USA > Connecticut > Windham County > Danielson > Sketches concerning Danielson, Conn > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/sketchesconcerni00arno
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02933 6077
Gc 974.602 D22a Arnold, Henry Vernon, 1848- 1931. Sketches concerning Danielson, Conn
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
SKETCHES CONCERNING DANIELSON, CONN.
CHAPTER I.
OLDEST DATES OF THE BOROUGH
T HE destruction of the Pequot tribe of Indians by. the Colonial troops of southern New England in 1637 opened the way for an unmolested occupation by the whites of the lards they had claimed. The Indians whom the English settlers found dwelling in the New England states were quite generally of a stock called Algonquian. But the offending Pequots were of an alien stock akin to the Mohawks and are asid to have migrated into southeastern Connecticut by way of Long Island from along the Hudson river sometime ... in the sixteenth century. In course of time they brought under their sway the Nipmuck clans who dwelt in stations or wigwam villages along the rivers of eastern Connecticut. About the head of the river Thames there were once located tre Mobegans, a clan who, in their time, bad been kin to the Pequote, but owing to some cause or other they bad separated or revolted from the parent tribe. There must have been some enmity between the two tribes since the Mohegans assisted the whites in destroying the Pes quots. After the Pequots had been destroyed, the Nipmuck river bands, having no chieftains of their own, were ruled over by Mobegan and Narraganset, aachema.
FRETONES OONOBKNING DANIELSON
In the middle of tha seventeenth century a clan of the Nipmucks called Quinebaugs from the name of the river along which they dwelt, occupied a station wisbin what is now the limits of the southern part of the borough of Danielson. They had a fortified place oo the low hill across the river from where the largo stone-built Quinebaug mill now stands, and probably on or near the ground where some mill tenements belonging to the company are located and reached by & foot bridge. The fort consisted of palings four of five feet in height, eleven rods fifteen inches in cir- eurference, and it is stated that four families occupied the enclosure, probably those of the chief men of this Nipmuck village. This Indian fort is also stated to have been located thirty or forty roda southeast from @ "great falls" in the river. The locality surrounding the fort was called Acquiunk and the whole body of Indians then residing there bad the sovertage of the Cold spring at the foot of the hill, and the shad and salmon fishery, for before the river came to be ob- structed by mill-dams these fish ran up stream from the sea each spring in large numbers. In colonial times the falls mentioned were more pronounced than. now, not then having been worn down to the condition of mere rapids as in present times.
In 1646 Jobm Winthrop, soo of the elder John Win- throp of Massachusetts Bay Colony, settled on the site of New London and built a saw-mill there, having in mind the proenring of logs, if need be, from the region of the Quinebang and Shetucket rivers, by felling the trees and floating the logs down the streame. Tothat and Winthrop and several other white men with him
.
DRAT DATES OF THE BOROUGH
made a journey of some forty miles up to Acquiunk: confer with James, otherwise called Hyems and? Allumps, sechem over the Quinebaug clan of Indians .- There were also there at that time Massashowitt, a. brother of James, also among the chief men ruling shere Aguntus, Pumquanon, Moas and Masitiarno, the: imdt named a brother of Aguntus. These were rone- gade Narragausets who had left their own country to. pule over the timid Quinebauge who constituted the bulk of the population of Acquiunk. In consideration? of presents made to Hyems, that chief conveyed to. John Winthrop by a deed which was drawn up a large: tract of territory called the Quinebeug Country, which comprised substantially what is now the south part of- Killingly, and the towns of Brooklyn, Flairfield and' Canterbury. While the transaction was in progress, Aguntus, in presence of Wirthrey sad the other white men, made Hyems pull off s coat that had been given him on this occasion by Winthrop, declaring that. they, being Narragansets, had no right to convey to white men any Nipmuch territory. Some presents made personally to Augustus orused this would-be honest Indian to change his mind in regard to affixing his mark to the deed when sigued. After a sort of preamble specifying reseons for making this land grant, the most important portion of the deed which attempts to define its boundaries, rerde er follows :
"I the said James, do of mine own free and voluntary wilk and motion, give, grant, bargain and sall to Mr. John Win- throp, of Pequot, all my land at Pautuxett, " upon the river that runneth from Quinebaug and runneth down towarda
Any falls; in this instance Quinelaug Alls ..
