USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington papers > Part 10
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name, who, in his memorial to the General Assembly in May, 1725, says: "Your memorialist in the summer last past at Litchfield, being a soldier there, killed an Indian (one of the common enemy) by the help of God." The Assembly voted him thirty pounds, whereupon one Na- thaniel Watson of Windsor, encouraged by his success, represented to the Assembly, that he too made a shot at an Indian at the same time as Mr. Woodruff, and thought he hit him, but the General Assembly thought otherwise. The following year the New Milford Indians held dances in war-paint and barbarously murdered a child, whereupon the Governor and Council ordered all painted Indians to be treated as enemies. John Hooker, William Wadsworth, and Isaac Cowles, or any two of them, were ordered to " inspect the Indians of Farmington every day about sunset " who were required to give " an account of their rambles and business the preceding day." Submission to such an infringement of their personal liberty shows the peaceful character of the Tunxis Indians. In October fol- lowing they were allowed their former liberty, provided they abstained from war-paint and wore a white cloth on their heads while in the woods. The danger was soon over, and no Connecticut town suffered actual violence.
In October 23, 1739, England declared war against Spain, and Connecticut was called upon for two companies of 100 men each which sailed in September of the following year under Captains Roger Newberry and John Silliman to join the disastrous expedition of Admiral Vernon against Carthagena. Of the 1,000 men from New England, scarcely 100 returned. What was the quota of Farmington does not appear or the names of the men. The folly and rashness of Vernon, bringing sorrow to a thousand homes, did not prevent the poet Thomson from singing his praises
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or Lawrence Washington from naming Mount Vernon in his honor. Five years of comparative quiet pass. On the 4th of March, 1745, France declares war and once more lets loose her savage allies upon the English frontiers. Her stronghold was the fortress of Louisburg on the island of Cape Breton, and no lasting peace seemed possible until Canada, and, first of all, this fortress, was wrested from her. ' An expedition of New England troops, under the direction of Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts, defended from molestation seaward by British men of war, was sent for its reduction and captured it June 17th, a day subsequently memorable as the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill. Connecticut sent 500 men besides 100 in the colony's sloop, Defense, and 200 more during the siege. Of the company from this vicinity Timothy Root of Farmington was lieuten- ant, and died at Cape Breton in April after the surrender. He was the great-great-grandfather of T. H. and L. C. Root. I know of no list of the soldiers of his company. Dr. Samuel Richards, who practiced as a physician in numer- ous towns in this vicinty and died in Plainville, learned the rudiments of his professional knowledge in the hospital established for the New England troops. Another soldier in this campaign, as appears from his memorial to the General Court, was Ebenezer Smith, son of Jonathan, who lived on the south side of the road to Hartford, near where Mr. Martin O'Meara now lives. He removed to New Britain, and his gravestone describes him as late of Farm- ington. Ebenezer Lee and Gershom Orvis, in the company of Adonijah Fitch, were probably identical with Farming- ton men of that name. In May, 1746, twenty men were ordered as scouts to the county of Hampshire, Massachu- 4391- Village Library 11-13-24 Gal. 39 setts, and forty more for a similar service "between the
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enemy's borders and the borders of the British plantation." By request of his Majesty's government a new expedition against Canada was organized. In May the General Court ordered 600 men raised, and in June increased the number to 1,000, but the ships for their support were sent elsewhere and the colonies given over to destruction by the formidable French fleet under d'Anville, which proposed to wipe out every vestige of Englishmen and their hated religion from the western continent. Pestilence and the war of the ele- ments came to their relief, and the New England divines thanked the Almighty for a repetition of the story of Sen- nacherib the Assyrian. The war ended with the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, April 30, 1748.
For seven years the colony had a respite from war, but in 1754, without any declaration of war, the French began to extend their line of forts around the English settlements, which led to four expeditions to break their line in 1755 - one against the Ohio, resulting in Braddock's defeat and Washington's first lesson in war; one against Nova Scotia, familiar to the readers of Longfellow's Evangeline; one against Niagara, and one against Crown Point. For the latter service Connecticut raised 1,500 men in four com- panies of 750 men each, who participated in the bloody but indecisive battle of September 6th at Lake George. As a result of the Nova Scotia expedition, some of the Arcadians were sent to Connecticut, and more, to the number of 400, being expected, the General Court ordered fourteen sent to Farmington as its proper proportion. So ended the year 1755. Of Farmington soldiers, we can identify Ezekiel Lewis, sergeant; Ebenezer Orvis, ensign; and Privates Bela Lewis, Samuel Bird, and Noah Porter, father of the late Dr. Noah Porter and grandfather of President Porter. Deacon Noah Porter, who served in this expedition, lived
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in his boyhood in the house of his father Robert which stood where now stands the brick house built by the late Francis W. Cowles, next north of Miss Adgate's pharmacy. The house was given him by his father on his marriage in 1764, and was occupied by him until about 1781, when, after the birth of Dr. Porter, he removed to what is now the town farm on the road to Avon. This he sold in 1809 and re- turned to village life at the house of his son, then the pastor of the church of which the father had been for thirty-four years a deacon.
