USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Southington > Ecclesiastical and other sketches of Southington, Conn > Part 40
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A true copy of ye Record exam'd by HEZ : WYLLYS, Seeret'y.
At a General Assembly held at Hartford, May 11th, 1671. This Court confirm unto ffarmington theyer Bounds Ten miles towards ye South from ye Round Ilill : provided Capt. Clarke injoy his Grant, without those exceptions made in theyer former Grant.
1 So says President Stiles.
2 By order of the School Society of Farmington, a monumental block of red sand stone was erected the present year to the memory of the Indians. It stands in the new burying ground on the bink of the river. The spot is one of sad historical interest, as the following inscription on one side the monument explains :
In memory of the Indian race; especially of the Tunxis tribe, the ancient tenants of these grounds.
The many human skeletons here discovered confirm the tradition that this spot was formerly an Indian burying-place. Tradition further deelares it to be the ground on which a sanguinary battle was fought between the Tunxis and Stockbridge tribes. Some of their scattered remains have been re-interred beneath this stone.
The reverse side of the monument bears the following lines :
Chieftains of a vanished race, In your ancient burying place, By your fathers' ashes blest, Now in peace securely rest Since on life you looked your last,
Changes e'er your land have passed :
Strangers came with iron sway
And your tribes have passed away. But your fate shall cherished be, In the strangers' memory ; Virtue long her watch shall keep Where the red man's ashes sleep.
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
and even marshy. At its feet lay the open meadow. Beyond is the western forest, its border darkening the western hills quite down to their base, the terror of the Indian and the white man; for along its unknown tract for hundreds of miles roamed the dreaded Mohaws, to whom all the tribes in this region were tributary. The Mohawks were fierce and warlike.
" Under these circumstances the settlement began. From the pass in the mountain, through which runs the present road to Hartford, to the original meeting house lot, lots of five acres were laid out for dwellings; those along the main street were bounded west by the river bank, and were divided by the street; the houses being at first erect ed on the western side. South of this the lots were laid out in larger or smaller divisions, still bounded west upon the river. As new set- tlers came in they received lots as the gift of the town, and also by purchase from the older proprietors. In the year 1655,1 fifteen years from the date of the original settlement, the number of rateable per- sons in the town was forty-six, and the grand list of their estates was
1 In 1669, by order of the General Court, the names of all the Freemen of the Col- ony were returned to the Secretary's office.
"Oct. 12, 1669. These are the names of the freemen in ffarmintowne, as follows. Mr. Howkin, Thomas Barnes,
Mr. Hooker,
John Lanekton,
Steven Hart, Senior, Thomas Judd, Senior,
John Warner, Junior,
Leiftenant William Lewes,
Thomas Hosmer,
Ensign Sammuell Steel,
Edmon Scott,
Seargant John Standly,
John Root, Senior,
Seargant John Wadworth,
John Brownson, Senior,
Thomas Orton,
Samnell Cole,
John Norton,
Steven Hart, Junior,
John Woodford,
Richard Seamer,
Thomas Newell, Senior,
Isaac More,
William Judd,
Matthew Woodroff,
Thomas Judd,
John Woodroff,
John Judd,
John North, Senior,
Matthew Webster,
William Smith,
John Adams, Senior,
James Bird,
Robert Porter,
Benjamin Judd,
John Lee,
John Clark,
Thomas Hart,
Joseph Bird,
Thomas Porter, Senior, Moses Ventroos.
Zacree Seamer.
Of this list nine names are the same which appear in the list of landholders in Hartford, in 1639, thirty years before; twenty-seven of the forty-three have the same family names ; three occur in the list of the original church, formed by Thomas Hooker, in Cambridge, in 1633, viz., Stephen Hart, William Lewis, and John Clark ; of this original church Stephen Hart was a deacon.
John Warner, Senior,
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
£5,519, while the number of rateable persons in Hartford was one hundred and seventy-seven, and the sum of their estates was £19,- 609.
" During the first sixty years, the village was gradually increased, till in 1700 it is supposed to have consisted of nearly as many houses as it does at the present time.
