USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 49
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
An even older house, of a different colonial type, is the residence of G. II. Bishop, built between 1750 and 1760 by Thomas Darling, and occupied ever since by his direct descendants. It is on the "Litchfield turnpike," and stands. with its gable roof and dormer windows, an impressive proof of how a solidly built house of the middle eighteenth century can remain a comfortable farm- house in the twentieth.
An instance of the resene of an old house, and its restoration to its oldl time beanty and dignity, is the Hemingway homestead, on the same road from the church, north of the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Street. This was built about 1763, its builder being somewhat obscure. But in 1780 it was the property of Deacon Isaac Hemingway. He and his son Abraham lived there until about 1866. It was in the hands of various owners after that until in 1909 it was pur- chased by Prof. John W. Wetzel of Yale, now of Hartford, who has beantified it without and within, and rejoices in it with the true joy of a lover of the historic and the artistic. Standing somewhat back from the street, shaded by some noble old trees, it is a place to dehght the body and rest the soul.
James L. Nesbit of New Haven is the present owner of what is perhaps one of the oldest houses in Woodbridge, though materially altered from its original form. It is the Captain John Beecher place, probably built in 1745 or 1750, and sold to Roger Sherman in 1766. By him it was passed on to James Abraham Hillhouse in 1773, descending to James Hillhouse of New Haven, who sold it to Timothy Fowler in 1825. Mr. Nesbit purchased it in 1903.
The Sperry homestead also lays claim to respectable age, having been built before 1750 by Ebenezer Sperry, a descendant of Richard Sperry. It is now a comfortable farmhouse, owned by Mrs. Charles A. Bond, a descendant of the Sperry family.
On "Peck Hill" is a fine old farmhouse probably built by Nathan Clark about 1761, and ever since iu the possession of some member of the Clark
412
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
family. It is now owned by Mrs. Mary Clark Treat Nettleton, whose husband is Prof. George II. Nettleton of Yale University.
A more modern type of farmhonse, the home of one of the most sterling families and on one of the most prosperous farms of Woodbridge, is that of Rollin C. Newton, built in 1834 by the present owner's father, J. Sidney New- ton. It is situated under the brow of Round Hill, on the turnpike to Seymour. There are other Newton places in several parts of the town. One of the most notable of them, now the summer home of Dr. Thomas Russell, was built between 1660 and 1683 for Roger Newton, a descendant of the Rev. Roger Newton of Milford. It is a colonial house of the most dignified type.
A place of much historie interest, now somewhat remodeled, is what was the old Elioenai Clark tavern, on the Litehfield turnpike. Mr. Clark built it about 1785, and now his great-grandson, Noyes D. Clark, owns it.
Now and then one of these old houses has been completely modernized, in appearance and in name. An instance of this is what is now called "Rose Ridge," which was built in 1795 by Lazarus Clark. It has been in the Clark family ever since; being now owned by Mrs. Franklin Farrel and Mrs. Charles Brooker of Ansonia, but it did not always have the conspicuously modern piazza which runs on two sides of it.
Contrasting strongly to all these, but only adding by variety to the charm of modern Woodbridge, is such an estate as "Beinhurst," the residence of W. A. Bein, representing the acme of landscape gardening, smothered in shrubbery and pieturesque with winding paths and terraces. The severe opposite as to sur- roundings is the modern house of Judge Henry Stoddard of New Haven, colonial in its type, with shingled sides, standing on a commanding hill, but un- sheltered by trees or shrubbery. Still another contrasting type is "Tother Ilouse" of Frank G. P. Barnes of New Haven, with its cobblestone piazza and pillars and its rip-rap chimneys, striking but artistie. Mrs. Morris F. Tyler maintains one of the most attractive places in the town, less extremely modern, but with finely arranged and well kept grounds, Jacob P. Goodhart, the well known New Haven lawyer, has another attractive modern honse with well appointed grounds.
There is a most praiseworthy community spirit in Woodbridge. The sons of the men who made the town still control its affairs. Its business management is safely in the hands of sneh men as William H. Warner, Rollin C. Newton, Jacob Beisiegel, Newton J. Peek, H. II. Tomlinson, G. Halsted Bishop, Virgil P. Sperry and Stanley L. Dickinson. They, and a score of others who might justly be mentioned, form a body of sterling, substantial, progressive citizens, who know the worth of their town, and intelligently preserve its traditions.
