USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 18
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 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
Elisha Tracy Huntington, born 1817, died 1859, married Malvina, daugh- ter of Dr. Thomas Goswell; he is called "a jeweller." His brother married a daughter of Thomas Kinney. His store was on the corner now occupied by the Norwich Savings Society, and which was afterwards occupied by a Mr. Faulkner and still later by S. R. Parlin. This store is of interest as the inn where General Washington rested on the night of June 30, 1775. It has been taken down in recent years to make way for the new building erected by the Norwich Savings Society.
This completes, so far as is known, the workers in gold and silver in Norwich and vicinity. Many fine examples of the work of the old gold and silversmiths are cherished in this part of Connecticut, and the beauty of finish, delicacy of work and the graceful forms, make one sigh again for the vanished days when the craftsman loved his work and gave to it of his best.
There were a few silversmiths who carried on that business in Preston and Stonington, Connecticut.
John Avery, born December 6, 1732, died July 23, 1794, in Preston, was a son of John and Anna (Stanton) Avery, both from old families of New London and Stonington. He was a farmer and goldsmith, having taken up the latter trade at a comparatively late period in life, on account of a partial failure of his health. He possessed much mechanical ingenuity, as illustrated by the fact that he studied out and carried into effect the entire process of making a brass-wheeled clock without ever having learned the trade. In addition to his farming work, he carried on quite an extensive business in manufacturing clocks, silver shoe buckles, knee buckles, silver spoons and gold beads, employing, it is said, at times as many as seven journeymen and apprentices. Four of his sons, John, Jr., Samuel, William and Robert, learned of him the goldsmith's trade. Clocks made by him are still seen, also spoons, beads, etc. When the Revolutionary War broke out, being in poor health and having a growing family, he could not go, but procured a substitute, and served on various committees at home. Two of his sons, John and Samuel, in company with many other young men from Preston and the neighboring
568
NEW LONDON COUNTY
towns, were on their way to the fort in Groton when it was captured by the British in September, 1781.
Among the goldsmith's tools included in his inventory was one not here- tofore named, viz. "7 Love whirls and arbors." His trade mark was "I. A." in a small square, and some spoons made by him have a little rose (?) orna- ment where the handle is joined to the bowl. An old account book belonging to him and beginning March 14, 1762, has an interesting list of articles made or repaired by him. The number of silver dollars brought to be made into spoons, and clocks to be mended, was rather surprising, for Avery lived some distance in the country on Avery (now called Preston) Plains. The house where he lived and had his shop is still standing.
John Avery, son of the above, worked with his father at the trade of silversmith and clock maker, but little is known of his work; he was born in 1755, and died in 1815. Samuel Avery, another son, also learned the trade of silversmith, but seems to have turned his attention more to other things, and was the inventor of a nail-cutting machine. He was born in 1760 and died in 1836. Of William Avery, another son, litle is known of him as a worker in gold and silver; probably all articles made in the father's shop bore the father's trade-mark, though perhaps made by one of the sons. Of Robert Stanton Avery, another son, born in 1771, died in 1846, more is known. He lived and died in the house in which he was born, situated on the east side of Avery's Plains, in Preston. Some examples of his handiwork in gold and silver are now in the possession of descendants. A story is told of six table- stones made by him; one day "Granny Treat" Brewster, so-called because her maiden name was Treat, brought to the shop six Spanish silver dollars to be made into spoons for her granddaughters. She had the spoons marked "D. B." (Dorothy Brewster), and gave two spoons each to her three grand- daughters. Robert made the spoons under his father's directions, and when they were finished he placed them in his hatband, stem down, and rode off on horseback to deliver them. In the course of time, Robert married one of the granddaughters, and so two of the spoons came back; then on her death, he married another of the grandaughters, and two more came back. At the old-fashioned supper of bread and milk or mush and milk, if any other spoon was handed to Robert, he would say, "Oh, I want one of my own spoons !" One of these particular spoons is in a Norwich home, while others are in Ledyard.
After his father's death, Robert gave up the silversmith business and devoted himself to farming; he became a successful breeder of blooded stock, and his herd of deep-red cattle was one of the finest anywhere around. He also engaged in wool-growing and had a large flock of sheep. He was captain of the militia company and justice of the peace ; is said to have been the first man in the town to use a cast iron plow and to own a wagon, and held many public offices.
