USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington town clerks and their times (1645-1940) > Part 20
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and the date when presented. And the sum paid in money or orders to volunteers, substitutes or his principal, a drafted man or any one who has purchased an order or orders in all not to exceed the sum of Nineteen Thousand Five Hundred Dollars.
"Voted That if the Selectmen cannot attend to the vaciniting (various) duties assigned them the Town Meeting shall appoint three agents One in Farmington Village, one in Plainville and one in Unionville to act as agents for the Town of Farmington in filling up the Quota of said Town.
C. Rowe Assist. Clerk"
At the regular town meeting held October 3, 1864, with Luther T. Parsons as moderator:
"Voted That the Selectmen contract and have the new road made across the Point west of Thomas Youngs from the old Turnpike to the Coppermine Road provided Mr. Thomas Youngs give the land upon which the road is to be built and the use of the old turnpike."
At the adjourned town meeting October 31, 1864:
"Voted That the Selectmen examine and remove all obstruc- tions in the highway running South of Danl Barrows house and have the same surveyed and the lines of said highway estab- lished.
"Voted that persons be appointed to see that prosecutions be instituted for the violation of the Bye Law forbidding fast driving over our bridges at Unionville, Plainville and in the Town Street. & the following persons were appointed for that purpose
"for North Bridge Plainville Bridge Lucas H. Carter
Fisher Gay
" Unionville Bridge
Lucas Richards
near the depot in Unionville Amasa Mills
"Voted that the Selectmen offer a reward of one dollar to any individual who will inform of any violation of the Bye Law of this town forbidding the driving faster than a walk across the covered bridges in this town and provided said violation be proved before any Court in this Town."
Under date of October 25, 1864, it is recorded "The Town of Farmington having been by a Resolution passed by the General
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Assembly at its session May 1864 divided into three Election Districts No 1, 2 and 3 and notice having been duly posted as above the following are the returns from the several Districts to wit:
Ist District Meeting for Electors of Abraham Lincoln 137 for electors of George B. McClellan IOI
2nd District meeting for electors of Abraham Lincoln 144 for electors of George B. McClellan 80 3rd District meeting for electors of Abraham Lincoln II2 for electors of George B. McClellan 54
all districts combined - for Abraham Lincoln 393
George B. McClellan 235"
The only recorded action we find in the Farmington Records whereby the voting districts of the town are distinguished, is a clipping from a paper, or possibly a statute book, pasted onto the record page, reading:
"Dividing the Town of Farmington into Election Districts"
RESOLVED BY THIS ASSEMBLY, That the town of Farmington is hereby and shall hereafter be divided into three districts for the purpose of accommodating the electors of said Town in voting for state and all other officers elected the first Monday in April in each year, and for the electors of presi- dent and vice president of the United States, by the following described lines, viz:
The first district shall be all of said town except the East and West Plains and White Oak School Districts, and the Union- ville and West School Districts; said portion shall be and remain the first district of said Town. The second district shall be the East and West Plains and White Oak School Districts, and all the electors residing in that portion of the town entitled to vote therein, shall be and remain the second district in said town. The third district shall consist of the Unionville and West School Districts and all the electors residing in that portion of the town entitled to vote therein shall be and remain the third district in said town; and the act relating to electors and elec- tions in those towns of this State which are divided into voting districts, approved June 23rd, 1860, shall be in force and appli- cable to said districts so divided into election districts, and this
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resolution shall take effect when approved by a majority of the electors of said town, at the next annual meeting in said town. "Approved, July 9, 1864."
There is no record made by the town clerk and recorded in the minute book of the consideration or approval of this divi- sion, but that this division into voting districts was in opera- tion, we see by the voting in the presidential election.