Some years ago the earlier and the later residents united to form the Wood- bridge Civie Association, whose purpose partly is to keep Woodbridge on the map, so to speak. This has been done by the legitimate and becoming means of keeping the permanent and summer residents in happy harmony, so that the united voice of their joy might be heard afar, and attract others to join. Fur-
413
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
ther than that, the association was to work for eivie improvement, for better roads, to promote an interest in colonial architecture and other worthy types of building, to secure better telephone service and, if possible, a modern lighting system. And lastly, to agitate as far as might be for a trolley system or some other means of transportation between town and city.
The trolley system has not yet come, and seems unlikely to hasten. The universal motor car seems very well taking its place. And Woodbridge, many think, will be as well off withont some of the familiar results which follow in the wake of a street railway. It is steadily growing in good residents, though its population shows no hoom. It has a social life which is peenliar to itself. HIelped by the Civic Association, it has, especially in the summer time, many lectures and various entertainments. In the last century, endowed by James Perkins, it had Perkins Academy, which stood on the green east of the church from 1848 to 1861, but has now disappeared. A few years ago the town voted to ereet a Union school and library building on a lot adjoining the green, and these institutions have now become a part of the town's progressive life. Other good schools supply the needs of the outlying districts, and New Haven sup- plies high school facilities.
Always, as in the days since the "Parish of Amity" was founded, that life centers around the old church. Supported alike by permanent residents and summer dwellers, still the only church within the limits of the town, it serves a community purpose which makes Woodbridge, churchwise, almost a town unique. In many other ways it stands alone, not to say unapproachable, among the towns of Conneetient. To the Woodbridge hills the people of New Haven and of other towns lift up their eyes, and seek them for the permanent benefit of the things that abide.
CHAPTER XLVI
NORTHI BRANFORD
NORTHI FARMS, TIIE IIISTORIC AND COLONIAL PART OF BRANFORD, THE TOWN OF DEEP FOUNDATIONS, HONORABLE RECORD AND SUBSTANTIAL MODERN INDUSTRY
A fair township of fine old farms, spreading out over hill and valley, many of them tilled by the descendants of the pioneers, a noble stretch of unspoiled country, is North Branford. Driving along its quiet roads, strolling over its peaceful hills, one may easily forget the driving, striving city only seven miles away. For on its heights are uplift, health and joy, and on its estates live men and women of the sort who make the world most worth while.
In character the North Branford of the twentieth century is more like the "North Farms" of the colonial days than are most of our towns like their origin. Still, in the main, it is an agricultural community. Its people live by the city more than formerly, are more closely in touch with it. They have an admixture of strange neighbors which the new centuries have brought. But North Bran- ford retains the sterling stamp which the fathers placed on it, and by the dis- cerning is it truly loved for its old fashioned worth. To it the fisherman comes when he craves a Waltonian paradise. Hither the jaded city dweller hies him when he seeks the real country. Here is the truest, most refreshing contrast to that in the city which tires and unnerves. It is a community which in character and quality exemplifies Connecticut at its simplest and best.
By incorporation the youngest of the towns of this group, North Branford may be the oldest of them all in some features of its origin. For there is trust- worthy evidence that, when the territory of Totoket was purchased from the Indians in 1638 by the Davenport settlers, there were at least two white men on the ground. One of them was Thomas Mulliner, at Branford Point some- thing of a thorn in the flesh of the pilgrims to that region, whose widow and son, as we have seen, received lands in North Branford in exchange for their hoklings at the point, and thereafter became a part of the upper community. Then there was Thomas Whitway, whose traet was near the Foxon region, the other settler of, so to speak, prehistorie standing.
1
The early settlers from whom the present native population of North Bran- ford has come down were for the most part emigrants from original Branford at the south. They soon divided into two settlements, almost five miles apart, North Farms in the southern portion of what is now North Branford. and Northford in
414
OLD CONGREGATIONAL PARSONAGE BUILT BY REV. SAMUEL EELLS IN 1769, NORTH BRANFORD
OLD MEETING HOUSE BUILT IN 1727. NORTH BRANFORD
415
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
the upper part. Here two villages have grown up, each eentering around a church of the original Pilgrim form. Of North Farms, Mrs. Bertha Russell (Charles F.) Holabird thus sums up the colonial history :
"The lands owned by the original proprietors of the town of Branford were not only granted by the British crown, but to the lasting eredit of our ancestors were bought from the Indians as well, and at least one place-name stands in kindly remembrance of an old sachem. Sibbie'-I quote from George I. Wood's early history of the Congregational church and society- was the name given to the hill originally connected with a spring ealled Sibbie's spring on the homestead of Widow Augustus Russell. It was the name of a petty Indian sachem under Kishonk the sachem of Indian Neck, who was the chief over the Indians in this neighborhood.'
