USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > Black Rock, seaport of old Fairfield, Connecticut, 1644-1870; > Part 11
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P
Later Dwellings
During the nineteenth century many changes came to Black Rock as new roads were laid out and new householders attracted to the village.
Next to the Perry homestead, on the site of Abel Wheeler's tavern, Captain Nathan Holdredge lived in a house, later the first Black Rock summer home of George F. Gilman, founder of the A. & P. grocery chain. The house was destroyed by fire November 7, 1894, and Mr. Gilman built a larger house (later the Manor Club) and developed the property between his new home and the site of the old as an attractive estate, with winding drives, offices, rose-gardens, and well-designed stables and carriage houses, many of which have (since his death and the subdivision of the estate) been remodeled. Another pretentious estate was "Mapleside," the home of James Couch, at the corner of Ellsworth Street and Fairfield Avenue,-the present site of the Burroughs Home. "Mapleside" is shown on an 1867 map as includ- ing many acres with "Vine Yard, Dove House, Grape House, Corn House, Ice House, and Dairy," as well as the "Residence" (later moved across, and now standing on, north Ellsworth Street). Other Couch holdings included property across the Avenue, extending to the
-
1812-The Perry homestead (21) (Photographed 1870)
137
HOMESTEADS OF OLD BLACK ROCK
cove, and the corner at Brewster Street (now the Black Rock Apartments, and earlier the Washburn home). Ellsworth (originally known as Church) Street was laid out in 1802, cutting through the Wheeler, Bartram, and Brewster properties. William Wheeler sold many lots during the next half-century. Among the new owners were: Captain Charles Allen, Captain John Pierson Brittin, Verdine Ellsworth (whose house is now the Congregational parsonage), George Austin Gould, Mor- ris Gould, Elias Hendrick, Captain William Hall6, Isaac Jones (present home of Joseph Smith), David Lock- wood, Curtis Raymond, Sturges Seeley, Cyrus Spencer, Wyllis Wakeman, Eliphalet Walker.
Captain Thomas Ransom built on the main street in 1839, and about this time "the Lane" (now Calderwood Street) was laid out to the new Carriage Shop (now remodeled in flats) which stood at the end. The upper floor of this shop was the first home of the Select School, later housed in its own building7 on the lane nearer Brewster Street. Neighbors of Captain Ransom who lived between Grovers Avenue and the wharves before, or shortly after, the Civil War, were William Bouton (whose house became the property of John Ogden, and then, in 1853, of Aaron Smith), William Callon, James Carr, Cornelius Clark, L. Duryea, Isaac M. Ely, Monson Gray, Ezra Godfrey, Thomas Halstead, W. Hibbard, William Mather, George Palmer, George Peck, William Peet, David Prindle, John Y. Provost, Edward T. Rew, George Shelton, Aaron Sherwood, David Smith, George Solly, and Andrew Turney.
The houses of this period are chiefly of the same type, square-built, homelike, and distinguished by a quaint little fan-window at each end of the attic.
6 The Hall house was subsequently occupied by the Ruthven family, later recalled to England by the succession of the head of the house to the peerage.
7 The Select School building was subsequently moved to Grovers Hill, where, after long ownership by the Murray family, it was remodeled and became the residence of Mrs. Archibald McNeil, Sr.
138
HOMESTEADS OF OLD BLACK ROCK
John Clarkson, Sr., an Englishman, built about 1864 at the corner of Fairfield Avenue and Gilman Street. This house is still occupied by his family.
Residents along the "Stage Road" and creek road during the early nineteenth century included Asa Beardslee, Thaddeus Burr (1767-1858), Elhanan Fyler, William Hurlburt, Agur Judson, Samuel Kellogg, Levi Lyon, Jonathan Mallery, Samuel Read, Silas Runnels, William Sherwood, Zechariah Sherwood, Samuel Squire, Jr., Samuel Staples, David Trubee, Chauncy Wheeler (whose home on upper Ellsworth Street was later occupied by his son Simeon Wheeler), Samuel Wilson, and Joseph Wyman.
