USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Suffield > Celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Suffield, Connecticut, October 12, 13 and 14, 1920, with sketches from its past and some record of its last half century and of its present > Part 11
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The religious revival in the early twenties of the last century is recorded as one of the most powerful ever experienced. Strong men were seen by the wayside imploring God's forgiveness. Some shut themselves up in barns beseeching the Lord to have mercy on them. Others ran to their neighbors and friends, beg- ging prayers in their behalf.
Apollos Phelps
One of those who left his work and went with Elder Philleo on a revival mission whenever and wherever it was deemed ex- pedient was Captain Apollos Phelps, who held the enviable title of being the Samson of Connecticut. He was born in 1784 and for a long time, including the period of the Bi-Centennial Celebration, was the oldest man in town. In his younger days he was six feet tall and possessed of a remarkable frame and muscular power. Many stories are told of his marvelous feats of lifting. Once he is said to have lifted a millstone in Windsor weighing over 1700 pounds. Another authenticated story is that one day in the late Autumn of the year, when the Captain was busy about his cider mill, a big, burly man drove up and inquired where was the noted wrestler he had heard so much about. The stranger said that he was from Hartford and claimed the cham- pionship of the State and challenged the Captain to a bout. He was told that he would be accomodated but was invited to have a drink of cider first, to which the stranger acceded. The Captain stepped up to a barrel, which was full of the delicious liquid for which the over-the-mountain orchards are famous, lifted it on to his knees and proceeded to drink at leisure out of the bung hole. When about to pass it along to the stranger, the Captain was surprised to see him clambering into his wagon and driving away, saying as he did so he guessed he was mistaken in his man.
During a certain winter he was engaged in sledding wood from his wood lot on the mountain to Suffield, and on going down a very steep place the bow-pin, that held the ox-bow to the yoke, broke and released the nigh ox. The Captain, driving, grabbed the end of the yoke and with the off ox as mate held the sled and its two cords of wood down the bad incline safely to a level place below, where he repaired the bow-pin, returned the released ox to the neap and proceeded to town with his load.
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Sylvester Graham
A Suffield name that has endured to the present generation is that of Dr. Sylvester Graham of "graham" bread and cracker fame. He was born in Suffield in 1794, the youngest of seventeen children of Rev. John Graham, pastor of the West Suffield Congregational church. Besides being a preacher and orator he was a strong advocate of the vegetarian theory, now called the "Graham system," and believed that the only prevention and cure of disease lay in correct habits of living. He was editor of the Graham Magazine in Boston and an essay on bread and bread-making made the Boston bakers so angry that he was mobbed.
Timothy Swan
Timothy Swan, who has been called the Hatter-Composer was born in Worcester and came to Suffield about 1780. He wrote "China," "Poland," and "The Shepherd's Complaint." He was looked upon by his neighbors as somewhat eccentric, particularly because of his habit of never removing his hat unless absolutely necessary, when he always put on a red or black velvet cap. He would arrange his tunes in his mind while work- ing and set them down at night. He married a daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Gay. The original manuscript of "Poland" is in the Kent Memorial Library.
Great River and Stony Brook
Saw mills were the first industries in the town as they were essential to the settlement. In 1672 Major Pynchon built a saw mill on Stony Brook near the location of the Boston Neck school house. The materials were brought down the river in boats of one or two tons burden of which he had many. This mill was burned in 1675 by the Indians but was rebuilt after the war. The first corn mill was attached to this saw mill in 1677, but the corn mill did not prove adequate, so he built another, supposed to be at or near the present mill dam at Brookside. This mill formed a part of his estate in 1704, and by his heirs was sold in 1713 to James Lawton. Other saw mills were later built on both Stony and Muddy brooks.
In 1700 the town voted approval of a plan to set up iron works.
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The men interested in the enterprise were Major Pynchon, Joseph Parsons of Northampton and John Eliot of Windsor. They were set up before 1704 for they constituted a part of the Pynchon estate and were located on practically the same site as the first saw mill. Ore was obtained from Suffield and adjacent towns, and shovels and other tools were made, but the mill and dam were both swept away in what was called the Jefferson flood of 1801. They were apparently doing service for nearly a century and were so successful that two other iron works were established-the middle works at the upper end of South street and the west works at Stony Brook Falls near the Simsbury or now East Granby Line.