"In the year 1672, thirty-two years after the date of the original settlement, the proprietors of the town, at that time eighty-four in number, took possession of the land within the limits of the town, and ordered a division on the following principles:
"They measured from the Round Hill in the Meadow, three miles to the north, two miles sixty-four rods to the east, five miles thirty-two rods to the south, and two miles to the west. The lands within a par- allelogram terminating in these lines, were called the reserved lands, large portions of which had already been taken up, and the remainder was reserved for 'town commons, home lots, pastures and pitches convenient for the inhabitants,' and a common field enclosing the meadows; all without these lands was surveyed and divided to the eighty-four proprietors, according to their property as shown in their lists for taxation, with a double portion for Mr. Hooker, and a various increase for all those whose estates ranged from 10 to £70. The sur- veys and divisions in the western section of the town were made first by dividing the whole into six divisions, of a mile in width, including the highways between, and running eleven miles from north to south. Each of these tiers were divided according to the estate of each, by lines, so that each man had lots a mile in extent from east to west, and varying in width according to his property. The division of the other portions of the town was conducted in much the same manner.
" The surveys were not completed till the year 1728, and they con- stitute the basis of all the titles to land within the towns that have been severed from this.
" In 1685, the year of the accession of James II., on application to the Legislature of the State, a patent was granted, confirming in a formal manner, and by legal phrase, to the proprietors of the town, the tract originally granted in 1645.1 At this time the colonists were greatly alarmed at the prospect of royal encroachments upon their chartered rights, and the formal confirmation of the charter of this town was dictated by their fears, as a necessary security against threat- ened danger.
" The land on the Mattabeset river early attracted the attention of its owners as a desirable place for a new location. Richard Seymour
1 This patent was founded on the charter of Connecticut, granted by Charles II.
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
with others, commenced the settlement at the Great Swamp, eight miles distant from the parent town. The time when the first dwelling was erected is not precisely known.
" 'The Seamor fort' was made of palisades, sixteen feet in length, set upright in the earth and sharpened at the top. Within this fort the inhabitants retired at night for protection from the numerous In- dians.
" The first well which they excavated, still remains, and so also do the relics of the plank which they split from the logs for the purpose of flooring their dwellings. In the year 1712, after they were made a separate society, and when their first minister was ordained, they numbered fourteen families.
"In 1673, in consequence of their acquaintance with the internal lands in Matetacocke or Mattetuck, a number of the inhabitants of Farmington petitioned the assembly to appoint a committee, to view the location, with reference to its fitness for a plantation. Out of this movement originated the settlement of Waterbury, in 1677, which may be considered a colony from this town.
" The relations of the settlers with the Tunxis Indians were uni- formly friendly. No outbreak of an hostile character ever arose be- tween them. Whenever dissatisfaction was apparent, the Indians were assembled, treated with kindness, and 'gratified with presents.'
" For their title to the lands, our fathers rested upon the original agreement with Sequasson, the sachem of Suckiage, and chief sachem of the neighboring tribes. But for the sake of satisfying the natives, this title was afterwards confirmed by two successive agreements, the first in 1650, the second in 1673.
" In the first of these, it is taken for granted, that 'the magistrates bought the whole country to the Moohawks country, of Sequasson the chief sachem.' Then it is noted that the Indians at that time yielded up all their grounds under improvement, and received 'ground in place together compassed about with a creke and trees.' This was now to be staked out, and 'although the English had bargained for the gras for their cows, yet this they let go.' This reservation was that finest portion of the meadow called . Indian Neck.' They also al- lowed the Indians another slip of ground, which was the creek a little north of the Indian monument, called the canoe place, or Indians' landing. It is also agreed that 'whatever improved lands they sur- rendered in the first bargin-making, a like proportion should be broken up for them by the English in the place apoynted for them.'
" It is then added 'that this being done, the Indians have no pro- priety in any other grounds, except for felling wood, for hunting, fish- ing and fowling, provided that no injury is done by the means to the
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
gras or corne of the English, or to the hurt of cattle, or breach of the orders of the country.' It is then noted, 'that it is cleare that all the lands the English have is little werth, till the wisdom, labor and estate of the English be improved upon it, and the magistrates, when they have land for a place give it away to the English to labor upon, and take nothing for it.'
