USA > Connecticut > A complete history of Connecticut, civil and ecclesiastical, from the emigration of its first planters, from England, in the year 1630, to the year 1764; and to the close of the Indian wars > Part 9
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In the beginning of the year 1720, Mr. Stephen Steel, then a candidate for the ministry, began to preach in this
incorpo-
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Book II. town, and after laboring about two years with the people, he was ordained, in February 1722, pastor of the church 1716. and congregation in Tolland. He continued in the minis- try about thirty seven years. He was a worthy minister, greatly loved and revered by his people until his death.
Stafford settled, 1719.
Nearly at the same time, when the settlement of Tolland commenced, the governor and company sold the tract of land, since named Stafford. It was surveyed in 1718, and the next spring the settlement began. The principal set- tlers were twelve ; two of them, Mr. Robert White and Mr. Matthew Thompson, were from Europe. The War- ners, Samuel and John, were from Hadley ; the Bloggets, Daniel and Josiah, were from Woburn ; Cornelius Davis tvas from Haverhill, Daniel Colburn from Dedham, John Pasko from Enfield, Josiah Standish from Preston, Joseph Orcutt, from Weymouth, and Benjamin Rockwell, from Windsor. Mr. John Graham was their first pastor, call- ed to the ministry January 17th, 1723, and soon after or- dained .*
Descrip- tion of Stafford Springs.
This town is famous for the mineral springs which have been discovered in it; and for the remarkable cures which have been effected by their waters. The springs are two in number. That which was first discovered con- tains iron held in solution by the carbonic acid, or fixed air, natron or native alkali, a small portion of marine salt, and some earthy substances. The other, which was first used about seven or eight years since, is charged princi- pally with the hydrogene gas of sulphur : it also contains a very minute portion of iron.t The spring first discov- ered, has been pronounced by chemists, to be one of the best of the chalybeate springs in the United States. The Indian natives made the first discovery of these mineral waters to the English inhabitants, and recommended them as beneficial in various complaints. For a number of years after the settlement of the town commenced, they annually resorted to the springs, drank the waters, and bathed in them. They represented to the English, that the waters made them feel lively. But it was not until about the year 1765, that these mineral waters came into general use and reputation. In the summer of that year, a Mr. Field, of East Windsor, who had for many months been afflicted with an obstinate cutaneous complaint, which had entirely resisted all previous applications, had recourse to the mineral waters of Stafford, and obtained a perfect cure.
* The May following.
+ Professor Silliman examined these springs in 1810, and differs in opinion from Doctor Willard relative to them. He is positive that there is a very essential difference between the waters in the two springs.
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He soon made public the wonderful relief which he had Book II. experienced by the use of these waters. In consequence of his publication, visitors soon began to flock to the springs 1719. from all quarters, and for almost all complaints. From that time to the present, there has been a greater or less resort annually, to these springs, for the benefit of their mineral waters. For the last four or five years, the annual resort has greatly increased. Within that term of time, the number of visitors has been from about six to nine hundred annually. The receipts from the hotel and the other boarding houses, amount, by estimation, yearly, to five or six thousand dollars. During the season for com- pany, this resort forms a good market for the farmers in the vicinity, and is a very considerable emolument to the town.
The complaints in which these waters have been most beneficial, are, cutaneous affections generally ; obstinate ulcers of almost every description ; loss of appetite and indigestion ; dropsies in the first stages ; almost all cases of general debility ; nervous head-aches, weakness of the eyes, and several kinds of fits. They have also been found very beneficial in various complaints peculiar to the fair sex. The waters have a strong ferruginous taste, and when first drank, frequently occasion nausea, even to puking. They also often operate as a cathartic; and, almost universally, as a diuretic. As a permanent tonic, these waters are estimated as superior to almost all others in America.
The springs are situated on the principal turnpike road- from Hartford to Boston. The natural state of the country about the springs is pleasing, wild and romantic. Much has been done by art, to render the beauties of its situation still more attractive and captivating.