The Oil Mill was probably built about 1785 near the Oil Mill bridge. The oil was made from flax seed produced by the farmers in Suffield and neighboring towns and about 2000 bushels a year were used. The product was shipped mainly to Springfield and Hartford. Nearly every farmer raised more or less flax which the housewives spun in the winter. The mill was burned in 1836 and never rebuilt.
About the beginning of the last century there were at least four cotton mills in town, making yarn for knitting and for the weaving of cotton cloth. One mill was owned by Luther Loomis at the lower end of High or Main street. There was another at the Brookside dam, and probably in the old brick house located there. All these mills were located on Stony Brook. As early as 1710 a fulling mill stood at the south end of High street and is said to have been in operation for more than a century. In com- mon with other towns in colonial days nearly every farmhouse had its looms for the weaving of wool into clothing and carpets.
In the years before the railroads, Suffield carried on quite a shipbuilding industry along the river and many vessels were launched there. Many of the townspeople at one time put their money into the indigo trade and went on long journeys in the enterprise.
It is a tradition that the first steamboat run on the river was in 1826. Some time later there were two boats, the Agawam and the Massachusetts; the former could get through the canal but the latter had to go over the rapids. Later the Springfield was put on in competition with these boats.
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The Old Ferry
In October 1678 Major Pynchon and his associates made grants of land to John Penguilly and to Edward Allyn and his three sons, about 240 acres in all, along the river road above and below where the Thompsonville bridge now stands. They came from Ipswich, Mass. Thirteen years later there is the following entry in the Hampshire County Court record:
"1691: Upon some motion that there may be a ferry started over ye Great River at the House of John Alline of Suffield: This Corte doth approve & appointe Jno Alline of Suffield for ye affaire & he to require & be contente with 4d ye horse & 2d ye man."
This was the first ferry at Suffield and some distance north from the later ferry. It appears that, at a later period, John Allyn sold his farm and probably the ferry rights to John Trum- bull. Two Trumbulls had come to Suffield and settled on Feather Street, the brothers Joseph and Judah, and each had a son John-John the first, as he is called in the Suffield records, son of Joseph born in 1670; and John, the second, son of Judah born 1675. The late J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford once wrote: "I never look into the Suffield records without being thankful that their Uncle John of Rowley died before he could bring his family to the new plantation. If he had come and brought another little John with him, to be mixed up with the cousins in the town records, the geneological puzzle would have been hopelessly complicated." As it is the two Johns have given the geneologists much trouble. In any case Joseph Trumbull of Feather street was the ancestor of the famous Trumbulls of history. Joseph had four sons whose lines of descent may be charted as follows:
John the first, and the ferry owner, was the great grandfather of John Trumbull LL.D. of Hartford, judge of the Superior Court 1801-19, treasurer of Yale college for many years, and better known as the author of "McFingal the Modern Epic," which became the most popular American poem and went through twenty editions before 1820. Joseph settled in Lebanon and was the father of Jonathan Trumbull the Revolutionary Governor of Connecticut, whose eldest son was a Revolutionary
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general; another son, Jonathan, was the Governor of Connecticut 1798-1809; the third son, John, was the famous artist and friend of Washington; the fourth son, David, was thefather of Governor Joseph Trumbull 1849-50. Benoni went to Hebron and was the ancestor of Dr. Benjamin Trumbull the historian.
John, the first, like John the second, son of Judah of Suffield, had a son Joseph, the Joseph who later owned the Ferry, either by himself or with John Penguilly. It seems to have been first known as Trumbull's, later as "Gillies", still later as Trumbull's, and still later as "Lovejoy's."
Within the memory of those still living a steam ferry was in- augurated about 1858 by James Saunders who three or four years later sold it to Duane Kendall. After running it about two years he sold to Alanson Burbank, but the boat had gotten into bad condition and Mr. Burbank put on the old wire ferry and started to construct a new steamboat. About 1866 he sold to Watson W. Pease who, securing some help from the town, finished the construction of the new boat, and named her "Cora." In 1869 he sold to Loren J. Hastings who operated the ferry till 1871 when Mr. Pease and Mr. S. A. Griswold, together bought the property each with a half interest, and ran the "Cora" un- til the new bridge company was formed in 1891 and bought the rights.
