USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Simsbury > A record and documentary history of Simsbury > Part 34
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415
Col. Rec. Vol. XIII. P. 605
S. T. R. B. 4 P. 30
line, and subsequently to the Hudson river. These railroads intersect each other at Simsbury center, each having its own station. They are located near each other, and are connected by a common platform. These railroads, by their connections with many other roads, afford the means of communication and intercourse with all parts of the country. On the night of the 15th of January, 1878, a terrible disaster occurred on the Connecticut Western Railroad in this town. As an excursion train from Hartford, composed of ten cars filled with pas- sengers and drawn by two engines, was quietly moving across the bridge over the Farmington river, near Tariffville, at a moderate rate of speed, a span of the bridge suddenly gave way, and the engines with three passenger cars, were pre- cipitated into the river, causing the death of thirteen persons, and wounding and injuring many others. The cause of the disaster was doubtless the overloading of the bridge, originally improperly constructed, and its materials rendered defective to the point of danger by exposure for many years to the action of the elements without covering or paint. Providentially, none of the inhabitants of Simsbury were involved in the calamity, though many were on the train.
Prior to the construction of this railroad, by way of encouragement and aid, Simsbury appropriated and invested in its stock the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars, besides a large amount subscribed by individual citizens of the town. By the property of the road passing into the hands of the bond-holders soon after its completion, all this stock became valueless.
BURYING GROUND.
The present cemetery in Simsbury is the ancient "burying ground" as established by the original settlers of the town. It has, however, from time to time been added to and en- larged, as necessity required. In 1688, the town voted "yt it shall be layd out by ye Towne. meaffurer. to ye quantity of two Accres." An old record describes it as being "eighteen rods squar." It has since been enlarged to two or three times that quantity.
416
For many years it was in common with ecclesiastical affairs under the management of the town, but when the "ecclesiastical society" was formed, the burying ground was placed under its care and control. Then, under the law, the School Society took the control of it.
During all this period the burying ground was neglected; bushes and briars over-ran its surface; the headstones, many of them, were broken down by cattle feeding there for want of an enclosure.
In 1852, a subscription paper was put in circulation, by which about $2,500. was raised to enclose the grounds and put them in suitable condition. An iron fence was put up in front, and the sides protected by solid walls of masonry, and the grounds cleared of bushes and briars.
An association was then formed by citizens of the town to take care of the grounds, which at that time were enlarged by several acres.
The Association was organized and became incorporated under the statute of 1849, by the name of the
"SIMSBURY CEMETERY ASSOCIATION"
The town surrendered to the Association all control of the burying ground, and the whole care and management of burials; and since its organization anything pertaining to them has been under the direction of the Simsbury Ceme- tery Association. Under its management the grounds have been kept and taken care of in a manner satisfactory to the inhabitants of the town. A large number of beautiful and costly monuments have been erected, and the whole appearance of the cemetery indicates that the departed ones are not forgotten.
As stated above, the town directed the "town measurer" to lay out the burying ground in 1688. Two head stones are found, erected in that year, marking the spot where were deposited the remains of two of the earliest settlers of Sims- bury. They had lived here twenty years or more. The earliest is that of Mercy Buel, the wife of Peter Buel, who came from Windsor probably in 1667, and to whom was allotted the place in Hopmeadow now occupied by Hon. Jeffery O. Phelps. For
417
many years, he was one of the most prominent men of the town. The year before the death of his wife, he was chosen a Deputy of the General Court from Simsbury.
The following is the quaint inscription: "Here lyes the body of Mercy Bvel ye Wife of Peter Bvel, who departed this Life on July the 4th 1688, aged 22 years.
Though Mercy's dead and buried yet let us ever mind. Let God be just, all him who trust, Shall surely Mercy find."
The other headstone erected in that year was to the memory of John Drake, a prominent settler, and leading man of the town. He lived near the present residence of Horace Belden, Esq., and gave name to "Drake's Hill," where the Congregational meeting house stands. The inscription is as follows:
"Here lys the body of John Drake, who departed this life July 7th 1688. Aged 39 years.