The houses mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs are those within a short distance from the old center of Black Rock village,-the wharves. Between the lines of the Wheeler Journal the reader catches glimpses of many other homesteads, some on the Fairfield road,-others north on the way to Stratfield and Holland Hill.
The Wheeler family kept closely in touch with their kin, the family of the pioneering Col. John Burr, in their several homes along the roads to Stratfield and Pequan- nock or Newfield.
The houses on Holland Heights included those of Captain John Knap, Silas Hawley (later owned by Amos Burr), and the French and Silliman properties.
The home of General Silliman, to which the British were guided in 1779 on their raiding party, and where the general and his son were captured, was sold to Nathan Hayes after the Revolution and early in the next century was purchased by James Penfield, Jr., whose widow, and son, Lewis Penfield, lived there for many years.
Grovers Hill, now so beautifully developed, was settled long after houses were built nearer the wharves. For a century and a half cattle grazed on the hill-slope, and crops were harvested by owners who lived a mile or two away. After the building of the new road (Balmforth Street) and the bridge across the creek in
139
HOMESTEADS OF OLD BLACK ROCK
1765, there were a few changes of ownership in which the Wheeler, Squire, Silliman, and Penfield families fig- ure as principals. Early in the nineteenth century two new names appear as extensive purchasers,-that of Joshua L. Green, who bought the Penfield Mills8 on Ash Creek from the Davis brothers in 1801,-and of Captain Daniel Wilson, who sold most of his hill property within a few years.9
During this time the old forts were forgotten. The Revo- lutionary battery stood on land, long since fretted away, at the base of the hill, not on higher ground, as has fre- quently been misstated.10
Fort Union, the embankment of the War of 1812, stood farther up the slope. (The site was later occupied by the Thorne tennis courts.)
The sandy point, now the properties of Robert Hincks and Archibald McNeil, Jr., was anciently known as "Money Beach" because of the legend that pirates had once buried treasure there, although the pirate gold has remained undiscovered, even by the active spades of all the children who played in the sand when the old Bridgeport Yacht Club stood on the beach.
The sketch of Grovers Hill in 1870 was taken from an old photograph and shows the cultivation of the hill as pasturage, with but few trees. At that time, from Balmforth Street to the Point were only three houses, those of William A. Jennings, of Wakeman Wilson (much remodeled, but still standing-part of the Wat- son property), and of Jeremiah Jennings,-now, rebuilt, the home of Mrs. J. A. Ten Eyck.
8 The mills were later taken over and managed by Daniel Golden of Glen Cove, L. I., who built the old house still standing across the creek, west of the hill which was the site of the original Penfield house on Paul's Neck.
9 Captain Daniel Wilson was a representative "realtor" of his day-buying and selling properties, lending on mortgage, and improving lots for sale as residences. A student of old land records will recognize such individuals as they appear in each generation to carry on business now handled by banks and other institutions.
10 The old "fort well," mentioned in many old records, was piped through when the seawall was built and served boatmen for many years until recently the city rebuilt the wall and the original spring became polluted.
140
HOMESTEADS OF OLD BLACK ROCK
After the Civil War, many New York families came by train, packet, or their own carriages, to spend the sum- mer along the Connecticut shore, and although at first they boarded simply with the village families, eventually they instituted the "summer home" and "summer hotel" which begin to figure in the literature of the late Victorians.
About 1880 George A. Wells built the George Hotel and bought extensively on the hill where he erected summer cottages, and along the beach, where he built the "Shore House" (present home of the Black Rock Yacht Club). The land west of the hotel was sold by Mr. Wells to visi- tors appreciative of the view across the Sound, and three residences became lovely landmarks,-the homes of General T. L. Watson, of Jonathan Thorne, and of Thomas W. Pearsall, who in 1893 built at the tip of the Point the picturesque little log chapel, St. Mary's-by-the- Sea, recently secularized and removed, in the plans for the boulevard and city park.
