USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Colonial history of Hartford, Connecticut > Part 30
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1 Lyon's Colonial Furniture of New England, p. 255.
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The tenants of the old printing-office changed frequently. There Cotton Murray, a "tailor from Boston," made men's clothes of leather, as well as cloth, in 1770. The next year Edward Dodd, Jr. sold English goods there, and rum also. In 1776, and for several years, Deodat Williams, a gold- smith and jeweller, and George Burnham, in the same business, were tenants. The same year, Nathaniel Patten, a book-binder and stationer, established himself there. He removed, in 1777, to a shop north of the Court House, where he became a publisher about 1780. In this building, Lynde and Marble from Worcester, in 1777, opened a shop for the sale of drugs and medicines, and Josiah Blakeley had a store. He advertised, in the newspaper printed on the floor above, that he had gunpowder for sale. These shops must have been small, and some of them in the rear. The printing-office was one of the town's landmarks. Ad- vertisers referred to it in locating their shops as they did to the North Meeting House or the Bridge. The building long occupied by Peter Lux was formerly known as the Doolittle place, and the printing-office was just south of it.
On the home-lot of Nathaniel Hooker there were buildings, when he acquired it, with a well, trees and a garden. When he died in 1711, he had a shop there, in which he sold dry- goods, and also a "shop warehouse." The widow, Mary Hooker, married John Austin, another early merchant. Her son, Nathaniel Hooker, inherited the homestead and the business. At his death in 1763, the property passed to the widow, Eunice Hooker, and the son Horace. In the shop, Benoni Chalker was a tenant in 1765. Here, or in another building on the premises, Henshaw and Hamlin, braziers and pewterers, were established in 1767. Among the tenants during the Revolution, was Josiah W. Gibbs, who sold knives, forks, linen, shoes, etc. He advertised, in 1775, that he had escaped from Boston and set up a shop at Mrs. Hooker's, the next door north of the printing-office. Later, a new shop was erected and occupied by Daniel Hinsdale. Stephen Austin, a tailor by trade and a dry- goods merchant, acquired the north part of the Hooker lot before 1775, and kept a store there during the Revolution. In 1782 he sold to Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth. The
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place then had upon it a brick mansion-house, stores and other buildings. Next north of this lot, Nicholas Brown, a chair or chaise and harness-maker, was established in 1769. He advertised, in 1771, that he was building a stage- coach for the accommodation of passengers from Hartford to New Haven. He bought this place in 1773. When the war broke out, he advertised it for sale. He had then a house, shop and barn. John Thomas secured the property, by execution, in 1783, and two years later Nicholas Brown, then of Shelburn, Nova Scotia, quitclaimed it. Along its north side, there was a passway to the south door of the meeting-house, for which part of the Hooker lot had been taken.
North of the First Church property, the ancient cemetery then extended for some distance out to the street. The history of this tract has been exhaustively studied by Mr. Albert L. Washburn, and nothing need be added to printed authorities.1 Near its northeast corner, the town gave liberty, in 1771, for the erection of the school-house elsewhere described. The vote states that it was "south of the Bar- bers Shop in the Pofsefsion & Occupancy of James Mookler." This "noted and well accomplished artist" was an Irish- man, who came to Hartford before 1758, and that year married Sabra Center. His shop was on the first floor of a rented building, near the south line of the Lord lot, which extended from the burying-ground to Pearl Street. On December 5, 1765, his memorial for a "place" was before the town. Probably this was without immediate results, for, in 1771, when the school-house was located, he was granted liberty to erect an addition to his shop on the burying-ground "next to Mr Lords Lott." He was granted six feet and took about twice that. This property passed, in 1786, to Prosper Hosmer.2 In the old shop Mookler
1 Washburn's Study and Plan in The Hartford Times, Oct. 4, 1899. See also "The Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford," by Mrs. Emily S. G. Holcombe, in Connecticut Quarterly, IV: 73 ff .; Hoadly's "List of Burials," with Notes by Miss Mary K. Talcott in Connecticut Quarterly, IV: 180, 264, 417; V: 118, 186, 242, 290, 336, 382, 426, 481, 520; The Hartford Courant, Feb. 4, 1893, Feb. 6, 1895, Nov. 21, 1899, March 29, 1905, May 16 and 29, 1912; The Hartford Times, Dec. 11, 1896; Nov. 1, 1897, Oct. 31, 1898, June 17 and Oct. 4, 1899, Nov. 5, 1902.
