USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 29
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The deed for the lands in the town of Preston was signed by the Mohegan chief Owaneco in 1687, and was given in payment for damages to the farms of white settlers by swine belonging to the Mohegans. The early settlers came from Norwich, the first being Greenfield Larrabee, according to Miss Caulkins. A complete list of these settlers may be found in her history of Norwich.
Salem .- Salem, incorporated in 1819, was set off from Colchester, Lyme and Montville. It lies south of Colchester, west of Montville, and is bounded on the south by East Lyme and Lyme. Its western boundary is East Had-
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dam, in Middlesex county. The whole region was claimed by the Mohegan Indians, who asserted that the purchase from Owaneco was illegal, inasmuch as that sachem had been intoxicated when he signed away the land. The case was long in the courts, being carried to England in the time of Queen Anne. Finally the Indians were made wards of John Mason of Stonington. The matter was really never settled so far as the courts went, but was decided by the event. As a local historian says :
Up to this period in the history of the country the sound of the wood- man's axe was not heard, and the wild animals of the forest roamed undis- turbed by the white man. The feathered flocks filled the air, and the aquatic bird swam on the bosom of her many lakes in undisturbed quietude; but gradually her hills and her valleys were occupied by the hardy pioneer from the Old World, where they one and all could enjoy the freedom of religious liberty, and be the humble possessors in fee simple of an heritage not imme- diately under the mandate of kings and potentates, but breath the air of liberty and freedom, and feel that they were lords of their own manors. Society began to shape itself by the stern reason of necessity. Laws were enacted and scrupulously kept, both religious and secular, and the preacher was regarded as a man of such superior mind and intelligence that his word was regarded as the highest authority. The presumption is strong in support of the theory that there were few or no settlers in this town prior to the year 1700, yet tradition says there was in that portion of Lyme now Salem, orig- inally embraced on the two-mile-wide section formerly known as the Lyme Indian hunting-ground.
By various grants of the Connecticut legislature, by land, sales, and immigration, a considerable part of the region was occupied. Music Vale Seminary, founded in 1833, came to have a wide reputation, gaining pupils from widely remote points. It was the first Normal School of Music in the country.
Four towns-Bozrah, Franklin, Lisbon, Montville-were set off in 1786, largely from the original town of Norwich (Montville came from New London). Their early history was linked with that of their parent towns. The Fitch family, the Bailey family, and the Hunt family, of Bozrah; the Kingsleys, the Huntingtons and other families of Franklin; the Hydes of Lisbon ; the Palmers, the Robertsons, the Jeromes, of Montville, were but a few of the many settlers who moved out from Norwich and New London, made a settlement, established a place of worship, and became independent of parental control. Wherever there was water power, they established mills, and where there was no manufacturing, they created prosperous farming communities.
The detailed study of any one of these little settlements will reward the investigator who appreciates the Puritan virtues.
The backbone of American liberty is found in such men and women as these. In all the greater enterprises of State and Nation they did their part. The Civil War found them ready to send their boys to save the Union, and the World War again revealed that same loyalty to the ideals of liberty which the founders of our republic had shown, as appears in the military chapter of this work.
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North Stonington was originally the North Society of Stonington. The situation of the meeting house was settled only after prolonged disagreement. The General Assembly of Connecticut as early as 1724 passed a vote "that the North Society of Stonington for the future be called by the name of North Stonington." Religious discussions led to a separate party even in this parish, and harmony was not restored till about 1824, when Rev. Joseph Ayer succeeded in reuniting the churches. The actual creation of a separate town took place in 1806, the Legislature insisting on the name North Ston- ington rather than "Jefferson," the name for which the town meeting had voted.
Sprague .- The town of Sprague was incorporated in 1861, from Lisbon and Franklin, taking its name from Governor Sprague of Rhode Islnad, who started a large cotton mill in what is now the village of Baltic. We quote a local historian :
This town in the rapidity of its growth resembles the changes that often take place in western clearings. Lord's bridge, where the Shetucket was spanned to unite Lisbon and Franklin, and near which the Lord family dwelt in quiet agricultural pursuits for more than a century-father, son and grandson living and dying on the spot-was a secluded nook, without any foreshadowing of progress or visible germ of enterprise. A grist mill, a saw mill, coeval of the first planters, a respectable farm house, with its sign-post promising entertainment, and two or three smaller tenements, constituted the hamlet. Only the casual floods and the romantic wildness of the river banks interfered with the changeless repose of the scene.