Mr. Pease and Mr. Griswold, however, bought the Cora back with the privilege of running her until the bridge was completed which was in 1892. Meantime the boat had been thoroughly rebuilt and in the summer following the opening of the bridge to traffic Mr. Griswold ran her for parties on the river. She was then laid up until the temporary bridge at Hartford was taken away by the ice. Mr. Griswold then took the boat to Hartford and ran her as a ferry from the fall of 1905 till June 1906. During that winter Mr. Griswold bought the Pease interest and later sold the boat to Samuel A. Miner who afterwards sold her to a + party in Westerly R. I. Shortly afterwards she became unsea- worthy and was broken up. In a few years after construction the bridge was taken over from the company and made free.
Fisheries
From an early date fisheries along the river acquired the rank
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of an extensive business. A dam was early built and jointly owned by people mainly living in Feather Street. At a town meeting in December 1730 Jacob Hatheway, Samuel Copley, Richard Woolworth, William Halladay, Nathaniel Hall, Samuel Roe and Samuel Hatheway were petitioners for certain privi- leges which the town granted, on condition that the owners of the fish dam sell salmon at five pence per pound and shad at a penny apiece and "that they will not barrill any for a market when any of ye Town appear with any vendable pay to take same off for their own use, and that the owners put one hundred pounds security into the Town Treasurer's hands for the Town's security." Some of the owners objected to the conditions but they were accepted, and the bond was deposited. Apparently the arrangement was intended to secure to the people of the town fish at a certain price not subject to the market for barreled fish. Seven years later the town granted to another company of men liberty to erect a small dam about two feet high and three or four rods into the river "above all the common and standing fishing places on the Upper Falls in said Suffield."
For nearly 150 years extensive shad fisheries were maintained on the river and the Douglass fisheries located a little south of the Ferry are easily within the memory of many now living. About thirty years ago, owing to changes in the dam and a diminution of the shad in the river, the fisheries became un- profitable and were given up.
The Island
The Great Island of about one hundred acres in the Connec- ticut River rapids has had a historic existence but with little change except in ownership. Rev. Ephraim Huit of Windsor petitioned the Connecticut General Court for it in 1641, and it was granted to him. At his death in 1644 he gave it back to the court for the use of the country. About thirty years afterward another Windsor man named John Lewis bought it of the In- dians who claimed it but this title proved invalid, and in 1681 the Massachusetts General Court gave it to Major Pynchon in consideration of his work in running the boundary lines. His petition showed that he took this action to meet the boundary . claims of the Windsor people. When he died in 1703, the island
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was appraised as a part of his estate at ten pounds, and in 1717 his heirs conveyed it to John and Ebenezer Devotion and Joshua Leavitt. In 1754 General Phinehas Lyman bought the whole island, and when in 1774 he disposed of his property to go to Mississippi, it was sold to Roger Enos of Windsor. It was then called Lyman's island. After some changes in ownership, part of it was bought by John Ely who built a dam across the west branch of the river, and a saw mill on the west bank in 1687. This was swept away in 1810 and never rebuilt. In the last century the island changed hands in various ways. In 1864 it was purchased by D. C. Terry and Milton D. Ives and Mr. Terry lived there for many years. It is now generally called King's island. In 1873 hundreds of adventists gathered on the island awaiting the end of the world; remained there for some weeks, and then dispersed.
Enfield Bridge
In 1798 the General Assembly granted to John Reynolds the exclusive right to build a bridge across the river at any point from the north boundary of Windsor to the State line. The company formed located the bridge between Suffield and En- field and completed it about 1810. Tradition says that some of the money was raised by lottery. Built of green timber, the bridge soon decayed and fell into the river of its own weight.
In 1826 another bridge was constructed on the same site by William Dixon of Enfield, to whose son, United States Senator James Dixon, a large share of the property passed.
When the railroad was built from Hartford to Springfield the right to put a bridge across the river at Warehouse Point was hotly contested by the Dixons, and the courts finally declared that their charter held and the railroad company paid to them $10,000 for the privilege of erecting the bridge at that point. When the Thompsonville bridge was built the right was bought of the charter owners for $1,200 and when the Warehouse Point bridge was built $3,000 was paid for the right. Senator Dixon who had become the sole owner of the bridge, before his death in 1873 transferred it to Mrs. Eliza Marsh of Enfield. It was handed down to her children and was owned by William D. Marsh of Chicago when three spans, exactly one-half of the
ENFIELD BRIDGE, Built 1826 and Swept Away 1900
THE
OLD FERRY BOAT
" CORA."