During the last few years the development of Grovers Hill has recalled many of the old names and traditions. New roads have been opened,-Sailor's Lane, Old Battery Road, Anchorage Road, and many new houses have changed the pastoral landscape from the Grovers Hill known to William Wheeler.
UPPER WHARVES - 1002 AND SHIPYARD
WHARVES and SHIPPING
From the pioneer days, Black Rock harbor, sheltered by the long reach of Fayerweather Island, was used by coasting vessels, and became favorably known throughout the colonies. The earliest wharf was at the head of "shipharbor," near Thomas Wheeler's homesite, but the actual development of the waterfront between this point and Ash Creek was slow. There were other wharves and shipyards, beyond Sasco,-at Mill River and Saugatuck. Business was divided among several village-ports until early in the eighteenth century, when the unusually favorable facilities afforded to seatrade by the channel-depth and the embracing har- bor, centered shipping interest in Black Rock. The concrete realization of these facilities began at the mouth of Ash Creek, and the first official mention of a wharf there bears the date of 1703 when John Edwards and John Sturges were given liberty to build a wharf on "Uncoway River," as Ash Creek was then known. This was followed in December, 1733, by a permit to Peter Thorp and Ebenezer Dimon to "set a Warehouse at the lower Ballasses1 at Ashhouse Creek." After Peter Penfield's gristmill was estab- lished in 1750, two wharves for small exports and imports were built at this point, as an adjunct to the mills ; but the mouth of Ash Creek was not a harbor.
Eastward another wharf was projected in 1750, when on March 27th Samuel Squire and Ebenezer Wakeman were given liberty-
"to build a wharf on the ship harbor near the Parsonage meadow and a warehouse on or near the same, under such regulations and limitations as a committee appointed for that purpose shall agree, and that they shall build in three2 years."
1 Balasses-sandbars.
2 This limitation of time frequently occurs in the records. Many promoters for- feited their permits by failure to develop within the specified term.
142
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
This project apparently languished until 1760 when on Decem- ber 10th Samuel Squire alone was
"given liberty to build a Wharff on the Ship Harbor near the Money beach socalled, under such regulations as the selectmen and committee may determine."
The building of the Squire wharf was accelerated by the laying out of the new road from Ash Creek in 1764-5. This wharfage business remained in the Squire family, and was set off in 1805 to John, Jr., in the distribution of Captain John Squire's estate. No trace now remains, owing to the erection of subsequent piers along this beach for the George Hotel, for the Bridgeport Yacht Club, and for the present Black Rock Yacht Club.
Beyond the Squire Wharf, toward the head of the harbor, was the Middle Wharf (now a stone ruin at the foot of Beacon Street).
The Middle Wharf was authorized by the town meeting of December 23, 1766:
"In pursuance of a Memorial Exhibited to this meeting by Job Bar- tram, Jonathan Lewis, Hezekiah Sturges, Abraham Gold, Moses Jen- nings, Abel Gold, Seth Osborn, Barnabas Bartram, and Gershom Burr . .. Agreed that said Memorialists have Liberty to build a Wharf at Black Rock Harbour adjoining to Capt. Ichabod Wheeler's Wharf ... provided they build the same within two years from this time."
During the next three weeks, that shrewd person, David Wheeler, 3d, seems to have busied himself, for two deeds appear in the town records under date of January 21st, 1767. The first is from David Wheeler, 3d, to the town, opening the road now known as Beacon Street. The second is from David Wheeler to a company of thirteen proprietors, defining the land upon which the new wharf was built,-several hundred feet from the originally projected site and at the end of the new road. The thirteen share- holders included eight of the "memorialists" (Seth Osborn having withdrawn) with the addition of Hezekiah Fitch, Francis Forgue, David Wheeler himself, and his cousin, Abel Wheeler.