SKETONES OONOERMING DANIELSON
Mohican and towards the plantatton of Pequot unto the sea; she bounds thereof to be from the present plot of the Indians panting-ground at Quinebaug, where James, his fort is, on a bill at the said Pautauxett, and so down towards Shautux- bett* so farr as the right of the said James doth reach or any of his men; so farr on both sides the river as ye right of ye. said James doth [reach] or any of his men, with all. the. swamps of cedar, pine, spruce or any other timber and wood. Whatever together with them to the said John Winthrop. and. tis beirs."'
This deed granting to John Winthrop and his heirs. after him was dated November 2, 16bs and is the first and oldest record of the transfer of land pertaining to. Windham County, and is the oldest definite date that, concerns the site of the borough ef Danielson or it& vicinity of which local history informs us. The deed in question was witnessed by the parties who came: with Winthrop and sgreid to by the several Indians. who bave been referred to by name. For interpreter between the parties use was made of a surviving Pequot. Winthrop was chomen governor of the Con- mecticut colony in 1657. In October, 1671, be securedi from the General Court a confirmation of his purchase of the Quinebaug Country and was allowed the right. to establish a plantation on the tract, yet owing to various causes po general settlement was attempted for abont forty years and not during his life time.
According to Indian tradition and therefore without any definite date, Acquiunk was the scene of a battie between Nipmucke and & war party of Narregersete which is said to have taken place alerg the head of
The country along Shetucket river.
OLDEST DATES OF THE BOROUGH
Gho Blackwater part of the river, or opposite the larg qhaving-room of the Quinebaug mills, the warring parties fighting from both sides of the stream. The battle, originating from a quarrel over a lamprey cel: fast, probably occurred before Winthrop's visit to. Acquiunk, since it was related as a Nipmuck tradition to the early settlers of Killingly. According to the legend, which bas often been related in print, a party of Nipmucks dwelling at Acquiunk were invited by. Narragansets to visit the sea- shore and partake of the fare that their location afforded. Having done so and being pleased with their reception, the Nipmucke in-
vited their hosts to visit them at their own abode. At a set time a party of them came up to Acquiunk. The Nipmucks there now provided a feast of lamprey eela to which their visitors objected, both in regard to the fare and manner of cooking. A quarrel ensued in which taunts led to blows and then the Nipmucka seized their arms and maseacred the Narragansets who were unarmed, excepting two who escaped and carried the direful news to the sea-shore. The Narra- gansets at once organized a war party to avenge their fallen countrymen. Expecting this, the Nipmucks entrenched themselves on the east bank of the river- while the Narragansets came up stream on the west aide. Whether the contestants possessed any firearms or not, or merely used bows and arrows, the tradition does not inform us, but in the three days' desultory aghting that ensued a number were killed on both sides, after which the invading war band retired, it may possibly have been owing to the exhaustion of whatever provisions they may have taken with them for their march and absence from their own baunte.
There are a few more items pertaining to the neigh. borhood under discussion that may be mentioned in the present connection. For instance, where was the Indian planting-ground mentioned in the deed that. Winthrop obtained from Hyems and the other ruling men? It was evidently not far from the stockade OF fort then existing there, and presumably occupied some portion of the level ground in its immediate vicinity, possibly about where the Dyer street road passos southward. The Indians of New England raised corn, squashes, pumpkins and beans, perhaps other vegetables also, and while the corn was etcred for. winter in cairns, some use appears to have been made of vegetable cellars.
The burying-ground of Acquiunk can be located with greater assurance. This plot lay between Dyer street.and the railroad, a few rode south of Franklin atreet. Some mounds there were dug into in the. forties of the last century and bones, stone implements. and trinkets were found in them. In the time of the Civil war and later the graves could still be seen there though in a disturbed condition.
The west bank of the river between the two mills forms a rock cliff twelve to twenty feet high or there- about: " In the highest part of the cliff the Indians had a fire-place somewhat difficult of access. Above. the ground formed a low hill that gently sloped away" towards the north, south and west and probably forest- ed with oak. The fire-place was in a recess of the cliff. and was presumably destroyed when the oldest portions. of the Quinebaug mill were erected in the early fifties" of last century, since a double flume for two irdn. . wheels with vertical shafts was put in there built up
11
OLDEST DARE
from the bed of the river close to the face of the stiff. There was a stretch of slackwater in the river: that extended from the foot of the rapids to the first- Bend in the stream below the mills which is now ob .. acured by the forming of the Dyer dam reservoir. The Indians probably used canoes to cross the river or in time of low water they could have waded the stream in the vicinity of the Cold spring.
