USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Meriden > An historic record and pictorial description of the town of Meriden, Connecticut and men who have made it > Part 6
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1 Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, Vol. I., p. 128.
2 The writer has a map printed in the 18th century, in which the name appears as Mereden, the same form as we find first recorded for Surrey.
5I
EARLY HISTORY.
It may be urged that after all it is not a matter of great moment that we should know the origin of the name of Meriden. The writer as gracefully as possible acknowledges the force of the criticism. The only apology he has to of- fer for the great length to which this chapter has grown is that he is a son of the soil, and anything that relates to the early history of Meriden appeals to a particu- larly susceptible part of his mental makeup.
NOTE-Since this sketch was put in print, the writer has come into possession of a little book en- titled "Notes on Staffordshire Place Names," by W. H. Duignan, published in London, 1902. The preface states that Rev. Walter William Skeat ( professor of Anglo-Saxon in Cambridge university and probably the greatest living authority on Early English) and Mr. W. H. Stevenson, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, are in a measure sponsors for the scholarship of the little book, for their advice and suggestions have been constantly sought and given. The arrangement of the work is that of a diction- ary, and the author has this to say under the word "Merridale, an ancient estate of 11/2 m. S. W. of Wolverhampton. The mediaeval forms are Muridene. Meriden, in Warwickshire was Myridene. (Prob- ably A. S. Myrige, pleasant, sweet, delightful Merry, and dene valley. This would account for the i in Muridene, W. H. S.)" An old meaning of "Merry, was as stated. 'Merry,' England ; the 'Merry month of May,' mean sweet, pleasant, not jocund or mirthful."
The initials W. H. S. indicate that the brackets enclose the note of W. H. Stevenson.
Here then we have another form of Meriden ending in "dale" that has not been mentioned in the foregoing pages, and also as good an endorsement as could be asked, for the theory that the writer of this chapter advances, viz. that the ancient meaning of Meriden was pleasant valley.
52
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
CHAPTER V.
The story of Meriden Farm has now been told and its romantic chapter is closed, for the last of the Belchers has shaken its dust from his feet and hence- forth its annals deal only with the quiet and uneventful life of families compelled to get their living from its soil by the sweat of their brows and an unremitting struggle with the rugged conditions of rural life in New England during the eighteenth century. To go back in imagination to those days of simple living when nature was almost man's master, instead of servant ; to picture to ourselves the isolation of life, the lack of communication with the outside world, the dearth of incident except the grinding ceaseless toil required to subdue a country of un- limited forests and unknown possibilities, require a power that no one possesses except in a limited degree. ,
Life could not have been attractive from our point of view. There were few amusements and scarcely any inventions to add to the comforts of life, and the grinding toil and struggle with a barren soil amid rocky hills left little chance to cultivate the amenities of social intercourse.
"The machinery of production showed no radical difference from that famil- iar to ages long past. The Saxon families of the eighth century enjoyed most of the comforts known to Saxon families of the eighteenth century."1 ,
Life under such conditions is, to us of the twentieth century, almost incon- ceivable. But the result, however, was a race of men and women of rugged constitution, and indomitable will; this combination influenced by the religious training and belief to which they were accustomed produced a condition of life with which we are utterly out of sympathy. They cannot have been an agreeable people and many doubtless would be ready to subscribe to the sentiment. "Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors ; and let each successive genera- tion thank Him not less fervently for being one step from them in the march of ages."
The conditions for telling the story of Meriden are not the most felicitous, for until 1806, this territory was only a suburb to Wallingford, second even to Cheshire, which was made a separate township in 1780, twenty-six years earlier than our successful attempt to go without leading strings.
It is not proposed to tell the story of Wallingford except so far as may be ab- solutely essential to the proper understanding of events in the parish of Meriden.
1 Henry Adams Hist. of U. S., Vol. I., p. 16.
1
53
EARLY HISTORY.
The colony of New Haven was absorbed by that of Connecticut in 1665, and, although the attempt was made to heal the wounded sensibilities of the peo- ple by making New Haven twin capital with Hartford, the result was received by many of the inhabitants with disgust, and good John Davenport left the town in sorrow and took up his residence in Boston.