2 Hartford Land Records, 14: 353; 16: 354; 17: 18, 19, 151, 491; Hartford Town Votes, MS. Vol. II: 208, 236, 237, 317.
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was located in 1768, when he warned his customers to "make immediate settlement or expect Trouble," as he was going on a voyage to Europe. He advertised his shop in 1769, as "within a stone's throw of the North Meeting House." Barber was told by Mr. George Goodwin, the senior editor of The Connecticut Courant, who was then in his eightieth year, that "he commenced his apprenticeship with Mr. Green, at the age of eight or nine years, in his office over Mooklar's barber's shop, the first printing office in Hartford." 1 This must have been, therefore, the first home of that ancient newspaper. Its issues from October 29, 1764, to March 25, 1765, inclusive, state that it was published "at the Heart and Crown near the North Meeting House," and it probably continued there until the week following its issue of May 6, 1765. Mr. Albert C. Bates has suggested that the device on the headlines of the early numbers was copied from its sign, as the cut displays both heart and crown.2 One item in the inventory of Ebenezer Watson was, "Iron for Sign." Thus little is left to the imagination in picturing the birthplace of the Courant.
North of Mookler's shop, on the lot of John Haynes Lord, there were several small buildings used for shops. One was rented in 1768, by Robert Currie, a cabinet-maker. Another was occupied later, by Ebenezer Austin, a gold- smith, formerly with James Tiley on King Street, and, in 1782, at Mrs. Chenevard's, near the State House.3 Barber assigns a third to William Gove, called "Old Gove," a shoemaker. Thomas Hilldrup was in one of these in 1775.
During the Revolutionary period there were several shops on the road from "Lords Corner" to the prison, now Pearl Street. In 1778, John Hill, formerly with Charles Wright, at the next door to Widow Collyers, sold leather breeches, at the sign of the "Cock and Breeches," on the south side of the street. Ely Warner had advertised the same goods, in 1775, at the gaol, and William Smith at his shop a few rods north of it. On the north corner at Main Street, was the
1 Barber's Conn. Hist. Coll. p. 49. 2 The Hartford Courant, April 3, 1912.
3 Austin advertised for sale in 1782 "The whole Apparatus of a Gold-Smiths and Jeweller's tools-confisting of large and fmall Anvils, Hammers of all sizes compleat, large Bellowfes, Patterns and Drafts of all kinds of work, including the whole Articles to carry on the Bufinefs."
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home of John Nevins, "cooper and butcher." William Imlay secured a lot west of this in 1778, with a shop upon it, which had been occupied by Captain Hugh Ledlie. Mr. Imlay had married Mary, the widow of Joseph Church and daughter of Robert Nevins. North of the Nevins home, was the store of James Church, where the State Bank now is. On the second floor of this store, "opposite the Court House and next door to Mr. Bull's Tavern," was the second home of The Connecticut Courant. It was published here from May 13, 1765, to December 5, 1768. Its sign was still "the Heart and Crown." Along Central Row there were also shops, some of them concealed in the rear to this day, as elsewhere shown. At the southeast corner of the square, Ebenezer Barnard dealt in horses. In the same locality, Bavil Webster was established in 1780, as a printer, being "a few rods south of the State House," or "southeast of the Court House." Several publications about that time bear his imprint. In 1783, he issued The Freeman's Chronicle or American Advertiser. Some prominent mer- chants were located on State Street, known in colonial times as "King Street." On the south side, Lathrop and Smith were established in 1763. In 1770, Smith and Coit succeeded them, and Dr. Solomon Smith conducted the business, alone, from 1778 to his death, in 1786. Dr. Smith was one of the prominent physicians of the town. His shop was that of an apothecary, or druggist and bookseller. On the southwest corner of State and Front streets, was the store of Caleb Bull, kept later by James and Hezekiah Bull. Captain John Keith's homestead and shop were on the northwest corner. He died in 1775. West of this, was the shop of James Tiley, where William Tiley had been. The former was a well-known goldsmith and jeweller for many years. This building is still standing. After the Revolution, the trade in this street increased, and other shops were erected. At the present west corner of Market Street, there was a small building occupied by John Law- rence, treasurer of the State from 1769 to 1789. Here he conducted the Continental Loan Office. His home and that of his son William Lawrence, a storekeeper, farther west, are often recalled. Beyond this, was the Edwards home-
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stead. The one or more shops on the premises were favorite locations for business before and during the Revolution, as the advertisements prove. This is also true of the Collyer homestead west of it, where both dry-goods and wet goods were sold.