Not very much is known concerning the aspect of Windham County while occupied by the Indians and found existent by its first settlers. There were more of marsh and swale than now where waters had been ponded back by muskrat and beaver and more or less- Tater drained by generations of agriculturista; then by the middle of the last century and later the land had been denuded of perhaps two-thirds of its original amount of timber. In the wood's there were tanglem of vines, since there were then no awine and ranging. cattle to eliminate such growth . Even the high lands, in especial the broad topped ridges, were more prolific: of loose rock fragments strewn on the surface, for large amounts of it later came to be removed to form cellar walls and stone-built structures .* Mies Larned said
The principal physical features of the county existed in preglacial times approximately the same as now, differences be- ing of a minor character in comparison with the chief topograph- ical features of the surface. There ensned four glaciations of' Canada and the northern states and prior to these Glacial epochs: the roek strata near the surface had become much seamed and disintegrated. Each successive ice sheet wrenched large masses: of the ledge rock asunder, broke them in fragments and further- comminuted portions of the debris while moving it southward. The rock fragments and bowlders were dropped from the base of the last ice sheet or settled to the surface when this melted by = return to the northern hemisphere of a geological spring time ..
3 1833 02933 6077
AXIELBOX.
SKETCHES OO
in her History of Windham County : "The general features of the country were the same as at presnat-a broken, rock-strewn surface, with many lakes and rivers. Wild, craggy forests, miry swamps and sandy barrena were relieved by fertile valleys and pleasant openings. Large tracta of the best land were burned over by the Indiana, and kept open to furnish pasture for deer. Game and fish abounded in wood, lake and river." " .:
THE next definite date relative to the site of Danielson and vicinity is the year 1701, and pertains to the locality already discussed at length; but before men- tioning the connecting circumstances which grew out of the Winthrop land grant, a proper understanding of the matter may be gained by a review of events in that part of the Connecticut colony to the end of that century or later. King Philip's war in 1675-6 was one of the causes that delayed the settlement of the Quinebaug Country. During this war colonial troops ranged up and down the Quinebaug valley repeatedly and it was probably then that the stockade and Indian village at Acquiunk was destroyed and the locality abandoned, since the Nipmucks and Narragansets as well as the Wampanoags, were almost totally de- atroyed, at least aa tribes, on account of being involv. od in the war. Said a surviving Nipmuck, probably one of Eliot's "praying Indians" in service with the - colonial troops, "J. went to Connecticut about the captives there and found the English had destroyed those Indians, and wher I came tome we were also destroyed." . In settling Indian troubles the early inhabitants of New England, it is well known, adopted no half way measures, and this has been ascribed to
18t
OLDEST DATES OF BOROUGH
their familiarity with the Old Testament. As further pertaining to this memorable war, tradition relates. that Captain James Danielson, of Block Island, en- Jumped for a night with his troops on the interval fand between the rivers, and that being pleased with the aspect of the location, he told his men that it was- in his mind to settle on the tract after the war bad been finished. However that may have been, Capt. Danielson did not find it to come in his way to carry into effect any such intention until fully thirty years afterwards. In the meantime the land between the rivers to the extent of 1500 acres, went into the pos- session of Major James Fitch of Norwich, a notorious land-grabber of the latter part of that century. John Winthrop died while on a visit to Boston in 1676 and: his right to the land grant of the Quiwebaug Country was assumed by his two sons, Fitz-John and Wait: Winthrop.
The colonial authorities usually acted upon the principle that Indian deeds were valid, though Bir. Edmond Andross, during bis brief time, being shown some of them, contemptuously remarked that Indian signatures attached to such documents were no better than the scratch of a bear's paw. The most of the region now comprised in Windham County was claim- ed by Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, on the ground that the country was a Pequot conquest. and that this tribe having been destroyed, the rulership reverted to: himself as next of kin to the Pequots. The region in question not being occupied by the whites the claim was allowed to stand by the authorities.