At a special town meeting held November 19, 1864, we find every effort being made to save the town the great expendi- tures of bounty which were given so freely in previous years. First enlistments had been made when feeling was running high and the glories of uniforms, bands and flags seemed sure to conquer all in a few short months. But with the return of wounded men and stories of battles and imprisonments, it was soon necessary to fill the quota by other means and the bounty was devised. This did not call forth the same type of men who had enlisted in the first call, and "bounty-jumping" soon be- came a racket - men collecting their bounty from town to town under assumed names and being later listed as deserters. In a further effort to avoid a direct draft in Farmington, the special town meeting of November 19, 1864, passed the fol- lowing Resolution :
The meeting was organized by the appointment of Dwight Humphrey Esq. moderator.
"The following resolutions were offered and passed as follows:
"Whereas, The citizens of this town have good reason to anticipate another call by the General Government for troops to reinforce the army of the United States to aid in putting down the Rebellion and Whereas we believe the quota of this town may be filled at this time or within a short period at a less expenditure of money than will be necessary to accomplish that result after the call by the Government is made
"Thereupon Resolved That a committee of three judicious persons be appointed, one from each of the three villages of Farmington, Unionville and Plainville whose duty it shall be to fill the quota of the Town in anticipation of another call for 500,000 troops upon the best terms which they can secure and at the least expense to the town.
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"That said Committee be and they hereby are authorized and empowered to make all necessary contracts and arrange- ments which may be necessary, most effectively and econom- ically to accomplish the objects of their appointment.
"Resolved That the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars - or so much thereof as may be necessary for the purpose above speci- fied be and the same hereby is appropriated and made subject to the orders of said committee.
"Resolved That the Treasurer and the Selectmen of this town are hereby instructed by any means in their power to aid and assist the said Committee in effecting the object for which they were appointed."
The first Resolution was enlarged by the addition of the following "and that the Selectmen be authorized to draw orders to the amount of 300 dollars to each man a citizen from this town who may enlist for 3 years or who has furnished an accept- able substitute since our last quota was filled or who may furn- ish such substitutes to the number of forty nine.
Motion was made that the Special Committee be appointed by nomination which motion prevailed and Apollas Fenn Esq was appointed from Plainville, Thomas L. Porter Esq from Farmington and Lucas Richards was appointed from Union- ville. But at his request on motion was excused and Andrew S. Upson was appointed from Unionville but at his request was on motion excused from serving and on motion Samuel D. Hills was appointed a member of this Committee. "Voted. That the Committee have the same pay for their services as Selectmen have."
The only indication of the end of the War of the Rebellion, on the records, is the vote on the proposed amendment to the Con- stitution of this State giving the vote to "Every male citizen of the United States who shall have attained the age of twenty one years, who shall have resided in this State for a term of one year next preceding, and in the town in which he may offer himself to be admitted to the privileges of an elector, at least six months next preceding the time at which he may so offer himself, and shall be able to read any article of the Constitution, or any section of the Statutes of this State, and shall sustain a .
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good moral character, shall, on taking such oath as may be prescribed by law, become an elector."
The amendment passed by a small majority, those in favor in the entire town numbering 261 and those opposed being 189 making a majority here of only 72 in favor of the amendment.
The annual meeting of October 1865 took up again, the con- sideration of details concerning the proper functioning of the town roads, schools, and finances, which had been somewhat overshadowed in the past four years. They voted to place Finger Boards "near the store of Wm. Gay, one where the Avon Road forks beyond the Town farm, one in the fork of the Hartford road near George Andrus, one on Main Street near Thomas Cowles, one near Wm. L. Cowles, one in South Meadow where the Indian lane intersects, one where the Burlington and Plain- ville roads intersect, one where the new Coppermine road inter- sects, one where the old Coppermine Road intersects, one near the house of Wm. Bradley.
A tax of one per cent was laid at this meeting and favorable action was taken for the issuance of bonds in an amount not to exceed forty thousand dollars with interest at six per cent, for "payment and liquidating its town orders given solely for War purposes." The recorded votes shown $51,000 had been appro- priated for the four years of the Civil War.
