USA > Connecticut > Windham County > A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I > Part 35
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Edward Morris was the first settler to come to the Quinnatisset country after it became a part of Connecticut. He bought 1,500 acres of land west of
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the Quinebaug River, now New Boston, settled there with his family, and built a house with fortifications. After a time he gained authority over the Indians, and was also given the honorary title of governor. He made many improve- ments, building the first permanent bridge over the Quinebaug in 1718. He also built two smaller bridges in that vicinity. Settlers also took possession of their claims on the French River; there was one settler at what is now Gros- venordale ; but it was not until after that time that the first resident proprietor came to Quinnatisset-now Thompson Hill. The country north of Quinnatis- set was laid out, also the tract in the northeast, Pottaquatic (now Quadic) in 1716, the latter place being settled three years later. By 1726 there were thirty families living on this tract. Killingly tried to bring them under her jurisdiction, and to gain possession of this territory, the inhabitants already paying taxes to Killingly and holding town and religious offices there. A few settlers west of the Quinebaug attended church in Woodstock, the remainder in Killingly. No attempt was made by the settlers of the Quinnatisset country to provide schools, roads, a pound or other improvements, divided between the two towns on either side of them as they were. Killingly proceeded to settle certain tracts of this land herself, and to gain possession of tracts held by Massachusetts, in which latter effort she was unsuccessful, although the court admitted her claim to Connecticut's share.
In 1727 there was still no organization. Some of the nonresident owners appealed to the Assembly, asking for town privileges. This request was refused because of the pleas made by certain of the inhabitants in behalf of Killingly. As that town had assumed jurisdiction over the colony they now appealed to her for further privileges, and in 1728 were given the liberty of becoming a distinct society. The dividing lines were decided upon, and the Assembly appealed to for confirmation of the agreement. The petition being granted, the first public meeting of the inhabitants north of Killingly was held that summer, and at that meeting it was decided to invite a minister to hold services. The land west of the Quinebaug was annexed to the new parish, also, a land tax was granted for the erection of a meeting house, upon which work was immediately begun. The inhabitants turned to with a will to help with the building, as there was much enthusiasm manifested, this being their first church building. The first service was held in it in 1729. There was much discussion over the Massachusetts boundary line, and for a year the inhabitants of the north settlement found themselves without town privileges, the society having been taken away from Killingly. Under those conditions it was impossible for them to make progress of any kind, and a year later the Assembly was petitioned "That the Society supposed to be the North Society of the Town of Killingly should be erected into a township, or if that was not thought expedient, to establish the bounds of said society according as it was intended by us when first granted." The society was again made a part of Killingly by the Assembly, and given the name of Thompson Parish.
The parish at that time numbered forty or fifty families, and still there were no schools, regular roads nor any military organization. Part of the untenanted land in its territory was claimed by nonresidents, and the remain- der was held by Killingly proprietors, in spite of enactments forbidding them to hold property there. The first act of the new Thompson Parish was to organize a military company; the next to provide schooling for the children. The parish was divided into four sections, and as soon as possible a schoolmaster
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provided, schools being erected in the four quarters and sessions being held a quarter of a year in each section. A pound was built in 1735. The parish was then well established, and was thriving and prosperous. When Thompson Parish had first been added to Killingly, a committee was sent to find out the condition of the roads in the new parish, and advise concerning the laying of new ones. During the next ten years Killingly built several roads there. Many new settlers came to Thompson, and soon the parish was said to exceed the first society of Killingly in numbers and in wealth. Although the parish did not in reality belong to Killingly it was allowed a full share of privileges, the holding of town offices, and was allowed to send a representative to the Assem- bly. The Revival of 1741 had a decided effect upon Thompson's religious affairs, resulting in the formation of a Six-Principle Baptist Church, which later lost some of its members to a new Separatist Church. This latter church, however, did not long survive, and in 1770 the Baptist Church was broken up. Many new settlers continued to come to Thompson Parish, and these somewhat made up to the old church the losses it had suffered.
