who rate their goods according to the time and specie they pay in, viz., pay, money, pay as money, and trusting. Pay is grain, pork, and beef, &c., at the prices set by the general court that year ; money is pieces of 8, ryals, or Boston or Bay shillings, (as they call them,) or good hard money, as sometimes silver coin is called by them ; also wampum, viz., Indian beads, wch. serves for change. Pay as money, is provisions as aforesaid, one third cheaper than as the Assembly or generall court sets it, and trust as they and the merchant agree for time. Now when the buyer comes to ask for a commodity, sometimes before the mer- chant answers that he has it, he sais, is your pay ready ? Perhaps the chap replies, yes. What do you pay in? sais the merchant. The buyer having answered, then the price is set ; as suppose he wants a 6d. knife, in pay it is 12d., in pay as money, 8d., and hard money, its own value, 6d. It seems a very intricate way of trade, and what 'Lex Mercatoria' had not thought of."
9
The Congregational Church of Seymour.
A sermon delivered in the Congregational Church by Rev. S. C. Leonard, July 9, 1876 :
PSA. 126: 6. He that goeth and weepeth, Bearing precious seed, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.
On the 12th day of March, 1817 (a little less than 59₺ years ago), five men had a meeting at our village-the influences of which are around us to-day. There was a house of worship-old and uncomfortable, but a house within which God had been honored, and where IIe had recorded His name-standing on the hill on the other side of the river, and it is not unlikely that the meeting was held within it.
The five men who had come together from different points for this council were well able to consider a matter. They composed, indeed, a more remarkable company than our village was called then. Nobody could they could then have known themselves| have conjectured, at that time, that the to be.
One was the Rev. Nath'l W. Taylor, known, at that point of time, as the young and promising pastor of the Center Church in New Haven, 31 years of age, ordained to the work he was then performing-with his whole heart in it-five years, lacking a month, before. The theological depart- ment of Yale College, in which he was to grow to the stature of a giant, and do a work, and wield an influence which will never die, had not then been opened for in- struction. It was opened in 1822.
Another of the men was the Rev. Samuel Merwin, paster of the North Church and Society in New Haven. He was a some- what older man, and had been in the posi- tion which he was then faithfully and sue- cessfully occupying for 12 years. It is of
fectionate pressure of his hand, one day when I was a child, as he met me at the close of a service, in a season of religious interest, I have never lost the feeling of- through the 45 years between-to this day. He had been told that 1 was desiring to become a follower of Christ, and as ho took my hand in his, it seemed to me, that with- out speaking a word, he condensed into the loving pressure of his hand a soul full of interest in my welfare. I never see his name without feeling a thrill of joy.
Another of the five inen who came to- gether for the meeting at our village was the Rev. Bennett Tyler, then of South Bri- tain, pastor of the Congregational church there, and at this time 34 years of age. The Theological Seminary at East Windsor, with which his now distinguished name is associated in our thoughts, was 17 years in the future, when the South Britain pastor came to the meeting at Humphreysville, as
names of Taylor and Tyler, so peaceably associated at this meeting would ever come to have such relation to each other, as they did in after years.
Another of the five men was the Rev. Bela Kellogg. Seventeen years before (class of 1800) he had been graduated at Williams College and had afterwards studied theology with the vigorous and famous, and astute pastor of the church in Franklin, Mass .; the man who took a seventy years course of hard study and never got tired of it-enjoyed it all the way through ;- who never shunned a sub- ject because it was difficult, and never hes- itated over any results to which his logic brought him.
The remaining member of the party was the Rev. Zephaniah Swift, who had then special personal interest to me that his been for four years pastor of the ancient coming here was the very year after he church in Derby, a church 136 years old, had received to membership in his church when he was called to it, and when he answered the call by beginning a genuine life work with and for it-commencing a pastorato which was to prove to be of more than a third of a century (35 years) in length. fonr sisters, tenderly attached to each other, one of whom was my own dear mother-the four, by this act, joining an- other of their number who had united with the same church previously ; the names of each of the sisters awaking memories of a The object of this meeting of these men at our village was to organize a church of Christ here, if it should seem to be best. happy childhood in my mind. They are all up higher now. It was before I was born that they, together with 13 others (one of whom was my father), united at the early spring communion season with Mr. Mer- win's church, and you will not wonder that the figures which stand for that year have interest for me. Mr. Merwin was the
They prepared themselves for the work which they had been called to perform by appointing the Rev. Zephaniah Swift mod- crator, and Nathaniel W. Taylor scribe. When they were ready, nine persons pre- sented themselves before them, producing pastor whom I loved, and from whom I letters of good standing in other Churches of Christ, and asking to be organized into a church. The nine persons were: Joel
received religious instruction in my child- hood. The first Sunday school I ever at- tended was under his pastorate. The af-| Beebe and wife, Bradford Steele and wife,
10
Ira Smith and wife, Lonis Holbrook, Han - nah P. Johnson and Sally Wheeler.
