USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stratford > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 36
USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 36
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After the battle of Lexington, he, with a few others, while engaged in the General Assembly in May, 1775, planned the expedition from Connecticut to seize and retain the fort at Ticonderoga, and to enable them to carry their plans into execution they privately obtained a loan of eighteen hundred dollars from the treasury of the state, for which they became personally responsible ; the result being that on the ioth of May, this fort was surprised and delivered up to Allen and Arnold, and their brave followers.
Congress, when informed of this transaction, recom- mended that an inventory of the cannon and military stores found in the fort should be taken, "in order," as they say, " that they may be safely returned when the restoration of the former harmony between Great Britain and these colonies shall render it prudent and consistent with the overruling care of self-preservation."
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History of Stratford.
The military experience, as well as the daring spirit of General Wooster, recommended him to Congress when rais- ing an army of defence, and among the eight brigadier gen- erals appointed by that body on the 22d of June, 1775, he was the third in rank.
During the campaign of 1776 General Wooster was em- ployed principally along the Canada line, and at one time he had the command of the Continental troops in that quarter.
After this expedition he returned home and was ap- pointed first major-general of the militia of his state. During the winter of 1776 and 1777 he was employed in protecting Connecticut against the enemy, and particularly the neigh- borhood of Danbury, where large magazines of provisions and other articles had been collected by the Americans. He had just returned to New Haven from one of his tours when he heard on Friday, the 15th of April, 1777, that a body of two thousand men, sent from New York on the preceding day, had effected a landing at Norwalk and Fairfield for the purpose of destroying the magazines at Danbury, which ob- ject they accomplished the next day.
On hearing this news Generals Wooster and Arnold set off from New Haven to join the militia hastily collected by General Silliman, who numbered about six hundred, and with this small force it was determined to attack the enemy on their retreat, and a part of the men were put under General Wooster and a part under General Arnold. General Wooster with his men pursued the enemy the next morning, but he having inexperienced militia and the enemy having several field-pieces, his men, after doing considerable execution, were broken and gave way. The General was rallying them when he received a mortal wound. A musket ball hit him obliquely, broke his backbone, lodged within him and could not be ex- tracted. He was removed from the field, his wounds dressed and he was conveyed to Danbury where all possible care was taken of him. His wife and son were sent for and came, but skill and kindness could not save him, for he died on the sec- ond day of May, 1777, at the age of sixty-six years.
Much care has been exercised to secure lists of Revolu- tionary soldiers from Stratford, with very little success. If
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Revolutionary War.
anything further shall be obtained it will be placed in the Appendix of this book. In another town of this State, some years since, an aged woman was asked who of the town went to the war as soldiers. Her answer was: "Who went? They all went." This answer, apparently, is appropriate to Stratford.
Gen. Joseph Walker. The inscription on his tomb- stone says: "He entered the American Army in the year 1777, served his country in the several grades of office, from a Captain to a Major General."
Capt. Ebenezer Coe, wounded at Ridgefield, April 27, 1777.
Capt. Nehemiah Gorham served through the war. He died Feb. 17, 1836, aged 83 years.
Capt. Beach Tomlinson, of Ripton, was in the army.
William Thompson was killed at Ridgefield, April 27, 1777; and on May 4, 1777, the Sunday after his death, the Rev. Izrahiah Wetmore preached his funeral sermon at Strat- ford. Text, Isaiah ix. 5. The manuscript sermon is still pre- served by the Wetmore family.
George Thompson, son of Daniel, is recorded in Rip- ton, in 1776, as "died in the army."
Agur Tomlinson, of Ripton, son of Capt. Beach Tom- linson, was in the army.
Samuel DeForest, born in July, 1758,
Abel DeForest, born in April, 1761,
Mills DeForest, born in May. 1763,
Gideon DeForest, born in September, 1765 ; all sons of Joseph DeForest of Stratford, were in the war; all drew pensions many years, and all met in a reunion at Gideon's home at Edmeston, Otsego County, N. Y., in 1835, fifty-four years after the war closed, when the youngest was 70 years of age and the eldest 77.
Capt. Stephen Middlebrook and his company were in the war as represented by receipts.
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History of Stratford.
" Received, March 15, 1779, of Silvanus Starling, one of the Selectmen of Stratford, Fifty-seven pounds, twelve shil- lings lawful money, which is in full for my services, and the persons under my command, in keeping guard at North Fair- field in April, 1777.
