USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington town clerks and their times (1645-1940) > Part 18
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"Voted That all votes previously passed in relation to the tax on dogs be rescinded.
"Samuel S. Cowles appointed Treasurer of the Town School Fund.
"Nov. 2, 1857 Voted That the Selectmen be authorized to make such repairs at the foot of Indian Hill and at lane leading into Indian Neck as shall effectively prevent injury from freshets. . . . "
October 4, 1858:
" .. . Voted That the Selectmen be directed to negotiate with the Middletown and Berlin Turnpike Co. to remove their turn- pike gate between Farmington & Berlin and leave the road free for public travel, at an expense not to exceed One Hundred & Fifty Dollars. Provided That the proprietors of the road shall secure that part of the road lying in Farmington on the town as a public highway.
"Voted That a tax of ten cents on the dollar be laid on the list next to be completed."
This simple vote to abolish a toll gate recalls a great enter- prise in the history of the state, only slightly antedating the event of the Farmington Canal. After the Revolutionary War, the sharp increase in trade needed, more than any other one thing, good roads, and the turnpike companies were formed to make and control a better and more direct trade route than was afforded by the then existing town roads. Turnpikes, as distin- guished from ordinary roads of the same time, were those on which gates barred the progress of the traveler, at which pay-
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ments were demanded for the privilege of using the road. Such payment was called "toll" and the gates known as "tollgates."
There were about 120 of these turnpike companies in Con- necticut between the years 1792 and 1805, some of which were in existence as late as 1885.
A lasting work by the Farmington and Bristol turnpike com- pany is in evidence today in the route followed from Hartford to Farmington. That company, chartered in 1801 to lay a road from the end of the Litchfield-Harwinton turnpike in what is now Burlington to Hartford, laid their route from the west door of the courthouse in Hartford, down Asylum Street, along Farmington avenue to Thompson's corner at the north end of the town street in Farmington and thence to the junction of the Litchfield road. In 1805 the road was in operation, for an act was passed allowing needed alterations in the location of the gates, as a "shunpike" had been started in that vicinity. This gate, and the shunpike were in West District, just beyond the homestead of the Knibbs family on Copper Mine road "near the apple tree at the barn" where the highway had originally been laid out ten rods wide. This road was declared open and the company released from further obligations in 1819. The distance covered was nineteen miles, fifty-six rods and twenty- one links, at a cost of $793.23 per mile. This was considered a total loss.
Other roads through Farmington were the Middle Road turnpike, so-called, established in 1813 and running from the Farmington-Danbury road, and the Middletown and Berlin turnpike, leading from Farmington to Middletown through Berlin. This company, established in 1808, was still maintaining a gate as late as 1841.
The Farmington River turnpike, started in 1800 in New Hartford at the junction of the Talcott mountain and Green- woods turnpike, followed the Farmington River on the east bank to the Massachusetts line, providing another through route to Albany.
Famous taverns were soon established along the turnpikes. One of them was the Bronson tavern in Burlington, built in 1813, with its vaulted ballroom on the second floor.
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Farmington Town Clerks and Their Times
All laws passed by the legislature relating to these turnpike companies were of a more or less experimental nature, appar- ently, for each act was limited to three years, when it was re- newed for a corresponding period. There was no limit to the powers of a turnpike corporation except that the original in- vestment and a 12 per cent return must be realized, otherwise the corporation automatically went out of existence. Many of the companies lost most if not all of the amount involved. They were compelled to keep the roads in good repair, losing their gate receipts pending judgment against them, and also liable to find themselves in the hands of a receiver with their charter forfeited, if more than a month elapsed after judgment was rendered.
The first public service commission in the state was at the head of these corporations, consisting of two commissioners, with power to open the gates if repairs on roads were not made and to act on the withdrawal of the charter.
Towns favored the establishment of the turnpikes, as it took some of the cost of road maintenance from the town treasury. The travelling public shunned the gates if possible, however, and abutting property owners were often wroth, as their land was condemned for a right-of-way.
That the assembly favored the turnpike companies seems apparent, undoubtedly realizing the value to the state of the developments. For when a company desired to open a road, if the layout proved to be an old road which was recorded in the town records as a public highway, it was declared discontinued as such; a corporation was formed to reconstruct, reopen and maintain it as a turnpike. If the old road was not recorded, being probably an ancient trail, it was promptly done, declared to be a public highway, then declared discontinued and given to the corporation. Turnpikes reverted to the town by applica- tion to the county judge and to the turnpike commission for approval.