Suddenly the blasting of rock and the roar of machinery commenced; hills were upset, channels were dug, the river tortured out of its willfulness, and amid mountainous heaps of cotton bags the rural scene disappeared, and Baltic village leaped into existence. In the course of five years more than a hundred buildings, comprising neat and comfortable houses, several shops, a church and a school house, grouped around the largest mill on the Western Continent, had taken possession of the scene, the whole spreading like wings each side of the river and linking together two distinct towns.
The town is bounded on the north by Windham county, on the east by Lisbon, on the south by Norwich, and on the west by Franklin.
Stonington .- The town of Stonington was first settled under the leader- ship of William Chesebrough, who had come to visit John Winthrop's settle- ment at Pequot, but preferred the region further east. He built in 1649 a house and settled with his family, supposing he was within the borders of Massachusetts. The General Court of Connecticut, however, claimed juris- diction of the region. In 1652, after considerable effort, he obtained a grant for himself and his sons. Other settlers came gradually, amongst whom were Thomas Stanton, Thomas Miner, Governor Haynes, Walter Palmer, Capt. George Denison, Capt. John Gallup, Robert Park, and their families. Being repeatedly refused incorporation as a separate town by the General Court of Connecticut, they made a similar request of the Massachusetts General Court. The disagreement between the courts of the two colonies was referred to the commissioner of the United Colonies. A full account of the documents sent and received may be found in the "History of Stonington," written by Mr. Richard A. Wheeler.
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The commissioners in 1658 decided that the region east of the Mystic river belonged to Massachusetts, the portion between the Mystic river and Pawcatuck river to be called Southerntown. Rev. William Thompson, who had come to the settlement in 1657, was for two years preacher to the settlers and to the nearby Indians, a remnant of the Pequot tribe which had been defeated by John Mason. The difficulties of the settlers were increased by the claims of certain men from Rhode Island who had secured a title from one of the Pequot chiefs.
The Connecticut charter of 1662, however, fixed the eastern boundary of the colony at Pawcatuck river, which remains the boundary of Connecticut and Rhode Island today. Massachusetts yielded her claims, and the General Assembly of Connecticut issued a charter in 1662. In 1665 the name Southern- town was changed to Mystic, and in 1666 the name Mystic was changed to Stonington. In 1668, according to Mr. Wheeler, there were 43 inhabitants, viz .: Thomas Stanton, George Denison, Thomas Miner, John Gallup, Amos Richardson, Samuel Chesebrough, James Noyes, Elisha Chesebrough, Thomas Stanton, Jr., Ephriam Miner, Moses Palmer, James York, John Stanton, Thomas Wheeler, Samuel Mason, Joseph Miner, John Bennett, Isaac Wheeler, John Denison, Josiah Witter, Benjamin Palmer, Gershom Palmer, Thomas Bell, Joseph Stanton, John Fish, Thomas Shaw, John Gallup, Jr., John Frink, Edmund Fanning, James York, Jr., Nathaniel Beebe, John Reynolds, Robert Sterry, John Shaw, John Searls. Robert Fleming, Robert Holmes, Nathaniel Chesebrough for Mrs. Anna Chesebrough, his mother, Gershom Palmer for Mrs. Rebecca Palmer, his mother, Henry Stevens and Ezekiel Main.
A home-lot was laid out for each inhabitant, and the title was obtained by lottery on the following conditions, namely: "If built upon within six months and inhabited the title would be complete, except that each proprietor must reside on his lot two years before he could sell it, and then he must first offer it to the town and be refused before he could sell the same to any person and give good title. How many of these home-lots were built upon by the then inhabitants cannot now be ascertained."