Recd per STEPHEN MIDDLEBROOK."
Nathan Gorham was born in 1751 and died May 28, 1839, aged 88 years.
Before the Revolution he and John Barlow sailed to- gether in the West India trade, but when the war broke out, they discontinued the business through fear of the Brit- ish war vessels by whom they might be captured. After a little time Barlow obtained command of an American priv- ateer, to sail from Boston, and engaged Gorham as his mate and sail maker.
" Ride and Tie."
Their journey to Boston was accomplished in the follow- ing manner, called "Ride and Tie." They purchased an old horse for seven dollars, with which they started, one riding and going ahead a number of miles then tying the horse so it could eat grass, pursued his journey on foot. When the other came to the horse he rode him, and passing his fellow traveler continued his stipulated number of miles then tied the horse to eat and took his journey on foot as before. When they had in this manner reached near Boston they turned the horse into the highway to care for himself, and went to their boat.
They sailed with the purpose of capturing vessels from England with supplies for British troops in America. After sailing around about ten days, they sighted a ship and giving chase, she made more sail as if trying to escape being cap- tured, and the privateer being a fast sailer soon came up, and running along side, commanded her to strike-or in other words, to surrender. Upon this she opened her ports, showing herself a man of war, and being so near, the privateer could only surrender, and the men were taken as prisoners of war. They were all sent to New York and put on board the Jersey, a prison ship lying in the East river.
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Revolutionary War.
Camp disorder (which was diarrhoca), soon broke out among the prisoners, carrying off from ten to fifteen a day. Mr. Gorham being a good oarsman was detailed as one of the boatmen to take the dead ashore and bury them, and thereby he escaped severe illness. This burying was performed where the Navy Yard is now in the city of Brooklyn. A large excavation was made and when a corpse was put in some earth was thrown upon it, and thus one after another, until the place was filled, and then another excavation was made. All were taken ill, but many not severely, enlisted in the British service as the only way to escape death, as they were immediately transferred to healthy quarters. As soon as Mr. Gorham was taken ill he enlisted and was put on board a war vessel, in which they sailed to the southward. One morning they fell in with a privateer and tried to decoy her alongside, but did not succeed. The privateer was armed with a long 32 pounder, while the war vessel had short guns, and the firing of the former was very dangerous to the latter, but she kept at a distance, and at evening disappeared. To repair damages the war vessel put into St. Augustine, Flor- ida, that being then a Spanish port, and while repairing, the soldiers were at liberty in the port. Mr. Gorham and two others finding an old canoe agreed to try to make their escape, although at great hazard. They saved from their rations enough to last them two or three days. The canoe being leaky Gorham stole a calking iron to make it tight when they should reach a place out of danger of being cap- tured. They coasted the canoe most of the way in sounds and inland waters to the north part of North Carolina, going ashore nights and begging what they needed to eat, in which effort they would have had but little difficulty had it not been for the savage dogs, which were so fierce that they several times feared being torn in pieces. When they left the canoe to come on land Mr. Gorham put the calking iron in his pocket thinking he might sell it for a few pennies or something to eat. He did not part with it, however, but brought it to Stratford and kept it. About 1830 Mr. Nathan Birdsey McEwen, grand-son of Nathan Gorham, had built a boat and desiring to calk it went to his grandfather to borrow
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History of Stratford.
a calking iron, upon which he gave him this iron that he stole from the British war ship and told him this history how he came by it, and Mr. McEwen named it "The Story of the Calking Iron." In the year 1884, Mr. McEwen being eighty years of age, and the iron having been in possession of himself and his grandfather over one hundred years, he gave it and its history to his nephew, Robert W. Curtis, for trans- mission as a relic of the hardships of the American Revolution. The iron has a stamp of the British crown upon it.12
Nathan Gorham was in active service in the Revolution, at New York City, and told the following story, a part of which has already been published as Revolutionary history :
"I was in the retreat from Long Island and barely escaped with life. The Stratford Company was the last to leave, and just as the last boat was leaving the British Light- horse were coming down upon it, and it was so loaded that three men were left-John Benjamin, myself and another. We ran up the river where the Navy Yard now is, and find- ing a small boat, although dried and leaky, we launched it and jumped in and with pieces of a rail rowed as well as we could for the New York shore, bailing with our hats. We drifted with the tide up to a place called Corlear's Hook and almost to where the British had commenced crossing, our boat sinking under us as we struck the shore. We started on a run fearing we would be cut off. The day being very hot we suffered dreadfully with thirst, when seeing a well the third man said he must have some water or he should die. Benjamin and myself, not daring to go, advised him not to, but he went. Benjamin and myself narrowly escaped being cut off, but the man who went to the well was never heard of again. In Frost's History of the United States (11. 211), the three are reported as staying behind for plunder, but after- wards returning to their ranks, which is a decided error."