"Jonathan Rose, son of Robert Rose, built the first house, 1680, near Hop- yard plain. Jonathan Rose married Deliverance Charles. His son, Jonathan, Jr., married Abigail Foot August 15, 1697. They had a large family of six sons and two daughters. Jonathan Rose, 3rd, built the first house on the estate in North Farms, now owned by Judge John Carter Rose of Baltimore, Md. The colonial families of Linsley, Foot, Harrison, Page, Rogers, Barker, Butler, Bying- ton, Barnes and Palmer built very early here. The oldest house now standing is the Linsley house on Bare Plain, built in 1707 by Ensign John Linsley. His lineal descendants have always owned and occupied it. Few localities have as many homes built in colonial times, now occupied and in fair condition, as North Farms. These houses are of the New England type, solid and well built, and from the outside give little evidence of their great age, but the massive oak frames, put together with wooden pins. the quaint corner cup-boards, tell the story.
"I have it on the authority of Historian Wood that on the 12th of May, 1724, the town of Branford voted to build a meeting house at North Farms, on the knoll at the west side of the river, and that the meeting which passed this aet was warned by Lieutenant Thomas Harrison and Joseph Morris. Nathaniel Harrison was moderator. The meeting appointed Isaac Foot, Lieutenant Rose, John Harrison, Daniel Barker and Joseph Rogers as building committee. The dimensions were to be forty-five by twenty-five feet. It was to have galleries around three sides, with many windows set with diamond shaped panes of glass. The Rev. Samuel Russell of Branford offered prayer at the raising of the frame.
"The ground east of the meeting house, to the river, was appropriated as a burial place. The oldest memorial stone is one recording the death of Isaac Bartholomew in 1727. Ile was a young man studying for the ministry at Yale .. Many are the brown memorial stones with their quaint inscriptions and angel faces. one 'In Memory of Mrs. Martha. Relict of the late Samuel Baker. dee'd and formerly Relict of Rev. Thomas Goodsell, M. A., and ye child of ye Rev. John Davenport, dec 'd, 2nd Pastor of ye Ch'h of Christ in Stamford, who died in the 96th year of her age, Sept. 10, 1776.' This John Davenport, of course, was the son of the founder of New Haven.
416
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
"The first pastor over the church at North Farms was the Rev. Jonathan Merick, born 1700 in Springfield, Mass., and graduated at Yale in 1725. His pastorate extended forty-three years, and he died June 27, 1772. From 1720 for a number of years families moved in and settled at North Farms. The Beers family came from Fairfield County. Thomas Goodsell and Samnel Baker from Long Island, Barnabas Mulford and Edward Petty from Southampton, Long Island, the Fords from Milford and Jonathan and Ithiel Russell, sons of the Rev. Samuel Russell, eame up from Branford. The former, Esquire Jonathan, built the house near ' Sibbie's Spring'.
" Many of the landholders owned eolored slaves, who were taught to read and write and attend church. They were seated on the stairs leading to the galleries. In 1773 and 1776. there was a colored population of between forty and fifty. About that time the Rev. Samuel Eells received pamphlets written by the Rev. Ezra Stiles and Rev. Samuel llopkins of Newport. R. I., calling the atten- tion of the publie to the sin of slavery, and nearly all the slaves at North Farms were given their freedom before the abolition of slavery in Connecticut."