But Uncas was sinking into his dotage and in 1680. the General Court provided that his son, Owaneco,
(
LEETORBE COMOERII
should assume control of all nnoccupied lands claimede by. Uncas, if any such he had, and empowered Owanece `o grant the same "to such gentlemen as he shall seer suse." Under this order Owaneco assumed control; ofthe land and granted tracts of it to several partiesr. but Major Fitch, who was the guardian of Owaneco for. the colony, forestalled any further transactions of that kind by procuring from him a grant to all thas wan left. This later land grant of Owaneco ignored the prior claim of Winthrop to the Quinebang Country and manifestly was in conflict with that grant. Am mattera now stood the door was open for legal wrangles. between Fitch and the Winthrops whenever the land. northward from Shetveket river should begin to bo occupied by settlerp.
Astrip of territory between the Quinebaug river and the Rhode Island Colony was called the "border. l'and.", That portion of it north of the Winthrop elaim did not chance to be included in any Indian grant and hence was left for the Connecticut Colony to dispose of. This was done by granting to. different. parties for civil and military services tracts of this demain, but much of it being a wild, wooded and un. surveyed wilderness, each grantee was left to choose. his own allotment of acres from the whole not already. patented to any other person. Major James Fitch Jr was the son of a minister who was missionary to the Mohegan Indiane. He served in the King Philip war and presumably saw at that time the interval land between the rivers .. In 1690, having received an allotment of fifteen hundred acres for military ser- wices during the war, he chose and had patented the land just mentioned and was allowed possession of the
O.ED KST DAYES O.F. T.H.A. KOROBOK
valley land on the east side of the Assawaga or Five. Milo river up to Whetstone brook.
- The settlement of Plainfield and Canterbury about- 1690 precipitated a legal wrangle between Major Fitch and the Winthrops that Issted sixteen years. Some of the settlers bought land of Fitch and some of Fitt- John and Wait Winthrop, apparently not understand- Fag the status of affairs in regard to obtaining land citlos that were clear and indisputable. Hence the sattlars during these tronbles were disquieted and at. times harrassed by the minions of the chief litigants. Occasionally the inbabitante appealed to the General Court for some measure of relief, but since the liti- gants represented influential families that legislative: body would do nothing that was effective towards bringing matters to a settlement.
Altho public matters were somewhat hindered, stilt some progress began to be made. About 1690 a bridle path began to be marked out northward from Plain- fald through forest and glade which gradually devel- oped into a passable road through the border land to where it intersected a road from the Woodstock sottle- ments to Boston. Below the site of Danielson the road traversed Green Hollow just to the eastward of Quinebaug lake. In 1699 a number of Plainfeld proprietors obtained from Fitch and Owaneco a tract of land in the south part of Killingly which was called the Owaneco Purchase, but many years passed before it was generally occupied.
In May, 1701, the Plainfield land embroilment sthì continuing, commissioners from the General Court det at Fitch's country-seat located on an island in the Quinebaug river, to investigate the validity of the
16! UKRTORRO CONCERNING DANIELBOX
deed whereby Hyems conveyed to John Winthro possession of the Quinebeug Country, the bounds of the same and whether or not the asid Hyems was lawful wacbem of the Quinebangs at the time that the trans- action took place. This visit of the commissioners must have been of deep concern to the settlers of Plainfield and Canterbury for sarviving Indians wore summoned from all quarters. Of the white's a largo CODcourse of them were present, including Major Fitch and Wait Winthrop. His brother, Fitz Jobn, Was governor of Connecticut at that time having been chosen in 1698.
After an examination of the Indians a party of the settlers and Indians accompanied the commissioners up to Acquiunk where they were shown depressions in the ground which the Indians said had been veget- able cellars; also a plot of land which they stated had been the planting-ground mentioned in the Winthrop, deed. Doubtless the party visited the near by Cold spring and they noted the fact that a river came in from the northeast and joined the Quinebsug & short distance above the spring. Then the party proceeded eastward to the top of a high hill or wooded ridge and thonce, piloted by some of the Indians, southward a dozen miles and next weet as far as the Nipmuck Path. Those investigations and journeyings occupied four days and the commissioners concluded that the Win- throp claim comprised a tract of country twelve or thirteen miles square. A plat of tbs land inoladed was made and a report filed with the General Court. There the matter rested for five years longer before a final settlement was reached that had the content of the chief litigants concerned.