O mind frail man, thy life's a span Look here and learn to die. How soon ye death can stop thy breath. Then Comes Eternity." Another headstone bears the following inscription : "Hepzibah, the Wife of Mr Elisha Cornish. Dyed the 25 of february, 1755. Aetatis 31 years.
This monument I do erect to show my trew Sincear respect. For a kind wife and tender Mother. In Love we Livd full fourteen years."
418
At the southeast corner of the cemetery stands a large hackberry (Celtis) tree of fine proportions and beauty. It is evidently a tree of slow growth, being remembered as being, near the commencement of the present century, almost as large as at the present time. Near the northeast corner of the cemetery is a younger tree of the same kind. They are rare in this region; those being the only specimens known, they should receive, as they do, proper care. They are not exotics, but rare indigenous trees.
WATER COMPANY
At the commencement of the present century a project was started and carried into effect, of supplying the families of Hopmeadow with running spring water. All, or nearly all, of the wells were at the foot of the bluff, or shelf, on which the houses were built. To bring water from these wells for con- stant use was a task of no trifling importance. It involved a deal of labor and travel. To avoid these, it was proposed to convey water through the street from a spring on "Branch Brook," about a mile west. To do this it was necessary to make a circuit of a mile and a half, owing to the situation of the ground. Contracts were made for supplying logs; they were bored by horse power, and speedily laid, and the village supplied with pure spring water. The blessing, however, was short-lived. The logs in which it was conveyed were pine sap- lings, and the boring so unskillfully done that after two or three years, they began to burst and decay. The enterprise was a failure.
Wells then were dug at every house along the street. These, though furnishing pure water and abundant, the depth about thirty feet, required the outlay of exhaustive muscular force. The project of supplying the village with running water was revived.
In 1868, an application was made to the Legislature and an Act passed incorporating "The Simsbury Water Com- pany".
A joint stock company was formed, and soon went into successful operation. The same route was adopted as before.
419
Iron pipes were substituted for the wooden logs. An iron six inch main from the fountain, passing along the street, furnishes an abundant supply of pure water to nearly every family in Center and Hopmeadow Districts, at an extremely low and reasonable expense. For the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, it affords the principal water supply for its engines; and the two depots are furnished with water for all necessary uses.
SANITARY
Probably no town in New England can boast of greater freedom from local or endemic diseases than Simsbury. Sick- ness and death prevail everywhere, but in some places more than in others. In his lectures to the Medical Class at New Haven, it is said that old Professor Smith used to state that "no case of Intermittent Fever (Fever and Ague) was ever known to originate on Connecticut river or any of its branches."
However true this may have been of the Connecticut at that time, it cannot with truth be said in later years. Many towns along its banks have given a home to this, and kindred, malarial diseases. Nor was it true, when he made the assertion, in regard to the Farmington River, the principal affluent of the Connecticut.
In a letter from John Humphrey Esq., to his son Elihu Humphrey, then in camp in Gen. Lyman's Regiment, in Canada during the French War, dated July 2Ist, 1759, he writes:
"Your sister Anna hath had the feaver and ague a Long time, and is very weak, but we hope her fits will soon Leave her." As in almost all new countries of this latitude where the soil is rich, at their first settlement this disease to some extent prevailed. But it disappeared at an early day. Anna Humphrey is remembered as living near the "Bradley place", at Mile swamp.
In 1815, a sweeping pestilence prevailed. It was the spotted fever (Typhus Syncopalis). In six weeks there were more than one hundred and sixty cases. In one fortnight there were fourteen deaths. During the year there were nearly one hundred deaths within the limits of the town. Still, on the
420
whole, the town has always been, aside from this epidemic, remarkably healthy. The average number of deaths annually has been about sixteen or seventeen, in a population of two thousand or twenty five hundred.
The porous, sandy soil; its fresh gushing springs; its large number of brisk running brooks, the home of the speckled trout; its invigorating breezes wafting the health-giving fra- grance of the piny woods, all conspire, with its beautiful scenery; its mountain environment; its gently flowing river, and its charming drives to render it an inviting and healthful place of residence.