According to an ancient map of turnpikes in Connecticut, three such roads branched out from Farmington. One ran south- west along Main Street to Bristol, Waterbury, to Danbury. One ran southeast through New Britain to Middletown and was
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known as the Middletown and Berlin turnpike and one ran along Meadow Road to Burlington and on to Litchfield and was known as the Litchfield and Farmington turnpike.
At a special town meeting held January 17, 1859:
"Thomas Cowles Moderator
"After long and earnest discussion of various motions (to lay an additional tax to build a bridge over Farmington River near the railroad depot in Unionville) it was Voted to Adjourn without delay.
C. D. Cowles Town Clerk"
February 21, 1859: "Voted: That we will build a bridge on Howe's plan with two sidewalks according to the Report of the Committee made this day, to be completed next fall - roadtrack to be 17 ft in width & each side walk to be 4 ft wide.
"Voted That Fisher Gay, Adna Whiting and Lucas Richards and the Selectmen be and they are hereby appointed a Com- mittee to contract for the building of the abutments and Pier and also for the superstructure, with good and sufficient bonds for the faithful performance of the same to be given to the Selectmen and that they authorize and empowered to contract with some suitable person to act as agent for the purpose of completing said Bridge.
"Voted To lay a tax of five cents on the dollar on list of 1858 & that the selectmen be authorized to loan money sufficient to defray the balance of expense of said bridge."
Thus in the year 1858 townspeople were subject to a total tax of fifteen cents on the dollar.
At a special town meeting held May 31, 1859, Roger S. Newell, moderator:
"Voted That the Selectmen are hereby authorized to oppose the granting the prayer of the Petition of Selden & others to be annexed to the town of West Hartford and also the Petition of Elizur Smith & others to be annexed to the town of New Britain.
"Voted That our Representatives Messrs Platner & Andrus and the Senator from this District Hon. Dr. Austin be re- quested to oppose any action of the General Assembly annexing any portion of this town to the towns of West Hartford and
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New Britain as severally prayed for in the Petition of Selden & others and Elizur Smith & others now pending before the Gen- eral Assembly.
"Voted That the Selectmen be directed to procure signatures to the Remonstrance this day read to this meeting. . . . "
The call for the annual town meeting and election of officers to be held October 3, 1859, was signed by E. G. Sumner, assistant town clerk. Dr. Edwin G. Sumner was elected town clerk at that meeting.
TREASURER - William Gay
SELECTMEN - Ira Hadsell, Henry D. Stanley, Lucas Rich- ards.
ROAD COMMISSIONER - Newton Peck
CONSTABLES - Erastus W. Washburn, Elijah L. Lewis, Appollas Fenn, Albert Platt, Erastus Scott, James W. Cowles, Josiah B. Hinckley, Timothy C. Lewis.
COLLECTOR - Erastus W. Washburn
GRAND JURORS - Edwin N. Lewis, George Woodford, Solo- mon Richards, Henry Mygatt, Chauncey Rowe, Egbert Cowles.
ASSESSORS - Henry D. Stanley, George Richards, Erastus Scott.
BOARD OF RELIEF - Augustus Ward, Timothy C. Lewis, Ira Hadsell.
TYTHINGMEN - Nelson Goodale, Gad Yeamans, Jerome Johnson, William Ford, John E. Cowles, Sylvester Woodruff, Edward K. Hamilton, John McCahill, James H. Miller, Frank A. Tryon.
SEALER OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES - John R. Smith
POUND KEEPERS - Franklin Woodford, William Crampton, Samuel Camp, Eber N. Gibbs.
MEASURERS OF WOOD - Edwin N. Lewis, Chauncey Rowe, Adna Whiting, Truman Sanford, William Gay, Richard Cramp- ton, Augustus Ward, Seneca L. Gorham.
NUISANCE COMMITTEE - Samuel Deming, Newton Hart, Newton Peck, David A. Keyes, Samuel Camp.
HAYWARDS - Henry W. Griswold, Henry S. Woodruff, Ed- ward C. Chitsey, Samuel Camp, George Hart.
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VISITORS OF HOUSE OF INDUSTRY - Fisher Gay, Seneca L. Gorham, Samuel Deming.
AUDITOR - Samuel S. Smith.
REGISTRAR - Edwin G. Sumner.