FERRY BOAT "CORA," Discontinued 1892
Looking Eastward over the Valley from the road over Suffield Mountain. This Highway was laid out in 1710 and
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structure went down the river in a freshet February 15, 1900. The bridge had been considered unsafe and had been closed four years before it fell.
Hosea Keach, station agent at the Enfield railroad station near the structure was on the bridge when it fell and was carried down the river three miles to the railroad bridge, where a rope was thrown to him and he was pulled up to safety.
A few years later the site of the bridge was purchased by the Southern New England Telephone Company and the remaining part of the bridge was blown up with dynamite. The old piers were used for towers to string telephone cables across the river and the company established a central office at the old toll house.
Slaves
Old records prove that African slavery existed in Suffield as in other New England towns for nearly a century. Slaves were admitted to church membership, permitted to marry and were increasing in numbers when the state emancipation act of 1784 was passed. With the boon of freedom, their social status lowered, and they soon dwindled away and practically dis- appeared. For many years before Lincoln's proclamation a negro was seldom seen in Suffield.
The earliest record of a negro slave in the Connecticut valley is found in Major Pynchon's account book October 1671, re- cording his purchase of John Crow of Hadley for six pounds. The Hampshire county records show the marriage of his "negroes, Roco and Sue." Slaves were not numerous in Suffield as only people of means could afford them. Here as elsewhere they were most frequently found in the families of the ministers, the magistrates and the tavern keepers. They were seldom sold and usually passed to some member of the family as a part of the estate. In 1726 the town voted twenty pounds to the min- ister, Mr. Devotion, towards the purchase of slaves.
In 1756 Suffield had twenty-four slaves; in 1774 thirty-seven; in 1782 fifty-three; in 1790 twenty-eight and in 1800 four. The manumission of three slaves in 1812 by the heirs of Dr. Ebenezer Gay terminates the African slave record in Suffield. Mr. Gay, like his predecessor Mr. Devotion, held slaves, and slaves were
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born to his estate. Male slaves between sixteen and sixty were listed at eighteen pounds. Among Mr. Sheldon's unpublished historical notes is an interesting record of all mention found of slaves in Suffield from 1725 on. They show that among owners, besides the ministers, were Jared Huxley, Ensign Samuel Kent, Joshua Leavitt, Lieut. Jonathan Sheldon, Seth Austin, Benjamin Scot, Joseph Pease, Apollos Hitchcock, Simon Kendall, General Phinehas Lyman and Captain Isaac Pomeroy.
By an act of 1784 masters or owners of slaves desiring to be acquitted of their future maintenance or support could manu- mit them, provided the slave was willing and a certificate pro- cured from the civic authority that he or she was sound in health and not more than forty-five nor less then twenty-five years of age.
Among the records of such manumission was one of a negro named "Stephen Pero," discharged in 1787 from the estate of Jacob Hatheway by his executor Elijah Kent. The West Suffield Church records show that Stephen Pero and his wife were admitted to the church September 7, 1800. Pero was long remembered and was said to be a general favorite with all, but he sometimes "took a drop too much", and was always ready to make confession without a summons from the church committee. The first knowledge of a lapse was usually imparted to the brethren by Pero himself, inviting them all to be present next Sabbath and hear "the grandest confession ever made". He died in West Suffield about the year 1820. His widow Nancy Pero died at the poor house in 1840.
In 1812 Rev. Ebenezer Gay and William Gay applied for permission to discharge three slaves, Genny, Dinah and Titus, inherited from their father, and it was granted. It appears from the family record that Dr. Ebenezer Gay early had a slave named Prince, and a little later bought at an auction at Middle- town a slave woman named Rose who was a native born African, and claimed to be a princess in her country, her evidence being the elaborate tattoo on her back. Rose had three children born in Suffield, Genny, Dinah and Titus. After manumission Genny and Dinah became paid servants in different families.
