USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington papers > Part 11
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the birds from devouring the corn." As for the crow, he says, " These birds, although they do the corn some hurt, yet scarce will one native amongst an hundred kill them, because they have a tradition, that the crow brought them at first an Indian grain of corn in one ear, and an Indian or French bean in another, from the great God Cawtan- towwit's field in the southwest, from whence they hold came all their corn and beans." In 1694 the town offered a reward of two pence for crows and one shilling the dozen for blackbirds. In Hartford, in 1707, it wa's held the duty of every good citizen to kill one dozen blackbirds each year, or pay a fine of one shilling. If he killed more than a dozen he was entitled to one penny for each bird. From that time to this many bounties have been paid and much powder burned, but the crow is still with us, and in his morning voice is still heard as he wings his daily flight from the mountain to the meadow. The most troublesome animals the farmer had to contend with, were the wolves which, roaming by night in packs of ten or a dozen, with dreadful cries, devoured sheep, calves, and the smaller animals. From a stray leaf of the town accounts we learn that in 1718 Ebenezer Barnes, Stephen Hart, Samuel Scott, and Matthew Woodruff were each paid six shillings and eight pence for killing wolves. They were mostly killed in pits into which they were enticed by bait placed over the concealed mouth of the pit. They were poor climbers, and once in the pit their fate was sure. The road running from the eighth milestone southward from the Hartford road has, since 1747, and I know not how much longer, been known as the Wolf Pit road, and certain depressions in the ground used to be shown to credulous boys as the ancient wolf pits. Another very common method of de- stroying these animals, Josselyn tells us in his " New Eng-
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land's Rarities " of 1672. "The wolf," he says, " is very numerous, and go in companies, sometimes ten, twenty, or fewer, and so cunning, that seldom any are killed with guns or traps ; but of late they have invented a way to destroy them by binding four mackerel hooks across with a brown thread, and then, wrapping some wool about them, they dip them in melted tallow till it be as round and big as an egg ; these (when any beast has been killed by the wolves ) they scatter by the dead carcass after they have beaten off the wolves ; about midnight the wolves are sure to return again to the place where they left the slaughtered beast, and the first thing they venture upon will be these balls of fat." Bears were frequently met with, but they made the farmers very little trouble, and were esteemed a good- natured animal, except when defending their young. The town paid for killing panthers in 1718 and in 1726, and probably in other years. In 1768 a bounty of three shil- lings was offered for wildcats, and on the 30th day of May, 1773, the town paid three shillings to Noah Hart for a wildcat, and the same day paid one shilling to John Newell, Jr., " for putting a strolling fellow in the stocks," wildcats and tramps being held in like estimation. One other animal the settlers feared more than all the others put to- gether. It spared neither man nor beast, and its midnight roar was not a cheerful sound to the lonely settler. All over New England they called it a lion, with about as much knowledge of natural history as Nick Bottom, who held " a lion is a most dreadful thing ; for there is not a more fear- ful wild-fowl than your lion living." Wood, in his " New England's Prospect," says, " concerning lions, I will not say that I ever saw any myself, but some affirm that they have seen a lion at Cape Anne . , some likewise, being lost in the woods, have heard such terrible roarings, as have
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made them much aghast ; which must be devils or lions there being no other creatures which use to roar saving bears, which have not such a terrible kind of roaring." Sundry localities were named after the beast. A Lion's Hollow westward of the road to Plainville, and a Lion's Hole eastward of the road to Kensington were frequently mentioned in old deeds. A Lion's Hole near Dead Swamp is mentioned in 1686, and one, hardly the same, in 1705 on the Great Plain. The animal was without much doubt a catamount. If you have ever seen the bronze figure of this beast standing on its granite pedestal in front of the site of the old Catamount Tavern in Bennington, Vermont, " grinning towards New York," you will not wonder at its unpleasant reputation.
