USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bristol > Bristol, Connecticut : "in the olden time New Cambridge", which includes Forestville > Part 11
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
* "North American Bows and Arrows," by Otis T. Mason, Smithsonian Report. 1893, p. 631. et Seq.
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showed plain evidence of a severe heating . Between the two layers of stone was an inch or more of charcoal. The lower floor rested upon undisturbed and stratified gravel. No tool of any kind was found. A specimen of the charcoal was sent to Washington, but the Government microscopist found no evidence of animal matter in it. The nature of the pits or altars, or whatever they may have been, remains a mystery.
The preparation of these papers has been a labor of love to the writer, in hoping to help rescue from oblivion some few remaining ves- tiges of those who once roamed these valleys in their pristine beauty; if he thus helps to hinder their further dispersion, he has his full reward. We, in all the pride of our higher civilization, owe it to the memory of these races, whose very savageism kept the hills and dales of America a rich and virgin soil that we might wax strong upon them. They gave untold centuries to the development of the maize from a wild grass of Florida, those golden grains that are richer to us than all the golden cliffs of the Rockies. Let us then garner into museums those vestiges that yet remain. Time, ever envious of the sole perogative of immortality, seeks their sure effacement. The earth and air wage unrelenting warfare for the destruction of these unprotesting witnesses of a vanished people. In their history as left us in these stones, silent no longer to those who interrogate them aright we may read the story of our own ancestral struggle in the long, dark, awful night which left' no verbal record. The winged spirit of thought goes backward into those prehistoric, abysmal depths, and shows us the sure origin, both of what remains to us of savage instincts and that tenacious, ever up- ward, aspiring spirit which through invention seeks the mastery of nature
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72.
73.
74.
75.
80.
81.
KNIVES AND DAGGERS.
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CHRISTOPHER COLVABVS
WORLD'S COLUMBIAN.EXPOSITION IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS ·MDCCCXCHI · MDCCCKEMI TO AFREDR. H.WI LIAM
Bronze Medal awarded to Dr. F. H. Williams, at Chicago, 1893 (designed by August St. Gaudens).
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A SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE BY THE EDITOR.
Dr. Williams exhibited i his collection of aboriginal relics at the Columbian International Exhibition in Chicago, in 1893, and received a bronze medal for his exhibit. This is very beautiful, and we illustrate it, full size. The diploma accompanying the award is worded in the following strong manner, and should be a matter of local pride.
Frederick . Williams, Bristol, Connecticut.
Exhibit-Ancient Stone Implements from BBristol, Connecticut.
Award-This collection well represents an ancient village site, in the town of Bristol, Connecticut. It is carefully arranged, and shows clearly a majority of the implements which were used in this village ; these are intelligently gatbered, and carefully exhibited, of bistoric value, and the seal shown in the effort made to collect and present these objects is worthy of imitation in other localities.
The following illustrations have been made from specimens in Dr. Williams' collection since the preceding article was written, and are shown because they are of much interest in connection with the subject. The editor can think of nothing that could be said in this work that would afford him such genuine pleasure as to be able to here in- form the citizens of Bristol that Dr. Williams has made arrangements to give his unique and most valuable collection of prehistoric relics to the Town of Bristol, and that it is to be placed in the Public Library, when the building is completed. Probably a more comprehensive collection does not exist outside of our largest museums, and it is doubt- ful if there is a collection anywhere that will afford the student such an opportunity for the study of the habits of the American Aborigine, for Dr. Williams made his collection with this object in view. Cer- tainly Bristol is to be congratulated upon this valuabie acquisition to its Public Library,"and we feel honored to be allowed to announce Dr. Williams' valuable gift at this time.
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A CORNER IN ONE OF DR. WILLIAMS' CABINETS
A
B
D
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A .- Implements used in working Bristol Soapstone Quarries, by the Indians. B .- Fragments of vessels found on Federal Hill C- Unfinished dish, and a soapstone roller, like a pestle D -Very large dish from Terryville. (All about one seventh natural size )
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E
F
Kars Hoz
G
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E .- A chipped quartzite tomahawk, Rare. F .- Axe, from Com- pounce. G .- Rare form of hoe, from Farmington. H .- Woman's . chipped knife, from Lewis' Corner, Bristol. (All about one fourth natural size.)
