USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 48
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Madison's shore today is its fame and its fortune. It has more good beach in proportion to its coast than any other New Haven County town. Outsiders seem earliest to have appreciated its virtues. A certain Mrs. Dexter of Michi- gan, it is said, was the first to build a shore cottage in Madison. Baek in the 'sixties she brought a ready-made frame from Michigan. the story is, and put it
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up near the shore midway between East and West wharf. She was alone in her delight until almost 1880, when "New Waterbury," a street cut through from Liberty Street to the shore, was built up in a season or two. Soon after that the rush commenced, and ten or fifteen years ago it was hard to find a good site remaining. The fine residences which now line Madison's shore all the way from east of Webster Point to what they used to eall "the jumping- off' place"-Hogshead Point-now form a substantial part of Madison's $2,508,657 grand list, and their people and those who visit the shore hotels in their four months' stay each summer bring a great share of Madison's present prosperity.
There were formerly two paper mills on the upper Hammonasset River which meant a great deal to the people of Madison, not only in employment but because one of them. a straw board mill, made a market for most of the farmers' rye straw. They were, strictly, on the Killingworth side of the river, but in effect they were Madison industries. The "Upper mill" was supposed to make the finer grades of paper, and both were conducted for some years by Ezra Cooper & Son. These, it is said, were tannery sites earlier. The lower paper mill was demolished some years ago, and about 1902 the property was purchased by the Guilford-Chester Water Company, which supplies several towns in the region with water. It was the company's intention, it is supposed, to build a new high dam and make an immense reservoir there, for the purpose not only of furnishing water but of producing electricity for light and power. But for some reason the plan has not been carried out, and the great water privilege lies practically idle. Further up is the picturesque spot known as Nineveh Falls, the remains of a dam where there was formerly an old grist mill.
In recent times Madison has had some modern industries, most important of them, probably, the school furniture and supplies factory of Munger & Son, at East River. This at one time employed upwards of twenty people, and was continued by George B. Munger for some time after his father's death. A few years ago he retired from active work, devoting himself principally to publie efforts for the town which he has always honored, and to his duties as trustee of the Guilford Savings Bank.
Several years ago Henry .J. Griswold, who now lives in New Haven, ran a small hosiery factory at the rear of his house near the corner of Boston and Wall streets, and farther up Wall Street Wilson B. Coe still eonduets the busi- ness of distributing Valentine, Fourth of July and Christmas novelties, employ- ing several people at home and a salesman or two on the road. William B. Crampton for years had a small shop for the manufacture of spectacle eases.
Madison has no bank, but in its place it has the Madison Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company, established in 1855. As fires are rare in Madison, which has now a good volunteer fire company, this association has had little going out and a steady revenue for many years, so that it now has a surplus of $5,419. Its president is Wilbur W. Pardee.
Its green is a great feature of Madison, no town outside of New Haven
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having one more attractive or better maintained. It is far different from the time in the 'thirties when the "school pond" covered a large area of the green and the street in front of the church, and Rev. Samuel N. Shepard had to work for years to get the thing filled up. The noble trees which surround the green, which line the main street from Neck schoolhouse to the center, especially the arches which shade Wall Street and Boston Street, are the glory of the town. Boston Street especially, with its triple row of glorious elms, is one of the most beautiful streets in New England.
For years Madison's educational reputation centered around old Lee's Academy, which truly was a famous school in the days of the private academy. It began its existence "down at the Neek," and peregrinated as buildings some- times do until it arrived at its present location north of the Hand high school, having rested for many years at a point near the east side of the green. It was a private school for the first half century or more of its existence. When Madison acquired a high school, it was given over entirely to the Center school distriet, which for several decades before that had used its lower floor. On the building's final move, it was made into a two-room school again. In 1881 Daniel Hand, a wealthy resident of Guilford with Madison affiliations, gave the town what was at the first called Hand Academy, later the Hand high school. It now serves as a high and grammar school, and two more grades are accom- modated in the old Lee's Academy building. The town, whose schools are all under a central management, has besides these six one-room school buildings. The school committee for 1917 consisted of Edward A. Chittenden, Webster D. Whedon, Emerson G. Holbrook, Walter E. Clark, George C. Field and William S. Hull.