FENCE VIEWERS - Fisher Gay, John E. Cowles, Samuel C. Hawley, Samuel Camp, Justine Allen.
SCHOOL VISITORS - Moses Smith, Asahel Thomson, Jacob Gardner, Chauncey D. Cowles.
TREASURER TOWN SCHOOL FUND - Samuel S. Cowles .
E. G. Sumner Town Clerk
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1859-1860
WHILE Chauncey D. Cowles was still town clerk, his assistant was Edwin G. Sumner and on October 3, 1859, at the annual election, with Thomas Cowles as moderator, Mr. Sumner was elected town clerk. He served less than a year as on September 8, 1860, he wrote the selectmen as follows:
"Farmington Town Clerk's Office Sept. 8, 1860
"This Certifies that I Edwin G. Sumner Town Clerk of Farmington having made my arrangements to remove my resi- dence from this Town to St. Louis, resign my office as Town Clerk.
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Edwin G. Sumner."
Mr. Julius Gay was appointed to take the office until the election October 1, 1860, when he was elected town clerk.
During the short business year Mr. Sumner served in the record office, a tax of fifteen cents on the dollar was voted. This terrific tax burden, in large part for financing the new bridge over the Farmington river in Unionville, was seriously con- sidered at a special town meeting December 20, 1859, when it was:
"Voted: That the Selectmen be authorized to borrow money sufficient to defray the necessary expense and indebtedness of the Town, not to exceed Five Thousand Dollars and that they be authorized to negotiate with the Committee of the Town Deposit Fund to collect the same and apply the proceeds to the debts of the Town.
"Voted: That the bridge just completed at Unionville be put and it is hereby put under the protection of the Public Acts of the State prohibiting the riding or driving in a faster gait than
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Dr. Edwin G. Sumner
a walk ... and the Selectmen are hereby directed to prosecute each breach of the law coming to their notice."
At a special town meeting April 28, 1860 with William Platner as moderator: "A petition of George Woodruff and others praying to be set to the Town of West Hartford was read - Whereupon Thomas Cowles Esq offered the following votes, all of which upon being submitted to the meeting were passed, as follows:
"Voted: That the Selectmen are hereby instructed to oppose the granting of the prayer of the petition of George Woodruff and others to be annexed to the Town of West Hartford, and authorized to employ counsel for that purpose if they should think necessary.
"Voted: That our Representatives Messrs Rowe & Terry and the Senator from this District be requested to oppose any action of the General Assembly annexing any portion of this Town to the Town of West Hartford as prayed for in said Peti- tion of George Woodruff and others
"Voted: That the Selectmen be requested to have a Remon- strance against granting the prayer of this petition circulated for signatures in the different Districts in this Town and have the same presented to the General Assembly.
"VOTED That copies of these votes be made and sent, duly certified to the Senator from this District."
Very little other business was done in this year. Votes were constantly made and reversed as to allowing sheep culture in the town, and someone was usually aggrieved concerning his taxes.
At the state election Samuel S. Cowles was elected judge of probate over his opponent Thomas Cowles by a vote of 383 to 250. Chauncey Rowe was elected representative from the first district and George E. Terry from the second district.
It was a quiet year - the year before the storm broke, and Farmington people were called upon, again, to send their men to a war.
Miss Porter's School had been in successful operation for seventeen years; the venerable and revered Dr. Noah Porter was in his sixth decade as pastor of the Congregational Church;
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and Farmington as a whole, was definitely established as a town of industry, ingenuity, frugality combined with good living and intellectual endeavor.
Dr. Sumner came to Farmington about 1856 or 1857 from Mansfield, Connecticut. On April 14, 1857 he purchased the small house on High Street now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. J. Ellicott Hewes and at that time, the second house from the corner of Mountain Road and High Street. John Hooker owned the house on the corner of those two streets. August 16, 1860 Dr. Sumner sold this house to Selah Westcott and on the same day Selah Westcott sold a house on Mountain Road, approximately where Mrs. Clara Preston Eyers now lives, to Dr. Sumner. For some reason, now obscure, Dr. Sumner only kept this house four days, for on August 20, 1860 he sold the house on Mountain Road to Sidney Hart, resigned his office as town clerk September 8, 1860 to remove to St. Louis, undoubtedly to a more lucrative position or practice.