Nathan Gorham, although three years in the service, enlisted only three months at a time, and therefore received only a pension of thirty-six dollars per year. He died May 28, 1839, aged 88 years.
12 Manuscript of Nathan B. McEwen.
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Revolutionary War.
" John Barlow died May 4, 1786, in the 37th year of his age. His tombstone is in the Congregational Cemetery, on which is the following inscription, which he copied from the monument of an English Admiral's tomb in the West Indies :
" Though Borcus' blasts and Neptune's waves Have tossed me to and fro ; In spite of death, by God's decree I harbor here below, Where I do now at anchor ride With many of our fleet. Yet once again I must set sail Our Admiral Christ to meet."
The following is a copy of the Roll of Lieut. William Hall's Company of Guard, stationed for four years-from 1777 to 1782-in the old Borroughs store building on the wharf of Bridgeport, furnished by Wildman Hall, one of the members of the company and its last survivor, to Dea. Isaac Sherman. The said Wildman Hall died July 10, 1851.
Officers in 1781. Lieut. William Hall, Sargt. Isaac Patchen, Corpl. Joel Parish.
Privates.
Thomas Cooke,
Samuel French, clerk,
Ebenezer Hawley,
Lyman Hall,
Samuel Wheeler,
Ichabod Beardsley,
Zachariah Wheeler,
Salmon Patchin,
Gideon Wells,
James Gregory,
James Crawford,
Josiah Burritt,
John Porter,
Sherman Burritt,
William Hubbell,
Denton Seeley,
Lyman Knapp,
John McEnzie,
Ebenezer Gregory,
Seth Bulkley,
Wildman Hall.
Joseph Hawes.
A Substitute Paid for.
" Stratford in Connecticut, Februy 20th, 1778.
" This may certify that Phillip Benjamin and Stephen Beers, both of the town of Stratford in Fairfield County, have hired Joel Beers, an able bodied Man, to Inlist himself
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History of Stratford.
to serve during the present war between the American States and Great Britain, in one of the sixteen Battallions raised and commanded by Samuel B. Webb, Esqr.
"per me Joseph Walker, Lieu. Sd. Reg."
Mr. Nathan B. McEwen gave the following, told to him by his father :
" In the war of the Revolution my grandfather and great uncle Daniel McEwen owned land in the Great Neck, near Stratford Point, and fearing they might be taken prisoners, when British vessels were on the Sound or by boats coming from Long Island for that purpose, they placed my father, then a small boy, on Round Hill-the highest land on the Neck-to watch for any vessel that might land, and give the alarm. Many a tedious hour, he said, he spent there for that purpose.
" At one time there came two vessels and cruised off and on most of the day. The town was alarmed and the militia were called out, and a small gun which in derision was called the Clister pipe, was taken down the neck to oppose the land- ing of the British.
" While there a squall came up sudden and struck the brig Kingfisher, which immediately sank. Then a great shout went up from those on shore. Her masts being out of water the crew took refuge in the riging. It was not known whether any were lost except two men they had taken pris- oners at Branford, and their bodies drifted ashore near where they were taken prisoners."
A Traditionary Story well authenticated.
During the Revolution there was much contraband traffic between Connecticut and Long Island, where the British sol- diers were quartered much of the time, which was very profit- able if the parties were not detected, and so much so that loyal men would sometimes engage in it. Many fast rowing boats were kept for this purpose, so many that it was difficult to obtain witnesses against anyone, because nearly all boat- men were interested, and they were seldom caught except by government boats employed for that purpose.
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Revolutionary War.