By 1762 Thompson was richer than either of the other societies. Changes were made in the school districts-the society was divided into ten of these districts, and school was kept in two places, two months in each place. The meeting house was painted and renovated. A popular tavern was kept in Thompson. In 1770 provision was made by Killingly for a work house for the poor of its northern parish. In 1774 a new Baptist meeting house was com- pleted and ready for service. Many Thompson residents became interested in the lands opened for colonization further west, and many left the parish to venture forth in the new territory. However, so many new settlers came to Thompson as to more than offset her losses in population, and improvements kept pace with the increasing number of inhabitants. New roads were laid out and a bridge was built.
After the French and Indian war there was a revival of business and com- mercial enterprise. Trade was resumed between the colonies and foreign coun- tries, and many useful and fancy articles found their way to the homes in Thompson Parish by means of the "Butter Cart," which gave these articles in exchange for domestic products-butter, eggs, etc. New families came to settle the wild lands in the south part of the town. The Parish, under its new stimulus and growth, became dissatisfied and made petition to the General Assembly that Thompson be made a town. However, Thompson was divided in this matter, a majority of her citizens desiring town privileges, but certain sections of the parish having no desire to change their status, and upon the vote of the Assembly to defer decision the parish decided to await a more favorable time. A few years later, when the question was again raised, both the north and south societies of Killingly voted unanimously for town privileges for Thompson. Killingly soon repented of her decision, and desired to keep her northern parish, but found resistance useless, and, the question being raised again three years later, Killingly was forced to give in, and in 1785 Thompson Parish was made a town. At the annual meeting the following December two members for a joint committee from Killingly and Thompson were chosen for the purpose of settling town lines, and accounts between the two towns were settled promptly and with harmony on both sides. The poor of the town were provided for, new roads constructed and old ones repaired, and bridges were
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put into good condition. Thompson looked well to her financial affairs, and kept carefully out of debt.
After the Revolution business was dull and inactive, as times were hard and there was very little money. However, there were mills for grinding and sawing and for cloth dressing, and as business began to revive again manu- facturers started-a nail factory opened; potash and pearlash were made in large quantities. A brig, or sloop, was built, sent to Providence in sections, and put together again and launched. This ship, the Harmony, carried goods back and forth from Providence to the West Indies, and proved a valuable asset to the people of Thompson, as it also furnished them with supplies. Thus the South Neighborhood, the proud owner of the ship, became District No. 1, as the business and social leader of the town, while Thompson Hill was used for religious and town meetings and military training. The latter was a small village at that time, consisting only of the meeting house, tavern, pound and blacksmith shop, besides its private houses. Religious affairs in Thompson prospered ; the Congregational Church was renovated, and in 1803 a new Bap- tist Church was built; Methodists also were becoming numerous. A meeting house was built in what is now West Thompson in 1800. Schools were improved after the legislative enactment of 1798. Good turnpikes were provided, and bridges built in connection with them, necessarily making town expenses very heavy. These turnpikes connected the town with Boston, Providence, Hart- ford and Springfield. Business activity began to be felt on Thompson Hill. In other parts of the town new industries came into existence, there was a demand for labor, and land increased in value. There was an establishment, in what is now Grosvenordale, for dyeing and pressing cloth; industries were in operation in the northeast part of the town; and there was a settlement of some size on Brandy Hill. In the early years of the nineteenth century many emigrated to Vermont, New York, Ohio and the South.
In 1811 the Thompson Manufacturing Company was formed for the pur- pose of manufacturing cotton cloth; a brick factory building was built for the Connecticut Manufacturing Company in the same year, the bricks being fur- nished by the brick works of West Thompson. Quaddic factory opened in 1813 for the manufacture of hats; a carding machine was set up in the north- western part of the town. Other roads and bridges were built for the accom- modation of the new industries. Still other industries followed. A new church was found necessary. In 1814 a religious revival quickened interest in the churches, and accomplished much good, even though accompanied by dissension between the churches of various denominations. A Sunday school was opened at that time.