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Julius Low -
1860-186I
ONE OF the truly great pioneers of Farmington was Julius Gay. Living here 200 years after the original settlers made him no less a pioneer than they. His roots went deep into Farm- ington soil and during the last sixty years of his life, brought forth luxuriant fruit.
The deep love that Julius Gay had for his native town was not content with the usual life of toil, recreation and comfort- able living. His interest and pride in Farmington were demon- strated in a practical, permanent way and although he followed in the footsteps of those who had gone before him, he did not stop where they had stopped - he built a finished structure on the firm foundation already prepared.
His greatest interest was the history of the town of Farm- ington in all its phases and his adult life was devoted in every spare hour to preserving, classifying and giving of his knowl- edge, all the traditions, stories, letters, family and town mat- ters which came to his attention. His meticulous care in securing data for families whose roots were in Farmington soil but whose descendants were far from the home town, brought him in touch with family traditions and letters of the earlier genera- tions, all of which were carefully preserved. No detail was too small for his careful and watchful eye to see and his scholarly hand to record. He was happiest when, his day's work done, he could pore over his correspondence, answer letters, or best of all, devote every day of his vacation to accumulating more data. His genealogical notes filled several volumes and after his death, these were acquired by the New England Genealogical and Historical Society in Boston. In addition, there are four
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Farmington Town Clerks and Their Times
typewritten volumes of notes on Farmington history, with great quantities of loose manuscript, in The Connecticut His- torical Society's rooms, all of which formed the basis of Mr. Gay's published writings, these consisting of pamphlets read at annual meetings of the Farmington Library Association, and covering approximately the first two hundred years of Farmington history. Mr. Gay pioneered in this work, in that he made this history general, and readable.
Other histories had been written for a particular event, and numberless followers of Mr. Gay's efforts have carefully placed their eager but untried feet in his footsteps.
The first historian of whom we find any mention, was Deacon Martin Bull, close friend and business associate of Governor John Treadwell. Governor Treadwell evidently wrote at least a fragmentary history of Farmington, together with most elo- quent views on the progress of the town. This was prepared, at least to some extent by Martin Bull, who had gathered material for both the statistical as well as the social and political history of the town up to the years just subsequent to the War of the Revolution. Only a few pages, often quoted, and published in the Trumbull Memorial History of Hartford County, are now extant.
The first carefully prepared history of the town, based on a scholarly search of the records for the first two hundred years was the address delivered by Noah Porter Jr., at the 200th anniversary of the settlement of the town, on November 4, 1840. Mr. Porter's address was painstakingly exact as to his- torical data, with much detail in the appendix, and was com- bined with the philosophy and true Christianity which not only made him a great man in his generation, and one of Yale's great presidents, but made excerpts from his address particu- larly applicable one hundred years later, at the 300th anni- versary observance.
When the Reverend Noah Porter, father of President Porter, had completed fifty years of his pastorate at the Congrega- tional Church he preached an anniversary sermon, also of an historical nature, bringing the previous address by his son, up to date. This was in 1856.
Julius Gay
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Julius Gay
Julius Gay heard this address and possibly the first one in 1840, he being then six years old. He grew up under the great inspiration of both Reverend Noah Porter and his son President Porter and his imagination was fired by the tales he heard, and possibly, by the comparative difficulty of adding to these few published fragments. It would seem that Dr. Porter placed his mantle on the shoulders of this young Farmington student.
Julius Gay was graduated at Yale in 1856 with the degree B.A. and at Yale Scientific School in 1858. He immediately became county surveyor, an office he held for fifteen years.
The traditions of his family as well as his own inclinations to be of service to his town led him to accept the office of town clerk upon the resignation of Dr. Sumner September 8, 1860 and on the following election day in October he was elected.
This was a rare opportunity for him to study the land records and vital records of the town and future generations were to appreciate much of the work he did in that office in the one year he held it. Numerous note books attest to his careful search of the sites of many of the original houses, and ancient town maps, many of them over one hundred years old in 1860, were elaborately annotated from the work Mr. Gay could do by virtue of his offices as town clerk and surveyor. During that year Mr. Gay, always deeply interested in the library, was also librarian of the library housed in the record office, con- tinuing in that office for ten years.
These duties in the record office could not have been very lucrative for a young and ambitious graduate who must make his name and fortune and for the next fifteen years Mr. Gay followed his profession as surveyor.
His handwriting shows his patient and methodical attention to detail, being as clear and fine as printing. These same quali- ties soon were demanded in the administration of the Farm- ington Savings Bank where good judgment and judicial hand- ling of the bank's resources have kept this bank secure since its founding.