The young settlement was in special danger at the time of King Philip's War, but kept the Pequots friendly to the English. Captain George Denison was provost-marshal of New London county during the war, and almost every able-bodied man of Stonington took part in it. After King Philip's War the town grew, but in 1720 a portion was set off as North Stonington. The general conditions of a settlement at Long Point, a part of the town of Stonington, are interestingly portrayed in a document from the Connecticut Archives, quoted by Mr. Wheeler :
To the Honorable General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut to be held at Hartford on the second Thursday of May instant. The memorial of William Morgan, Benjamin Park, John Denison, 4th, Joseph Denison, 2d, Oliver Hilbard, Edward Hancox, Oliver Smith, and the rest of the subscribers hereto in behalf of themselves and the professors of the established Religion of the Colony, living at a place called Long Point in Stonington in the County of New London humbly sheweth, that they are scituate near four miles from any meeting house and that the inhabitants living at said Long
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Point are generally poor they living principally by the whale and cod-fishery, there carried on, to the public advantage, by which means within a few years said place has increased to upwards of eighty families among which are twenty widows, seventeen of which have children as families there that the whole number of inhabitants are nigh to five hundred, that there is not among them more than one horse to ten families, so that but very few are able to attend meeting at the meeting-house except those that are robust hardy and used to travel on foot, which are very few, the greater number of said inhabi- tants consisting of women and children, that thereupon the society have for several years consented to have one sermon preached a said point every Sabbath by their Rev. Pastor, which he has performed and is still willing to continue, but their number has so increased that it is very inconvenient for those that do attempt public worship (as they have no where to convene but in a small school house or private houses) and many more than at present do attend would if there was room to accommodate them; that for the want of a proper place to meet in for the celebrating divine service, many who means the Sabbaths are misspent and may be more and more misspent and pro- phaned, that those who would be glad to build a house and maintain preach- ing and good order among them have been and continue unable of themselves to bear the expense, by which the cause of religion much suffers there, and the good people among them greatly fear the increase of vice and irreligion. That the town of which your memorialists are a part, have lately paid and are liable to pay upwards of one thousand pounds for the deficiency of sev- eral collectors that have lately failed that your memorialists from great neces- sity, by their being very remote from any constant grist mill, have lately con- tributed about £70 as an incouragement to an undertaker to build a wind mill at said point, which with about the same sum lately subscribed by said in- habitants for a schoolhouse, with the great labour and expense they have been at to make roads and causeways to said point, all which with the poor success that attended the last years fishery, and the lowness of markets and the various and different sentiments in the religious denomination of chris- tians among them, viz. : First day Baptists, Seven day Baptists and the Quak- ers or those called Friends, are such real grief and great discouragements to your memorialists, who are of the established Religion of this Colony, that they can no longer think of obtaining a meeting-house by subscription or any other ways among themselves.
Wherefore they humbly pray that liberty may be granted to build a meeting house for public worship at said Long Point, and that your Hon- ours would in your great goodness grant them a Lottery for raising a sum sufficient for the purpose aforesaid or so much as your Honours shall think proper under such restrictions and regulations as your Honours shall think fit, and your memorialist as in duty bound shall ever pray.
It was not at all uncommon for the General Assembly to grant permis- sion for churches to raise money by lottery in those days. Permission was twice granted to the Long Point settlers to raise £400 by lottery :
At a general Assembly of the State of Connecticut holden at Hartford in said State on the second Thursday of May, being the 12th day of said month, and continued by adjournments until the ninth day of June next fol- lowing Anno Dom. 1785. Upon the memorial of Nathaniel Minor, John Denison 3d and Joesph Denison 2nd, all of Long Point in Stonington, set- ting forth that they with others of the first Society in said Stonington were on the second Thursday of October 1774 appointed Managers of a Lottery granted by the Honorable General Assembly to your Memorialists William Morgan and others of the established Religion of the then Colony of Connec-
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ticut for the purpose of raising the sum of £400, to build a Meeting House at said Point. That said Managers proceeded by way of Lottery to raise said sum in Continental Bills toward the close of the summer of 1777, when your Memorialists for whom the Grant was made, not being apprehensive of the depreciation that would attend said Bills and considering the great scarcity and dearness of materials for building said House and the dangers they were then exposed to from the enemy who were then at New York, Newport and Long Island, thought best for the Grantess not then to proceed in building said House, since which the Bills in the Hands of your Memorialists have depreciated to almost nothing except a part which has been turned into Public Securities, Praying that a Judicious Committee may be appointed to examine into the matters of said Memorial and the true State and Circumstances of the money which they hold in trust, put a just value thereon, and that said Committee be enabled to direct said Managers, to raise on said Grant such Sums with what they already have as to make up the £400. Granted by your Honors as per memorial.