The land records for the subsequent thirty years show many changes in ownership of the thirteen shares, which were eventually acquired by the three Sturges brothers, Barlow, Benjamin, and Gershom, who sold their third-interests in 1805, 1809, and 1811,
143
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
to David Penfield. The new owner kept an account-book which records many quaint transactions.3
After his death in 1845, this wharf fell into disuse, since the new owner, Captain Benjamin Penfield, was master of packet boats from Bridgeport harbor.
The next wharf that can be traced above the Middle Wharf is comparatively modern, having been built about 1850 by Captain Daniel Wilson. Captain Howes there established his coal busi- ness, and its use was continued by Woodruff Burr, another coal trader, until the end of the century.
The upper wharves, at the head of the harbor, have a long history. There was always here a recognized "public slip" referred to as "Townsland" on the records, with space for boats to be drawn up. The rest of this section was crowded closely, with stores and warehouses jostling, beam by beam, in the business quests of their many successive owners.
At first the town policy in regard to granting riparian rights would seem to have been rather casual : but shortly after 1800 the increasing of business in Black Rock called for more definite strictures, and the records in 1802 read :
"Voted .... that the said committee be impowered to lay out a convenient highway at the upper wharf so called at Black Rock not less than three
3 Part of David Penfield's account with Caleb Brewster reads:
January 3
Gallon Molasses pint rum
£
S
d
1806
to Gallon Molasses
3
6
to 4 Bushels red potatoes
1
3
to 12 Bushel
1 10}/2
April 23
Miss Brewster passage N. York
6
to one 1/2 bushels potatoes
4
6
Nov. 16
Sturges passage N. York
6
6
to one Baril and Small frait
3
June 1806
to your passage to N. York
6
Cutter Vigilant Wharfage and storige 1
7
July 11
to 1/2 Gallon Molasses
1
101/2
March 1807
to one Gallon Sturges passage
3
0
to one Baril and Hams
3
7
June
to 9 1b veal
3
Cutter wharfage and Storage 12 Days
18
Do to 6 Days 12
4
6
to 4 Bushels white potatoes
15
to frait on Sundreys
3
6
144
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
rods in width for the accommodation of the individuals now settled there in business and the publick, and to lot out all the overplus land, the ship- yard and graving bank excepted, for the purpose of promoting mechanics and merchants in their various branches with convenient stands for business."
The work of this committee encouraged the building of two new wharves and the development of the "waterlots" that were laid out south of the shipyard, and the re-surveyed highway gave a con- venient access to the northernmost and oldest of the upper wharves, -that lying next the shipyard, built, it would seem, on the site of one still older.
The Upper Wharf is first mentioned in the archives as a grant to Captain Ichabod Wheeler, who was at that time owner of the shipyard above. Since the story of its development is typical of its neighbors, the Upper Wharf should perhaps be chronicled in a series of brief quotations :
10 Dec. 1760. .. "Ichabod Wheeler to have Liberty to build a Wharff near the place where the old wharf was on the Ship Harbor. Col. James Smedley & Mr. Peter Penfield to be a committee"
1 April 1761. .. "We, the subscribers being appointed ... to lay out a place for Capt. Ichabod Wheeler to build Wharff on, did then survey & lay out ... 40 rods of ground, at a place called the old Shipyard at Black Rock"
James Smedley, Peter Penfield, Committee.
28 March, 1770. .. "Ichabod Wheeler to James Smedley, Samll Bradley, Jr., Ebenezer Bartram, Jr., Robert Wilson & Nathaniel Wil- son ... Five-Sixths of a piece of land ... at the place where a former Wharff was built. . together with five-sixths of the Wharff thereon built in part already, together with the Timber there lying & being for the purpose of building said Wharff, & also five-sixths part of a Well thereon Dugg & made for the use of said Wharff ... reserving one-sixth part for myself. . . .