Daniel Billings was a goldsmith who was in business in Poquetannock Village in 1795, as learned from an old account book owned by Isaac Greer of that place. Little is known of him, but spoons with the mark "D. Billings" are in the possession of some whose grandparents lived in Poquetannock, on
PINEHURST, NORWICH.
n
CHATEAU DE CHAVANIAC-LAFAYETTE, BIRTHPLACE OF MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. PURCHASED BY A GROUP OF AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN TO BE A FRANCO- AMERICAN MEMORIAL MUSEUM, OR "FRENCH MOUNT VERNON."
569
NOTABLE PLACES AND HOMES
the line between the present town of Ledyard and the town of Preston.
Another worker, Christopher Gallup, born June 22, 1764, in North Groton (now Ledyard), Connecticut, was the son of Col. Nathan Gallup, a brave soldier of the Revolution, and his wife, Sarah Giddings. He died July 30, 1849. The house where he lived in Ledyard is still standing, in good repair, and the room in which he used to work at his silversmith's trade is pointed out by his descendants. His mark was "C. G.," and from the quality of the work on these spoons it is more than probable that he made other articles, but so far none have been identified.
In Stonington, Connecticut, a David Main, born 1752, died 1843, perhaps the son of Jeremiah and Thankful (Brown) Main, was called a gold or silversmith, but his work is not known.
There were three of the Stanton name who lived in Stonington, and there pursued the calling of a silversmith. Enoch Stanton was born in 1745, and perished at the massacre of Fort Griswold, in September, 1781. He held the rank of lieutenant, and on April 8, 1783, his widow sent the following to Captain William Latham: "Sir, please to send me by the bearer hereof, Mr. Zebulon Stanton, the sum of Fifty pounds of my deceased husband (Lieut. Enoch Stanton's) wages for his service in Fort Griswold and his receipt shall discharge you from the same. (Signed) Wait Stanton." He left a widow and seven small children, the oldest about twelve years old.
.His brother, Zebulon Stanton, was born in 1753 and died in 1828; the house which he built about 1776 faces the Park, and the beautiful spreading elms before it testify to its age. The house is large, and the ell at the right, with its two large show windows full of small panes of glass, was formerly the shop where he worked at his trade. Spoons made by him, with his mark, "Z. S.," are owned by Stonington people.
A Daniel Stanton was a silversmith in Stonington, but which Daniel is not definitely settled. His mark, "D. Stanton," would indicate a later date than the two above mentioned. Daniel, brother of Enoch and Zebulon Stan- ton, perished at the massacre of Fort Griswold, but a Daniel, son of Daniel and Mary (Eldridge) Stanton, was also in the fort at that time, was wounded, but recovered, and died in later years.
PINEHURST
Two hundred and fifty years ago, when colonists were seek- ing homes in the land called by them New England in memory of the England which they had left, a company of men purchased a tract of land "nine miles square," "lying and being at Moheagan," in the Colony of Connecticut.
Few as yet were the settlements in the colony. Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield were established in the Connecticut Valley between 1633 and 1636, and Saybrook, at the mouth of the river, in 1635; in the western section, New Haven was founded in 1638; while in the eastern part a grant had been made to Mr. Winthrop in 1644 for "a plantation at or near Pequod"; this plantation became in time the present town of New London. The nine miles square which the white men bought in 1659 of their red brothers, "Onkos, Owaneco, Attanwanhood, Sachems of Mohegan," was situated fourteen miles
570
NEW LONDON COUNTY
north of the Pequot plantation, in the midst of the Mohegan territory. It was a fertile, well watered region; the Great river, called also Monheag or Pequot river (now the Thames) ; the Yantic, with its beautiful falls; the Shetucket and Quinebaug rivers-all flowed through the country. The waters teemed with an abundance of bass, shad, trout, and other varieties of fish. Shell-fish, such as clams, oysters and lobsters, were plenty; water- fowl made their homes in the ponds and marshes; while wild turkeys, quail, partridge and other game birds were common. Dense forests gave protection to numerous wild animals; in the forests the underbrush was frequently cleared away by fires started for that purpose by the Indians, while faint paths, traversed in single file by wild man and wilder beast, led through them here and there to the Indian lands lying to the north and west, which in after years became the towns of Lebanon, Windham and Plainfield. At certain seasons of the year the Indians came to the Great river to fish, hunt, or gather the fruit of the wild plum.