The question was considered by the council, the church was organized, and the name by which it was called was
THE VILLAGE CHURCH.
The vote which the council left on record of the result which they reached on that day is very Brief, but as distinct as it is brief. These are the words of it : " Voted, The above named persons be and are hereby organized into a church in this village."
This is not, however the earliest church constituted here. Twenty-eight years be- fore this, on the 3d day of November, 1789, twenty-six persons signed a certificate setting forth that they had joined the Con- gregational society (evidently formed then) in this part of the town and withdrew from the Congregational church in Derby. then 112 years old, to form a society in this portion of the town. I have in my hand the document which lies at the basis of the first Church of Christ ever formed in what is now our village. [The doenment is published on second page .- ED. ]
A vigorous entering npon their new work this earlier christian company seem to have had the will and found the way to make. Few in amber though they were, they resolutely procured a pastor and built a house of worship.
little of the struggles of our ancestors to perpetuate the blessings we have enjoyed."
The man who was called by this carly church to minister to it the gospel of the grace of God, was the Rev. Benjamin Beach, grandfather of one of our respected citizens, Sharon Y. Beach. The Rev. Benjamin Beach preached the gospel to these earnest christian people for about 15 years. The house, which was built either for or by him, for a parsonage, is standing now, and is the second dwelling cast of the present house of worship of the M. E. church- next the new and tasteful parsonage which has been built within the year past by the Methodist society. The building which was to be the first pastor's home was ready for its ocenpants very promptly-within a few months after the organization of the little church (things seem to have been done with a will then)-and Mr. Beach moved into it in March, 1790, having waited for a time for an opportunity to bring his household goods from North Haven on snow, which did not, however, fall that winter, so as to render it possible for him to do so.
Two outlines of sermons preached by the Rev. Benj. Beach are before me. Time, yon see, has left traces of its passage on the ok manuscripts. One of them was preached in the year 1798, from Luke, 9: 42. The
The honse of worship which was put npjother is a fast day sermon, preached from at this time is of interest to us as the first house of worship erer erected in our village. It was placed on land which had been owned by Mr. Isaac Johnson, and where the M. E. church now stands. It was built at sacrifice; it was built as those who erected it could build it, with the means which they could command. There was faith and prayer mingled with the work, as it went forward, I have no question. One who often worshipped within it ( Mrs. Sarah Jones, afterwards of Erie, Pa., daughter of Bradford Steele) wrote concerning it 20 years ago, to her sister :
11. Kings, 19: 14-20, on the 25th of April, 1799, at the point of time when difficul- ties with France were assuming a threat- ening, and even warlike, aspect ; dificul- ties which were, to the joy of all, adjusted, after a single, or rather a double naval engagement, in which the French frigate Insurgente, and the American frigate Con- stellation were prominent. The sermon was preached a year and tive months before the treaty, by which peace was restored, was concluded, and nine months before the death of Washington. Of the genuine patriotism of the writer, it leaves no room " I feel a peculiar interest in that church, well knowing its history from the first. This is not its first struggle. I well re- member, when but a mere child, of seeing the anguish of my mother's heart for its depression. * for question. It has the true ring of the words which were spoken abundantly from onr loyal Connecticut pulpits, in the latter part of the last century. There is vigor of thought indicated by these old time-worn * The building was where the Methodist church now stands. manuscripts ; there was a live man be- hind them once. They indicate, 1 judge, I well remember when it was done off the possession, by this first pastor of ( what doing off there was). It was divided our village, of a good deal of the power of putting things in a telling way. They were, evidently, well adjusted to the time to which they belonged, as every sermon ought to be. One of them was preached several times, and, as the marks on the margin of it show, once at Waterbury. The remains of this first pastor of our first * church lie in Milton, a parish of the famous off into pews. It was neither lathed or plas- tered, and but poorly clapboarded. Many times have I brushed the snow off the seats before sitting down. Its exterior resembled a barn more than a church. Still it was beloved, and probably had as true worship- pors in it as those of modern style. * * You, my dear sister, know, as yet, but very
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