The Rev. Samuel Eells, the church's second pastor, made some history by him- self through service on a larger field than North Farms. Of him Mrs. Holabird writes, giving Wood's Early Church History in part as authority :
"Rev. Samuel Eells was settled as pastor over the church at North Farms from 1769 to 1808. Hle was born at Middletown January 13, 1745, the son of Rev. Edward Eells and grandson of Rev. Nathaniel Eells of Scituate. He mar- ried Miss Butler of Middletown, but they had no children. Ordained over the church at North Farms on March 29, 1769, his ministry embraced the trying period of the Revolutionary struggle. On one occasion in the early part of 1777, when General Washington was in the vieinity of New York, his whole foree not amounting to more than 1,500 men, he called upon the people of Connecticut to send down with all dispateh their quota of troops. The intelligenee arrived on the Sabbath, while the people of North Farms were engaged in public worship. Mr. EelIs read the important news from the pulpit and requested that those who were willing and ready to go should parade on the green immediately after the close of service. A company of sixty men was formed at once, and the Rev. Samuel Eells was chosen eaptain. The names of the other officers and privates were as follows :
"First lieutenant. Samuel Baldwin; second lieutenant, Jacob Bunnell ; ser- geants, Ebenezer Linsley. Isaac Foot, John White, Und Munson, Abraham Foote ; corporals, Uriah Collins, Sanmel Harrison, Samuel Brown, Jacob Page; musicians, John Bunnell, Joseph Wheaton, Moses Baldwin; privates, James Barker, Jacob Barker, Ambrose Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin, Phineas Baldwin. Benjamin Bartholomew, Samuel Bartholomew, Gideon Bartholomew, Jarins Bunnell, Jonathan Byington, Aaron Cook, Titus Cook. Hooker Frisbie, Isaae Frisbie, Samuel Ford. Gideon Goodrich, Daniel Hoadley, Samuel Hoadley, Ralph Hoadley, Jairas Harrison. Rufus Harrison, Isaae Hanford, Benjamin Harrison, Reuben Johnson. John Linsley, Jonathan Munson, James Pierpont, Samuel Peck,
417
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
John Potter, Solomon Rose, Billy Rose, Jonathan Russell, Ebenezer Rogers, IIer- man Rogers, Joseph Smith, Dow Smith, Allen Smith, Othniel Stent, Ebenezer Trusdell, Solomon Talmage, Asa Todd, Jonathan Tyler, Medad Taintor."
From early manhood Mr. Eells had been active in the cause of the colonist, and his utterances from the pulpit and elsewhere ring with the spirit of liberty. He had repeatedly declared against "the unjust and arbitrary measures of the British court," and called npon all good men "in duty to God and themselves and the country to resist and withstand."
He might readily be recognized, holding such principles as these, as a vigorous leader for the company which went out, and we may not doubt that he gave a good account of himself and them in the war. He returned from the combat, however, able to serve the people for many years longer, and his death did not occur until 1808. In this connection it may be said that the record shows among other North Branford men who served in this war Butler Harrison, son of Timothy and Lydia Butler Harrison, who was captured and was for some months on a prison ship; Simeon Rose, who died while in service; Gad Asher, colored, who served eight years as the servant of General Green; Gideon Rose, slave of Justice and Lydia Russell Rose, who served during the war and was given his freedom afterward.
"The next pastor after the death of the beloved Pastor Eells, " continues Mrs. IIolabird. "was the Rev. Charles Atwater, son of Jeremiah Atwater of New HIaven, graduated from Yale in 1805, and having studied theology under Presi- dent Dwight. He was ordained over the church at North Farms March 1, 1809. He was a very successful preacher. During his ministry an Episcopal church was organized in this society. His pastorship of sixteen years terminated in his death February 21, 1825. The first three pastors of the church, whose united labors filled a century, died at their first post of duty, and were laid to rest just a few feet east of the old meeting house. The memorial stones were removed and placed in the cemetery across the street in 1886.
"The one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the Congregational church was held October 15, 1902. The Rev. Franklin Countryman in his very interest- ing address said : 'During all this period, longer than the period of the existence of the United States, the church has had thirteen ministers and every one of them received a degree from Yale college.' "
From the same historical address we learn that eight pastors covered, each for a comparatively brief term, the period from 1825 to 1882. That year Mr. Countryman came and renewed the record for long and distinguished pas- torates, remaining twenty-three years until 1905. He was followed by Rev. Ernest L. Wismer, now of Bristol. Since then there has been a series of some- what brief pastorates (it has been said that North Branford is almost too con- veniently situated with reference to the Yale School of Religion), of which the latest are those of Rev. R. R. Kendall and Rev. C. E. Pickett, at present with the church.
The first meeting house was ereeted in 1732. It is pictured as a bare, spire- Vol. 1-27
418
A MODERN HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN
Jess structure of the very early type, looking from withont much like a two- storied farmhouse. It served the people for about a century. In 1831 was completed the second building, the North Branford meeting house of the noble New England sort which stood in the center of the town until 1907, when it was swept away hy fire one cold Sunday morning. The following year the present building was erected. It is modern and ample for the church's need, but it does not satisfy the admirers of traditional church architecture as did its pred- ecessor.