The Civil War cost the town of Farmington more than any other town in Hartford County, with the exception of Hartford. Farmington, with a Grand List in 1864, of $2,162,570, paid out $89,975.98 in expenditures for bounties, premiums, commu- tation and support of families; with an estimated $9,000 paid by individuals for bounties to volunteers and substitutes, and an estimated $6,000 paid by individuals for commutation, making an approximate $110,000, as against the town of Enfield, and the town of New Britain, also in the $2,000,000 class grand list, with expenditures in Enfield of approximately $70,000 and about $90,000 in New Britain.
One veteran lies buried in the old cemetery on Main Street. Sergeant Richard Cowles, a member of Co. A., 13th Connec- ticut Regiment, who died February 10, 1862 is buried there. All other veterans are buried in Riverside, where, since 1868, me-
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morial services have been held every year in their honor. Mr. Winthrop M. Wadsworth gave the address at that first service and spoke thereafter as long as he lived, a tradition continued by his son, Hon. Adrian R. Wadsworth, who continued the family custom following the death of his father November 24, 1891 until 1940, less than a year before his death in May 1941.
Farmington furnished fourteen men for Company A, Thir- teenth Regiment, under Captain Henry L. Bidwell; and in the famous Sixteenth Regiment, Company C, Captain Edward E. Rankin, Farmington furnished thirty-five men. In Company G, Captain Nathaniel Hayden of Berlin, there were fifteen men from Farmington, and in Company H, Captain Newton S. Manross of Bristol, there were fifteen Farmington men. Cap- tain Manross was killed in action in the battle of Antietam and Timothy B. Robinson was promoted to captain. Captain Rob- inson was captured and imprisoned at Andersonville, where he existed almost naked and starved until, with several comrades, he escaped through a tunnel and after weeks of thrilling adven- ture in swamps and being aided by negroes as well as soldiers and other sympathizers, he returned to Bristol and his family. The Bristol Post is named in his honor. Epaphroditus Peck says that the first Soldiers' Monument in Connecticut in mem- ory of Civil War veterans was dedicated in Bristol January 20, 1866. However, the Soldiers' Monument in Kensington is dated 1863, and was erected in memory of sixteen men from there.
Women in Farmington sent all manner of necessities and such luxuries as could be transported to the Connecticut Sani- tary Commission for distribution to the men. Sheets, pillows and pillow slips, blankets, wrappers and drawers, socks, mittens books, wine, brandy, packages of food, and extras such as cook- ing utensils, knives, looking glasses and needlebooks, pills and tobacco, writing desks, rubber blankets and miscellaneous ex- tras in such quantities that carrying them was a problem. Every soldier was equipped with the Havelock, a white cloth-covering for the head and neck, designed to protect the men in the South from sunstroke. The energetic, high-souled, patriotic Farming- ton men and women made any sacrifice gladly, which might
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mean an extra iota of encouragement and comfort for their men in the field.
The Soldiers' Monument in Riverside Cemetery was erected in July 1872 and bears the names of Sergeants Richard Cowles, Watson W. Whaples, and Jeremiah H. Kelley; Private William H. Dutton; Surgeon Charles H. Rowe; other names with no designation - Henry Warren, Frederick Hooker, George W. Osborne, James H. Skelley, Stephen Durning, Henry Hart, Edward DeWolf, James H. Gilbert, George Sothergill, Timothy Gladding, Albert F. Thompson, Hugh Roper, Albert S. Frost, Smith S. Taylor.
In 1935 Miss Bertha L. Tuttle of Springfield, Massachusetts, presented to the town clerk a United States flag which she said had been made during the Civil War by the women of Union- ville for the Loyal Legion. After the war the flag was presented to her grandfather, Daniel A. Tuttle, who was a member of the society and while living in Unionville was superintendent of the Platner and Porter paper mill. Lyman H. Tuttle, son of Daniel, went from Unionville as a volunteer in the Seventh Regiment, Company C. The flag was in turn given by Mrs. Hurlburt, to the Farmington Museum, as the most fitting place for it to be.