Stafford is not only famous for its mineral springs, but for Iron many- the quantity and excellency of the iron which is annually factories, manufactured by its inhabitants. In 1779, Mr. John Phelps, and company, built a blast furnace on a large scale, which annually produces from 30 to an 120 tons of hollow ware and other castings. Cannon, cannon shot, and a vast variety of patterns for manufactures, and other descriptions of machinery are cast at this furnace. In 1796, a new fur- nace was erected by Mr. Nathaniel Hyde, and company. The products of this furnace, have averaged about 90 or 92 tons annually. All the varieties of castings are done at this furnace, that of cannon excepted, which have been effected at the other. The price of hollow ware, in 1814, was 60 dollars per ton, and iron of solid castings 5 cents
CHAP. VI.
HISTORY OF
Book II. per pound. The Stafford iron is of an excellent quality ; it is esteemed softer and tougher than any other in New- 1719. England. It is preferred to any other, for the numerous cotton mills, and other machinery in the various parts of the country. The ore used in these furnaces is the low- land, or bog ore. This is obtainable in almost all parts of the town, and several of the neighboring towns. There are two forges in the town for the manufacturing of refined and bloomery iron. Two cotton mills have been erected within the town, a few years since, from which considera- ble advantages are expected.
Besides these sources of emolument, there is a fine quarry of white fire proof stone, in the northerly part of West Stafford, which has been exported to a great dis- tance for furnace hearths. This has been a capital source of revenue to the proprietor.
The face of the country in Stafford is generally hilly, and in West Stafford it is mountainous : the land is rough and hard of cultivation, but the soil is strong, and repays the husbandman, with good interest : the land is generally excellent for grazing and orcharding, and the beef and cider of the town, are said to be of a superior quality : the air is pure and salubrious : the uneven face of the coun- try, and the plenteousness of its waters, afford a number of excellent scites for mills and manufactories. In the im- mediate vicinity of the mineral springs, the two branches of the Willamantic, afford water sufficient for a manufac- turing village, which, in a number of years, may not im- probably be realized.
Bolton was as early a settlement as Stafford. It was granted, and to be laid out in fifty allotments. One was to be reserved for the first minister, and forty nine were to be settled ; and each allotment was to be taxed forty five shillings annually, for four years, for the settlement and maintenance of a minister. The town is about nine miles and an half in length, from south to north, and three miles in breadth. It is bounded south by Hebron, on the east, partly by Coventry and partly by Tolland, north, partly by Tolland and partly by Ellington, and west, partly by East Windsor and East Hartford, and partly by Glastenbury. The first settlers were Pitkins, Talcotts, Loomises, Olcotts, Bissells, Bishops, Strongs and Darts, principally from the towns of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield. The set- tlement of the town began about the year 1616, or 1617, Bolton in- but the first town meeting was not until 1720. In Octo- corporated 1720. ber, the same year, the town was incorporated. In May, 1725, the inhabitants obtained liberty of the General As-
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sembly, to form a church. The first minister of the town Book II. was the Rev. Thomas White, ordained October 26th, 1725.
1721.
While these settlements were making in the north east- ern part of the colony, a number of gentlemen from Hart- ford and Windsor, undertook the settlement of the town of Litchfield, in the north western part, on the lands claimed by the governor and company, and, in dispute between them and the towns of Hartford and Windsor. The town- ship, in extent, was about ten miles east and west, and nine north and south. It is bounded east by Waterbury river, south by Plymouth, Watertown, Bethlem and Washington, west by Shepaug river, and north by Goshen and Torring- ton. A small number began the settlement in 1720. The Litchfield next year, a considerable number moved on to the tract settled, from Hartford and Windsor. A company also went on 1721. from Lebanon, and carried with them a Mr. Collins, who was a candidate for the ministry, to preach with them. The town was surveyed, and laid out in sixty four rights or allotments. Three of these were reserved for public uses. One was to be given to the first minister, to be his, and to descend to his heirs for ever. A second right was to be reserved for the use of the minister during his minis- try. The third was reserved for the benefit of a school. Sixty one rights were sold at public vendue.
Mr. Timothy Collins, who went on with the company from Lebanon, was elected the first minister of the town ; and was ordained June 19th, 1723.