By 1669 many of the first settlers of New Haven were dead and a new gen- eration had grown up. In that year began the movement which resulted in the settlement of Wallingford, and in 1670 the foundations had been laid and a new town had been born in the colony. ,
At a court of election held at Hartford May 12th, 1670, the following vote was passed : "This court haveing been moved to state the bownds of the New Vil- lage that is settled upon the playne as you goe to New Haven, doe grant that their bownds shall com from the Brook at the south end of the great playne to the northward tenn miles; and from the said [Brook] sowthward to Brandford bownds, and on each side the river five miles; that is five miles on the east side and five miles on the west side the river, provided that the sayd village be car- ryed on and made a plantation wthout any relation or subordination to any other towne and provided the bownds hereby granted to the sayd village doe not preju- dice any bownds formerly granted to any plantation or perticuler person, or doe not extend to the north any further then wh[ere] the old road to New Haven goeth over Pilgrimes Harbour. The Court orders that the plantation on the playne in the Road to New Haven, be called Wallingford."
Thus at the very birth of Wallingford the old limitation of the northern boundary by the Pilgrims' Harbor ford comes up; the same limitation which had been a bone of contention between New Haven and Connecticut Colonies ten years previously. It is difficult to understand why Wallingford should not have been allowed to extend its bounds up to those of Farmington for this limitation left a territory three miles wide, which was not a part of any township. ,
The names of those who subscribed to the plantation agreement of Walling- ford are as follows :
Samuel Street Samuel Munson
Eleazer Peck John Hall
Nathaniel Merriman John Harriman
Samuel Potter
Joseph Ives
Abraham Dowlittle John Mosse
John Peck
Joseph Benham
William Johnson Jeremiah How
Simon Tuttle
Benjamin Lewis Daniel Hogge
Sam'1 Whitehead Thomas Hall Eliasaph Preston Thomas Curtis
Eleazer Holt John Beech Samuel Andrews Jehiel Preston
Daniel Sherman
Samuel Hall
Francis Heaton John Brockett Zachariah How John Miles Nathaniel How Thomas Yale John Ives
Samuel Browne Samuel Cook
Samuel Miles
Nathan Andrews
54
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
All these men with the exception of Thomas Curtis, Thomas Beach and Ben- jamin Lewis (who were from Stratford) were residents of New Haven. This shows what a distinctively New Haven movement was the settlement of Wal- lingford and possibly indicates why the court of election inserted in the vote of May 12th, the precautionary clause "provided that the sayd village be carryed on and made a plantation wthout any relation or subordination to any other towne," and explains why it was first proposed to call the new settlement New Haven village.
But when, in the same year, the house lots were assigned, the names of sev- eral in the previous list are missing and the record of assignment reads as fol- lows :
A record of ye house lots in ye town of Wallingford as they were first sit- uated upon ye hill on ye east side of ye Great Playne commonly called New Ha- ven playne and of ye order of place and quantity of acres to each person allotted for his house lot by order after some land was left for other use, ye first house lot for John Brockett Senior 6 acres ; ye 2ª for John Mosse Senior 6 acres : next to that a piece of land was left for a planting field. Next to that ye 3rd house lot for Abraham Dowlittle Senior 6 acres ; 4th house lot for Daniel Sher- man 6 acres ye 5th house lot for James Eaton :1 ye 6th house lot for Samuel Street 6 acres. These 6 lots having some land lieing at ye end of ym towards Whar- tons Brook it is agreed by ye Comitte yt it be distributed to ye aforesaid persons as a part of their other outlands, hieways excepted. Next to ye aforesaid 6 house lots it is ordered by ye aforesaid first comitte yt there shall be a hieway cross ye hill from east to west of 6 rods broad and from these a long hieway of 6 rods broad on top ye hill to run northward and on each side of it two ranges of house lots at 6 acres to a lot, one range on ye one side eastward and one range on ye other side westward and these lots to be distributed to persons as follows : ye first lot on ye east side and ye first lot on ye west side of ye long hieway ; and on ye north side of ye aforesaid hieway : each of ym 6 acres is by sd commite granted to Nath! Merriman Senior : ye one 6 acres for his house lot ye other 6 acres on ye other side with respect to other outlands as to ye other persons before mentioned. Next to these on ye east side of ye aforesd long hieway ye 2ª house lots to Sam? Cooke 3rd to Sam1 Hall 4th to Joseph Benham 5th to John Hall. At ye end of these on ye west side of ye aforesaid long hieway 2ª Nath1 Merriman Jr. 3rd to Sam1 Munson 4th to
5th ye ministry.
a hieway
on ye east side
a hieway on ye west side
6 Eleazur Peck
6
John Harriman
7 Samuel Potter
7 Samuel Brown
8 Nathaniel How
8 Nathan Andrews
1 Perhaps Heaton.
55
EARLY HISTORY.
9 Zachariah How
IO Joseph Eives .