Names of volunteers from Unionville in 1861-2, have been preserved by the Loyal Legion Society on a plaque and are listed as follows:
"Ezra C. Ayer, John E. Bunnell, Francis Burr, Bela Burr, Henry W. Ball, George E. Callender, Samuel N. Chapin, Kenas Clark, Joseph W. Curtiss, Nelson Culver, William H. Crosby, Patrick Campion, Edward Campion, Elijah Champlin, Frank- lin Davis, Chauncey Dailey, George C. Dailey, Henry M. Davis, George H. Fuller, Edward Fuller, A. Fuller, Seth H. Fuller, James B. Fuller, Franklin Fuller, George Fields, Liberty A. Frost, George Frisbie, John Fairfield, John Flinn, George E. Gibbs, John Gilmore, Senaca L. Gorham, Theodore W. Good- win, Charles E. Hamilton, Lewis Hart, John L. Hitchcock, Frederic M. Hart, Augustus Hinman, James E. Hamilton, William A. Hitchcock, Albert Hart, Philip Hart, Howard Hem- mingway, Alphonso J. Hinckley, Richard D. Johns, James
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Joyce, Mortimer S. Johnson, Dwight D. Keyes, James Ken- nedy, Frederick Keeney, William H. Knight, Patrick Loughery, Edward Loughery, James Lusk, Victor Lusk, Charles Larkin, Judah Martin, Robert Mason, John Mack, David E. Mallory, J. Morse, George Patience, Henry Pierce, Samuel S. Pyatt, William H. Phippeney, William Porter, Henry C. Porter, Alpheus Porter, Israel C. Peck, Frederick H. Peck, C. V. R. Pond, Albert Preston, Charles Porter, Silas Payne, Adna G. Rowe, William J. Rowe, John B. Rider, William H. Smith, William H. Stedman, Simeon Stedman, Amos Stedman, Darwin E. Simons, Andrew J. Soring, John Scantling, Gilbert Sober- ville, John Taylor, Frederick A. Taylor, Lyman H. Tuttle, George W. Thompson, Emerson Weatherbey, Edward L. Wight, Stanley N. Wadsworth, Asahel Woodford, Washington Wolcott, William L. Winship, A. J. Woodruff, George Weather- by, Franklin Wolcott."
Mr. Frederic C. Whitmore, now living in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, was a small boy at the time of the Civil War and lived in the house now the Elm Tree Inn, which his father owned and had developed into a gentleman's estate. Mr. Whit- more remembers standing on the steps of his home and watching the volunteers from Unionville and Farmington marching away to war. He remembers, too, going to Hartford with his father, for great quantities of black material for draping the house, when word came of the death of Abraham Lincoln.
A granite memorial shaft on the church green in Unionville bears the dates 1861-1865 and the inscription "Unionville Honors the Earth that Wraps Her Hero's Clay."
The Meeting in October, 1865, also voted:
"That the votes of this Town passed July 21, 1862, Aug. 23, 1862 'directing the Selectmen to make acceptable provision for the families of the Soldiers who have gone to the war and who have returned and of those who have died in the service' be rescinded."
A month later, however, the better judgment and honest generosity of the townspeople triumphed, as their sense of jus- tice toward the returning veterans, and their responsibility
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toward the families of soldiers showed in the preamble and vote at a meeting held November 6, 1865:
"Whereas The time has arrived when as a Nation we should give thanks to a kind Providence for delivering us as a people from the Ravages and cruelties of War and in restoring to us Peace and prosperity and remembering with gratitude the serv- ices rendered our common country in defence of our liberties, and
"Whereas a number of our fellow citizens from patriotic mo- tives upon the first alarm of danger being sounded, left their homes and their several avocations 'the plow in the furrow, the sledge at the anvil and the tools upon the bench' and with arms in their hands offered their services in behalf of our com- mon country, and
"Whereas these brave men entered into the service of our country without any bounty from the town, and
"Whereas at subsequent Stages of the War the town was called upon by the Federal Government to supply our quota of men for the public defense and the Town uniformly offered bounty to all volunteers, now thereupon
"Voted that the Selectmen be directed to pay each person or their heirs, who volunteered to enter the service of our country who actually entered the service and served for three years or were killed or disabled in said service without a Bounty from the town and was regularly mustered into said service the sum of Three Hundred Dollars cash and those who entered the serv- ice as above or their heirs for three years on a bounty, for 100 dollars be paid 200 dollars and that the selectmen be authorized to borrow money for that purpose to pay said bounty.