"Item, 'that the peace and plenty that they have had and enjoyed by the presence of the English, in regard of protection of them, and trade with them, makes more to the advantage and comfort of the Indians, though they hire some land, than ever they enjoyed before the coming of the English, when all the lands was in their own dis- posal; and although they do hire in regard of the increase of their company, yet their corn and skins will give a good price, which will counterbalance much more than the hire of their lands, and therefore the Indians have reason to live loveingly among the English by whom their lives are preserved, and their estates and comfort advantaged.' . In this we the chief Indians, in the name of all the rest acknowl- edge, and we engage ourselves to make no quarrels about this matter.' This agreement was signed by John Haynes and Pethuz and Ahamo his son, with their appropriate heraldic devices. It was witnessed by Stephen Hart, Thomas Judd, Thomas Thomson, Isaak More, Thomas Stanton, and Roger Newton.
"This title was again confirmed in 1673, by a recognition of the former agreement. In this new treaty there is reserved to the Indi- ans two hundred acres of upland, which they are forbidden to sell without leave, together with the Indian Neck. There is also given a map of the land sold, as measured from Wepansock, or the Round Hill, ten miles south, eight west, three miles east, and five miles north, This is signed by twenty-six Indians, chiefs, squaws, and sons, with their appropriate devices.
"In 1681, Massacope gives a quit-claim deed of all this land. He was probably a Mattabeset Indian, and with his son signs the agree ment for valuable considerations, and 'gratification at the time of sale.' Not satisfied with the limits as specified in the deed, he went out and for himself examined and marked the boundaries.
" Notwithstanding all these precautions, the early settlers of this town were often filled with fear and alarm. In 1642, the General Court took measures in reference to a hostile gathering and plot of the Indians about Tunxis. In 1657, the house of John Hart was de- stroyed by fire, and his family consumed, with the exception of one
son. In the same year Mr. Scott was cruelly murdered. The house of Mr. Hart was near the centre of the village, that of Mr. Scott on the border of 'the great plains.' Both these acts were ascribed to
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
Meshupano as principal, and his accessories. For firing the house, the Farmington Indians paid each year a heavy tribute for seven years, 'eighty faddome of wampum, well stung and merchantable.' The year after complaint is made of the bullet shot into the town from the garrison of the natives, and also of their entertainment of strange Indians, and they are ordered to find another garrison. In 1662 we find them quarrelling with the Podunks, of Windsor. In 1689 and 1704, which were years of alarm from distant Indians, houses were fortified, and stores of ammunition were provided. These fortified houses were strongly guarded by double doors, and narrow windows. The years named were years of alarm throughout New England, as in consequence of war between England and France, the colonies were threatened with incursions from the north and east, by French and Indians.
" The settlers of this town were early gathered into a church. This took place it is supposed about 1645, when Mr. Roger Newton was installed their first pastor. Mr. Newton was one of 'those young scholars' mentioned by Cotton Mather, who came over from Eng- land with their friends and completed their education in this country. He married Mary, the daughter of Mr. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, and probably completed his education under his instruction. He re- mained here till 1658, generally approved, when he removed by invi- tation to the more ancient and larger church at Milford, where he labored with acceptance till his death in 1683. His widow was among the eighty-four proprietors of the town.
" In July, 1661, Mr. Samuel Hooker, son of Thomas Hooker, 'the light of the western churches,' was installed the pastor of this church, having received his degree at Harvard College in 1653. He continued the pastor of this church till his death, November 6th, 1697, and was esteemed 'an animated and pious divine.' He was according to the testimony of Rev. Mr. Pitkin, 'an excellent preacher, his composition good, his address pathetic, warm and engaging,' and as story relates, he informed a friend of his that he had three things to do with his sermons before he delivered them in public, 'to write them, commit them unto his memory, and get them into his heart.'
" From this notice, and the well-known fact, that his father was famed throughout New England for the force and fire of his pulpit eloquence, we have reason to believe that he was a warm hearted and eloquent preacher. His death was deplored as 'a great breach upon this people,' and his memory was embalmed in the affections of his flock.