In 1775, the residents on the highway from Exchange Corner northward, called in colonial times "Queen Street," had just begun to appreciate the advantages of their loca- tion for trade. The succeeding generation witnessed great changes. On the corner, George Smith, a sea captain, had a mansion-house, shop and warehouse, in 1762. These buildings were devoted to business. Here John Morgan kept his store, until he removed to Morgan Street. North of this, on the east side of the street, was Dr. Normand Morrison's homestead. Beyond, was the store of Captain Caleb Bull Jr., who sold dry-goods and provisions. The early location of Gardner and Jepson was next. The latter succeeded to the business, his sign being also the "Uni- corn and Mortar." He removed thence to the South- side, and Dr. Richard Tidmarsh located here. This was one of the several places where Thomas Hilldrup repaired watches and kept the post-office. Richard Shepard, a tailor, had a shop north of this, perhaps the same where Caleb and Ebenezer Moor sold laces and fringes in 1776. Timothy Phelps, whose home was next, was a cabinet- maker, and probably worked at his trade on the premises. The north part of his lot passed, in 1784, to Dr. John Endi- cott, but he may have been a tenant earlier. In 1783, William Moseley acquired a lot north of this, and in this neighborhood, where Colonel Samuel Talcott occupied his ancestral home, we find Jeremiah Platt, Pelatiah Pierce and other merchants, toward the close of the Revolutionary War.
On the west side of Queen Street, north of Bull's Tavern, there were in 1775 several homes of farmers, who still con- tinued the early uses of their lots. The first was owned by Captain Samuel Wadsworth. His house stood on an em- bankment said to have been eight feet high, near the north corner of Asylum Street. He had a barn and cowyard on the west. Joseph and William Pratt were living on the lot that had been in the possession of that family since the
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settlement. Here Thomas Sloan, whose earlier location had been on the south side of Pearl Street, had a blacksmith shop. Zachariah Pratt, also a farmer, was north of him. Beyond was the Maynard Day lot, on which Thomas Con- verse had earlier erected a shop, being on the west side of "the Broad Street." Here Converse and Stone made and sold breeches, at the "Sign of the Breeches," in 1770. Presumably it was here, also, that Thomas Converse adver- tised in 1771 to sell English and India goods. Cotton Murray was located here in 1773. Dr. Eliakim Fish bought one rood at the southeast corner of Samuel Day's lot in 1774, and erected there a house. North of this, part of the Day lot was sold in 1776 to Moses Morse, from whose son Moses it passed, in 1784, to Captain William Bull, with the house and buildings. Here he had a store. Perhaps this is where Barber locates Dr. Lemuel Hopkins's shop. The Olcott lot was next. Here, Joseph Olcott sold, in 1759, three acres to Charles Caldwell. Part of this was sold, in 1762, to the committee of the Episcopal Church. North of this, Charles Caldwell sold a lot, with a dwelling-house and shop, in 1763, to Samuel Mattocks of New Haven. In 1765, he advertised as a wig-maker. He became a captain in the Revolution- ary War, and his son John a governor of Vermont. About 1780, Cotton Murray opened here a tavern "at the sign of the Globe," which he kept for some years. After passing the Talcott and Wadsworth properties, with which the reader already has some acquaintance, we may fittingly end our journey.
At the close of Hartford's colonial history there was scarcely a building in the town devoted to trade that could be called either spacious or ornamental. The larger stores usually had several tenants. Most of them were small wooden buildings, occupied by the shop-keepers of earlier times. Those that survived into the nineteenth century were then considered insignificant. It is evident, however, that the location of Hartford, which rendered it compara- - tively safe from dangers during the Revolutionary War, greatly augmented interest in its business life. After that struggle was over, it stood on the threshold of an opportunity, for which it had waited one hundred and fifty years.