K
I .- Pipe found in Southington. This is Haidah Indian work of the northwest coast. Probably a relic of aboriginal intertraffic. J .- Fine pit stones, from Bristol. K .- A so-called anvil. L .- A pit stone or anvil of soapstone. (All about one fifth natural size.) -
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2
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VARIOUS FORMS OF INDIAN WAMPUM OR MONEY,
Beads of various forms were in use among the Indians for several purposes. They were made from stone, clay and shells. The shells were sometimes those having natural holes as some from California. Bones and teeth were also made into strings of beads for ornamental purposes. Nos. 4, 9, 10, 11, 14 of the figures were so-called, wampum, or money beads, and were made from clam shells. The different parts of the large clams, having different colors, making different values. The purple beads being the highest values. No. 13 of the figure represent ornamental beads. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 are beads made from larger parts of the central columns of conch shells, used for ornament.
No. 2 is a very large bead from the great mound that u. ed to stand opposite St. Louis, on the east side of Mississippi River. No. S is made from bones. No. 12 is made from a bear's toothi.
The finer kind of wampum beads was used to form the wampum belts, which were used in all great ceremonies, and which conveyed to the initiated historical facts for inmemorial remembrance.
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FLAKED SCRAPERS FROM LICKING CO, OHIO. Showing the "conchoidal fracture" (see page 86).
This head of death is from Mexico, and is said to be the emblem of Death in the pictography of the Aztec people. Representations of the gods of Mexico, both the great gods and the small local divinities, which answer to the saints of modern liturgical cults, seem to have been made commonly in clay. Along with these are many evidently grotesque figures, the signification of which we do not know.
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The Story of Fall Mountain
BY MILO LEON NORTON
T HE first settler of what may be called Fall Mountain, though the site of the house is a few rods east of the district line, was Edward Gaylord, of Wallingford, whose house stood in the open field a little south and west of the cabin occupied by Nel- son Decker, on land now owned by Eliada S. Tuttle, and which was known to the residents of the vicinity a generation ago, as the Gaylord orchard. Only two or three of the original trees of the old orchard now remain, and they have attained to a great size and venerable ap- pearance.
Mr. Gaylord had a family of sturdy sons who became mighty hun- ters, and tillers of the soil, some of whom, and others of the name, settled on the heights to the southwest of the old homestead. Benjamin Gay- lord settled on the place known as the Barnum farm, now owned by F. H. Wood; John Gaylord lived where William Fenn now lives; Elijah Gaylord built a small house farther up the road toward the Cedar Swamp reservoir, where the cellar may be seen, just north of the house built by James Scarrett; Samuel Gaylord built in the lot adjoining the Cedar Swamp reservoir, nearly opposite Indian Rock; a daughter, Lucy married Alpheus Bradley, a carpenter, who built the house occupied by
WITCH ROCK, OR FALL MOUNTAIN SCHOOL, DISTRICT NO. 12
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THE JESSE GAYLORD HOMESTEAD, FROM A SKETCH
James Peckham; Jesse Gaylord built the large house which stood east of the Cedar Swamp, which was torn down about 1880. He was the hero of the tragedy resulting in the death of the Indian, Morgan, related in another chapter. About 1800, Elijah Gaylord moved from the house he built south of the Fenn place, to the Orrin Judson place, now owned by the Tymerson family. From him it came into the possession of his son, Elam, and from him to his daughter, Anna, who became the wife of Orrin Judson. The house vacated by Elijah Gaylord was sold to Luke Adams, removed to its present site, where it was the life-long home of his son, James Adams, familiarly known to his neighbors as Uncle Jimmy.
The old-fashioned cider mill, which was housed under a shed south- . west of the house, was an institution long to be remembered by the children of the district, whose delight it was to suck cider through a straw as it trickled from the cheese, made up in the old-fashioned way of pumice and straw, and pressed out by long levers operating a huge wooden screw. To this mill the farmers of the region round about took their cider-apples in fall to be ground, doing the work themselves, and leaving a certain proportion for the proprietor as toll. How many miles I traveled, when a boy, while riding on the long sweep, driving the old horse on the endless journey around the ring, while the apples were being crunched in the cogs of the mill beneath the hopper, I shall never know. But I do know that cider-making was an event in the annals of farm life in that period "before the war," which I shall always recall with pleasure.