ORDRET DATES OF THE BOROUGH
In 1699 Plainfield was accorded town privilegom. and Canterbury was also incorporated in 1708. The. Paying out of roads and building of churches now became more setive than before. In 1708 Richard Adams, of Praston, made a large land purchase from Major Fitch comprising three thousand acres located next south of the larger and earlier purchase of John Blackwell of Boston, called Mortlake. The "Adams Tract" extended from the Quinebang river to as much as a mile beyond Blackwells brook, was one and a half mile wide and its south bound came back to the river at the mouth of a streamlot called on old mapa Beaver brook, a point some fifteen rods below the Dyer dam. The northeast corner of the tract came opposite the mouth of the Five Mile river.
In 1706 another commission visited Plainfeld and took testimonies of whites and Indiana as in the other. inquiry. The committee now decided that owing to various specified reasons the deed given by Hyems, Massashowitt and Aguntus to Jobn Winthrop in 1658 had not sufficient legal standing to override the later grant made by Owaneco in 1680, and in favor of Major James Fitch Jr. The Winthrops were each assigned. a thousand acres of land in Plainfield and Canterbury and thus this long-continued legal wrangle ended in a. compromise. Fitz-John Winthrop died in 1707 and: was succeeded by Gurdon Saltonstall.
The first James Danielson of Killingly was a native of Scotland, and in coming over to this country be located first on Block Island. Some years later bo removed to Pomfret, but in 1707 be purchased of Major Fitch for 170 pounds the land which the latter party had acquired, between the rivers. This was in
BIETOMEO CONCERNING DANIELEON
the time of the second French and Indian war (170%- 4713) when some of the northern settlements of New. England were attacked and those farther toward the south endangered, and there were also apprehensions that roving bands of Indians might be incited to rise, altho their power in southern New England had been thoroughly broken. Owing to this feeling of insecur- ity garrison houses were built at some points and hands of wood-rangers were organized. James Dan- felson, living remote from neighbors, built a garrison house near the southern end of his estate. Thisprob -; . ably stood on the highest ground of the low ridge. that slopes gently toward either river, now traversed by Maple street.
The falls and rapida of small sized streams in Now England early began to be utilized in the settlements for saw. and grist- mills and occasionally for fulling- mills. Near the lower extremity of James Danielson's gstate the Five Mile river flowed over an outcrop of gueiss (a variety of granite ) and to the mouth of the river, a distance of a quarter of a mile, there is con- siderable descent to the stream. Miss Larned says in her "History of Windham County" and in reference. to early Killingly, that "a grist-mill was set up by James Danielson and supplied such inhabitants 88 were remote from Woodstock"-where both & saw- and grist-mill had been in use from the early years of that settlement. The mill that James Danielson built appears to have been located at the southern termina- tion of the granite ledge close to the dam of the Dan- ielson Cotton Company and on the east bank of the river. For many years prior to the spring of 1866 an old carding-mill stood there and on its north side there
19
OLDRET DATES OF THE BOROUGH
fay partially sunken in the ground a couple of granito mill-stones, at least three feet in diameter. They evidently were relics of a grist-mill that had stood apon the site of the old carding-mill. The settlement made by James Danielson between the rivers had its bearing on the history of Danielson, but physical and other factors bore important parts in influencing she growth of the place.
Killingly was incorporated a town in May, 1708. Sometime after the Civil war the question was raised by some writer in the Windham County Transcript as to what might have been the origin of the name given the township, but while it was almost taken for grauted that the name was a corruption of some ob- seure place in England, no definite copclueico was reached in regard to it. In her history of the county Miss Larned stated that "at the suggestion of some unsuitable person the graceful Indian Aspinock was exchanged for barbarous Killingly." Aspinoch is an aboriginal name supportd to have been restricted at first to Killingly Hill or Putnam Heights, but came to have a wider range 8) as to include the country from "the great falls" ( Putnam) to Mashapaug pond or Alexanders Jake. It was not until the first decade of the present century that the deriviation of the name Killingly became in any wise clear. Search among the Connecticut colonial records developed the fact that Governor SaltonstsIl led Fore connection with naming towns in the colony incorporated while he was governor. He, himself, was born at Haverhill, Mass., but his ancestry were of Yorkshire, England, in which county the Saltonstalls owned a manor called Killana, lie, near a town named Pontefract. These two places
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.