CHAPTER XIX
HOMES OF COLONIAL TIMES
THE New England colonists of the seventeenth century were remarkably successful in their home-building. This ability had been credited to their race in those times. The Englishman, though cast away on a lonely island like Rob- inson Crusoe, soon surrounded himself with many of the conveniences of civilization. Whatever may have been due to this instinctive trait, their high conception of the family as essential to social welfare, their appreciation of the home as the source of many ennobling joys, and the loving industry they lavished upon it, were very important factors in the success of our forefathers. The truth disclosed in the records is that most of the original settlers of the River Plantations, who did not suffer from sickness or disaster, and lived to the natural limit of their years, secured good estates and comfortable homes. To a remarkable degree, they founded families that are worthy of honor among their widely scat- tered descendants, for intelligent piety, high morals, persist- ent industry and heroic service.
It is proposed to study the colonial homes of Hartford. We have no pictures of them as they appeared in their best days, but so many details are given in deeds and inventories, that we may gather a fairly intimate acquaintance with them and their surroundings. We can not now obtain admittance by tapping on the oaken door, walk leisurely through the family's hall - that living-room for which every Englishman had an inborn affection - and inspect the furniture of their various apartments; but we know very well the several plans, after one of which all those houses were built, and through their inventories, we can determine the general size, num- ber of rooms and arrangement within. In some instances, a good estimate can be made of the proportions of an ances- tor's hall, and a list of its contents can be given to a reverent
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descendant to arrange. So we lack but little, after all, of visiting them in their colonial homes, to appreciate which, let us humbly admit, the unrest of this age, our materialistic ideals and modern luxuries have largely unfitted us.
What was the ideal of home in the minds of these Puritan settlers? Their success should be measured by that. They did not come from lordly halls. The majority were of the middle class, of good families, but unaccustomed to large houses and a luxurious life. To the average Englishman of those times, the house was a habitation in the midst of a tract of land, with trees, shrubbery, flowers and gardens, if not also fields. Such surroundings were necessary to fill out for him the ideal of a home. Some of the emigrants are known to have sold such properties in England. That country was then a realm of rural life. It had few cities. So it was natural that, to each original settler, there should be distributed a tract of about two acres "for a houfe lott." This was soon developed and recorded as "a parcell on which his dwellinge houfe now standeth wth other Outhoufes, yards & gardens." He had owned this tract long enough, in "Febr: Anno: dom: 1639," to construct this home. When John Allyn, in 1655, bought Edward Elmer's home- lot, it was particularly described as having "outhoufes, barn, yards, orchards & gardens therein." Orchards and gardens are frequently added in later records. They be- came adjuncts of most homes. Often the place where a settler had thus established himself was termed his "home lot" - a significant and appropriate designation, to cover all that was included in an Englishman's ideal of home. If he, or his descendants, sold the place later, it was often termed in the deed the "homestead." These ancient homes in the country are so designated now. Until commercial life began to wander from its earlier centers, Hartford was a town of such homesteads. A visitor from abroad refers to it as having "broad ftreets, trees on the fides and hand- fome houfes." On the west side of the country road, between Pearl Street and the Little River, there were only four family residences when the town was a century old. Few streets of that length had more. They were scattered everywhere among the trees within the town-plot. In
THE ISAAC BLISS HOMESTEAD
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time, these rural features began to disappear. We have now only a few colonial houses in Hartford. Most of the sur- vivors are greatly altered, and none of them conveys an idea of the original surroundings.
The familiar picture of the Isaac Bliss homestead best illustrates the general appearance of these colonial homes. It stood on the west side of Trinity Street. In 1786, its location was given as at the west end of the street leading from the Great Bridge toward the Upper Mills, on the south side of the Little River. Here Zebulon Seymour acquired part of the Mygatt lot, and, in 1733, sold a small tract to Daniel Bull, who added another purchase on the south of it, in 1738. He also acquired, at the latter date, part of Robert King's land on the north. This was Daniel Bull's homestead. He probably erected his house soon after his first purchase. In 1762, he was living there, when, on ac- count of business embarrassments, he mortgaged his home to William Bayard, a merchant of New York. The property was never redeemed, and it was one of those confiscated by authority of the General Assembly in 1780, Colonel William Bayard having "joined the enemies of his country." The next year, John Lawrence, Treasurer of Connecticut, sold it to Colonel John Broom. There was then upon it a dwell- ing-house, barn, shop, tanhouse and other buildings. This owner sold the property in 1786, to Isaac Bliss, a tanner, who lived there many years. Through a painting of it, recently presented by his granddaughter, Miss Charlotte Tyler, to the Connecticut Historical Society, we have an illustration of a colonial home, dating from the first half of the eigh- teenth century. It remained without material alterations to times when some of the living remember its old-fashioned and comfortable appearance, with its gardens, shrubbery, trees and outbuildings. The Bliss elm in West Bushnell Park survives to mark the location. A famous spring under the hill supplied this homestead and its tanvats with water. It is said to have been connected in recent times with a drain emptying into the Little River.