The attention of the state at large has been drawn especially to Madison in recent years through the establishment there of an important state game farm. In Sepember, 1913, the state leased what had been the Charles W. Hill farm in "Copps district," and established there a preserve for the propagation of quail, pheasants of various varieties, and later, of mallard ducks. The old homestead has been modified as a sort of official headquarters and reception rooms for the state Fish and Game Commission, and a new house built south of it for the game- keeper. The state has now purchased 127 arres of this farm and the land adjoining it, and leases in addition 653 acres in the vicinity-780 aeres in all. There it has what good judges say is one of the best equipped and most thor- oughly conducted game farms in the United States.
Madison is blessed with two public libraries, both of them good ones. East River asserted its library independence in 1876, put up a buikling and estab- lished a library which now has upward of 2.600 volumes, and is conducted by Mrs. L. S. Werner, librarian. Madison, which had a subscription library for some years previous to that, was in 1900 presented with a handsome library building by Miss Mary Eliza Scranton of New Haven, as a memorial to her father, the late Erastus C. Seranton, a native of Madison, who was at one time
E. C. SCRANTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY, MADISON
An
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MEMORIAL HALL, MADISON
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president of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. It now has 9,000 volumes, and Miss Evelyn Meriwether is librarian.
The town did not settle the matter of a soldiers' monument until 1898, and then it wisely decided on a town hall as a memorial. It was erected on the east side of the green, partly on the site formerly occupied by Philander P. Coe's store and hall, and is a handsome and well appointed building, bearing suitable memorial tablets to Madison's heroes of the wars. For Madison, like Guilford, had a wonderful record in war service, and justly recognized the sacrificing patriotism of its men of former days. That such patriotism is not all of the past, however, Madison is well demonstrating in the present supreme struggle of our nation.
Vincent M. Wilcox, a former resident of Madison, at one time head of the New York photographie firm of E. & H. T. Anthony, himself a veteran of the Civil war, had the conviction that the soldiers' memorial should be something other than a building, and had at his own expense ereeted in 1895 a handsome memorial shaft in the West cemetery.
Such are the "high spots" of the town that is today. It is the same old town in foundation and substance. It is a changed town in some features of its population. The Scrantons and the Dowds, the Lees and the Bishops and Bushnells, still hold their own in a measure. The Wilcoxes and the Whedons and the Nashes still are found there. But some localities are materially changed in population, notably such a section as "the Woods," where almost every one of the farms has passed out of the hands of the native owners and so many new citizens have come in that at one time a Lutheran church was set up there. The old town physicians, Doctor Webb and Doetor Meigs, have some time sinee gone, but such men as Doetor Rindge and Doctor Ayer fill their places. The Meigses and the Mungers, the Chittendens and the Whedons, still have a hand in polities, but with them are newcomers like Holbrook and Steggemann and Lippincott and Marsden, the last a more than local figure in law and state politics. It is a changed company, but the traditions are safe in its keeping.
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CHAPTER XLV
WOODBRIDGE
THE STORY OF THE ANCIENT "PARISHI OF AMITY," AND OF THE ELEMENTS WHICH MAKE TIIE FINE OLD TOWN ON THIE IIILLS OVERLOOKING NEW HAVEN
I
Woodbridge is a strange town, as Connecticut towns go. It touches the greatest city of Connecticut, and from half a dozen of its heights the beholder may see the city spread out with all its busy, crowded life, can hear its whistles and almost catch its hum. Yet it is one of the most unspoiled of the rural towns of the state. No railroad touches it. No street railway has ever invaded its borders. It has no main street, though three lines of trunk highway radiate from New Haven through it. It has no postoffice, though the rural mail carrier reaches it daily, though a great trunk telegraph line cuts aeross its country, and the telephone reaches all its parts with its network of wires. It has no "een- ter," as most towns know their most thickly populated part.