IO John Miles
II Jeremiah How
II Joseph Peck a hieway
12 John Mix
12 John Eives
I3 Daniel Hopper
13 Simon Tuttle
14 Samuel Thorp 14 Thomas Curtis
15 Thomas Hall
15 Samuel Royce
I6 Thomas Yale
a hieway
a hieway
17 Nehemiah Royce
17 Nathaniel Royce
18 Samuel Royce
18 Benjamin Lewis
Through the courtesy of Rev. J. E. Wildman, of Wallingford, a map of the village is here inserted. This map is a copy, not a facsimile, of a very ancient one
Each "House Lot" contains
EAST
fix acres of land .
Wilderness.
END.
18 Samuel Rice 17 Nehemiah Rice
16 David Tuttle.
15 Thomas Hall.
14 Samuel Thorp.
13 Daniel Hopper.
12 John Mix
11 Jeremiah How 10 Joseph Lines 9 Zachariah How 8 Nath How
Samuel Potter
6 Eleazur Peck
5 John Hall
4 Joseph Benham
3 Samuel Hall 2 Samuel Cooke
1 Nath+ Merriman
6 Rev. Sam Street
5 Jaimes Eaton
4 Daniel Sherman 3 Abrahain Dowlittle
SOUTH END.
NORTH
18 Benjamin Lewis.
16 Thomas Yale 15 Samuel Rice
17. Nath& Rice.
14 Thomas Curtis 13 Simon Tuttle. 12 Jo Lines
11 John Peck 10 John Miles 9 Sam Andrews 8 Nathan Andrews 2 Samuel Brown
6 Jns Herriman
5 Ministry .
3 5am Munson 2 Nath'Merriman 1 Nath' Merriman
CROSS
2 John Mo's S!
1. John Brackets
for purposes other
HoujeLots.
Common
Fields
Burying Ground
Common Field
2
OLD
COLONY ROAD From Hartford To New Haven The first highway laid out in The Stan
Common Field
WEST after the original by Perkins, Lithography . 128 Fulton St. N.y.
SeOriginar Plan
of The Town of Wallingford.
with the name of each owner of the House Lots as distributed by New Haven Committee A.D.1670. in Copied from The Records.
LONG
HIGH
WAY
Reserved for a
Planting field.
Land laid out
than Building or
4
HIGH WAY the firft laid out.
16 David Tuttle
9 Samuel Andrews
a hieway
56
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
brought to Mr. Joseph P. Beach, of Cheshire, by Elihu Yale, in 1852, to be trans- ferred to stone and lithographed. Consequently the handwriting is Mr. Beach's. The two names, Jo. Lines and John Lines should have been Jo. Eives and John Eives. The middle name of Mr. Beach is Perkins, under which name he was then running his lithographing establishment in New York City. The original map has disappeared from the office of the town clerk in Wallingford. James Eaton, Daniel Sherman and David Tuttle did not finally join the plantation, their lots being taken by John Beach, Elisaph Preston and Eleazer Holt respectively. Mr. Beach thinks the words "Old Colony road," "long highway," "cross highway the first laid out," "common fields," "wilderness" and "planting field," etc., were on the original map, but to the writer this seems doubtful.
So the town began with all the planters settled in a compact little village with home lots of six acres each, arranged on a street at the top of the hill-the pres- ent Main street. At the south end were grouped the elderly men, while at the northern end were young men, several not then married. We can imagine what a busy community it must have been for some time: the building. of houses, the laying out of streets, the clearing away of forests, the breaking of virgin soil under the plow, must have kept every member of the little town thoroughly oc- cupied. Material of all kinds and household furniture and supplies were large- ly brought from New Haven in boats, for at this period the Quinnipiac river con- tained much more water than at present, as we will learn by subsequent records.
The first houses built were probably of very rude construction for none of this period have survived the destructive hand of time, while a number built fifty years later are still in very good condition and seem capable of lasting many years.
The town government having been organized, the home lots assigned and the houses built, the next question to engage the attention of the people was the distribution and division of lands for farms. The whole community was agri- cultural in its pursuits and the only source of wealth was the produce of the farms. The rank of a man in the distributions was proportioned on what he was able to pay in taxes, and divisions were made in lots or multiples of four, six and eight acres. Naturally, the older men were able to pay larger rates than the younger, and generally it will be found that those who received the largest al- lotments of land were the elder men of the town. These divisions of land re- mind one of the methods of a modern business corporation in distributing its surplus earnings among its stockholders. After the first division which assigned lands on the banks of New Haven East (now Quinnipiac) river, the planters seem to have been privileged to take up their allotments of land where they pleased providing they did not conflict with any previous grants or reservations ; and the rights seem to have been inherited by descendants of the first planters in
.