This early ideal of a home did not demand a large house. The dug-outs of the pioneers were for temporary use. They began at once the erection of houses. Some of them were
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of logs, built to serve until a more convenient season. When they had erected frame buildings, these were utilized as barns. Log houses continued in use during early years among the poorer settlers. They were of small size - perhaps about twenty or thirty feet long - with a chim- ney at one end, and a thatched roof. Probably Richard Lyman was living in such a house, at his death in 1641, as his inventory names no rooms, and he had on hand "squared tymber, planke & board" necessary for a framed house. Some of the early framed houses were small, only a story, or a story-and-a-half, in height. They had a chimney in the middle. On one side, was the hall or living-room; and, on the other, the parlor, sometimes called in such houses a "chamber," being used for that purpose. There was a low lodging room or "loft" above, lighted by small end windows. It was reached by a narrow stairway in front of the chim- ney, at the foot of which was the main doorway. From the inventories of William Spencer, Seth Grant and Robert Day, who died early, it seems probable that they occupied such houses, expecting doubtless to build greater shortly. The rule, however, for those who had means, was to erect two- story houses. These were generally accepted as models for many years. It is evident that Timothy Stanley, William Whiting, Rev. Thomas Hooker, William Pantry, John Talcott, Richard Lord, Rev. Samuel Stone, Edward Steb- bins, Nathaniel Ruscoe, Gregory Wolterton and others, who died before King Philip's War, had houses of this type, with perhaps a leanto added, or alterations made after the origi- nal house was erected. The leanto appeared as early as 1643, and probably earlier. It served such a useful purpose in providing a kitchen, buttery, or closet, and kitchen- chamber, that it found general favor, especially with increas- ing families. Such houses had a great central chimney, with a fireplace on one side for the hall, and on the other for the parlor. With a leanto, a kitchen flue was added to the chimney, sometimes providing a brick oven. The front door opened into a small entry, called a porch, whence there was a stairway to the second floor, and another under it to the cellar. The porch occasionally projected, with a gable above, as in the house that Barber in his Historical Collections,
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has attributed to Rev. Thomas Hooker. The room above this porch was his study. It was often called a "porch chamber," or "little chamber." On the second floor, there were usually two chambers, named, according to their loca- tion, the "hall chamber" and "parlor chamber." Often there was a fireplace in each. The garret, also, was some- times furnished with a bed, and always used more or less for storage, especially of grain. On account of the projec- tion or "overhang" of the second floor, the upper story rooms were slightly larger. A few inventories mention rooms that suggest another arrangement, or an addition to the house. In most cases, this was occasioned by a division of certain large rooms with a partition, anticipating the four room plan of later times. In Rev. Samuel Stone's house, we find a study with a fireplace, but there was no such provision in his hall chamber. He evidently divided the latter room into two, using the rear one, which had access to the chimney, for his study. Sometimes this room was called the "middle chamber," being between the little hall chamber and the chamber above a leanto kitchen. The inventory of Richard Lord, who died in 1662, refers to a "Little Chamber over the Hall," which apparently had no fireplace. It also mentions a "Middle Chamber over the Hall," which was furnished with andirons. In some larger houses, the hall itself was divided. John Pantry had an "old parlor" and a "new parlor." The house of Rev. Thomas Hooker had the same rooms. Over each, in the pastor's house, there was a chamber in connection with which the chimney is mentioned. There was apparently no such accommodation in either his hall or hall chamber. As the chimney could have served only four rooms of the main building, we conjecture that his new parlor was the rear of the divided hall, as in other instances. Probably it had a fireplace, though none is named in his inventory made two years after his death, when there may have been another arrangement of furniture. There were no beds on the first floor of this house. The pastor's books were doubtless kept in his study over the porch; but it would be strange if he used that small room in the winter time, with a snug apartment below, like his new parlor. This arrangement
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