Such was the tract of land named by its owners Norwich, at the time of its purchase from the Indians. Some of the new proprietors came from New London, some from Saybrook, while a few were from still more distant settle- ments. There were no roads over which to convey their families and house- hold effects ; to try to make their way by the Indian trails would have been difficult and dangerous ; but transportation by water from Saybrook and New London was easily effected. Uncas, the Mohegan Sachem, had shown him- self very friendly to the whites who had befriended him in his difficulties with the Narragansetts. What more likely than that he himself should have directed their course up the Great river, past his fort at Shantok Point, where he had been relieved by one of the newcomers, up to the head of the river, on past the steep hills whose woods in many places erept down to the edge of the water, where now lies the fair city of Norwich, up the Yantic Cove to the Indians' landing place, below the falls. Not only would this be the easiest and most obvious way, but the numerous references in the early land deeds to the Indian Landing Place, and the old landing place, show it to have been the way commonly used. In the beginning, a house lot with pasture land adjoining or lying nearby was assigned to each settler. A road was cleared, and the lots were laid out on it from the Reynolds house (which is still in the possession of the Reynolds family) to Yantic bridge.
All the rest of the "nine miles square" was held in common by the pro- prietors, and was known as common or undivided land. A mill for grinding corn was one of the first necessities of a new settlement; and the earliest town act of which any record has been found is dated December II, 1660, and is the renewal of a contract said to have been made at Saybrook between the "Town of Moheagan" on the one hand and John Elderkin on the other, concerning the erection of a mill. Elderkin agreed to pay a forfeit if the mill at Norwich was not completed by November Ist, 1661. He was a millwright and carpenter and is traced from Lynn, Massachusetts, down to Providence, Rhode Island, to New London, Connecticut, and finally to Norwich, where he ended his days. In each place he built mills, churches and houses, and many inducements were offered to persuade him to locate in new settlements.
571
NOTABLE PLACES AND HOMES
The mill at Norwich was first erected at No-man's Acre, above the Yantic Falls, but was soon removed to a site below the Falls.
A home-lot had been assigned to Elderkin on the Town street with the other families, but this lot not being convenient to his business, he was granted a place by the mill. Today the spring still gushes forth the pure water which made it noteworthy in the olden time. Elderkin's Mill, "the valley near the mill in which the Spring is," "the deep valley that goeth down to Goodman Elderkin's house," and the "island before his house at the Mill Falls" are all mentioned in early deeds.
For nearly a year the pioneers were employed in erecting shelters for their families, putting up walls and fences and preparing for planting; but by 1661 they were in better condition and needed more land for crops and pasturage, so in April of that year the division of some of the land held in common was made. This was long known as the "First Division Land." In this distribution was included the Little Plain, so called in distinction from the Great Plain in the southern part of the town. Among the allotments was one to Lieut. Thomas Tracy of a parcel of land in the "Little Plaine by the Indian Burieing Place."
When the purchasers of Norwich came to their new home they found up on the hill near the landing-place, a "place of Indian Graves." There was no reservation of the spot included in the deed from the Indians, nor, so far as is known, was it ever secured to them in any legal way, yet some under- standing or tacit agreement must have existed, for their right of interment was not questioned, and when Lieutenant Tracy's allotment was found to encroach on this place, another parcel was substituted for part of it-"Eight acres of pasture land given by the town in way of exchange for land in the little plaine (viz) the Indian Burying place." The "Indians' Land," and the "Indians' Burying Place," are frequently mentioned in the old deeds. This spot is familiar at the present day as the small enclosure within which stands the Uncas Monument and a few graves; but formerly the burying place cov- ered a much larger area. The land adjacent to the Falls and on the Little Plain was a favorite resort of the Indians, of whom traces were found for many years. Deposits of arrow-heads were found on the brow of the hill above the Yantic Cove; in 1859, Dr. Daniel Coit Gilman stated that "for many years he had received from Mr. Angel Stead what he terms 'a crop of arrow-heads' gathered annually in his gardening on the plain between the landing and up-town." Miss Caulkins says, in connection with the house built by Major Whiting and afterwards owned by Captain Dunham, that "the ground plot included the ancient Indian cemetery and sixteen acres of land running down to the neighborhood of Lathrop's Mills. In preparing for the foundation of this house, a gigantic Indian skeleton was exhumed, and many rude stone tools and arrow-heads were thrown up." (This is now the site of the house of Mr. F. L. Osgood.)