In one case,13 in the month of March, the weather being fine, several young men-John Thompson, William South- worth, William Beers, and others, hired a sailor by the name of Crowell, who came in with a boat of codfish from the cast, and Nathan Gorham, another sailor, and started on a trip, of the kind which was called Corderoy. The name was in con- sequence of the kind of cloth obtained in exchange for the truck carried over.
They went over in the night and did their trading in the forenoon of the next day, and came back in the afternoon near evening. Arriving near the north shore of the Sound, they saw a government boat beating off and on at the mouth of Stratford harbor, and therefore kept off in the Sound waiting to run in under cover of darkness. But unfortunately, a snow squall came up, and they were compelled to run before it, the wind blowing very hard, the sea high and frequently breaking into the boat.
Crowell and Gorham, clothed with heavy pea jackets, sat in the stern of the boat and thereby breaking off much of the sea, each holding an oar to steer the boat, soon became coated with ice which kept them warm, while the others bailed the boat, suffering with the cold.
They thus scud the boat nearly to the east end of Long Island, where they run ashore. Some of them went for a light and on returning found Beers frozen to death. Crowell's and Gorham's pea-jackets were so frozen that it was neces- sary for them to get out of and leave them where they sat. The snow having become deep there were only two of them able to reach a house, where they found a gang of men on a carouse, who at once went and helped bring in the others, safely, although some had frozen hands, except Beers, who was dead.
After staying there until they were in condition to return home, and having rewarded their preservers with goods they had purchased, they returned home safely, but found their friends had given them up as lost.
William Beers was a young man, just out of his appren-
13 Manuscript of the late Nathan B. McEwen.
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History of Stratford.
ticeship, but twenty-one years of age, having worked in a warm shoe shop all winter and therefore could not endure the cold.
John Thompson, the father of Joseph Thompson, lost the ends of his thumb and fingers.
A Great Jubilee Day in North Stratford.
" The 26th day of May, 1783, the inhabitants of North Stratford set apart as a day of Public Rejoicing for the late publications of peace. At one o'clock, P. M., the people be- ing convened at the Meeting House, public worship was opened by singing. The Rev. Mr. Beebee then made a prayer well adapted and suitable for the occasion. They then sung a Psalm. Mr. Lewis Beebee, a student in Yale College, made an oration with great propriety. The congre- gation then sung an anthem. The Rev. Mr. Beebee, then re- quested the Ladies to take their seats prepared on an emi- nence for their reception when they walked in procession, and upwards of 300 being seated the committee who were appointed to wait on them supplied their table with neces- saries for refreshments. In the meantime the two companies of malitia being drawn up performed many maneuvers, and firing by plattoons, genl' volleys and street firing, and the artillery discharging their cannon between each volley with much regularity and accuracy. After which a stage was pre- pared in the center and the following toasts were given :
Ist. The United States in Congress Assembled.
2d. Gen1 Washington and the brave Officers and soldiers of his command.
3d. Our Faithful and Illustrious Allies.
4th. The Friendly Powers of Europe.
5th. The Governor and Company of the State of Connect- icut.
6th. May the present peace prove a glorious one and last forever.
7th. May tyranny and despotism sink, and rise no more.
8th. May the late war prove an admonition to Great Britain, and the present peace teach its inhabitants their true interests.
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Revolutionary War.
9th. The Navy of the United States of America.
Ioth. May the Union of these States be perpetual and uninterrupted.
IIth. May our Trade and Navigation Extend to both Indies and the Balance be found in our favour.
12th. May the American Flag always be a scourge to tyrants.
13th. May the Virtuous Daughters of America bestow their favours only on those who have Courage to defend them.
14th. May Vermont be received into the Federal Union and the Green Mountain Boys flourish."
" At the end of each toast a cannon was discharged.
" The whole was conducted with the greatest decency and every mind seemed to show satisfaction."
CHAPTER XVI.
AFTER THE WAR.
ONG was the struggle for the Independence of the United States, and immensely great was the victory. Lord Cornwallis surren- dered his army and navy on the 19th of October, 1781, which was the virtual close of the war, although peace was not lawfully proclaimed'until after the treaty was signed by the King, September 3, 1783, a prelim- inary treaty having been signed November 30, 1782.