For the campaign of 1756 against Crown Point the Connecticut Colony ordered 2,500 men raised and formed into four regiments, and in October, in response to the urgent call of the Earl of Loudon for reinforcements, eight additional companies of 100 men each were ordered raised out of the town train-bands, Josiah Lee of Farmington to be captain of one of the companies. They were no sooner raised than Loudon concluded to go into winter quarters three months before the usual time and do nothing. The troops were accordingly dismissed, and so ended .the in- glorious campaign of 1756. In this campaign were Ezekiel Lewis, lieutenant, Ebenezer Orvis, second lieutenant, Samuel Gridley and David Andrus, sergeants, and Samuel Bird, Abraham Hills, and Bela Lewis, privates. Dr. Elisha Lord, then of this village, was in March, 1756, appointed physician and surgeon for this expedition. On the 2nd of October Dr. Timothy Collins of Litchfield, the chief sur- geon, returned home sick, and Dr. Lord took his place. He soon afterward removed to Norwich.
In the campaign of 1757 Connecticut raised 1,400 men to act under the Earl of Loudon. There followed the surrender of Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George to the French general, Montcalm, and the
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SOLDIERS in COLONIAL WARS
butchery of the garrison by the Indians in violation of the terms of the surrender, and this was all the result of great preparations, vast expense, and brilliant hopes. The Farm- ington soldiers were Ezekiel Lewis, ensign, Privates Samuel Bird, Sylvanus Curtis, Gershom Orvis, and Bethuel Norton. Immediately upon the capture of Fort William Henry, the colony was called on in hot haste for reinforcements, and sent about 5,000 men. They were no sooner on their way than orders came from General Webb for their return. This campaign was known as the Alarm of 1757. The soldiers from this village were in service sixteen days, and were Captain William Wadsworth, Sergeant Judah Wood- ruff, Clerk James Wadsworth, Corporal Hezekiah Wads- worth, and Privates Amos Cowles, Phinehas Cowles, Rezin Gridley, Elisha Hart, Noadiah Hooker, John Judd, Elihu Newell, Joseph Root, Timothy Woodruff, Solomon Wood- ruff, and an Indian, Elijah Wimpey. Probably there were others.
England, now thoroughly tired of its incompetent generals and ministers, compelled King George to accept the administration of William Pitt, the great commoner, as the only man to save the country from ruin. Pitt re- called the weak Loudon and sent over Generals Wolf and Amherst, and Admiral Boscawen, and a new era began. In response to an appeal by Pitt stating that his majesty has " nothing more at heart than to repair the losses and dis- appointments of the last inactive and unhappy campaign, and, by the blessing of God on his arms, the damages im- pending on North America," the General Assembly raised five thousand men for the campaign of 1758. The capture of Louisburg, the strongest fortress of the French, followed by that of Fort Frontenac on the north bank of the St. Lawrence where it flows out of Lake Ontario, and of Fort
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Duquesne where now stands the city of Pittsburg, revived the spirits of the nation. The loss of Lord Howe in the march against Fort Ticonderoga and the subsequent ill- advised attack on that fort by Bradstreet, alone marred the success of the campaign. The Farmington soldiers, so far as known, were Judah Woodruff, lieutenant, Samuel Bird and Eleazer Curtis, sergeants, and Ashbel Norton, David Orvis, Daniel Owen, and Bela Lewis, privates, and probably Matthew Norton and Thomas Norton.