De Forest, in his "History of the Indians of Connecticut," writes that when an Indian was buried, implements of war and hunting were placed by his side in the grave, and dishes for food, for the use of the disembodied spirit. In digging for a sewer on Sachem street in recent years, human bones
572
NEW LONDON COUNTY
and a skull, supposed to be Indian, were thrown up by the workmen. Only the dead of the royal line were brought here for sepulture. In view of the earnest efforts made not long ago by the descendants of the Mohegan In- dians to establish their claim to the land in the vicinity of the Indian Graves, these glimpses of the way in which the original proprietors regarded it is interesting. No interment has been made for many years. Barber, in his "Connecticut History Collections," writes that in 1826, when a descendant of Uncas was buried there, "Mrs. Calvin Goddard, in whose immediate vicinity the burial yard lies, invited the tribe, a score or two, to partake of a collation."
Although Lieut. Thomas Tracy received eight acres of land in another place by way of exchange, yet he was allowed to retain part of the original allotment; among his lands recorded in the Book of Grants appears the fol- lowing: "Six & one half acres of upland more or less, in the little plaine by the Indian Graves, abutting Indian land westerly sixty-four rods-abutting land of John Elderkin Southerly to the brow of the hill eighteen rods- abutting easterly on the highway sixty-three rods-abutting Northerly on Land of John Olmstead eighteen rods ; part of his first Division Land. Laid out Aprill 1661." This piece was nearly rectangular, being eighteen rods in width, sixty-four rods on the western side and sixty-three on the eastern. To John Elderkin was granted forty acres on the southerly side of Little Plaine side-hills, abutting Lieutenant Tracy's land on the north; in 1665 he had another grant of twenty-six acres on the "southward side of Little Plaine." In this grant the Indians' right is also respected, and incidentally the former grant to Tracy is mentioned. Elderkin's twenty-six acres is de- scribed as bounded "Easterly on Land formerly belonging to Lieut. Thomas Tracy-seventy-six rods on the brow of the hill. The Indians to have liberty to pass & Repass from the Cove up the hollow to their Burying Place and also to have liberty to Cutt and make use of the wood halfe the waye down the hill all along the land formerly belonging to Lievt. Thomas Tracy And not to be molested." In the settlement of Lieutenant Tracy's estate, the six and one-half acres by the Indian Graves was given in 1692 to his son Samuel, but Samuel dying in 1693, without heirs, it fell to his brother, Daniel Tracy, then to Daniel Tracy, Junior, in whose possession it remained till his death in 1771; it was then placed in the inventory as "Six acres of land at the Indian Graves, at f18 an acre, amounting to £108." In the division of the estate this parcel of land was set out to the son, Samuel Tracy, and was listed at £192, which was quite an increase in value. Land was plenty in those early days, and many of the original home-lots and grants contained much more than the nominal measurement; in February, 1773, Samuel Tracy sold to his sister's children, Samuel and Hannah Huntington, "About Nine acres on Little Plain at or near the Indian Graves-abutting on Col. Simon Loth- rop's land," and still had a small piece left, as will be seen. Meanwhile, Col. Simon Lothrop had been acquiring the Elderkin holdings, including the mill, dwelling-house and island near it, and in 1736 the last piece of Elderkin property in this vicinity was purchased by him; in July, 1773, he conveyed to his son, Elijah Lothrop, the tract adjoining the Tracy lot.
573
NOTABLE PLACES AND HOMES
In the first years of the settlement of the town, the inhabitants were tillers of the soil, but with the passing of the years and a better knowledge of the country, the natural advantages of their situation were recognized and business was extended in various directions. For a long period the principal part of the settlement was in the neighborhood of Norwich Town Green, the Town Plot, as it was designated. The busiest part of the Norwich of the present day was long known as the East Sheep-walk, and consisted of nine hundred acres, belonging to the dwellers of the eastern section of the town and was used for pasturing cattle. The Indian Landing Place was the one in common use till 1684, when the town voted to lay out land for a public landing at the mouth of Yantic Cove, and have a suitable highway connect with it. Thereafter this was known as the Landing Place, or, in common parlance, the Landing, which term is still used by old residents.
Mill-lane (now Lafayette street) was the regular road to the landing place and mill; the side road leading down to the little plain being a pent, or closed way, with bars. In 1670 it was ordered that "if any person shall pass with horse or cattle over the general fence and so come through the Little Plain to or from the town, he shall pay a fine of 5 shillings."