1
Luke Adams was a revolutionary soldier, and James was a soldier of the war of 1812. In his early married life "Uncle Jimmy" used to take his family to church every Sunday in his ox-cart, cleanly swept for the purpose. He had a habit, which all who knew him will recollect, of constantly humming the old tune of Durham, when slowly plodding up the mountain, with his oxen, often with a load of cider-apples which he had bought somewhere in the village. Sometimes he would hire
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one of us boys to help him pick up apples; and I have picked up many bushels for him in orchards about town, where now are streets full of houses, and where electric lights are aglow at night, and where electric cars speed by in a manner which would have made his patient oxen stare in amazement. The honest old farmer was killed by the cars at the crossing then situated just east of the present railway station, in 1871.
The following poem, which I wrote about this old cider mill, and which I reproduce by courtesy of The New England Farmer, may be of interest in this connection :
THE CIDER MILL.
Oh memory loveth ofttimes to recall The scenes that occurred in the sweet long ago. When the fruit-laden boughs of the orchard in fall, Their blessing of fruitage on man did bestow.
White, golden and red, as they lay in the pile, Were the apples just garnered from under the trees,
Where they ripened in Autumn's beneficent smile,
And their nectar distilled for the wasps and the bees.
And rapture was mine when the cart-body's rim Overflowed with the many-hued apples it bore; But my joy was completed when full to the brim, The cider-press channel with juices ran o'er.
When I stood by that press with a straw in my mouth, As I sipped the sweet flood that abundantly fell,
I was buoyant and flush with the vigor of youth -- But now, 'tis a tale of the past that I tell.
The mill and its owner have long passed away; No longer the apple-cart climbeth the hill;
E'en the orchard itself has long gone to decay, And naught but their memory lingereth still.
Yet sometimes at even, when sunset is red, And my routine of work for the day is complete, My thoughts will revert to a weather-worn shed, And the press and the cider, delicious and sweet.
Fall mountain was made a school district in 1798, when the School Board defined its boundaries as follows: "Voted that the inhabitants living on Fall mountain, beginning at Bazaleel Bowen's, and extending to Chauncey Jerome's, including those from Capt. Jesse Gaylord's, Mr Hinman's,* and including all in that quarter of the society as far as the lane that goes to Capt. Gaylord's orchard, be made into one school district, and be known by the name of Fall mountain district."
Bazaleel Bowen lived in a house which stood near the Wolcott town line, a short distance south of the Andrew Rowe place on the east side of the road. He had two boys whose exploits have been handed down, so notorious were they, as examples of youthful depravity. Early in the last century, Nathan Tuttle kept a country store in a building that stood until recently, when it was destroyed by fire, on the corner at Indian Heaven, a locality lying on both sides of the Bristol-Plymouth town line, on the western boundary of the district. One of the tricks of the Bowen boys was the purchase of some article, whether gunpowder or tobacco I have forgotten, of Tuttle, for which they agreed to bring a certain number of eggs in payment. They then proceeded to rob a number of birds' nests, securing the required quantity. which they took to the corner store. The proprietor could not dispute that they were
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eggs, or that there had been no specification as to the kind of eggs will". were to be brought, and was therefore obliged logically to cancel the indebtedness. But thereafter, under all circumstances, he was careful to specify that hens' eggs should be exchanged for his merchandise. It may seem surprising, but it is a fact, that many people from the village of Bristol, traveled all the way to Indian Heaven to do their trading. The Bowen family, much to the relief of the other residents of the Mountain, emigrated to Ohio, probably about 1830, together with several families from the vicinity, some of them travelling the entire distance with ox teams.
Chauncey Jerome lived on the brow of the hill west of the residence of Mr. Dillon, formerly the Capt. Wooding place. There is no trace of the cellar remaining, but the house stood on the south side of the road, in an open field at that place. He was a tory during the revo- lution, and was so outspoken in his denunciation of the course of his patriot neighbors in rebelling against the authority of the English crown, that he was made the object of much persecution on the part of the "Sons of Liberty," as the patriots called themselves. The apple tree was standing until a few years ago, to a limb of which he was suspended by the thumbs, stripped to the waist, in order that he might receive a severe thrashing at the hands of the patriots. But being extremely agile in his motions, he managed to reach the ground with his toes, when he sprang up, liberated his thumbs from the cords that held them, and ran like a deer, pursued but not overtaken by his would-be disciplina- rians. The tree stood just back of the barn on the Barnum place before mentioned. He took refuge in the house of his brother-in-law, Jonathan Pond, who lived in the next house below his, just over the Plymouth line. Pond met the pursuers with a loaded gun and held them at bay until Jerome made good his escape.