MAIL AND POST OFFICES
The first mail route through Simsbury was from Hartford west to Litchfield, and the first Post Office was at Suffrage. This was established in 1798. In 1802 it was removed to Wetaug. Suffrage was on the great thoroughfare from Hartford to Litchfield, and likewise on the most direct road from Boston to New York. On this latter road milestones were erected, showing the distance to or from each place.
In 1806, a mail route was established from Hartford to Granville, Mass., via Simsbury, and the Wetaug Post office removed to Hopmeadow. It was for many years kept by Col. Noah A. Phelps, and after his death, in 1817, by his son, the late Judge Jeffery O. Phelps, at the same place. For a few years it went out of the family, but is now (1887) kept by Hon. Jeffery O. Phelps, a son of the last named, who resides in the same house in which his father and grandfather lived. From 1806, this was the only mail route and the only post office in the town. For twenty years or more, the mails on this route were carried by Mr. Enos Boies. Regularly every Monday he came down from Granville and stopped overnight at Col. Phelps' hotel in Simsbury. On Tuesdays he went to Hartford, received his mail and the Hartford newspapers - "Courant", "Mercury", and "Times", for subscribers along his route and returned to Simsbury. On his way to Hartford his saddlebags (for he travelled on horseback), were nearly empty; but on his return, the mail and the newspapers for the
421
whole route filled them. As the mails and papers increased in bulk, he carried them in a sulky. After a few years, his business so increased - doing a sort of express business for the people along the route - as to warrant a two-horse covered vehicle, occasionally carrying passengers. Afterwards, a post office having been established in Tariffville, Mr. Boies ran a stage and carried the mail on that route, to and from Hartford and Blanford.
About 1825, a mail route was established between New Haven and Northampton, with a four horse daily stage, but the advent of railroads has superseded these all over the country.
Later on a post office was again established at Wetaug and another at "Farms Village," now called "West Simsbury". Thus at the present time there are, in the limits of the town, four Post Offices, viz: "Simsbury", "Tariffville", "Wetaug" and "West Simsbury."
At the Simsbury office the daily receipts and deliveries of the mails are thirteen.
422
FIRST
CHURCH BUILDING . 1683
XL
Inventories of Estates, and Sketches of Leading Men
In looking over the Inventories of the Estates of the early settlers of Simsbury, we are struck with the paucity of their household furniture, and what we deem to be the necessaries of life.
To show how they lived and their conveniences, or rather their want of conveniences, copies of some of these Inventories are here presented in full. They show an enumeration of every article of the estates of the deceased. In these lists will be found many articles then in common use, which have now become obsolete, whose use not only, but whose name, has vanished.
First in the order of time is the Inventory of the first permanent settler of "Massaco":
Sergeant John Griffin
As related in the foregoing pages, he worked his way up from Windsor, where he had dwelt for many years; where he was the first to introduce "the art of making Pitch and tarre in these parts", in recognition of which, the General Court ordered him a bounty of two hundred acres of land, "between Massacoh and Warranoke", which, added to the grant subse- quently made by the town of Simsbury, made him a manor of a mile and a half square. In 1647, he married Anna Bancroft, of Windsor, whence about the year 1664 he, with his family of seven children, removed and settled north from "the Falls", near the northernmost bend of the "Tunxis" river.
423
He was the first military officer in the town, being com- missioned by the General Court to instruct and train the Militia. In the first year of the town's existence as a town, he was a Deputy to the General Court, and afterwards held the office of "Townsman" with many other important offices.
Following is the Inventory of his Estate: "Simsbury 1681. - an Inventory of the Estate of Sergt John Griffin; the particulars are as follows:
1b.
S
D
"in wearing cloathes.
03
00
00
3 guns.
93
00
o
Bed steads.
00
IO
Beds and bedding.
08
I3
3 yerds of Holland.
OI
00
I yeard of peniston.
00
IO
I Frying Pan.
00
09
I Iron pot-Kittle & Posnet
02
00
I Barrell. 3 Tubs. 2 Payles.
00
I4
Dishes and Spoons
00
04
Meale Sive.
00
A Sadle & Bridle.
OI
I4
2 Payre of Cardes.
00
02
9 Skinns.
OI
02
2 Yokes and Irons. 2 broad hoes, 2 axes. a Wedge and a Bell.
OI
08
A Cart Boxes & Bands & a Sled.