One of the old-time stories was that of the deaf old man who used to ask, "Is your father at home or gone to the Landing, hey?" The "Old Landing Place" was the term used to designate the one first used. As build- ing and traffic increased, a better road was needed; in 1740 some of the inhabitants petitioned that a convenient highway might be opened to the Landing, in place of the two pent highways then in use. Although the peti- tion was refused at that time, yet a few years later the closed highways were opened and two roads were laid out, one on the east and the other on the west side of the central hill, variously called Waequaw's Hill, Fort Hill, Rocky, Savin, and now Jail Hill. This western road was given in the "District of Highways at Chelsea" in December, 1752, as "beginning at the water, south from ye westerly corner of Daniel Tracy Jr's house at the Landing place, thence a straight line to the southeast corner of Daniel Tracy's land where the highway goes Cross Wawecos Hill, thence by Daniel Tracy's land and land of John Bliss-thence a straight line to the Parting of the Paths on the Little Plaine at Oliver Arnold's corner." The West Road, as it was called for many years, practically coincided with the present Washington street. Up to 1780 there were many houses at the Town plot and at the Landing or Chelsea Society ; the first church built by the Episcopalians was erected on the site of the present Christ Church ; but northward on the West Road there were no houses to the head of the plain till Elijah Lothrop, Junior, built a house on the land "lying in Chelfea Society in said Norwich Northward from the Church on the Westerly side of the highway," which his father had given him in 1775. This house originally stood where the Lee house now stands, to the south of the Tracy land. About this time, Hannah Hunt- ington, who had married the Rev. Eliphalet Lyman, of Woodstock, laid out the land purchased of her uncle Samuel Tracy, and sold it in parcels suitable for building lots, which were described as "lying on the west side of the
574
NEW LONDON COUNTY
West Road leading from Norwich Town plat to the Landing place in said Norwich."
Major Ebenezer Whiting was the first purchaser of a lot, in April, 1780; said lot butted "westerly on Land Supposed to be the Indian Burying place ;" this would seem to indicate that the burying place was seldom visited, and that the location of graves was uncertain. Here Major Whiting built his · house, which after his death was bought by Captain Daniel Dunham ; later on it was owned by Calvin Goddard, and is now owned by Mr. F. L. Osgood. The lot adjoining Major Whiting's was taken by Daniel Rodman, but he may not have built a dwelling house. In the same month (June, 1781), Samuel Woodbridge bought the lot south of Rodman's and here erected a house in what, as Miss Caulkins writes, "was then considered a wild and secluded spot, but exceedingly beautiful in situation ; a contemporary notice speaks of it 'as an excellent place for rural retirement.'"
The same time that Rodman and Woodbridge bought their lots, Thomas Mumford purchased the one south and in 1787 the lot passed into the hands of Dan & Eliz. Huntington of Woodbridge, but did not build a house. (He afterwards lived in the house on Broadway, now owned by Mrs. Priscilla Adams.) Thus till after 1799 the only houses above the church on the West road were those of Elijah Lothrop, Samuel Woodbridge and Major Whiting. They were fine houses for those days, situated in a beutiful locality and occupied by influential citizens. But a different element was introduced in 1799.
For many years after the settlement of the town there were few needy persons ; only two or three required assistance during a year, and these were cared for by the selectmen. At a later date the poor were placed with those who would take them at the lowest terms. As the town grew, the number of poor people increased and more room was necessary. At a town meeting held December 26, 1798, it was voted that a committee should be appointed "to examine whether there is not some more suitable place for a Poor House than that now fixed upon & whether if such a place be found, it will be expedient to cause a poorhouse to be erected there providing it can be done without any further expense to the Town than what is contained in the Contract already made by the Committee for building the Poor House and to report at the next Meeting." At the meeting held April II, 1799, it was voted that the selectmen should be authorized on behalf of the town "to make such agreements with Mr. Samuel Woodbridge and the contractor for building a poorhouse, as they shall think reasonable relative to removing the poorhouse to the lots owned by said Woodbridge and Ebenezer Erastus Hunt- ington southerly and adjoining the old church lot in Chelesa and relative to an exchange of the Land where the poorhouse now stands for the land proper to place the poorhouse on." But a different arrangement was effected. Sam- uel Tracy, of the fourth generation, at the time of his death in 1798 still owned a portion of the grant in the Little Plain which had been made to Licut. Thomas Tracy in 1661 ; in the division of his estate, "The Land at Indian Graves where the Poorhouse is building" valued at £40 18s 6d, was set off on April 17, 1799, to Ebenezer Tracy, the second son, and on May 9,
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.