Titus, or "Old Ti" as he was later well known throughout the town, was lordly and dignified in mien, fond of exercising au-
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thority, and black as a coal. The many offices he performed led him to believe that he was next to Mr. Gay in authority and he deported himself accordingly. He was the sexton, the grave digger, the bell ringer and looked after the town clock in the belfry. His supervision of the boys on the Sabbath from his high pew in the gallery had a vigilance and thoroughness that left the town tithingmen without occupation.
For about forty years he performed these various duties in and around the old Meeting House which was torn down in 1835. With the passing of this Meeting House "Ti's" life work seems to have closed, for he died in 1837 and was buried in the church yard where he had raised scores of mounds; but not even a mound marks the place of his burial. Whether it was a mere witticism or a fact, it used to be stated that the people so ar- ranged the burial of their dead that on the morning of resurrec- tion, when the dead should rise and face eastward, the colored people would stand in the rear.
"A remote pew in the Meeting House" says one of Mr. Shel- don's notes, "and a remote corner in the church yard were the common heritage of the negro. Scores of them were buried at the northwest corner of the ancient ground with only rank weeds and briars to protect the mounds above them. The march of improvements came in 1850 and the allotted corner was wanted. New earth now covers the bones of the black man and the dust of a generation of whites reposes above them. 'No storied urn or animated bust' indicates that ever an African slave had rested 'his head upon the lap of earth' in the first church yard of Suffield."
1
The Old Clock
Of the history of the old clock mentioned as being in the spec- ial care of Old Ti little is known. Upon the east side of the tower of the third church of the First Congregational Society was a dial, and the clock was placed within at some period. It did duty till 1835 when that Meeting House was torn down to make room for the fourth which is now the freight station. Mr. Sheldon says that he regrets that he assisted in the vandal work of pulling down this tower, and its spire which was the most sightly and graceful architectural work the town had seen. The
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clock leaves no clue or record of its origin, its cost or the maker. We only know that it was doing duty one hundred years ago.
The present clock in the belfry of the First Congregational church was a gift from the late Mrs. Cornelia Pomeroy Newton about twenty years ago.
Burial Grounds
The precise time when the original Suffield "Burying Ground" was used for burials is unknown but undoubtedly it was between the years 1677 and 1683. In making a grant to Robert Old, Octo- ber 30, 1677 of a lot twelve rods broad on the north side of "ye Highway that goes over Muddy Brooke," the committee re- served three lots to the north of Old, "to be granted to some useful persons;" but in March 1683 the town granted to Robert Old "a parcel of land lying below ye Burying Place," indicating that it had been established as such. The next year a committee was appointed to fence in the burying place and to "settle ye bounds." This was done and the record reads: "Layed out by ye order of Town on ye Meeting House Hill a burying place containing one acre and a half, the bounds whereof are as follows, viz: South and west bounded by Robert Old's land; north by Serg. Thomas Huxley, his son's lot; ye east or front upon ye Common land. It is twenty rod in length and twelve rod in breadth and bounded at each corner by stake and stone." The first Meeting House then stood on the Common where the boul- der now is. The next year, 1685, Serg. Thomas Huxley was appointed grave digger, receiving four shillings for graves of per- sons sixteen years old and upward and two shillings and six pence for children. He was also constable and innkeeper. He died in 1721; his son William was grave digger in 1717.
For a long period the care of the burying ground was evidently a difficult subject for the town. In 1698 it was voted "to let the burying ground to Goodman Old, his heirs and successors for his or their sole use and benefit, for the pasturing and feeding of cattel, for the term of twenty years; upon the conditions follow- ing, viz: that said Old, his heirs and successors after him, and at all times duering said term, securing said burying place with a sufficient fence from damage done by hoggs and other creatures.
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The Town engaging to cut down the Bushes in said burying place; said Old alike engage to keep them down as well as he can." This lease expired in 1718, and at a special town meeting that year it was voted that the town bear the charge of clearing the burying place and fencing it "so far as in their part and proper for them to do." Two years later the town granted John Huxley "the use of the burying place for twenty year, provided he clear it and leave it fencet when the time is up." But in town meeting in November 1735, or five years before this lease could have expired, it was voted "that the selectmen Do some- thing as they shall think best about fencing, clearing and laying out ye Burying Yeard." This was more than sixty years after the settlement of the town.
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