About 1760, Isaac Norton, of Durham, a descendant of Thomas Norton, one of the original settlers of Guilford, settled upon the summit of the mountain, on the site of what is now known as the Weeks' place.
CURIOUS BOULDER NEAR CEDAR SWAMP.
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(1) RUINS OF THE LYMAN TUTTLE, JR. PLACE AT "INDIAN HEAVEN," WHERE THE FIRST BAPTIST MEETINGS WERE HELD IN 1791 From photo taken by Milo Lcon Norton.
(2) CELLAR HOLE OF THE SAME IN 1907.
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The log house he built stood a little south of the Weeks' house, recently burned, a tamarack tree, at the foot of the garden, denoting the spot where the well may still be seen. He had a numerous family, some of whom moved to Norfolk, another to Westfield, Mass., while his sons Aaron and Joel remained in Bristol. Joel built the house still standing, south of the log cabin, where, at one time, he kept a tavern. Aaron built the old house opposite the home of Gideon Roberts, the pioneer of the American clock industry, in 1786: Both Aaron and Joel were soldiers of the Revolution, Aaron serving under that gallant leader, Col. Nodiah Hooker, of Farmington. He was a large land owner, hav- ing a tract of land extending from the old road west of A. T. Bunnell's to the Plymouth town line, near the Beecher Perkin's place, on the Waterbury road. He was my great grandfather, and upon a part of his immense landed estate my ancestral home was located.
The neighborhood to which I have previously alluded, known as Indian Heaven, has a historical interest as being the birthplace of the Bristol Baptist Church. A small colony of Baptists, from new Haven and vicinity, settled in the vicinity, William Tuttle building on the cellar near the present club house, on the Plymouth side of the line; Joel Matthews building the house a short distance east, until within a few years the home of George William Matthews; Lyman Tuttle building a quarter mile west of the corner; Edmund Todd, Elam Todd and. Truman Prince, also living in the neighborhood. It was in Mr. Todd's new barn, just north of the Tuttle homestead, on the Plymouth side of the line, on April 13, 1791, that the Bristol Baptist Church was organ- ized. Preaching services were held in this barn, and also in the Tuttle house, near the club house, before its completion; a part only of the chamber floor being laid, the preacher, Elder Daniel Wildman, of Dan- bury, standing on a joiner bench in the kitchen, could address his audi- ence seated upstairs and down. It was intended at first to build a church in this vicinity, but afterward it was decided to build in the village of Bristol, where the first Baptist church edifice was erected in 1802: Not only was this a thrifty farming community, but maufactur-
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LOG CABIN AT "INDIAN HEAVEN," USED AS A CLUB HOUSE.
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ing was also carried on at a two-story factory, the wheel-pit of which can still be seen just below the old dam, which was located a few rods below the dam of recent construction. Here wood turning was engaged in by the Tuttles, and afterward tack hammers were made by a firm in which Charles Swasey and Timothy Atwater were interested. This was in the forties. The shop was burned and was never rebuilt. Pre- vious to this Nathan Tuttle(2) carried on the manufacture of combs in the building which he afterward enlarged and used as a store. Austin Sheldon, who married one of the Tuttle girls, also had a blacksmith shop opposite the Lyman Tuttle house, west of the Lucas Lane place. Lane also ran a shingle mill for sawing out shingles, half a mile south ot Indian Heaven, as the crow flies, near the Castle Prince place, now marked by old cellar holes. The life of Austin Sheldon, who was widely known as the Pennsylvania hermit, has about it a tinge of sad romance. He had purchased a tract of land, without seeing it, in Lehman, Pa., and upon going there found it almost worthless. He was disposed to make the best of the situation, however, and to go there to live with his young wife, thinking that between farming and blacksmithing he could make a comfortable living. But his wife's family persuaded her to refuse to go with him, and he lived there many years alone, in a cave, partly closed in with lumber, quite a distance from any human habita- tion. He was a gentle, inoffensive man, enjoying the society of the birds and animals about his forest home, which became very tame and sociable; and many children were welcomed to his cabin-cave as visitors. He attracted much attention from newspaper men and others, and be-
WOLCOTT ST.