Early in the history of this village, as in all new settle- ments, it became necessary for some of the farmers to engage in other industries essential to civilized life. The goodman could prepare wool and flax for the wheel of the goodwife, but not everyone possessed a loom, or knew how to use it. Joseph Bird and his sons, Joseph, Samuel, and Thomas, living on Bird Hill, on the Hartford road, were all weavers before 1700. Simon Wrothum, a man conspicuous for his want of sympathy with the religious views of his townsmen, was also a weaver. Sergeant Stephen Hart, son of Deacon Stephen, had "looms, sleys, reeds, and other weaving tools," valued at £5-2s. Sergeant John Clark, who died in the Canada Expedition of 1709, had a coverlet of John Root's weaving, valued at 18 shillings. The latter was known as "John Root, weaver," as early as 1699. Samuel North, dying in 1682, left " A loom and tools belonging to it," valued at three pounds. Here, surely, were weavers enough to supply all reasonable requirements of the little village. Probably
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the goodwife of the settler fashioned the products of these many looms into substantial clothing, but, as early as 1697, Deacon Thomas Porter, son of the first Thomas, came to be known as " Thomas Porter, tailor." His house stood near the site of that of Judge E. H. Deming, and here the young men who desired something more stylish than home-made garments doubtless repaired. We regret our inability to describe the fashions of his shop. An inven- tory of the wardrobe of a respectable farmer of the day must suffice. Sergeant John Clark had four coats, one of kersey, one of serge, a cape-coat, lined, and an old coat. Of waistcoats he had a blue and a serge. His breeches were severally of drugget, serge, and leather. He had a hat of castor beaver, two fringed muslin neckcloths, two pairs of gloves, and two speckled shirts. Further it is unnecessary to go. Five men, besides the minister, wore broadcloth, - John Judd, son of William; Samuel Cowles, who, besides two broadcloth coats, valued at six pounds, had a damask vest and four pairs of silver buttons; Capt. John Stanley, who had a straight broadcloth coat of a sad color; Samuel Gridley, who also carried a silver- headed cane, and his son, Samuel, who had two coats, each three times as valuable as his father's, and silver buttons and buckles to match. The tide of luxury so deeply deplored by Gov. Treadwell years afterward had already set in. Samuel Langdon, son of Deacon Langdon, removing to Northampton and carrying thither the luxu- rious habits of his native village, was with divers persons " presented by the grand jury to the court at Northamp- ton, March 26, 1676, for wearing of silk, and that in a flaunting manner, and others for long hair and other ex- travagances contrary to honest and sober order and de-
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meanor, not becoming a wilderness state, at least the profession of Christianity and religion." Mr. Langdon made his peace with the court by paying the clerk's fee, 2 shillings and 6 pence.
Samuel Woodruff, son of Matthew the immigrant, was the village shoemaker, commonly known as "Samuel Woodruff, cordwainer." About 1700 he removed to Southington, and tradition calls him its first white inhab- itant. John Newell, son of Thomas the immigrant, was another shoemaker. He removed to Waterbury with those who went from this village, but returned, and died un- married in 1696. His inventory shows: "Shoe leather, lasts, and shoemaker's gears," valued at 19 shillings, 9 . pence. Benjamin Judd, son of Deacon Thomas, dying in 1698, left " Leather and shoemaker's tools to the value of one pound and six shillings." Jobanna Smith, who was killed in the " Falls Fight " of May 19, 1676, was the' vil- lage cooper, and, after him, John Stedman and Samuel Bronson. Daniel Merrills was a tanner, and Joseph Haw- ley had a tan-yard. Thomas Lee, son of the first John, was described in the deed of David Lee of Northampton, weaver, as " Thomas Lee his brother, mason and brick- layer of Farmington," in 1697. Joiners must have been important members of the community, but I know of no one distinctly classed as such. Thomas Thompson the immigrant, a brother of Samuel Thompson, stationer, of London, dying in 1655, left " Tools for a carpenter and other small implements," valued at 5 pounds, 1 shilling. Richard Bronson, in 1687, left a full set of carpenter's tools. Deacon John Langdon left a set in 1689. William Hooker, son of Rev. Samuel Hooker, left a “ turning lathe, with saws and other tools, for turning and joiner's work.". He was a merchant, and these may have been a
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part of his goods. John Bronson and John Warner had each a pit saw, - useful tools before saw-mills could be built.