Yet no one can call Woodbridge isolated. "Isolated" is far from a proper description of a town from any one of whose numerous heights a glimpse of the busy world, of a great modern center of education, of manufacturing and commerce, lies spread to the beholder; from which one in a half-hour's walk can find himself in the most modern of surroundings; which is constantly crossed by life's swiftest tides; which is the home for all or part of the year of hun- dreds of those who carry on the life of the city. Woodbridge is suburban, but decidedly not in the stereotyped sense. Indeed, it is a community like no other, delightfully peculiar to itself.
It is a small town, by the standard commonly applied. The last census num- bered only 878 people there. But comparatively it was not always so. In 1790, six years after its incorporation, there were 2,124 people in Woodbridge. That was about half as many as New Haven had at the time. It substantially held its ground for four decades, and as late as 1830 had 2,052 people. It should, however, be explained that up to this counting the limits of Woodbridge included what is now Bethany. In 1632 Bethany was set off by itself, and the following census of 1840 found only 958 persons left in Woodbridge.
The greater part of Woodbridge was included in the first purchase from the Indians. There was an added part, however, from "North Milford," most
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of which was included in the town of Orange. The man who made Woodbridge, and gave it its name, was the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, who occupied in his day that peculiar community office which has descended to the pastor of Wood- bridge's one church in all the generations since. He was the founder of the "Parish of Amity," whose founding goes back almost to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and whose incorporation by the legislature in 1738 antedates the incorporation of the town by forty-six years. "Amity" included the Bethany area, and seems to have had, in the early days, a goodly scattering of people. Being much detached from the center of worship in New Haven, especially in winter, they were given permission to have their own ecclesiastical organization, and such worship as they could hold without a building. In the summer, however, they were still required to attend worship in the Meeting House on the Green, five miles away, or, if they preferred, in the old church in Milford. This was previous to 1742. At that time they built a place of wor- ship, near where the present one stands, fixing thereby the only central point which Woodbridge has had. It was located on what Woodbridge called its "green," an open space at the crossing of two roads. It long went by the name of the fifth society, which means, presumably, that it was the fifth daughter of the original church.
There the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge served the people of the double town of Woodbridge and Bethany, and ministered to many other than the religions needs. It is, as has been said. a peculiar and blessed service which each suc- ceeding pastor, from Parson Woodbridge down, has been able to perform for this people. He has been one of the best examples of the "village preacher" Goldsmith portrayed now to be found in this country. Parson Woodbridge's house, doubtless known, in his day, "to all the vagrant train," was one of the oldest in the town, built in 1697. He occupied it for a large part of his forty years as the foremost citizen, and there he died. The house remained until 1896, when it was destroyed by fire.
Such are the foundations of that fine town and community which has in its century and a half of separate existence always kept close to the heart of its mother, New Haven, yet preserved unspoiled the charm which nature gave it. It is, for the most part, a community of fine descendants of the fathers, and such later admixture as there has been has caught the spirit of the town's origin and surroundings, and contributed to its edification. Woodbridge of to- day is an interesting mingling of its sons who have remained, of its prodigals who have come repentant baek, and of other discerning ones who have sought entrance to the fellowship. Most of the old houses have been cared for and preserved, or remodeled into modern residences. There is now an admixture of new houses, tastefully designed, some by New Haveners whose sense of natural beauty has been made captive by the charm of the place. Woodbridge, in a sense more meaningful than the common nse, is a community of homes.
Except in such a way, the years have brought few changes. The town's chief features are of the unchanging type. Its natural beauty is striking. Off
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to the southeast ever rise the West Rock cliffs, watchtower of the New Haven just beyond. Yet "Round Hill" and "Bradley Hill," two of Woodbridge's own heights, rise almost three hundred feet higher above sea level than does abrupter West Rock. Woodbridge hills, indeed, are most impressive when seen from West Roek. There are seven or eight of them in all, inelnding, besides the two mentioned, "Long Hill," "'Prospect Ilill," "Carrington Hill" and "Peek IIill." There is a pleasing variety of meadow and stream and lake be- tween. Along the course of West River are some impressive lakes, created by manufacturing concerns which have built dams across the river at Westville, or by the New Haven Water Company, which has in and near Woodbridge some of its chief sources of water supply.