57
EARLY HISTORY.
addition to those they held as living inhabitants or land owners ; so that frequently these inherited rights were sold to newcomers by those who had removed from the town. In other words, the original corporation of the town was kept alive by inheritance until all the vacant or unoccupied lands had been distributed, and a separate ledger or "original proprietors' book" was kept which gave a strict account of all such transactions. But no land owner was allowed to sell his land or future rights to a stranger until the character of the new comer had been thoroughly looked into and approved in town meeting. A man had the right to join the higher grade and receive a larger allotment of land by expressing his willingness to pay a bigger tax. On May 22, 1678, it was voted in town meet- ing that "a man of lower rank may take a higher rank by paying rates accord- ingly for the future, viz .: 20 shillings a year for 7 years provided they decide before next town meeting which if they do not 'then ye town will looke att them- selves att liberty whether they will grant it or not'." The rate of taxes paid by those of the highest were double those of the lowest rank and one-third more than those of the middle rank and divisions of lands were based on these proportions. Frequently assignments of lands were made to persons who had moved to other towns, because they were descendants of the "ancient" or first planters. Some- times lands were granted to particular individuals for meritorious service; as, for instance, service in wars; in other words, a pension. This was a cheap way to confer a gift that cost the giver little, and yet was of value to the recipient. Allotments were made to the minister simply because he was the minister. This added considerable to his income beyond what he received annually from his flock. This method of dividing lands seems to have been general throughout the colony of Connecticut. The following vote is illuminating and interesting :
"At a town metting in Wallingford february ye 12 1712 Voated in town metting that ye town look upon ye several parsons whos names are upon record in several rank viz first 2ª and 3rd rank & thair hairs & assigns recorded in Ranks and order in ye year 1672 are ye sole proprietors of all ye undivided Lands in Wallingford together with such other parsons as have formerly by ye towns Leave & consent come into town one or other of these Ranks mentioned in ve room of sundry parsons recorded in ye above sd ranks that went away from ye town & lost ye lots they had taken up; and tharupon ye proprietors are to take ye best methods they can in settling & securing the titels of all those parsons that formerly obtained grants or divitions of land from ye town so that they may niver be molested and Disturbed in ye possession of such lands when ever such parsons desir it."
The organization of the "Ancient Proprietors" was kept alive until the year 1803 when it formally released to the town all interest, right and title to the un-
58
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
divided lands, and then ceased to exist. The date was April 25. Probably all the land had been, by that time, distributed.
"Race suicide" was not popular in those days in Wallingford, or elsewhere, and the record of vital statistics teem with the entries of births and marriages, and a family with ten children was only moderately large. Naturally the ques- tion of farms for the support of the present and the coming generations was one to engage the attention of the town, and the allotments of lands soon began to be taken up in what is now Meriden; and Cheshire also, for at that time, Wal- lingford bounds stretched not only as far north as where Colony street crosses Harbor Brook but extended away over into Prospect on the west, so that more than the whole of modern Cheshire was included in the township.
The first entry on the town records that refers to the territory of Meriden is a vote passed at a town meeting held Sept. 10, 1677, reading as follows: "That every planter now in seizin shall have according to their ranks 4 acres, 3 acres, 2 acres, of the choice land upon the river hopp ground land beginning at Pil- grims Harbour and what that place doth not afford they are to please themselves elsewhere." On Nov. 17, 1679, the record reads "Town grant to Nath1 Royce, David Hall, Thomas Hall, Daniel Mix and Joseph Holt each 3 acres of land ly- ing on east side of meadow called Dogs Misery by the southward branch of Pil- grims Harbor brook." At a meeting held Nov. 24, 1679, it was "granted to Nehemiah Royce, Isaac Curtis each 3 acres and Nathaniel How and Isaac Royce each 2 acres and all at dogs misery."