The Gridleys were the blacksmiths of the village. Sam- uel, son of the first Thomas, lived near where now stands the house of the late Egbert Cowles, Esq., and his shop was in the highway, as was the custom. Dying in 1712, his son Thomas succeeded to his trade, and was known as " Thomas Gridley, smith," to distinguish him from other Thomas Gridleys. His house, given him by his father in 1704, was on Bird's Hill, on the north side of the road to Hartford. The tools inventoried " in ye smith's shop " of Samuel Gridley were pretty much what you would find in a country forge of to-day. Mr. Gridley was also a merchant, and the long inventory of his estate is inter- esting as showing the evolution of the early country shop- keeper. Silver coin was scarce. Capt. William Lewis had, by his inventory, two pounds and four shillings; John Wadsworth, two pounds six shillings; John Newell, three pieces of eight, that is, fifteen shillings, and John Clark a sum not separately appraised; and if others had any, it was not specifically mentioned. Nathaniel Kellogg had wampum valued, in 1657, at two pounds. Everyone ac- cepted in payment such goods and valuables as the debtor had to offer. Hence Mr. Gridley, as he perceived his goods increase, opened a shop for their sale. Of such ware he had accumulated 3 beaver skins, and the skins of 16 raccoons, 3 foxes, 5 wildcats, 1 bear, 1 deer, 7 mus- quashes, and 2 minks. Of his own handiwork, besides other iron ware, he sold nails, not by the pound but by count. There were 2,300 four-penny nails, 2,350 six- penny, 1,900 eight-penny, and 200 hob-nails. In addition to the goods he made or got in payment for work, his busi-
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ness came, in time, to embrace anything the farmer needed, from carts, harnesses, and scythes to jack-knives and cate- chisms. Here the ladies could procure calicoes, crapes, muslins, laces, ribbons, thimbles, thread, knitting-pins, combs, and fans, or could stock their pantrys with all man- ner of shining pewter. Here, too, the hunter found pow- der, flints, and bullets. John Wadsworth, dying in 1689, son of the first William, besides a large farm, had a shop containing goods not specifically enumerated, but valued at 87 pounds. He had also a cold still, an alembic, and sundry gallipots. Perhaps he combined the business of a druggist with other industries. He was probably the weal- thiest man of the village. He left a library valued at £17-14s .- 6d. His house stood a little south of where now lives Judge E. H. Deming. William Hooker, son of Rev. Samuel Hooker, lived on the west side of Main street, on the corner where the road turns off to the railroad sta- tion, and was also a shop-keeper. His business, judging from the inventory of his goods, must have been largely in hardware, such as brass kettles, warming-pans, pewter of all sorts, including 10 pewter tankards, 5 dozen pewter spoons, and 31/2 dozen ocomy (that is alchemy) spoons. Farming, however, was his principal occupation. Roger Hooker, another son of Rev. Samuel Hooker, was also a merchant, and, dying in 1698, left as great a variety of goods as you will find in the country store of to-day, and some other things from a very valuable lot of bear skins, deer skins, and moose skins, down to fish-hooks and jews- harps. The jewsharp was the only instrument of music I find inventoried in a Farmington house, and was one of the three allowed in the Blue Laws fabricated by the Rev. Samuel Peters. The drum, I suppose, was town property, and was beaten by John Judd, drummer, at a regular sal-
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ary. A little later, in 1718, four other men were each paid 13 shillings 4 pence for drumming. The three New England methods of calling the worshipers to the meeting- house were by the conch shell, the drum, and the bell. We had at this period reached the second stage of develop- ment, - the drum. According to an old hymn,
"New England Sabbath day Is heaven-like, still, and pure, When Israel walks the way Up to the temple's door. The time we tell When there to come By beat of drum Or sounding shell."
Another industry, mostly speculative, absorbed much time and attention, - the search for valuable ores and the precious metals. In 1651 the General Court authorized John Winthrop, afterwards the sixth Governor of Connect- icut, to search for mines and minerals, and set up works for operating the mines when found. His success, espe- cially with the iron works at New Haven, was sufficient to encourage every land-owner here to believe untold wealth was just within reach. Deeds of land frequently appear upon our records reserving precious metals should such be discovered. The town committee, in 1712, leased to William Partridge and Jonathan Belcher, for eight years, " all mines and minerals, iron mines only excepted, already found out and discovered and hereafter to be found and discovered." Two years later eight indi- viduals lease to New York merchants the right to dig for "oar of Lead or other sort of mettle whatsoever," for sixty years. The mineral mostly sought hereabouts was black lead. John Oldham, afterwards murdered by the Indians,
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traveling through Connecticut in 1633, brought back "some black lead ore, of which the Indians said there was a whole quarry." In 1657 the Tunxis Indians sold to William Lewis and Samuel Steel " the hill from whence John Standly and John Andrews brought the black lead, and all the land within eight miles of that hill on every side." The sale of this hill was confirmed by deed of Pethuzo and Toxcronnock in 1714. This famous hill, with all its treasure, has disappeared from view as com- pletely as the fabled island of Atlantis, often sought, never found. The Rev. R. M. Chipman, in his "History of Harwinton," is authority for the statement that sundry citizens of that town and vicinity, to the number of five hundred, headed by three venerable clergymen, on a day appointed, repaired to the woods supposed to contain the black lead, and, forming a long line, marched all day after the manner of beating the woods for game, to make sure of the discovery of the black lead by some of their number. Whether the story had some foundation, or was merely the joke of a minister on his clerical brethren, does not appear, but the black lead is still undiscovered.