"Woodbridge hills" are historie in fame. They are the pride of their heirs, the delight of their visitors. There is iron in their air and inspiration in their view. From "Round Hill," the commanding eminenee in the far northern part of the town. the climber may gain such a view as few spots in all the region can equal, which takes in Mount Carmel, Meriden's Ilanging Ilills, the heights of North Branford, all the beauty of Woodbridge, the lines of the eity and the glimmering of the blue Sound beyond.
Aside from its hills. Woodbridge has many picturesque and interesting spots. To such a paradise of nature naturally the Indians chung long after they had disappeared in most other parts of the state. They were not the warlike Pequots, nor the subjects of Momaugnin, but an nnimportant remnant of the Paugussett or Wepewang tribe. They settled by themselves at a northern point in the town called "Deerfield Reservation," now not clearly located. They lived by ernde farming and making baskets, and remnants of them were found in their distriet as late as the middle of the last century.
Woodbridge had its share in the episode of the Regicides. The boulder on West Rock may have made a good hiding place, but parts of Woodbridge were more comfortable, and not much more accessible to the agents of the king who were hunting them. We are told that they were supplied with food by Richard Sperry, who lived on the West Roek side of the town. Four other Woodbridge points are mentioned where they found shelter at different times, now identified as the "Harbor, " the "Spring." "Hatchet Harbor" and the "Lodge."
From the northeastern point of the town flows West River. never failing souree of water for New Haven. It is beyond the northern boundary that the New Haven Water Company has made its latest and greatest dam, forming one of the largest reservoirs in its system by flooding a considerable seetion of the eastern part of Bethany. Two miles down on the river is its Lake Dawson. But there is another stream, Sargent's River, which flows from the northern boundary of Woodbridge at a point farther west. This enters West River at a point just above Lake Dawson, first passing through one of the most famously picturesque spots in Woodbridge, the "Glen." Here, on a sharp fall of the river, was a spot of great natural beauty, mueh admired and greatly visited. This has been engulfed in one of the reservoirs, but "Sperry's Falls," reminder
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of one of the earliest grist mills in New Haven County, still remain. With these and the old mill ruins in a setting of nature, the place is a delightful retreat. The farm originally containing it was the birthplace of Hon. Nehemiah D. Sperry, distinguished resident of New Haven, and in 1907 the heirs of Enoch and Atlanta Sperry gave the land to Woodbridge for a public park. Such an institution seems hardly needed by so rural a community, but it is com- forting to all who love the town to kuow that its most delightful spot is pre- served in such a manner that its enjoyment eannot be spoiled.
The old church of 1742, grown old and inadequate, was replaced in 1833 by an edifice of architecture appropriate to "Amity's" traditions, and this still stands in a good state of preservation on the "green." A "lecture room," the old New England name for "parish house," was built adjoining it in 1880, the gift of Mrs. Zina Carrington, of one of the old Woodbridge families. Mrs. Mary Clark Treat, another of the old inhabitants, gave the church an organ in 1891. The church has been served by many faithful men sinee his day, one of whom. at least, approached in length of service the record of Parson Woodbridge. He was Rev. S. P. Marvin, who was with the people from 1865 to 1903, and was the leader of the town. He was succeeded by Rev. Frederick Torrel Persons, who in his pastorate of seven years endeared him- self proportionately as much as any minister in the church's history. He resigned in 1911 to take charge of the church at Mount Carmel.
II
The streams of Woodbridge early attracted the seekers of mechanical power, and we find in the town early in the last century a group of flourishing small industries which may easily account for the comparatively large popula- tion of 1800. Besides the grist mill at Sperry's Falls, there were earding mills and a elothier's shop at the same point, possibly after the grist mill was dis- continued. Near the point where the head of Lake Dawson now is there was a factory conducted by Levi Peck, where iron candlesticks were made. In the same plant, somewhat later, organs and melodeons were made. And below where the lake ends at the south, Elioenai Clark had a shop where he made coffins and cabinet work. All over the town, naturally, there were sawmills, and there were at one time and another, when the raising of grain was eommoner than now, several grist mills. One of these was the mill west of "Buttonball Corner," where James Baldwin made excellent and possibly "wheatless" flour some years ago, one justly celebrated brand bearing the trademark of "Aunt Hannah's Flour."