As this was then a frontier town, and as mischief was in several instances done there, three houses were for- tified with pickets, one on town hill, and one east and west of it, at a mile's distance or more. A garrison was kept there in time of danger, for the defence of the inhabitants .*
* In 1723, two Indians surprised and captivated one Jacob Griswold, as he was labouring in his field; bound him, and carried him into the wil- derness about twenty miles. They then stopped and made a fire, and ¿fastening him down, one of them laid himself down to rest, and the other watched him. Griswold, unnoticed by his keeper, disengaged himself from all the cords which had bound him, except the one which bound his elbows. When the Indian appeared to be awake, and to have his eye upon him, he lay as still as possible, but when he drowsed and had not his eye upon him, he employed all his art and vigor to set himself at liberty. At length he disengaged himself from the cord which fastened his arms, and perceiving that the Indians were asleep, he sprang, caught both their guns, and leaped into the woods. Their powder horns were hung upon their guns, so that he brought off both their arms and ammunition. He secreted himself by a rock until the morning appeared, and then steered for Litchfield, guided by a brook which he imagined would lead him to the town. The Indians pursued him ; but when they approached him, he
M
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Book II. Nearly at the same time, Willington was laid out, and settlements were made. At the session in May, 1720, 1726. it was sold, and granted, by the governor and compa- Willington ny, for five hundred and ten pounds, to the following sold, May 12th, 1720. gentlemen ; Roger Wolcott, Esq. of Windsor, John Burr. of Fairfield, John Riggs, of Derby, Samuel Gunn and George Clark of Milford, John Stone and Peter Pratt, of Hartford, and Ebenezer Fitch. A few families had set- tled on the lands before the sale of them. The town is about seven miles in length, from north to south, and about five in breadth. It is bounded north by Stafford, west on Willamantic river, which divides it from Tolland ;. on the south by Mansfield, and on the east by Ash- ford. The planters were from various parts of New-Eng- land, and they moved on to the lands, one after an- other, in a very scattering manner. In 1728, the town had such a number of inhabitants as to be able to set- tle a minister, and on the 20th of September, the Rev. Daniel Fuller, was ordained to the pastoral office over the church, and congregation .* The rateable inhabit .- ants at the time of his ordination were no more than twenty seven.
The eastern part of the colony was now generally set- tled, and the number of towns was so increased, that the legislature, at the session in May, 1726, judged it expedi- ent to form a new county in that quarter. It was enacted, That the towns of Windham, Lebanon, Plainfield, Canter- bury, Mansfield, Coventry, Pomfret, Killingly, Ashford. Voluntown, and Mortlake, t should be a distinct county, of which it was ordained that Windham should be and con- tinue to be the county or head town.
About the same time Somers, East-Haddam, and Union.
would lay down one gun and present the other, and they would draw back. and hide themselves, and he made his escape to the town. A guard of thirty men was immediately dispatched to Litchfield, to keep garrison there. No further mischief was done in the town that year. But the next year, at the commencement of the summer, the Indians killed ore Harris, as he was laboring in his field.
* So remarkable was the health of the town, that for fourteen years after Mr. Fuller's ordination, but one head of a family died out of it.
t Mortlake was a township of land originally granted by the legislature of Connecticut to one Mr. Blackwell, an English gentleman, supposed to have been a native of Mortlake, a village in Surry, in England, on the river Thames. Mr. Blackwell, for a considerable time, kept the possession of it, without making settlements upon it, as had been expected at the time of the grant. He afterwards made sale of it to Governor Belcher, of Mas- sachusetts. But he also neglected the sale, and settlement, excepting in some few instances. The General Assembly therefore annulled the grant, and affixed the said tract to the town of Pomfret, to which it adjoined. lies principally, if not wholly, in the parish of Brooklyn.