As the years passed manufacturing still continued to increase. Masonville became a village of some size; a new mill was erected and a village built up, the village being given the name of New Boston. Mechanicsville came into existence through the establishment of a woolen mill. Thompson Hill was in a flourishing condition, and catered to the business needs of the surrounding villages. A bank was opened in Thompson in 1833. Many lawyers were attracted to the thriving town; for a time a newspaper was published. Fire engine companies were organized-one in Thompson and one in Masonville. High schools were kept intermittently after the decline of the Woodstock Academy. A temperance reform accomplished much good, closed the bars of the town, and reformed confirmed drunkards.
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By 1850 the population of Thompson was greater than that of any other town in Windham County, and one of the wealthiest rural towns in the state, in spite of the loss of her, southern territory and nearly two thousand inhabi- tants. The Grosvenordale Company took over Masonville and Fisherville, and added to the community factory buildings, dwellings, a reservoir, made new roads and leveled hills. Hundreds of people were added to the population also. The communities of Wilsonville, New Boston, Quaddic and West Thompson continued to thrive. Thompson Hill was no longer a place of business, but was improved as a residential district.
NORTH GROSVENORDALE
NORTH GROSVENORDALE IN 1872-73
By H. V. Arnold
In 1863, or about that time, some Rhode Island capitalists bought the mill properties at Masonville and Fisherville, in Thompson. The purchase of course included the mill tenements and water powers of French River at both places. I think that a new mill was built at Masonville during that decade, but of this I am not positive. I think it was in 1866 that both places were re-named, the south village being called Grosvenordale and the north village North Gros- venordale. These places were about two miles apart and stations on the Nor- wich and Worcester Railroad.
Fisherville was an old village that dated back to the late "20s. Unlike most New England villages, the tenement houses, church, store and schoolhouse were brick built. There was only one moderate sized cotton mill there and this was stone built. The place was located in the valley of French River, which is of moderate depth at that point, and some fifty or sixty rods in breadth. The railroad occupied the east side of the valley, along the foot of the sloping hills. What there was of the village occupied the west side of the valley at the foot and partly upon the gently sloping hillsides. North of the mill there were two
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rows of tenement houses, several to the row, one on the valley level and the other row west of this one, and above on the hillside. A road from Woodstock ran by the north part of the village and, crossing the valley and river, it ascended the other slope and continued southeast to Thompson station. The depot was an old brown wooden building, located just north of where this road crossed the track. Two or three privately owned residences were located on the road where it ascended the hills, above the depot. The village store was located on the north side of the road near the lower row of tenements, and the superintendent's house was also on the same side, but located upon the higher ground near the end of the upper row of tenements. I do not remember whether that was built of brick or merely a wooden-built mansion. There was a road intersection near this house that ran south down that side of the valley, but by the village it was on the high ground. The church (Methodist) fronted this road from its west side and came directly west of the new mill when that road was built. The schoolhouse was on this road farther south, outside the village, in fact, and was a one-room building on the east side of the road, and at the foot of what little hill slope there was at that point. This was Fisher- ville before the company started to build the new mill.
I cannot state just what year preparatory work began there, but a new and higher dam was built that changed the former mill pond to a reservoir; one side of the mill trench was bunked up higher and the foundations of a mill, some six hundred and fifty feet long and perhaps sixty-six feet wide, were laid prior to the close of 1870. This mill location was south of the old mill, with several rods of space between them and upon the valley land on the west side of the river. The foundations included an addition on the west side at least one hundred and fifty feet long and sixty feet in width, its west end abutting into the hillside. A row of four-family wooden tenement houses were built on a roadway to the southeast of the mill foundation. This work was completed before the new brick mill was started in the spring of 1872.