(Dated July & August 1772, recorded 22 March 1786)
"We, part-owners of upper wharf where a suitable store for receiv- ing goods & provisions is much needed .... whereas Samll Sturges and Samll Smedley have proposed to build a store forty feet long, twenty- five in breadth .... agree & do grant the full of our rights to improve the plot of ground above."
Samll Bradley, Jr., Ichabod Wheeler, James Wilson.
The "Upper Wharves" and one of the original storehouses (Photograph taken about 1900)
145
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
In January and March, 1801, Peter Perry of Mill Plain became sole owner, purchasing three-sixths from Caleb Brewster, one- sixth from Ichabod Wheeler, one-sixth from the heirs of Ebenezer Bartram, and one-sixth from Thaddeus Burr of Fairfield, as guardian of the heirs of Sarah Sayre. After this time Peter Perry's sons, Bradley and Seth, and his son-in-law, Hezekiah Osborn, became extensively interested in Black Rock water lots for three decades, although others appear as tenants or owners of the upper wharf store and old storehouse. This dock was in use until a few years ago.
The next water-lot southward was laid out by the town in 1801 to Hezekiah Osborn, who probably at that time built the house now occupied by Captain Fancher. In 1839 it was bought by Captain Andrew Turney from Munson Gray.
The adjoining wharflot was laid out in 1792 to John Wheeler, with a two year term within which to erect a wharf and storehouse. It was confirmed to Terence Riley ten years later, and after Riley's death was purchased from his creditor, Nicholas Fish of New York, by William Hoyt. The owners of this lot, then, as to-day, occupied the house across the road, which had been built for John Wheeler in 1789. The store and warehouse built by Riley on the wharf, later property of Bradley Perry, were con- tinuously busy, owner succeeding owner. At last the store was remodeled into a dwelling, and later the old warehouse was pulled down.
Between this wharf and the next lay the "public slip," with land available for boatowners to draw up their craft. Across the road, next the house-property, was another piece of "townsland" also to accommodate shipmasters.
The next wharf. was property of Peter Perry at his death, and was purchased from his heirs in 1814 by Sullivan Moulton of Greenwich, who later sold to Asa Beardslee. Successive owners were William Nichols, John Ogden, and Aaron Smith. The store that stood on this wharf occupied the jog in the northeast line.
South of these wharves were two "waterlots," the one next the wharf being first surveyed in 1803 to Joseph Bulkley, who later
146
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
came to Black Rock with his son Uriah.4 Both were in business at the store which they erected there, and which was later man- aged by Monson Gray, Thomas Ransom, and Gershom Sturges in a series of partnerships.
The next lot, originally surveyed to Captain David Hubbell, was later the property of Seth Perry.
The stores of Black Rock were noted for their chandlery. Even after Bridgeport wharves absorbed most of the sea-trade of the vicinity, ships from that harbor were sent to Black Rock to be fitted out for long voyages or repaired.
The shipyards of Black Rock are first noted officially about 1740, and the first single shipbuilder of consequence was Captain Ichabod Wheeler, whose yard lay on the lot north of the wharves, bordered by "shipharbor creek."
The Journal continually refers to this or that worthy who stayed in Black Rock "to build a ship" or "to launch a Vessell," and Longfellow's picture of a shipyard might have been sketched by William Wheeler's pen,-
. timbers fashioned strong and true
Stemson and keelson and sternson-knee ...
And around the bows and along the side
The heavy hammers and mallets plied .... And around it columns of smoke, upwreathing,
Rose from the boiling, bubbling, seething
Caldron that glowed
And overflowed
With the black tar, heated for the sheathing"-
The children, playing about the framework, falling into the half-finished hold (more or less disastrously),-the ancient mari- ners strolling about, criticizing and commenting,-the shipmaster, anxiously casting up his past experience against his future hopes,- these compose the prelude for the sea-tale of every ship launched from the ways.
Uriah Bulkley was taken to New York at an early age by his father and instructed in the fine art of merchandising. He learned his lesson so successfully that at the time of his marriage to Jane Sayre the wedding was "town talk" for its elaborate niceties,-the fireplace wood being planed,-and-rumor said-gilded at the ends!