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were settled, and soon after incorporated. Somers was Book II. the south-east part of the ancient town of Springfield, grant- ed by the General Court of Massachusetts to Mr. Pynch- . con and his company. It was afterwards incorporated with the town of Enfield, and was part of the same ecclesiastical society, and so continued to be until about the year 1726, Somers when it was made a distinct ecclesiastical society, by the made an General Court of Massachusetts, by the name of East-En- ecclesias- field. The town of Enfield, when incorporated, extended from Connecticut river to Stafford, ten miles; and was more than six miles in breadth. When the line was run between Massachusetts and Connecticut, in 1713, a gore was cut off on the north-east corner, in the form of a trian- gle. The breadth of the gore at the east end, is about three quarters of a mile, and runs to a point, after extend- ing to the west about five miles and an half. This is the breadth of the present town of Somers, at the north end. The length of the town is about six miles. The first per- son who moved on to this tract, was Benjamin Jones, of Welch extraction. He was from Enfield ; and in 1706 mov- ed on to the lands, where he resided in the summer, but moved back in the winter, and at other times when danger was apprehended. But no permanent settlement was made until 1713, when Edward Kibbe, James Pease, Timothy Root, and Robert Montgomery, with their families, joined with Jones, and made a durable settlement. Soon after, several other families became residents in the town. Their first pastor was the Rev. Samuel Allis, who was ordained on the 15th of March, 1727. At the time of his ordination, the society consisted of thirty families. In 1734, the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts incorporated the society, vest- ing it with all the privileges of other towns in the province, by the name of Somers. It is said to have been thus na- Somers in- med at the request of governor Belcher, in honour of lord corpora- Somers, for whom he had a peculiar friendship and vene- ted, 1734. ration.
The same year East-Haddam was made a distinct town. It was made a distinct society in October, 1700. The first minister was the Rev. Stephen Hosmer. He was gradu- ated at Cambridge, 1699, and ordained May 3d, 1704. In 1713, the assembly granted the inhabitants liberty to tax East-Had- themselves, apparently as a distinct town; but they were dam incor- not incorporated, and completely vested with all town pri- porated, vileges, until May, 1734. 1734.
The Indian name of the town was Machemoodus, which, ,in English, is the place of noises ; a name given with the utmost propriety to the place. The accounts given of the
tical socie- - ty, 1726:
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Book II. noises and quakings there, are very remarkable. Were it not that the people are accustomed to them, they would
1734. occasion great alarm. The Rev. Mr. Hosmer, in a let- Account of ter to Mr. Prince, of Boston, written August 13th, 1729, the uncom- mon noises in East- Haddam. gives this account of them :- " As to the earthquakes, I " have something considerable and awful to tell you. " Earthquakes have been here, (and no where but in this " precinct, as can be discerned; that is, they seem to have " their centre, rise and origin among us,) as has been " observed for more than thirty years. I have been in- "" formed, that in this place, before the English settlements, " there were great numbers of Indian inhabitants, and that " it was a place of extraordinary Indian Pawaws, or, in " short, that it was a place where the Indians drove a pro- " digious trade at worshipping the devil. Also I was in- " formed, that, many years past, an old Indian was asked, " What was the reason of the noises in this place ? To " which he replied, that the Indian's God was very angry " because Englishmen's God was come here.
"Now whether there be any thing diabolical in these " things, I know not ; but this I know, that GOD ALMIGHTY ". is to be seen and trembled at, in what has been often " heard among us. Whether it be fire or air distressed in " the subterraneous caverns of the earth, cannot be known ; " for there is no eruption, no explosion perceptible, but " by sounds and tremors, which sometimes are very fearful " and dreadful. I have myself heard eight or ten sounds " successively, and imitating small arms, in the space of " five minutes. I have, I suppose, heard several hundreds " of them within twenty years ; some more, some less ter- " rible. Sometimes we have heard them almost every day, " and great numbers of them in the space of a year. Often " times I have observed them to be coming down from the " north, imitating slow thunder, until the sound came near " or right under, and then there seemed to be a breaking " like the noise of a cannon shot, or severe thunder, which " shakes the houses, and all that is in them. They have " in a manner ceased, since the great earthquake. As I " remember, there have been but two heard since that time, " and those but moderate."