Resolved, by this Assembly that said Nathaniel Minor, John Denison, and Joseph Denison 2d be continued as Managers of said Lottery with the addi- tion of James Rhodes and Elijah Palmer of said Stonington, and that the Honorable William Hillhouse and Benjamin Huntington Esqrs, and Elisha Lathrop Esq. be and they are hereby appointed a committee to enquire into the state and circumstances of said lottery and liquidate and settle the Accounts thereof, and ascertain the value of the avails thereof in the Hands of said Managers, and in case said Committee shall judge it to be reasonable, they may and they are hereby Authorized and impowered to direct that said Managers proceed to Issue and draw such further numbers of tickets in said Lottery as to raise such sum of money for the purpose of building a meeting House at said Point as shall be thought by said Committee to be proper, not exceeding £400, including what is already on hand as aforesaid and exclusive of the cost of said Lottery, said managers to be accountable to the General Assembly when requested for their Doings in the premises.
James Abbott McNeil Whistler, the great artist, passed his boyhood in Stonington.
Voluntown .- Situated in the northeastern part of the county, Voluntown is bounded on the north by Windham county, on the east by Rhode Island, on the south by North Stonington and on the west by Griswold. Its forty square miles of territory supports a population of less than one thousand people who are for the most part farmers. The name "Volunteers' Town" comes from the fact that the land was given in 1700 to volunteers of the Narragansett War. The settlers came mostly from Norwich, New London and Stonington. In 1719 a strip of land to the north was granted in lieu of a portion to the east claimed by Rhode Island.
The village of Pachaug grew up from cotton manufacture on the Pachaug river. The incorporation of the town took place in 1721, but lost the territory of the present town of Sterling in 1794. Voluntown, which till 1881 was in Windham county, was annexed to New London county at that date.
Waterford .- Bounded on the north by Montville, on the east by the Thames and by New London, on the south by Long Island Sound, and on the west by East Lyme, Waterford was incorporated as a town in 1801, being taken from New London. Its forty square miles are devoted chiefly to agri- culture and quarrying, though there is some manufacture in the village of Flanders.
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HOME OF NEW LONDON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. NEW LONDON. ONCE HEADQUARTERS OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON.
CHAPTER VIII NEW LONDON COUNTY TODAY
A General Review - 250th Anniversary Celebration - The Principal Manufacturing Establishments - National and State Officials - Recapitulation.
It is the purpose of this chapter to make a general review of the recent developments of the county, showing how the present has grown from the past, and summarizing in statistical form many matters that have been discussed in special topics in foregoing chapters.
Topographically, the area of seven hundred square miles is of as great interest to the modern business man as it is to the geologist. The glacial action that left the rocks in the fields, the wearing down of river beds that produced the water power of the county, the deep estuary of the Thames, which offers one of the best harbors on the Atlantic coast, have resulted not only in a wonderful variety of landscape, but also in a remarkable diversity of industries. A climate at once bracing and wholesome, yet not too severe for open air labor throughout the year, has conduced to the success of agri- culture and manufacturing. Yankee ingenuity and thrift, combined with a spirit of enterprise and progress, have taken advantage of natural advantages to develop remarkable prosperity. Education, in school and out, has helped to cultivate the best ideals of American citizenship. And while sixty per cent. of the population is either of foreign birth or foreign parentage, the loyalty to American ideals is as strong today in our county as it was fifty years ago. It will be interesting to note some of the public enterprises that have been carried out in recent years.