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(1) No. 5, Frank Wilder R, formerly the Edward Norton place; (2) No. 4, Mrs. L. Seisswert R, Wm. Litke R, formerly the Gordon Clark place; (3) No. 24, Joseph C. Russell O, formerly the John Sutliff place; (4) No. 35, George A. Rowe O), Edward O. Watrous R. Patrick J. Doyle R, formerly the Chandler Norton place; (5) No. 38, Roy Crittenden R, No. 40, Joseph F. Ryan R; (6) No. 48, Ernest T. Belden O, Mrs. Elizabeth Belden R; (7) No. 43, George H. Day (); (S) No 51, James Hinchliff R; (9) No. 64, Noble Peck O, George W. Denny R.
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WITCH ROCK.
came quite a noted hermit. He was always neatly dressed, and was extremely neat and genteel in his habits. During his last days he was a frequent visitor in Bristol, where he had relatives. For many years he was very deaf.
An awful tragedy occurred in New Haven, on Christmas, 1855, when Justus Matthews, a brother of George William and Henry N. Matthews, who was born in the Matthews home at Indian Heaven, was murdered by a sect of religious fanatics, known as the Wakemanites. It is one of the strangest tales that religious fanaticism is responsible for, showing to what lengths the religious devotee may be tempted to go. Rhoda Wakeman, the leader and founder of the sect, having, it is believed, murdered her husband, came to New Haven from Fairfield, and gathered a small company of believers about her, who accepted her statement that she had died and gone to heaven, where she had been commissioned by Jesus Christ to return to the earth to redeem mankind, or at least all who would listen to her. She professed to have power to kill and to raise the dead, to heal diseases, and to cast out devils. Justus Matthews, his wife and sister, and his sister's husband, all of Hamden, were among those who accepted the "Divine Messenger," as she was called. She professed that Justus had backslidden and had become the man of sin, it is thought because of a debt of three hundred dollars that she owed him, and which he thought should be secured. At any rate she impressed upon the little company the importance of having Justus put out of the way or she would die, and if she died the world would instantly be destroyed. This they firmly believed. Justus was sent for, and persuaded that it was his duty to be killed that the world might be saved. Sam. Sly, a half-witted fanatic, did the deed, after Matthews' own sister had tied his hands behind his back, and blindfolded him, "in the fear of the Lord." He was first beaten into insensibility by a club, and then his head was nearly severed from his body by a jackknife. The perpetrators were acquitted on the ground of insanity, but were kept under restraint during the remainder of their lives.
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In a pasture lot on the Barnum farm, which has always been known as the Cole lot,(3) directly north of the residence of Sereno Nichols, is a heap of moss-grown stones, near which stands one or two pear trees. This was the childhood home of Katherine Cole, wife of Aaron Gaylord, who was massacred with nearly all the settlers at Wyoming, Pennsyl- vania, in 1778. Katherine escaped with her children, and made her way back, through the forest, to her father's house. The house was destroyed by fire early in the last century, and upon the death of her father, Katherine went to live with her daughter in Burlington, where she ended her days. Another victim of that terrible tragedy was Elias Roberts, a neighbor of the Cole family, and father of Gideon, the clock maker. His widow, Fallah Roberts, made her way back to Bristol on foot, carrying her babe in her arms the entire distance. An old potato grater, which Fallah Roberts used in after years to make starch for the family, and to raise small amounts of pin money for her own use, is preserved in the collection of historic relics of Bristol. The process was a very simple one. The potatoes were grated to a pulp and then placed in a vessel of water, when the starch settled to the bottom, the residue was poured off and the starch dried, when it was ready for use.
Fall Mountain is not without its traditions of witchcraft, which date back to the early years of the last century. Witch Rock, a short dis- tance above the schoolhouse, received its name from the story that whenever Elijah Gaylord drove his ox team down the hill past the rock, the cart tongue would drop to the ground, no matter how securely it
WOLCOTT ST.
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(10) No. 78, T. B. Robinson O, John Streigle R, formerly the Lora Waters place; (11) No. 88, Samuel A. Hubbard R, Clarence B, Atkins O, formerly the Rufus Sanford place; (12) No 105, Mrs. John A. Bradley R; (13) No. 109, Charles T. Thrall O, formerly the Bud Sutliff place; (14) No. 115, E. R. Brightman R, formerly the Hezekiah Lewis place ; (15) No. 118, George B. Evans O, Herbert L. Kern R; (16) No. 126, Edward W. Bradley O; (17) No. 136, Geo. H. Miles O; (18) No. 167, M. J. Rockwell O, Edward E. Andrew R, formerly the James Holt place.
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