02
I6
Plow Irons and Harrow.
OI
04
a Plow Chain, 2 Collars, a payre of Horse Chains. Whipple tree chain.
OI
II
I Iron Crow & Steell Trape.
OI
00
Iron froe drawing knife, 2 Copes & pins & Smoothing Iron.
00
I4
a Payr of Bullet moulds & a payr of Shott moulds with other trivial matter.
00
09
2 Syths & Tackling.
08
Fishing Netts.
00
IO
linin yerne.
02
00
424
09
I pair of hatchel combs.
1b
S
D
Flax.
OI
06
O
Ten pound of woole.
00
I2
06
3 Spinning Wheels.
00
09
3 payre of snow shoes.
00
04
Powder & hornes, lead & shott pouch.
00
09
a Cannon.
00
I4
Five Swine.
05
00
I horse, Mare and Colt.
05
00
a hieffer of 2 & wantage.
02
15
charg Cole (Charcoal?)
00
05
Flax in the Sheffe.
OI
00
Indian Corne on the ground six acres.
09
00
Hay
02
00
Two linen bags.
00
04
a Payr of Pott hookes, mustard bowle.
00
05
a Payr of fork Irons.
00
OI
Land.
I20
00
y'e Totall
184
I8 06
John Case Sam11 Wilcockson."
"The Names of the children of Sergt John Griffin are as followeth :
his eldest son John about 25 years old.
his second son Thomas about 23 years old.
his 3rd son Ephraim about 12 years old.
his 4th son Nathan11 about 08 years old.
his eldest Daughter Hanah 31 years old.
his 2nd Daughter Mary about 27 years old.
his 3d Daughter Sarah about 26 years old.
his 4th Daughter Abigall about 21 years old.
his 5th Daughter Mindwell.
his 6th Daughter ruth 16 years old."
19 years old.
In the foregoing Inventory it is noticeable that there was not a table or chair in the house. For these were probably substituted three or four legged stools and benches, and a puncheon on four legs for a table. There was no crockery,
425
nor a looking glass. For crockery, wooden bowls and trenchers were used; "Candle-wood" for candles; and stones in the fire- place for andirons.
Such is the meager list of the personal estate of the first settler and great land-holder in Simsbury.
John Drake was one of the solid men of the first generation of Simsbury inhabitants. He had an allotment in Hopmeadow with the other settlers in 1667. He resided at "Drake's Hill", near the present Congregational Church, and on the south side of "Drake's Brook". He died in 1688. A copy of the Inventory of his Estate is subjoined:
"The Inventory of the Estate of Jnº Drake of Simsbury, Defceaft July ye 9th 1689."
(A discrepancy will be observed between the dates here given and that upon his gravestone as copied on page 418).
1bs S D
I An houfe & Barn with hom Lott and meadow Lott
76
00
00
2 an home Lott & meadow Lott in Hop- meadow
34
00
00
3 A Lott in Hazzell Meadow being 7 accrees 14
00
00
4
two Lotts in Mile Swampe about 7 Accrees 12
00
00
5 A Loot adjacent to daniel Addams 5 Accrees 12
00
00
6 to Lotts in Low" meadows being 40 Accrees 100
DO
OC
7 A Lott under the Mountains oppofite to mil Swamp 12ª
05
00
8
8 Two Lotts at the Northeast Cornner of Simfbury 150 Acres
05
00
00
9 A Lott by the plumb yeard - 20 Accress
02
00
00
IO A Lott by Clay pitt swamp - 03 Accress
00
I2
00
II A Lott on ye pin playn - 05 Accress
00
IO
00
12 A Lott Southerly of the Mile Swamp - IO Accress
03
00
00
13 A Lott weft of hazzell Meadow ---- 03 Accress
00
IO
I Four oxen Catle
20
00
00
2 A Steere of foure years old
04
00
o
3 a three year old fteer
03
00
88 O
426
1bs
S
£ D
4 Three Cowes
IO
00
00
5 Three one year olds
03
00
00
6 Three Horfes
09
00
00
7 One yearling colt
OI
00
00
8 A Calfe
00
I2
00
Seveen Swine
08
05
00
In Wheelwright Tooles
03
09
00
In two Crofscut Sawes
00
08
00
In three broad Hooes and a ftubbing one
00
09
00