One of the most necessary institutions in a new settle- men is the mill, saw-mills to provide lumber for houses, and grist-mills to grind the wheat and corn. Sometime during the first ten years of the village, John Bronson set up a mill on the brook thereafter known as the Mill Brook, and subsequently as the Fulling Mill Brook, and which, running down the mountain, crosses Main Street just north of the house of the late Egbert Cowles, Esq. Before 1650 he had sold it to Deacon Stephen Hart, who described the premises as "one parcel on which a mill standeth with a swamp adjoining to it in which the mill water cometh and containeth all the land that the country
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gave to John Bronson there, except the house lot." It was probably a saw-mill. In a grant of 1687 we hear of the Upper Saw-Mill Pond. Deacon Stephen Hart gave the mill in his lifetime to his three sons, John, Stephen, and Thomas. In 1712 the town " granted unto John Bronson liberty to build a fulling mill upon the brook that cometh down the mountain by Jonathan Smith's, and also the im- provement of so much land as is necessary to set a mill upon, and for damming in any place between Jonathan Smith's lot and John Hart's, provided he do not damnify the cart way." In 1778 the town gave Solomon Cowles, Thomas Cowles, Isaac Bidwell, Amos Cowles, and Phinehas Cowles " liberty to erect one or more grist mills on the brook called the Fulling Mill Brook." Their peti- tion sets forth " that although there is one grist mill now in said society, yet it does not at all times well accom- modate the people with grinding, for in certain seasons of the year said mill is rendered entirely useless by reason of floods, ice, etc., whereby the people are obliged to carry their corn five or six miles to get it ground." The inference is that the first mill on the brook was a saw-mill built before 1650, the second a fulling mill built in 1712, and that the first grist-mill was built on the river where a mill has been sustained to the present day. I find an early mention of it in the year 1701, which con- tains several points of interest. In that year Wenemo, an Indian, stole " a good fire-lock gun " from John Bates of Haddam, and another Indian, Nannouch, to save his friend from the very serious consequences, mortgaged to said Bates "two acres of land situated in Farmington meadow near the corn mill of Capt. Thomas Hart lying in the Indian Neck," and Samuel Hooker and Stephen Root testify " that we saw the Indian Nannouch deliver
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two acres of land commonly called this Indian's land afore mentioned to Mr. John Bates of Haddam by turf and twig." This ancient form of conveyance by the ac- tual delivery of a piece of the soil and of the timber growing thereon, was doubtless more intelligible to the Indian mind than the drawing a picture of his totem at the bottom of a piece of paper inscribed with "Know all men by these presents," and other ponderous formulas.
Without going more at length into the industries of the men of that day, it is time we gave some attention to the equally laborious occupations of their wives and daughters. Perhaps the best way to illustrate the subject is to take you to the house of a well-to-do farmer and in- spect the housekeeping and all the surroundings of its in- mates. We will call on the 30th of May, 1712, at the house of Samuel Gridley, which, as I have already men- tioned, stood near the site of the house of the late Egbert Cowles, Esq. The date is a little later than I could wish, but our knowledge of the house is better than that of any other. We will examine, not what might have been seen in such a house at that time, but what the appraisers, John Wadsworth, John Porter, and Isaac Cowles, found there that day, and made solemn oath that they found. The female inmates of the house we are to inspect were the widow Mary and her three daughters, Sarah, a girl of eighteen who afterward married Nathaniel Cowles, Mary, aged four, who died unmarried, and Jerusha, a babe of four months who afterwards married Nehemiah Lewis. We will enter by the porch which opens into the hall, on either side of which are the parlor and kitchen, and back of all the leanto. Over each room except the leanto is a chamber, and over all the garret. In the porch we find much which had reference to out-of-door life, and which