If some fifty-year Rip Van Winkle were to visit us, the first thing he would note is, doubtless, the improvements in our roads. With State sub- sidies have been combined local grants to make a splendid network of road- ways that make the county at once smaller and stronger than ever before. The most encouraging thing about the situation is that the public is still unsatisfied, and is planning greater things for the future.
Our Rip might not at first comprehend the horseless vehicles that have made good roads a necessity, any more than he could understand the thousand and one other marks of scientific advancement of the age; but he would undoubtedly note a great change for the better, and in a few hours could traverse a region that formerly required days of travel. Were he to come by train, he would be surprised that his train rushed over the Connecticut river and the Thames unimpeded by the need of delay for the ferry. New bridges, indeed, have replaced the former ones, one of which is now used as a highway between Groton and New London, while over the Connecticut is a splendid toll bridge built by the State. He could hardly avoid seeing the million dollar pier built by the State at New London, and, two miles upstream, the large naval base with its fleet of submarines and its wealth of equipment. If he were to ask, he would find that the channel of the Thames has been well dredged, so that ships of good size can sail to its head at Norwich.
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A drive up the military highway on the east side of the Thames would reveal Connecticut College on the heights of the western shore, would show him the State Hospitals, one on the east side and one on the west, near Norwich. The tall chimneys lining the river would remind him that in the last fifty years the county has entered more deeply than ever into manu- facturing.
If he were to visit Norwich, New London, and Stonington, he would note with approval the many fine public buildings, the memorial tablets and monu- ments, the public parks, the reservoirs, the improved streets, and the splendid school buildings under construction or in use already. Other buildings for public use such as libraries, Y. M. C. A. buildings, hospitals and church edifices, would show great improvement over those of his day.
All of the advances in modern science, such as the use of electricity for light and power, for the telephone and the street railway, would remind him that New London county with the rest of the world had entered upon a new era in the past fifty years. The points of historic interest to the tourist are well covered in several handbooks. A brief outline of these will serve to show why the tourist and summer visitor have made this county a rendezvous, combining as it does natural charm, healthful climate, and personal ties that reach out all over our land. The real history of New London county would follow its children in their westward migrations and would reveal the pioneer spirit of early days, expanding throughout the upbuilding of many other sec- tions of the United States.
Starting with the western end of the county at the Connecticut river toll bridge, eighteen hundred feet long, one enters Old Lyme, opposite Say- brook, famous for its beauty, unspoiled by modern industry. The meeting house was rebuilt from the same plans as the former one of 1817 which was burned about ten years ago. The plan, said to be copied from the plans of Sir Christopher Wren, is well suited to the simple charm of the town, with its wide streets and overarching elms. In Old Lyme a notable gathering of eminent artists is found throughout the warmer months. Their annual exhibi- tion is a noteworthy event. For permanent exhibits an Art Gallery has been erected on Old Lyme street. The Griswold House (not to be confused with the Griswold Hotel at Groton) is famous for the artists it has entertained, and who have left specimens of their art in the decorations of the house. It is best known as the subject of W. L. Metcalf's "May Day," now in the Pittsburgh Art Gallery. To catalogue the artists who spend their summers in Old Lyme would be a long task. Many who came for a brief stay have built substantial homes on attractive sites. The home of the first minister of Lyme, Rev. Moses Noyes, is now occupied by his descendant, the eminent Judge Walter C. Noyes.
North of Old Lyme is Lyme, with its growing artist colony at Hamburg Cove. Lords Cove, on the east of the main channel of the Connecticut, is a famous hunting resort when rail and ducks are in flight.
The high hills with the picturesque ponds and "Eight Mile River" make Lyme a most attractive summer resort for many cottagers. In industry, the
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shad fisheries and agriculture furnish the main occupations of residents, though there are a witch hazel factory and small mill.
If we go east from Old Lyme along the Sound, we pass through "Black Hall," settled by Matthew Griswold in 1645 and retained in the family for six generations. The many names of local significance such as Hawk's Nest, Giant's Neck and many others, indicate that the whole shore line has become one great summer resort. Just before reaching Bride Brook, whose story has been told at length in another part of our history, we pass the birthplace of Morrison Waite, former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
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