One of the most interesting of the industries, whose marks remain today and are a mystery to many of the uninitiated, was off the Bethany road opposite Lake Dawson. There are two impressive piles of ruined masonry which might be tombs of the Pharaohs or remains of Roman temples. but are only the remains of kilns in which eement was onee burned from some of the native
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quarry produet. The quality of the cement turned out, they tell us, was not such as to make the industry of long duration. West of the church, near the home of IIenry C. Baldwin, was a clock factory operated by John Northrop. There was also a small factory in the ravine, and bolts were made at the saw- mill place, also west of the church.
Just as we have seen that the firearms industry, for which New Haven gets all the credit, really was started in llamden, so we find that the match industry always popularly identified with Westville had its start in Wood- bridge. It is claimed that this town was the birthplace of the friction match, and the elaim has excellent support. Thomas Sanford was the inventor, and there is a court record to prove that he fought for and won his right to the title. He was living in Oxford, neighbor town to Woodbridge, when he developed his invention, but his first factory was in Woodbridge, in a part of the house now occupied by Robert Payne. When he outgrew that shop, he moved to a larger place at the foot of Round Hill on the western side. The ruins of that factory are still pointed out by Woodbridge people. Mr. Sanford later built an- other shop on Bladen's Brook, farther down. There was a second Woodbridge maker of matches, better known, William A. Clark, who had a shop still farther down the same brook. lle was an inventor and improver of match making machinery, and built up a considerable business. The paper containers for the matches were in those days made by hand, and the demand for them created an industry in that part of Woodbridge which was carried on in the homes mostly by women and children. The work spread, however, to some of the surrounding towns. Mr. Clark operated his factory as late as 1885, when the Diamond Match Company in nearby Westville overshadowed it, and presently absorbed it.
In times since the manufacturing days the character of Woodbridge has mildly changed In the beginning it was mainly an agricultural town, and today it is that more truly than ever. There are large dairy farms and fruit farms, such as those of Jacob Beisiegel and Rollin C. Newton. There are scores of well tilled, prosperous general farms. On the New Haven edge the town has had its recent additions of small farmers, mostly importations from the Old World, who run market gardens and truck their products to the city.
Woodbridge has a quality, already mentioned, which it owes mostly to the eity. It has beeome the home of the discriminating. Not a few of those from its old families have found their work in New Haven. Some of them have kept the old properties, some have received them by inheritance, some have bought them back. In a few cases the residence has been continuons. But the appre- ciation of the old town has grown with years, and is displayed in the develop- ment of these old houses and grounds. Here one will be preserved as nearly as possible according to the colonial traditions. Another will be beautified somewhat according to modern standards, though not in such a way as to clash with its surroundings. But there are a few modern residences of the new type. mostly tasteful and artistically fitted to their surroundings, built by men of
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wealth and appreciation of the wonderful beauties of the town. There is room for many more houses of this sort, for the hills of Woodbridge abound in sites which should delight the heart of seekers of ideal country home locations.
Some of the houses which date back a century and a half or more, excellently preserved within and without, are notable. Conspicuous among them because of itself and because of its unbroken line of ownership, is the house belonging to Mrs. Samuel H. Street of New Ilaven. It was built in 1760 by her great- grandfather, Samuel Newton, for his son, Lieut. Samuel Newton, who was in the Revolutionary war. It has remained in the Newton family ever since. Of the best type of colonial house, it has been kept unspoiled. Within are massive fireplaces, oaken doors and many marks of the period of its origin. Without, it shows the plain and massive architecture of its times. With it are retained a sufficient number of the broad acres which composed the original farm so that Mr. and Mrs. Street can live comfortably there except for a few months when the dead of winter makes them seek the city. It is situated on the road which runs north past the church.
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