The contract to do the brickwork was let to a man named Saunders, of Lowell, Mass., and he brought a gang of bricklayers with him who were housed and boarded in the new tenements. The brick came from near Alexander's Lake, in Killingly, and from Southbridge, Mass. A spur track had been laid from the railroad and along in front of the foundation work when that was constructed, so that the brick could be taken from cars close by the mill. The brick work began April 2, 1872.
The road work was in charge of Jeremiah Young of Danielson, George Bart- lett, a former soldier of the 18th Connecticut Regiment, being his foreman. A large shed was built, I think, on the east side of the river, in which to prepare the Georgia pine cross-timbers to support the several floors of the mill, and do other woodwork. The agent of the company was Lucian Briggs, who resided at the lower village, and the superintendent of the stone-built mill was a man named Wilbur.
The intention was to have the new mill ready to start, at least in part, within one year of the time that the brickwork began; that is to say, by April, 1873. In the spring, summer and fall of 1872 the work progressed and the mill gradually arose, story upon story. Two square built towers in front, i. e., toward the railroad, were carried up at the same time, and two cut-granite slabs were inserted in the walls high up, on which was cut in large embossed letters the inscription "Grosvenordale Co .- Erected A. D. 1872," divided be-
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tween the two towers. The towers contained the stairways, built by an elderly carpenter named Knapp. Gas works were put in between the two mills. In the rear of the new mill the addition was also carried up as high as the other and beneath was the wheel-pit containing two large Collins turbines (made at Thamesville, Conn.) with upright shafts. South of the addition a brick boiler house was also built that season with a tall brick chimney in the foot of the hill slope. The addition also had its tower and stairways.
After the flattish roof was put on both the mill and its addition, the machin- ery began to arrive. The laying of the top floors of hard pine over the spruce plank under-flooring went on through the winter and when large sections had been completed, machinists began setting the machinery in order and putting up the shafting for each story. It was the wish of Mr. Young to have his car- penter gang do all the flooring work, but the top flooring for each story was let out on contract to a set of East Boston men who had completed in the fall a job of that kind at a new mill built that year at Ballouville in Killingly. Young's men were disappointed in regard to the top-flooring and said that this letting out of that work by Briggs, the agent, had robbed them of their winter's work. (I fared a little better. The floor men boarded at the same place that I did and let to me to complete by-way small sections of the top floors, also the planing of joints in one or two stories.)
The wheels having been set going, the first batch of cotton was run through the picker April 2, 1873, just one year from the time that the brick work had begun. That did not mean that the whole mill was then started. The placing of looms, etc., was still in progress. The mill was started gradually by sections as fast as the cotton in its various processes reached in order the machine that was to manipulate it. Days passed before it got to any of the looms for weaving into cloth. An English machine called the "slasher" was replacing in the mills the long old-fashioned dresser. Two slashers came to the mill from Accrington, England, and were ready for sizing the warping when needed. The looms were made at Whitinsville, Mass., and other machinery elsewhere. Gradually during the spring of 1873 the new mill at North Grosvenordale was gotten into operation.
THOMPSON COMMUNITY
By R. A. Dunning
The following article was written by Mr. Dunning upon special invitation that he contribute Thompson's portion for the chapter "The Beauty Spots of Windham County." But Mr. Dunning has interwoven such an excellent pen portrait of Thompson Community that the Editor has taken the liberty to transfer the article to the Thompson chapter.
BEAUTY SPOTS OF THOMPSON
When'reference is made to Thompson it should be borne in mind that there are two Thompsons, one the township, which is one of the corner towns upon which rests the structure of the state, covering between forty and fifty square miles and comprising several villages, most of them devoted to manufacturing, as well as many fertile and well-tilled farms. The second Thompson is the vil- lage of that name situated in almost the geographical center of the town and sometimes called Thompson Center for that reason.