A worthy gentleman, about six years since, gave the following account of them. "The awful noises, of which " Mr. Hosmer gave an account, in his historical minutes ; " and concerning which you desire further information, " continue to the present time. The effects they produce, " are various, as the intermediate degrees, between the " roar of a cannon and the noise of a pistol. The concus-
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" sions of the earth, made at the same time, are as much Book II. " diversified as the sounds in the air. The shock they " give to a dwelling-house, is the same as the falling of logs " on the floor. The smaller shocks produced no emotions " of terror or fear in the minds of the inhabitants. They " are spoken of as usual occurrences, and are called Moo- " dus noises. But when they are so violent as to be felt " in the adjacent towns, they are called earthquakes. Du- " ring my residence here, which has been almost thirty-six " years, I have invariably observed, after some of the most " violent of these shocks, that an account has been pub- " lished in the newspapers, of a small shock of an earth- " quake, at New-London and Hartford. Nor do I believe, " in all that period, there has been any account published " of an earthquake in Connecticut, which was not far more " violent here than in any other place. By recurring to " the newspapers, you will find, that an earthquake was " noticed on the 18th May, 1791, about 10 o'clock, P. M. " It was perceived as far distant as Boston and New-York. " A few minutes after there was another shock, which was " perceptible at the distance of seventy miles. Here, at " that time, the concussion of the earth, and the roaring of " the atmosphere, were most tremendous. Consternation " and dread filled every house. Many chimnies were un- " topped and walls thrown down. It was a night much to " be remembered ; for besides the two shocks which were " noticed at a distance, during the night there was here a " succession of shocks, to the number of twenty, perhaps " thirty : the effects of which, like all others, decreased, in " every direction, in proportion to the distances. The " next day, stones of several tons weight, were found re- " moved from their places ; and apertures in the earth, and " fissures in immoveable rocks, ascertained the places " where the explosions were made. Since that time, the " noises and shocks have been less frequent than before ; " though not a year passeth over us, but some of them are " perceptible."
The town of Union, which was the last settled in the Settle- north east part of the colony ; and the next in the order of ment and time, to those whose history has already been given, was tion of sold for the benefit of Yale College. The lands are hol- Union. den of the governor and company. It is bounded north on Sturbridge, Holland and South-Brimfield, in Massachu- setts, or on the north line of the State; east on Wood- stock, south on Ashford, and west on Stafford. It is five miles on the north line, four miles on the east, six miles and one hundred and eighty rods on the south, and four
incorpora-
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Book II. miles and sixty rods on the west, containing 14,420 a- cres.
The settlement of the town began in 1727. The first and principal settlers were William McNall, John Law- son and James Sherrer, from Ireland. The progress of settlement appears to have been slow. The town was not Incorpo- rated, incorporated until October, 1734. In 1738, the church here was formed, and the first minister, the Rev. Ebenezer Oct. 1734. Wyman, was ordained. He died in 1745, a young man, and was greatly lamented.
New- Fairfield granted, New-Fairfield is the next oldest town to Litchfield, in that county. At the session in October, 1707, the legis- settled and lature granted to Nathan Gould, Peter Burr, Jonathan incorpo- rated. Wakeman, Jonathan Sturgis, John Barlow and others, of the town of Fairfield, a township of land bounded west on the colony line between Connecticut and New-York, south on Danbury, east on New-Milford, and north on lands of the colony, afterwards granted to the town of Kent. The tract extended northward fourteen miles from the north line of Danbury. Several circumstances retarded the set- tlement of the township for nearly thirty years. The In- dians in that part of the colony were judged to be less friendly than usual, during the war, and there were re- ports of a designed attack of a large body of French and Indians from Canada, which alarmed the people. The war continued until 1713. The line between Connecti- cut and New-York, was not run until 1725, and it was not finally settled until 1731. The grant of Connecticut of the tract, called the Oblong, to New-York, as a com- pensation for lands settled on the Sound, disappointed the proprietors, and narrowed the township several miles, as
March 27th, 1730.
to its western extent. All these circumstances united their influence to obstruct the settlement. This began on the south part, called the lower seven miles, probably, about the year 1730. On the 27th of April, the same year, there was a meeting of the proprietors, in which it was voted, That the tract of land called New-Fairfield, should be laid out in fifty two allotments : and that fifty two home lots should be laid out in said tract. It was also voted, That 400 acres should be laid out to each of the twelve original proprietors, or to their heirs and assigns. The allotment of the town, nevertheless, was not effected until 1737.
It was agreed that the town should be divided into two parts, called the lower and the upper seven miles. The allotment of the upper seven miles was not made until 1740. A tract of 100 acres was laid out in each part of the town, for the first minister.
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