For the memorable campaign of 1759 Connecticut raised 3,600 men. The capture of Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara, and finally of Quebec itself followed, with the glorious victory of Wolf over Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. We know very few of the soldiers who took part in this series of victories. The imperfect muster rolls here fail us altogether. We know that Judah Woodruff was first and Samuel Gridley was second lieutenant during the years of 1759 and 1760, and that is about all. The journal of a single private soldier has been preserved, - a boyish, illiterate performance, it nevertheless gives us quite as vivid a picture of what happened around him as do the more formal accounts of his superiors. It was written by Reuben Smith, son of Thomas and Mary Smith, well-known citizens of our village, who owned and lived in the south two-thirds of the long house opposite the savings bank. I will give you the greater part of the journal.
"April the 18, 1759. We marched from Farmington. The 20th we entered Greenbush. The next day we sailed over the river and encamped on the hill. May 29, 1759. We marched from Albany to Schenectady, and the same day Horres [Horace?] was shot at Albany before we marched. We set out very late and got there before night, and pitched our tents and lay very well. As I have thought it proper to write all that is strange,
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now this thing it seems more strange than anything that I have seen since I came from home. June the 3d day in Schenectady there were two old women got one of the old Leather Hats drunk, and took him to the guard house and put him under guard. God save the King and all the Leather Hat men. June the 6th. There was a woman riding the road from Schenectady to Sir William Johnson's. There came a number of Indians and pulled her off her horse and scalped her, but left her alive. Oh ! it grieves me to take my pen to write these ways of an Indian. This poor woman had a child about one year and a half old, which she begged that she might embrace it once more with a kiss before they killed it. But these cruel, barbarous, cruel creatures stripped her and left her in her blood, and they killed her poor child or carried it into captivity, and another lad that was with them. This woman was brought into Schenectady, and she lived about two days and died. I saw her buried myself, Reuben Smith. June the 12th day, 1759. One of Major Rogers' · captains, Captain Redfield, catched three Frenchmen and brought two of them into Schenectady, and from there to Albany. The other they carried to Sir William Johnson's. I saw these captives myself. Reuben Smith. Schenectady, June 20. Died William Ellsworth of Harrington [Har- winton?] in a fit. Belonged to Capt. Paterson's Co., the first that died after we left home. June the 24, 1759. Died Samuel Wright, son to Emersine [Emerson ?] Wright of New Britain. He died at Schenectady with sickness in the barracks. He was about 18 years of age. July the 1st, 1759. I was pleased to take a walk to the Dutch Church, and all that I learnt wa. the 148th Psalm, which they sang. I understood the psalm which the clerk mentioned, and that was all. July 4, 1759. Returned one Stevens who had been in captivity the space of one year. He belonged to Canterbury. He was sold to an Indian squaw. She told him that she would return him to his own land in a few days, but kept him almost one year, and he ran away, and his first post was Swago [Oswego?], and from thence to Fort Stanwix, and there came a guard from thence with a French lieutenant. They carried him from Schenectady to Albany blindfolded. July 20. 1759. Died Samuel Woodford of Farmington at Schenectady. July 10, 1759. I set out a batteauxing for my pleasure. I went to the Little Carrying Place and returned the 19th to Schenectady again.
· 2 of August I had news that Niagara was ours at the loss of . [illegible] notwithstanding. Kept a day of rejoicing and eating and drink- ing. Came night we built a large fire almost extended to the clouds, and shot our guns briskly. August the 10. Came an old bush-headed man crying good limes, good limes, good limes, with such open throat and horrid mouth that some took him to be the devil. October the 14th. I am sorry to think that I have omitted writing so long. Now one thing prompts me to write. There were two men killed by Negroes in a
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garden. November the 7th, 1759. Died Capt. Daniel Owen of Farmington, belonging to Major John Patterson's company." 1
The subsequent year our journalist came again to Schenectady, but died on the 26th of May.
To strengthen and defend the places captured, and for the reduction of Montreal, Connecticut raised 5,000 men in 1760, and 2,300 more during each of the years 1761 and 1762. Martinique was captured in February, 1762, and Havana in the succeeding August. From the latter ex- pedition scarcely a man returned. From the memorial of his widow to the General Assembly, it appears that Lieut. David Andrus, who lived where the East Farms district schoolhouse now stands, was taken sick before the embark- ation of the troops on their return from Havana, and died about eight days after his arrival in New York.
The treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, ended the war. With the exception of 265 men sent in 1764 to put down the Indian uprising at Detroit, the colony was not called upon for more soldiers until the War of the Revolution.