147
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
Not all of these tales were pleasant, as the Journal bears wit- ness. The year 1804 dates a significant entry :
"Dec. 25th-About this time news came that the June (cost 2,000 dolls.) belonging to Riley and Joseph Squier of this port with 7 ton of Iron on board, was entirely lost on the devil's back coming from Salem- And that the Bonaparte, about the same burthen, was lost together with a cargo of coals near Egg Harbor. And also that the Rising Sun had to throw overboard 34 or 40 barrels of oil to lighten her in a storm to pass Chatham Bar-These three vessels belonged to poor Black Rock."
In addition to the building of ships, the repairing and scraping (or graving) of vessels was an important occupation. There are several references to the "graving banks" south of the wharves and shipyard, where the boats were laid up to be de-barnacled.
Captain Ichabod Wheeler's chief successor was the firm of Daniel Wilson & Co. Later-in 1856-Captain William Hall came from "down east" and purchased (from four owners, Captain Brittin, Verdine Ellsworth, Elizabeth K. Wilson, and Sturges & Clearman) the former shipyard, and four waterlots. Upon the lower waterlots he managed a "ship-railway." He died in 1860, and was succeeded by the firm of Hillard & Rew, later Rew & Walker.
One of the large vessels launched at Black Rock was the Black- hawk. Prophetically she "stuck on the ways," and was lost on her first voyage. The Sarah Jane, later launched for the same owner, retrieved the fortunes of her predecessor.
The shipyard, about 1870, gave place to a turpentine factory, which burned5 in a spectacular fire, and the "shiprailway" business on the lower waterlots gradually languished. The day of steel ships was at hand.
5 There were a few odd incidents connected with the burning of the factory. It occurred on the first of April, and the directors were holding a meeting in Bridge- port to hear the very enthusiastic first reports of the company. When the news broke upon the meeting, they at first dismissed it as an April fool joke, then hastily adjourned.
The house next the factory, formerly occupied by Monson Gray, was also burned. The astute housewife who lived there had her stove carried out of her blazing home, and finished cooking her pies in the open air on the wharflot.
148
WHARVES AND SHIPPING
PARTIAL LIST OF COMMISSIONED PRIVATEERS* SAILING OUT OF BLACK ROCK HARBOR OR MANNED FROM FAIRFIELD
Commander
Guns
Crew
Defencet
ship
Samuel Smedley#
20
100
Fox boat
A. Woodhull
1
10
Hibernia
sloop
Samuel Smedley
10
50
Recovery
ship
Samuel Smedley
16
120
Spy
boat
J. Squire
1
10
PARTIAL LIST OF VESSELS LICENSED AT FAIRFIELD
(Some of these doubtless cleared from Millriver Wharves at Southport and from Westport-Saugatuck)
Nov. 25, 1793
Sloop
Swain
Master, D. Perry
Tonnage, 24
Sept. 9, 1794
Tantalus
M. Goold 40
Oct. 20, 1794
Driver
J. Bulkley 30
Jan. 10, 1795
Rose
Albert Sherwood 55
April 10, 1795
May
B. Thorp
20
May 16, 1795
Industry
D. Beers
58
June 4, 1795
Swain
W. R. Dimon
24
July 27, 1795 =
Sophie
D. Osborn
35
Sept. 24, 1795
Polly
A. Sherwood
25
Sept. 27, 1795
Industry
D. Weeds
43
Dec. 11, 1795
66
Ranger
E. Bulkley
35
Dec. 22, 1795 Schooner Union
I. Betts
43
* For detailed and very interesting information concerning these and other priva- teers, the reader is referred to a recent publication by The Essex Institute, "History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution 1775-1783," by Louis F. Middlebrook.
t The Defence was a "state vessel." When first commissioned under Capt. Seth Harding in 1776, the pay list included:
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