Ringes and weedges
O
05
00
a Vice
0
IO
00
a coopers ax
O
05
00
A Fan
0
02
00
Three Spinning Wheels
88 00
03
00
Four Sithes & takling
0
I2
00
tubbs Barrells & bottles
OI
00
00
Tobacco
OI
00
0
O
Shooe lether
00
I5
00
Chamber Lumber
00
IO
00
Nail Four Thoufsand
02
00
Baggs 5
00
I2
0
Indian corn
IO
00
C
O
English Corn in the barne
06
00
3 plow Shares and Coulters
OI
IO
o
Two Chaines for the plow
00
IO
C
O
Traces & Coller
00
14
C
A Grind Stone
00
03
C
Yoak Irrons
00
02
O
o
Cloathes Which he Wore
06
I2
00
a beed and Furniture
09
00
C
O
Table Cloths & Napkins
00
I3
00
and Towels
00
IO
00
In old Wheat and Rye
02
IO
00
In Linin yearn
04
00
00
In Flax
OI
00
O
06
00
Two Pailes and an half Bufhell
Cart Wheels Boxes Bands Cops and Pins
02
00
o
427
lbs.
S.
D.
In chairs and Cushens
00
13
00
In Scickles and Hookes In Sceives
00
04
00
00
02
00
In potts skillet Kettles
02
I4
00
Tonges Trammels Hookes peil
00
14
00
Bellows & Frying Pan
00
05
00
In Putter and Spoons
03
00
In Candlesticks Culender, wooden and earthen ware
chest Boxes Cradle and Table
00
DO
a Cart Roope & three Forkes
00
09
00
Gun Sword and Ammunition
02
00
00
In Glaffes
00
04
In Bookes
O
O
06
00
In Tallow and Bees Wax
00
05
00
Bees Can & Hammer
OI
02
00
old Iron
00
04
00
A Kill of Coal
C
O
I8
00
a dreffeed Dear Skinn
00
06
00
The Whole Eftatt amounting to three Hundred and Ninty Three Pounds & five Shillings (all errors excepted). His Reliques are Four His Widow Mary Drake, His son Jnº Drake Agged one year, His Daughter Mary agged 15 years His daughter Hannah agged II years. This Inventory taken by us.
John Higley
Thomas Barber Peter Buell"
These Inventories are here presented to show, not so much what the early settlers had, as what they had not. In our earliest records are found recorded the estates of those who had acted prominent parts in laying the foundations and building up the institutions, civil and religious, of the town. In the first two Books of Records are twelve Inventories of deceased persons. In all these there are but two tables, and the looking glass did not occupy the important place that it now does in household economy. Jacob Bissel had "4 Cheers & a table;" no looking-glass.
428
5 85 OI O OI
IO
000
John Mills, no chairs, table or looking glass. Sergtt John Griffin, Richard Segar, Andrew Hillyer, the same. William Case, a looking glass, "5 Cheer fraimes," no table. Joshua Holcomb, no chair, looking glass or table.
Nicholas Gozzard, 2 chairs, no looking glass or table. John Barber, I table, Chairs 3s, I looking Glass, I candlestick. Sergt John Humphrey, no chairs looking glass or table.
John Slater, (Town Clerk for 30 years) no table or looking glass.
Samuel Neil, "I Cheer," I looking glass.
Probably a puncheon fastened against the side of the cabin formed the table, and a rude bench was substituted for chairs. For drinking cups and vessels of that time pewter was used. Wood or "earthen ware" was their crockery.
All these, or nearly all, were prominent business men, and their estates are fair samples of those of their con- temporaries.
Clocks and watches were not then in common use. The sun dial, and the "noon mark," were the means of measuring time during the day. The former was usually placed in the yard of the house and the latter on the floor. In meeting-houses, the "hour-glass" was frequently used to limit the sermon. In any of the Inventories above referred to, no time pieces are mentioned except the dial.
429
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