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From the foregoing it may be seen that while the second Thompson is included in the first, the designation "Thompson" may refer to two quite dis- tinct and dissimilar localities.
First let us give a little consideration to the town, which is bounded on the north by Massachusetts, on the east by Rhode Island, on the south by Putnam and on the west by Woodstock. As these boundary lines are from six to eight miles long and as the town contains many miles of woodland and fertile farm- land besides the villages mentioned above, it may be easily imagined that there are many places of interest and many points of view that may be well called "Beauty Spots."
To touch first upon practical things it may be said there are three railroads in the town with stations at East Thompson and Thompson on the Boston and Poughkeepsie Division, at Wilsonville, North Grosvenordale, Grosvenordale, West Thompson and Mechanicsville on the Worcester Division while at East Thompson the Southbridge Branch pursues a serpentine course into Massa- chusetts to return to Connecticut with a station at Quinebaug and then goes on into Massachusetts again to its terminus. At Quinebaugh is found the peculiar condition of the station and postoffice being in Connecticut, while the factory and many of the houses are over the Massachusetts side of the line. As there are postoffices near each railroad station and also at Fabyan, a village near Quinebaug, with parts of the town served by rural free delivery routes, it can be seen at a glance that ample railroad and postal services are maintained, and nine churches in different sections of the town, representing several denomi- nations, give evidence that the religious interests of the people are not forgotten.
Those who see beauty in useful things will find much to admire in the substantial factories, in which is made woolen and cotton cloth, surrounded by the neatly kept villages in which dwell the operatives, while the dammed-up waters of the rivers which form the mill ponds brighten the landscape with bits of water which makes many a charming waterfall as it goes tumbling and tossing over the dams.
In enumerating the beauties of the town let us first mention its three rivers. Flowing from north to south and bisecting the town is the French River ; from near the northwestern corner and flowing in a southeasterly direction comes the Quinebaug to be joined by the French River near Mechanicsville, thus forming a greater Quinebaug. Still another river, which flows from the eastern part of the town in a general southwesterly direction, known as the Five Mile River. Farther south this river also is merged into the Quinebaug which con- tinues its southerly course until, uniting with the Thames River, its waters reach Long Island Sound.
Upon the Quinebaug at West Thompson, the French River at North Gros- venordale and the Five Mile River at Quadie have been built large dams for holding back the water to furnish power for the mills below, and as a con- sequence large areas have been covered with water, and these large reservoirs with the accompanying waterfalls make charming additions to a scenery other- wise barren of water views. These three large reservoirs may be especially mentioned although there are many smaller ponds and falls that are exceed- ingly attractive.
The ponds referred to have been made by man's enterprise in keeping back the waters of the rivers for useful purposes without thinking of the beauty that might come also, but Thompson possesses one natural pond that deserves
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honorable mention among the beauty spots of the town. In the northern part of the town, very near the Massachusetts line, is what is known as "Little Pond," a beautiful bit of water surrounded by sharply rising and thickly wooded banks and so nearly hidden as to be almost out of sight to the passerby, although very near the road. The close proximity and greater attractions of that beautiful lake sometimes called Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagogga- gungamaugg just over the Massachusetts border, often causes the beauties of its smaller neighbor in Thompson to be lost sight of. In the olden days, before the Indian name was used so commonly, this lake was called the "Big Pond," and it is quite certain that if it were not so near our "Little Pond," the latter would be visited more often and its natural beauty and attractiveness be more highly appreciated. However, a small portion of the larger lake extends into Connecticut.
With this brief survey of the township let us turn our attention to the vil- lage, the second Thompson of which mention has been made.
The Village of Thompson is situated upon a hilltop over five hundred feet above the sea level. It is reached by the old Boston to Hartford and Providence to Springfield turnpikes, which cross at right angles in the center of the village and upon which the stage coach lines used to make regular trips before the railroads came and put an end to that way of traveling.
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