Naturally it might be expected that the spirit and enterprise of the people, by such a seven years' struggle, would be broken and greatly reduced, but the contrary were the precise facts, notwithstanding the fact that the waste and death resulting from the war had been very great. This statement is warranted by the doings of the inhabitants in the town meeting, and by subse- quent history. Before the war closed, the increase of num- bers and the prosperity of the people are manifested in the following action to divide the township :
" March 20, 1780. The meeting then took into considera- tion the expediency of dividing the town into two townships, and voted that on condition that they could agree on a proper line of division they would apply to the General Assembly for the privilege of being made and established into two townships, and thereupon Messrs. Mr. Nathan Birdsey, Dan- iel Judson, Esqr., Mr. Joseph Curtiss, Col. Samuel Whiting, Samuel Adams, Esqr., Maj. Agur Judson, Elisha Mills, Esqr., Capt .¿ Nathan Booth, Capt. Samuel Blakeman, Capt. Benja-
Dividing the Township. 405
min Nichols, Abraham Brinsmade, Esqr., Mr. Stephen Mid- dlebrook, Capt. John Sherwood, Capt. Zechariah Coe, Stephen Burroughs, Esqr., Daniel Bennitt, Esqr., Mr. Silas Nichols, Mr. Judson Curtiss, and Mr. Zechariah Summers were ap- pointed a committee to view and affix a line where it shall be most convenient to divide the town into two townships and make report to this meeting at their next adjournment."
The next year another committee was appointed for the same purpose, and upon their report, which was to divide the town by a line running east and west, setting off six miles in width of the north end of the township for a new town, a protest was made, and a delegation was appointed to go to the General Assembly and oppose the petition prepared to be sent to that body, and here the matter ended.
Soon after the surrender of Cornwallis, that is, December 31, 1781, another effort was made for a new township.
" After much debate it was finally motioned and unani- mously voted that the parish of New Stratford and that part of North Fairfield parish that belongs to Stratford and such part of the Northerly part of North Stratford parish as may be agreed on by and between the said parishes aforesaid, be set off for a separate distinct town."
This proposition was not granted by the Legislature, but it reveals the spirit and courage of progress.
The next year a proposition was brought before the town to allow a dam and mill to be built on the Pequonnock river, which resulted, some years later, in the establishment of the Berkshire mills.1
William Pixlee, the son of Peter and grandson of William, one of the early settlers on Old Mill green, was a man of good standing, owned the old Pixlee homestead, and
1 Dec. 30, 1782. On motion made by William Pixlee, showing to this meet- ing that there was a very convenient place to erect a tide mill on Pequonnock River, joining his home lot, which would be very serviceable to the town and at Great service to the public in general ; and asked the advice and approbation of this meeting in said motion ; Voted that they have no objections against the erect- ing a mill at the place proposed in case no damage be done thereby to the public by obstructing the navigation in said river ; nor any private injury to the property of any private person.
27
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History of Stratford.
in the proposition to build this mill was following out the enterprise of his grandfather, who was a spirited, energetic man.
Mr. Pixlee built his mill, in all probability, and a bridge across the Pequonnock river, and opened a road or highway from near his dwelling at Old Mill Green down to it, it being the street now known as the Huntington road, for, in a town vote in March, 1792, the selectmen were authorized " to em- ploy persons to keep in good repair the bridges called Pixlee's Bridge and Benjamin's Bridge;" Pixlee's bridge being at what has been since called Berkshire Mills.
On January 9, 1786, another proposition for town im- provement was accepted by the town, which was known several years as Benjamin's Bridge.
"Voted, that upon consideration that a highway is opened through the Newfield to the Old Mill Creek and a good substantial cart-bridge erected across said creek and a highway opened to New Pasture Point by John Benjamin and others by the last day of December next, then said Ben- jamin and others shall be entitled to receive one-half penny on the pound out of the 212 tax laid on the list of 1785, of the town treasurer."
The bridge was built and the road opened, which is now the Stratford road, and after six years the town, in March, 1792, granted another privilege in conjunction with it.
" Upon application of Joseph Walker of Stratford, pray- ing liberty for the exclusive privilege of the salt water River or Creek running on the east side of New Pasture Point, being the same over which Benjamin's Bridge so-called is erected, for the purpose of building a Grist Mill :
Voted, That liberty is granted the said Walker, his heirs and assigns forever, for the purpose aforesaid ; provided that said mill and dam be erected within seven years from this date ; and also provided the mill dam does not injure the bridge erected across said river or creek; and also provided he makes all damages good to private property."
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