North Branford has always been a community of God-fearing men and women, and the church has occupied an important place in the village which, though not compact, centers around it. In the midst of a people whose origins have changed materially with the passage of time, it holds its torch of the true light aloft on a hill. The old church is typical of the tenacity of the faith of the Pilgrims in the midst of communities where the appreciation of their history and traditions has become the heritage of a diminishing few.
This task has since 1812, however, been shared by a body of the Church of England. Zion church has never been strong in numbers. A town of less than 800 Protestant people, of whom nearly half, it must be remembered, are, in Northford, which has two churches of its own, has hardly the material for two substantial congregations. Yet Zion church has kept the faith, and offered to those who prefer it a constant service of its form of worship. At present, how- ever, it has no settled reetor, sharing with the Episcopal church in North Guil- ford the offices of leaders whom the churches of New Haven provide.
Northford, in the valley of the Farm River, has been somewhat a community by itself. Its location in the line of the main highway to Middletown, where it also has secured a sort of commercial advantage from the railroad, has given it for a good part of its history an industrial character different from the rest of the town. Northford has had some brisk manufacturing industries, supported by the water power of Farm River. These in the beginning were mostly fulling and barkers' mills, where cloth was shrunk and cleaned and hides tanned. In 1734 Edward Petty had a saw and fulling mill on the river near the center, and later Barnabas Woodcock at Long Hill, and John Malthy at "Pog" or "Paug" had industries of the same sort.
Maltby Fowler seems to have been an inventor of some note, and about 1800 developed machines for making metal buttons, spoons, combs, gimlets and pins. Thaddens Fowler improved on the pin machine, and used it in Northford for some years. Over fifty years later the Northford . Manufacturing Company used Fowler's mill and machines for rolling brass lamps and household goods. One may suspect that Meriden presently got this business, and the Northford Mann- facturing Company gave it up about 1890. Fowler & Bartholomew made Northford hooks and eyes for some years, and later invented a machine for perforating tinware. They went out, and the factory was unnsed until another concern took it a few years ago for making electric light devices. Now it is vacant again.
HOUSE BUILT BY HEZEKIAH REYNOLDS ABOUT 1760 OR 1765. NOW THE HOME OF RALPH BEERS, NORTH BRANFORD
1
HOUSE BUILT BY JUSTUS ROSE IN 1721 TO REPLACE LOG HOUSE BUILT IN 1720. JUSTICE ROSE HOMESTEAD, NORTH BRANFORD
-
COLONIAL HOUSE BUILT BY TIMOTHY RUSSELL IN 1764, NOW THE HOME OF MRS. EMILY LINSLEY, NORTH BRANFORD
419
AND EASTERN NEW HAVEN COUNTY
More important is the character of the people who have made Northford. Here has been since 1750 a Congregational church, served by consecrated men and supported by faithful people. Its first pastor was Rev. Warham Williams. At present the pastorate is vacant. Its first simple edifice was replaced in 1846 and its present building was erected in 1907. There is also in Northford an Episcopal church, St. Andrew's, established in 1763. Its present rector is Rev. J. D. S. Pardee. These churches do not seem mighty in numbers, but perhaps a better evidence of the worth of the work they have done is found in the fact that in the past eentury or less Northford contributed thirty-nine men to the ministry, to law and to medicine, and thirty-one of its sons were grad- uates of Yale.
Northford has its Masonic lodge, Corinthian, No. 103, F. & A. M., instituted in 1868. It meets in Association Hall, which accommodates also Northford's vigorous Grange, No. 80, established in 1878. There is another Grange in North Branford, Totoket. No. 83, which meets in Totoket Hall.
North Branford in 1861 raised a noble hickory flagpole, the gift of an old Jackson man, Col. Jonathan Rose, and unfurled a handsome flag on the identical spot where in 1776. after the Sabbath service, Pastor Eells called the young men of the congregation together and led them to war.
In further distinction, North Branford was the first town in the United States to erect a memorial to its soldiers of the Civil war. On April 12, 1866. a handsome shaft was unveiled in memory of "Our Soldiers," as these lines, by "M. R .. 1866," were read :
"The loved ones calmly sleeping Where they fell on field removed, Lone post or picket station, Or starved in dreary prison cell For peace and for the nation."
This memorial recognizes the deeds of these men from various regiments, as noted :
Albert F. Wheaton, Corporal, Tenth C. V., aged 27.
J. Henry Palmer, Co. K, Tenth C. V., aged 26.
Walter A. Stone, Connecticut Artillery, aged 20.
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.