Such is the account of the soldiers of this village, so far as I have been able to gather it from contemporaneous records. A much more entertaining narrative might have been constructed from family traditions, which sometimes contain a grain of truth, but not always. The stories of Indian warfare compiled by the father of the late Egbert Cowles, Esq., for the history of this town by Governor Treadwell, might have been drawn on, or the stories heard in my own childhood to the droning accompaniment of the spinning-wheel, in the long winter evenings, when the labors of the day were over - blood-curdling tales of Indian massacres, interspersed with stories of New England witch-
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craft, of Captain Kidd and the satanic hosts who guarded his buried treasure - all devoutly believed in by the aged narrator. If, instead, I have given you but a bare list of names, it is, so far as it goes, a reliable one and an honor- able one.
. List of FARMINGTON SOLDIERS in COLONIAL W ARS
Andrews, (Andrus) David .
144
Norton, Ashbel
146
Andrews, Joseph
136
Norton, Bethuel
145
Barnes, Benjamin
136
Norton, Matthew
146
Barnes, Joseph
136
Norton,. Thomas
146
Barnes, Thomas
132
Orvis, David .
146
Bird, Samuel
143, 144, 145, 146
Orvis, Ebenezer
143, 144
Bronson, John
132
Orvis, Gershom
142, 145
Cowles, Amos
145
Orvis, Roger .
135, 137
Cowles, Phinehas
145
Owen, Daniel .
146
Curtis, Eleazer
146
Porter, Daniel
138
Curtis, Sylvanus
145
Porter, Noah .
138, 143
Gridley, Rezin
145
Porter, Thomas
138
Gridley, Rezin
136, 14+
Iichards, Samuel
142
Hart, Elisha
145
Root, Joseph
145
Hart, John
133
Root, Timothy
142
Hart, Stephen
132
Scott, John
140
Hills, Abraham
144
Smith, Ebenezer
142
Hooker, Noadiah
145
Smith, Jobanna
135
Howkins, Anthony
135, 136
Smith, Reuben
146
Judd, John
137, 145
Stanley, John .
138
Judd, Samuel
137
Stanley, Timothy
138
Lee, Ebenezer .
142
Wadsworth, Hezekiah
145
Lee, Josiah
144
Wadsworth, James
145
Lewis, Bela
143, 144, 146
Wadsworth, William
145
Lewis, Ezekiel
143, 144, 145
Warner, John
132
Lewis, William
137
Wimpey, Elijah
145
Lord, Elisha
144
Woodruff, John
138
Newell, Elihu .
145
Woodruff, Judah
145, 146
Newell, John .
137
Woodruff, Matthew
132, 140
Newell, Thomas
137
Woodruff, Solomon
145
North, James .
137
Woodruff, Timothy
·
145
North, Nathaniel
137
Wrotham, Simon
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MARY A NORTON
LEMIRA
AGE
HITMAN 20
-
CALEB BACON
ACE O
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1794
cyrus curtis 2.3 AROXCY HART AGE 23 Anson Curtis AGE 21 1794.
John Co
SALMON CLARK ACE 281792
t JH BRONSON Enter a discharge+"the Smal-Pox HOSPITAL y Sept 1792 A$ 10
EDWARD HOOKER ACED NINE 1794
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE SMALL-POX HOSPITAL ROCK (1792-1794)
AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AT
THE ANNUAL MEETING
of the
VILLAGE LIBRARY COMPANY
OF FARMINGTON, CONNECTICUT
September 14, 1898
by Julius Gay
THE EARLY INDUSTRIES OF FARMINGTON
delivered at the annual meeting of the Village Library Company September 14, 1898
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Village Library Company of Farmington:
Having been requested by your Committee to read for your entertainment another paper on the Farmington of our ancestors, I propose to give this evening some account of the early industries of Farmington.
The first settlers of this village came from Hartford probably along the same path and through the same notch in the mountain we still use. Finding further progress westward interrupted by the river, they turned southward and built their first houses where runs the Main street of to-day. To each settler was allotted a strip of land about two hundred feet wide, bounded on the east by the mountain and on the west by the river. When their numbers in- creased, and their flocks and herds required ampler accom- modation, they made use of the meadows and forest to the westward, enclosing them with a strong fence and a deep ditch, remains of the latter of which may still be traced from Avon southward through the Pine Woods nearly to Plainville. This fence kept their flocks from losing them- selves in the forest, and was thought a sufficient bar against wolves, which do not easily climb an obstruction.