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the modern housewife would certainly have requested Mr. Gridley to bestow elsewhere, - harnesses, saddles, the pillion, and pillion cloth on which the goodwife rode behind her husband to church or elsewhere, a chest and tools, a cart rope, a steel trap, and sundry other things. Entering the hall we find the furniture to consist of a wainscot chest, a table, a great chair, four lesser ones, three cushions and a pillow. Here are stored the arms which every man must have ready for instant use, his gun, pike, bayonet, rapier, back-sword, and cutlass. I think there must have been a fireplace in the room, for we find two heaters, two smoothing irons, a spit, a pair of bellows, two trammels, and their hooks. Here are pots and kettles, large and small, of brass and iron. There is a goodly display of shining pewter, tankards, plates, basins, beakers, porringers, cups with handles, barrel cups, pewter measures of all sizes, and pewter bottles. Here is much wooden ware, earthen ware, and even china ware, and here the family. supply of medicines, Matthew's pills, blistering salve, and sundry drugs whose names I must leave for the professional practitioner to transcribe. Here are the goodman's money scales and weights, his spectacles, and his library, a collection of books which would have been called good Sunday reading fifty years ago. They are an old Bible, a psalm book, and other books entitled "KOMETOTPADIA, Or a Discourse Con- cerning Comets; wherein the Nature of Blazing Stars is Enquired into: With an Historical Account of all the Comets which have appeared from the Beginning of the World unto this present Year, 1683, . . By Increase Mather." "Time and the End of Time," being two dis- courses by Rev. John Fox of Woburn, Mass., 1701. "Zion in Distress; or the Groans of the Protestant
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Church;" printed in 1683 for Samuel Philips. " Spirit-
Providence Opened," " Man's chief End to Glorifie God, ual Almanack," "The Unpardonable Sin," "Divine
or Some Brief Sermon - Notes on 1 Cor. 10. 31. - By the Reverend Mr. John Bailey, Sometime Preacher and Pris- oner of Christ at Limerick in Ireland, and now Pastor
God," "The Wonders of the Invisible World," by Rev. 1689, " Commentary on Faith," "How to Walk with to the Church of Christ in Watertown in New-England."
Cotton Mather, a very famous book on witchcraft in Salem and elsewhere, and on the ordinary devices of the devil. It
crease Mather, President of Harvard College, in the col- Invisible World," which was burned by order of Dr. In- was answered by Robert Calef's "More Wonders of the
lege yard. We find also, " Some Account of the Life of Henry Gearing," by J. Shower, " A Warning to prepare for Death," a New Testament, "A Book on Numbers," whether an arithmetic or a commentary on one of the books of the Pentateuch does not appear, "a law book, and several pieces of books." The latter entry seems to show that the library was much read, and even the frag- ments of books were carefully preserved. From the hall we pass to the kitchen, where we find in the big fireplace a pair of cast-iron fire dogs weighing sixty-four pounds, two pairs of tongs, a peel, two trammels and a jack. The furniture seems scanty, a table, a chest, a truckle bedstead, a great chair and two small ones. Sundry baskets, keel- ers, tubs, pails, and kettles stand around. The main fea- tures of the kitchen, however, are the loom, the great wheel, two linen wheels, a hand reel, and the great piles of linen sheets, pillow bears, table-cloths, towels, and nap- kins, largely no doubt the production of the loom and wheels, and large supplies of yarn, tow, and flax for
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further manufacture. Spinning and storing up vast sup- plies of spotless linen against their wedding day, were the great accomplishments of the young maiden. We read of spinning matches which lasted from early dawn to nine o'clock at night, the contestants being supplied with food by other hands while they worked, and finally with . bloody - fingers sinking from sheer exhaustion. Spinning bees have continued until within a few years in some rural districts. I remember as late as the fall of 1859, passing, on a by-road near Farmington, Maine, just at sunset, a merry procession of young women with their great wheels carried by young men, on their way to a contest with the spinners of the next village. Let us now inspect the parlor, then as since the crowning glory of the house. We find a bedstead with a feather bed and a great supply of blankets and coverlids, and, hanging over all, a set of calico curtains with a calico vallance to match. A warming-pan, a most useful article in a cold room, com- pletes the sleeping equipment. Other furniture is three chests, a trunk, a round table, a great chair, three little ditto, a joint stool, and five cushions. There is also a cupboard and a carpet for said cupboard. A carpet was not a floor cloth but a covering to furniture often showily embroidered by its owner as a specimen of her skill. Probably a green rug, valued at five shillings, was for the floor. Here are Mr. Gridley's pair of pistols and holster. There now remains down stairs only the leanto, which will not detain us long, though it probably detained Mrs. Gridley many a weary hour, for here are the cheese-press, and churn, the butter tubs, and all the machinery of the dairy, and, last of all, an hour-glass with which the various mysteries of the place were timed. This hour-glass is the only instrument for the measurement of time I find,
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