" IIe was a fellow of Harvard College, was employed in 1662. one of a committee of four to treat with New Haven in reference to a
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
union with Connecticut, and was esteemed throughout the state, an eminent and influential minister. Cotton Mather says of him at the conclusion of the life of his father, 'as Ambrose would say concern. ing Theodosius,' ' Non totus recessus, reliquit nobis liberos in quibus eum debemus agnoscere et in quibus eum cernimus et tenemus;' thus we have to this day among us our dead Hooker, yet living in his wor- thy son, Mr. Samuel Hooker, an able, faithful, useful minister at Farmington, in the colony of Connecticut. He resided at the place now occupied by the house of Solomon Cowles,1 was a large land- holder, and had eleven children, and among his descendents are named many of the most distinguished families and individuals of New Eng- land. His daughter Mary, married Rev. Mr. Pierpont of New Haven, and was the mother of Sarah the wife of Jonathan Edwards.
" Next to the church of God, (or rather as essential to the continu- ance and prosperity of the church,) in the estimation of our fathers, was ranked the school. Through the deficiency of our early records, we cannot trace the vestiges of their earliest care; but as far back as we can find regular records of their proceedings, we find its wants as were those of the church, the annual care of the town. In Decem- ber, 1682, the town vote £10 towards maintaining a school, and ap- pointed a committee to employ a teacher. In December, 1683, they make the same appropriation, and order every man to pay four shil- lings a quarter for each child that should be sent. Again they vote 'to give £30 for a man to teach school for one year, provided they can have a man that is so accomplished as to teach children to read and write, and to teach the grammar, and also to step into the pulpit to be helpful there in time of exigency., and this school to be a free school for this town.' In another vote about this period, they order the services of a teacher to be secured who can teach Latin also.
" Year by year, we find similar records, till 1700, when the colonial assembly having directed forty shillings on every £1000 in the grand levy to be devoted to education, this town voted to add to the same a sufficient sum to maintain the schools for a certain portion of the year.
" We have thus far followed the scene which gradually opened dur. ing the first sixty years of the history of this settlement. During this period the inhabitants by degrees became more numerous, but
1 Upon the homestead of Mr. Cowles is an apple tree still in bearing condition which was a sprout from the stump of a tree that was brought over from England to Mr. Hooker. There is in the Bible formerly owned by Roger Hooker, Esq., a tolerably complete genealogical table of the descendents of Rev. Samuel Hooker. In this it is stated that the Rev. Thomas Hooker of Hartford was a relative of Richard the "ju- dicious Hooker."
48
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
with the exception of the colony near 'the Seamor-fort' and two or three houses on the northern borders of the great plain, they were as yet scattered for two miles or more along the street. The upland near their dwellings had been slowly cleared and the forest still lin- gered in sight, along the foot of the mountain. The western woods were yet an unbroken wilderness. save the opening which had been made by the Indians, as they retreated in 1672, to their reservation across the meadows, and rallied around a new burying place for their dead. On the south was . the white-oak plain,' still unsubdued, and the 'great plain' was thickly crowded with its growth of birches and tangled shrub-oaks. It was not till 1695, that a highway was laid through this district of the town. The meadows still furnished our fathers their grass for the long winter, and the corn for their favorite dish. From the upland and the drier portions of the meadow, they harvested their wheat, and rye, and peas. The meadow was a com- mon field, inclosed by a sufficient fence. and shut during the growing of the crops against the intrusion of cattle. The river furnished to the English and the natives, its overflowing abundance of shad and sahnon, and the west woods abounded in deer, in wolves, and pan- thers.
"In the forest up the mountain, and especially in the interval be- tween the first and second range, was their common place of pasturage, and this portion of the town was long reserved for that object. The meeting house lot was as yet a noble common of several acres. A canoe with ropes was furnished at the north end of the street, by which the river was crossed, as it was not till 1725, that the first bridge was erected at this place. At the annual town meeting, no man might be absent who valued his twelve-pence. Then were chosen the townsmen, the register, the fence viewers, the chimney viewers, so necessary in those days of wooden mantels, of ill-constructed chimneys, and of enormous fires, their tything men, and last, not least, their one constable, who was to them the right arm of the king himself; a functionary treated with reverent awe, and obeyed with implicit deference. Whoso- ever resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God. Two men be- sides Mr. Hooker, bore the appellation of Mr .; Mr. Antony Howkin and Mr. John Wadsworth. Nor may we forget to name Capt. Wm. Lewis, Capt. John Stanley, Ensign Thos. Hart, and Sargt. Wm. Judd.