Julius Gay was made treasurer of the bank in 1873, serving longest of any of the treasurers, until 191I, a total of thirty-
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eight years. In 1914 he was elected president and served until 1918.
In the ninety-two years of the existence of the Farmington Savings Bank, there have been only five treasurers. Simeon Hart was first treasurer serving from the date of incorporation of the bank in 1851 to 1853. Samuel Smith Cowles succeeded him, serving from 1853 to 1873 when Julius Gay began his term of thirty-eight years. In 1911 Judge Edward H. Deming was elected and was in that office until his death in 1928. J. Harris Minikin was elected his successor. Presidents of the bank have been more numerous. Major Timothy Cowles was the first president, serving from 1851 to 1853. John Treadwell Norton succeeded him and was president until 1862. Others in succes- sion were: Dr. Asahel Thomson, 1862-66; William Gay, 1866- 89; Winthrop M. Wadsworth, 1889-91; Dr. Franklin Wheeler, 1891-1907; Henry W. Barbour, 1907-1914; Julius Gay, 1914- 1918; Timothy H. Root, 1918-1931; Herbert Knox Smith, from April to December 1931; William A. Hitchcock, 1931-41; Rob- ert Porter Keep, 1941-
All of his life Julius Gay was closely associated with the very center of intellectual achievements in Farmington and Hart- ford. He was born in Farmington February 15, 1834, son of Fisher and Lucy (Thomson) Gay. He prepared for Yale at the private school of Deacon Simeon Hart, was graduated with honors at Yale, receiving the second mathematics prize in his freshman year and the first mathematics prize in his junior year, and in 1858 he received the degree of Ph. D. He was not only a leader in thought and achievement in Farmington, but was one of the famous literary circle in Hartford when it was made up of such nationally known names as Charles Dudley Warner, Colonel Francis Gillette and his son William Hooker Gillette, John Hooker, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Reverend Joseph Twitchell and Samuel L. Clemens. At these gatherings Mrs. Gay took her own place as an accomplished musician.
Mr. Gay married Maria Clark October 16, 1862. Four daugh- ters were born to them, three of whom died in infancy. Miss Florence Thomson Gay is the only survivor and lives in the family homestead on Main Street. The Gay family lived for a
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Julius Gay
few years after the birth of the children in the first Gay home- stead which stood on the present site of the Farmington Coun- try Club. The rooms were panelled, and furnished with the modish black walnut furniture of the period, covered with red rep. Next door in the house now owned by the club lived Mr. Gay's aunt Almira. She was engaged "for a long time" to Henry Farnum of New Haven, who later married Jane Whitman and inherited the old Whitman house now the Farmington Museum. In 1878 Mr. Gay purchased the Howkins Hart house, an ancient landmark on Main Street next to the Farmington Savings Bank, similar in construction to the Farmington Museum, built about 1706, and after razing the old house, built the present lofty and commodious home. The house is the opposite in every way from the low-ceiled colonial house which stood there. It is high-ceilinged, with marble mantles, wide halls and terraced gardens and was furnished with Sheraton furniture, family silver and always books and music. Julius Gay enjoyed good music and as a young man finding himself with no musical instrument, he made his own organ and taught himself to play.
Mr. Gay's addresses before the Village Library, at invitation of Miss Sarah Porter, were later published. They included "Schools and Schoolmasters in Farmington in the Olden Time;" "Farmington in the War of the Revolution," "Old Houses in Farmington," "Farmington Soldiers in the Colonial Wars," "The Early Industries in Farmington," "The Library of a Farmington Village Blacksmith A.D., 1712," "The Tunxis Indians," "The Swarming of the Hive," "Farmington Two Hundred Years Ago."*
Mr. Gay was descended from original settlers in Farmington, his paternal line being: John1 settled in Watertown, Massa- chusetts 1630, married Johanna -; John2 born 1668, married Mary Fisher; John3 married Lydia - -; Fisher4 born October 9, 1733, married Phebe Lewis, died in New York August 22, 1776; Erastuss born September 21, 1772, married Eunice, daughter of Governor John and Dorothy (Pomoroy) Tread- well; Fisher6 born February 24, 1795, married (2) Lucy Thom- son, died January 20, 1865; Julius7 born 1834. On his maternal line he was descended from Captain John Mason, famous for
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