The question arises, where is Dogs' Misery? It is in the extreme eastern part of Meriden, south of the Middletown road and half a mile west of Black Pond. In going north on Paddock Ave., after passing the home of Rollin S. Ives, one comes to a road turning to the right and running northeast.1 This grass-grown road is still called Misery Bar road and runs through the very heart of Dogs' Misery, a swamp even to this day, almost impenetrable with its growth of alders, briars, brambles, and trees. Perhaps not so swampy as it once was, but still an extremely unpleasant place for a woodland walk. The southern branch of Pil- grims' Harbor brook flowing north from Foster's pond passes through this swamp. The eastern branch flows from Black pond and joins the southern branch at Baldwin's pond. There is a tradition that when the country was first explored this swamp was under water because of the dams that had been built by the beavers. The story goes that after the beavers were all killed the dams were destroyed and the territory then became a hideous swamp, and a refuge for wild animals when pursued by men and dogs. No further explanation of the reason for the name is needed. Black pond was also a famous place for beavers. Mr. Erwin Beardsley, who lives in the old Crocker place on the Mid-
1 The Meriden directory has a map which indicates rural streets and lanes.
59
EARLY HISTORY.
dletown turnpike, almost at the Middletown line, had occasion when a young man, to work on the shore of the pond and found in the black muck many short logs or heavy sticks still preserving the marks of the teeth of the beavers. Mr. Perkins also speaks of the beaver-gnawed logs in his Historical Sketches.1 As already noted the whole territory of Meriden was famous for its game and was used by the Indians as a hunting ground. Many localities still preserve names indicative of this fact. Thus we have Cat Hole, in the northwestern part of the town; Cat Swamp, south of the junction of Charles street and Parker avenue; Deer Hill, now called Meeting House or Buckwheat Hill ; Beaver Dam Brook, flow- ing south from the swamp north of the state fair grounds and also draining the swamp north of Kensington avenue and west of the railroad track; this swamp was once known as Wolf Swamp. Beaver Dam Brook is now usually called Sodom and runs under the Waterbury railroad bridge on West Main street. Then there was Cat Swamp on the road to Southington, and Beaver Pond, adjoining the Old Fly, on the borders of Berlin. But it was not for game that Meriden's early settlers desired these lots in the vicinity of Dogs' Misery. They seem to have been considered very choice and valuable bits of real estate and were only distrib- uted in lots of two, three or four acres and were called "hopp lots." Every one of the planters had his "hopp lot" either in the neighborhood of Dogs' Misery or in the lowland bordering Harbor brook, south of West Main street, all the way to the Quinnipiac river. And on Wharton's brook and on other brooks in Walling- ford there were "hopp" lots also. Mr. Perkins, so often quoted, says : "This 'hopp ground land' was that which produced the material for making hoops [ hopps]. Such land, though swampy, was then the most valuable in the town. For in the dearth of a circulating medium and of means for purchasing all foreign produce, these hoops [and staves also] always found a great demand, and a ready sale in the West Indies. Of course, our farmers in trading with the New Haven mer- chants, found these hoop poles as useful as cash."
This seems a doubtful explanation for several reasons. First, hoops for bar- rels are always made from hickory and hickory does not grow in swamp ground, such as Dogs' Misery was and is. Again, those versed in such matters, say they do not know of any wood grown in swamp land that could be used for such pur- poses. Again, the word in the Wallingford records is invariably "hopp." Here, as elsewhere, during these early years the spelling is a fearful and wonderful phenomenon and one is prepared for almost any combination of letters to mis- represent a word. But after 1735 the penmanship in the records is excellent and frequently beautiful and the spelling good, and yet this word is still hop.or hopp.
Waterbury and Wethersfield, and doubtless other towns, had their "hopp lands" and the use of the word in this same way is found in the Colonial Records
1 Page 11.
60
A CENTURY OF MERIDEN.
of Connecticut. If hoop had been intended, somewhere, somebody would have been found to give the right form to the word.1 Consequently, one is forced to the belief that the word bore some relation to hops or the hop vine. Hops2 must have been raised in the early days of the colony, for they are as indispensable in the making of bread as wheat itself, for bread without yeast or something to make it rise would have been the last resort of a desperate housewife. England for centuries, has been a great consumer of hops, and our early settlers, after using what was needed for bread-making and home-brewed beer, would have found a ready market for their surplus produce by selling it to New Haven to be shipped to England. Consequently hop poles were needed and must have been in great demand. Hops are not grown in swampy or moist ground but hop poles are. A gentleman, now a resident of Meriden, whose boyhood was passed near Dan- bury, says that in those days hops were grown in large quantities in that locality and that the farmers in winter, when the ground was frozen solidly, invariably resorted to the swamps to cut poles for use the next season in supporting the hop vines. This then seems the probable use, in the opinion of the writer, to which "hop land lots" were put. It is not disputed that there was a large business in hoop-poles, but the farmers must have resorted to the forests for the source of supply. As a matter of fact, timber was exported in large quantities and at last became so serious a question that the town took action as follows :
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