" Their communication with the other towns was infrequent. Occa- sionally a traveler would appear by the path from Hartford, with news from their friends and kindred there, or a message of alarm from his Excellency, the Governor, and now and then some one would emerge from the forest by the 'New Haven path' with tidings from that com- mercial emporium, or from the lands beyond the seas.
" The Indians were still here by hundreds. Within their slip of land
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
reserved near the village, their canoes might be seen every day filling the little creek that put in from the river, and their owners were stalk- ing along the streets, now trying the Indian's cunning, and now frown- ing with an Indian's wrath. A few are gathered into the Christian church; a few admitted as freemen; and a missionary school embrac. ing sometimes fifteen or sixteen, is taught by Mr. Newton, and perhaps by Mr. Hooker.
" The Sabbath was the great and central day of the week; a day of awful and yet of rapturous joy. As the drum1 beat its wonted and pleasant sound of invitation, they resorted to the house of worship with cheerful steps. Here they were roused and comforted by the fervent Hooker. Here they forgot their weekly labors in the forest, their fear of famine, their terror of the natives far and near, the armed guard that stood before the sanctuary, and the necessity that had planted it there. Here, too, they forgot their fear lest the parent government should place over them a church from which they had fled. Yes, they even ceased to think of their brethren who were faithful at home, and their brethren who were suffering worse upon the continent; for all their trials and all their fears, and most of all their lonely dwelling- place, made them realize the more that they were 'pilgrims and strang- ers on the earth,' and forced them to gaze with more earnest intenseness upon the brightness that flashed from the walls of the eternal city. Too rapidly did the sands fall in the hour-glass. Too soon did they cease and their service is done. On the Sabbath, too, they meet their friends from the Seymour neighborhood, eight miles distant, who came to the house of God, a goodly company, crossing a mountain by a footpath, whose sacred remnants are still to be seen; the men armed against the savage, and the females carrying the infants which they dared not leave behind. At the interval between the hours of wor- ship, they invite them to their homes, and there partake with them of a plain but plentiful repast. From the house of God they return at evening, to spend the remaining hours of sacred rest in joyful reflec- tion upon the truth there heard, doubly grateful for a church such as they loved, though it were in the wilderness. Then they instruct their children with strict and judicious care, and close the day by commit- ting themselves and theirs to the care of the Almighty. To men situa- ted as were they, his protection was more than a name; for desolate indeed was their lot, if he cared not for them.
" Day by day through the week the instruction of the children is pros- ecuted in patriarchal simplicity, and with patriarchal faithfulness. The sacred presence of parental restraint follows the child wherever he goes. He enters not a door where there is not the same subduing in-
1 The drum is still preserved.
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HISTORY OF SOUTHINGTON.
fluence; while law with its majestic presence fills the very atmosphere in which he breathes.
"Here was vigorous manhood, a body strengthened by youthful toils, delighting in its stern contests with labor and danger; and a soul sub- dued while it is lifted up by divine and human law, and kindled by the fires of prayer and hope. Here was society fulfilling its aims and perfecting its influences, as it never had done before. Thus passed the earlier period in the annals of this ancient town, when here was its one house of worship, its one pastor honored and loved, its one center, with a single colony at the east.
"The period following was attended with many changes. and gave a new aspect to its history. The first and most important of these is the rapid settlement of its outer portions, and their final separation from our borders.
" In 1705, leave was granted to so many of the inhabitants, 'as do personally inhabit the Great Swamp,' to become a ministerial society, as soon as they should obtain a capable minister. In 1712, Mr. Wil- liam Burnham is installed their pastor on the following terms-that a parcel of land should be secured to him, that his house should be fin- ished, 'he finding glass and nails;' that his salary for four years should be £50 per annum, and after that £65; that labor to the amount of £5 a year should be bestowed on his land, and that his fire- wood should be furnished, brought home, and be made ready and fit for the fire.
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