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Here in much peace and contentment they lived the laborious lives of early settlers. Let us see what can be learned of their industries and daily life for the first sixty years of their residence. During this period forty-five, out of a much larger number who died, left estates minutely inventoried by the courts of the day. These inventories, showing all a man's possessions, from his farm down to his smallest article of clothing, give us about all the informa- tion of his daily life and habits we possess.
They were all farmers, every one of them. The min- ister was the biggest farmer of them all. To him was allotted a double portion of land. The Rev. Roger New- ton removed early and died elsewhere, but his successor, the Rev. Samuel Hooker, dying here in 1697, left a farm valued at £440, many horses, cattle, and sheep in his pas- tures, much wheat, rye, corn, and barley in his granary, and already sowed for the next year's crop, with abundant husbandry tools for the prosecution of this industry. With two sermons, not of the shortest, to write every week, and another for lecture day, with an occasional election sermon, and much public work in the colony, he must have been a laborious man. His estate, with the exception of that of Mr. John Wadsworth, was the largest inventoried before 1700.
The work of the farm was done largely by oxen. Almost every farmer owned one yoke, but none more than two, so far as can be learned. Horses were about twice as numerous as oxen, and were also used in the cultivation of land, as the inventory of their tackling proves. Every man had a cow or two but no large herds. John Hart, burned in his house in 1666, left six, as also did Nathaniel Kellogg, dying in 1657, but one and two were the common number. Sheep were held a necessity on every farm to furnish warm
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, clothing in the long New England winter. John Orton, dying in 1695, left a flock of twenty-two, but the average number was ten. Swine were numerous. John Cowles' estate had thirty-eight. The average for a farmer was fifteen. A few hives of bees usually closed the list. Farm- ing implements were much as we knew them fifty years ago, before the day of horse rakes and mowing-machines, only a ruder construction. They had fans but no fanning-mills, trusting to the winds of heaven to winnow the grain from the chaff as in biblical times. Their carts and plows were home-made and so rudely built that the appraiser frequently estimated the value of the iron parts only. Josselyn in his " Two Voyages to New England," printed in 1673, advises the planter to buy his cart-wheels in England for fourteen shillings rather than trust to colonial workmanship. Cer- tain tools were then common which some of us remember to have seen in our boyhood, long unused. There was the heavy and cumbersome brake for breaking flax, the wooden swingling knife for continuing the process, and the hetchel. Wool cards were also common. After flax, wheat was the most important crop, and rye was raised when the exhausted land would no longer bear wheat. Mislen, or a mixture of wheat and rye, was often sowed in the hope that one or the other grain might thrive. Barley was raised for the manu- facture of malt, and we find even oats used for this purpose. It took the Englishmen several generations to learn that he could live without beer. Wood, in his " New England's Prospect," printed in 1634, gives his English view of the matter. "Every family," he says, "having a spring of sweet waters betwixt them, which is far different from the waters of England, being not so sharp, but of a fatter substance, and of a more jetty color ; it is thought there can be no better water in the world, yet dare I not prefer
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it before good beer as some have done." After the multi- plication of apple orchards, cider largely took the place of beer. John Hart had a cider press in 1666 and Capt. William Lewis in 1690 had not only a cider mill but a malt mill, a still, and a supply of malt and hops. John Bronson in 1680 had ten barrels of cider in his cellar valued at four pounds. Potatoes are not named. Probably none of the settlers had ever seen one. Peas and beans were common, but by far the largest crop was Indian corn. Corn was the first eatable thing which the starving Pilgrims could find after they left Plymouth Rock. The friendly Tis- quantum showed them how to raise it. " Also he told them except they get fish and set with it (in these old grounds) it would come to nothing, and he showed them that in the middle of April they should have store enough come up the brook by which they began to build." So says Gov. Bradford in his history. Other Indian advice was to place in each hill a shad, a few kernels of corn, and a few beans. The shad was for manure, and the cornstalks formed in good time sufficient poles for the bean vines to climb. The savage meanwhile retiring to the sunny side of his wigwam trusted the rest to all bountiful nature, with a little assist- ance from his squaw. Other things the settlers soon learned. Of the blackbirds which soon pulled up their corn, Roger Williams writing in 1643 says, " Of this sort there be millions, which be great devourers of the Indian corn, as soon as it appears above the ground. Against these birds the Indians are very careful both to set their corn deep enough, that it may have a strong root, not so / apt to be plucked up (yet not too deep, lest they bury it, and it never come up) ; as also they put up little watch houses in the middle of their fields, in which they, or their biggest children lodge, and, early in the morning, prevent
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