"Voted: That the vote passed at the adjourned annual meet- ing held October 9, 1865 rescinding certain votes passed July 21, 1862 and Aug. 23, 1862 'directing the Selectmen to make ample provision for the families of the soldiers who have gone to the War and who have returned and of those who have died in the service' be rescinded."
An effort to pay additional bounty to returned soldiers was voted upon at a meeting December 2, 1865 when Wales S. Porter offered the following vote with a Preamble as follows:
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"Whereas Divine Providence has permitted a Great Rebel- lion against our Government which has required unparalleled energy and sacrifice to subdue, and many of our fellow citizens have been actuated by Patriotism or by other influences to vol- untarily respond to the call of the Government for an armed force, leaving their pleasant firesides, their friends, their all, for the field of battle the hospital, the Ditch, the prison, some of whom have returned with laurels nobly won, others fill lone- some but honored graves, others still with missing members of the body or disease permanently fixed upon their constitutions. For all this we owe to those men a debt of gratitude and money For through their sufferings we lived at ease,
"Therefore to discharge in some measure our obligation to these soldiers It is Voted That each and every man who was mustered into the United States Service for the three years be- ing a resident of the Town of Farmington at the time or their heirs shall receive the sum of Three Hundred Dollars. Those having recd one hundred Dollars from the Town shall receive in addition thereto Two hundred Dollars and those who have received no bounty shall received three hundred Dollars and the selectmen are directed to pay to the said Soldiers or their heirs the said sum of money out of the Treasury of the Town by borrowing for this purpose if necessary."
The question being taken it was decided in the negative as follows: Ayes 22, Noes 133.
At a meeting June 16, 1866, with Thomas Treadwell as moderator:
"Voted That the Selectmen be authorized and directed to lay out the Highway in Unionville from Roaring Brook to the Tunxis Hotel so as to make the same of proper width not to exceed three rods in width and also to examine the line on the North side of said Highway and to remove any fences or build- ings that may be on the Highway."
At the annual town meeting October 1, 1866, after the elec- tion of officers, some of the interesting, if unimportant votes read :
"That all taxes on dogs be abated when the dogs are killed.
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"That the Selectmen and the Town Clerk be a Committee to revise the Rules in relation to Town Meetings. . . .
"That the Selectmen be and hereby are directed to cause notices to be posted in the several Burial Grounds in the Town cautioning persons against committing of any depredations by defacing of any monuments, fences, trees or otherwise, and that they be requested to prosecute any person thus offending . . .
"That the Town Clerk forfeit his services for the Town if he shall leave the Town Clerks office open when absent.
"That the Town Clerk shall not be allowed to charge for showing Lists nor for attending annual and Election meetings and only Ten Dollars for making Registers for Electors.
"For damages resulting from widening the highway near the house of Walter H. and Samuel W. Cowles in Unionville, it was voted to pay the said Cowles the sum of Eight Hundred Dol- lars; to the Methodist Episcopal vestry the sum of ninety dol- lars, to Albert Hill the sum of one hundred eight dollars and to Sidney Paine the sum of fifty dollars.
"Voted to increase the reward offered for the detection of the murder of Luther Thompson to one thousand dollars."
On June 29, 1867, with Julius Gay as chairman, "Voted to adopt the report of the Selectmen in laying out the road from the house of Harvey Webster to Unionville & order the same built provided the owners of the lands through which the road passes make no claim for damages for land or fencing the same except in case of John Flynn."
October 7, 1867 with Thomas Treadwell as moderator, it was "Voted . .. That the Selectmen cause Railings to be put up side of the Bridges over James W. Cowles Canal and charge the same to him. . . . That the Selectmen be and they are hereby directed to notify L. T. Parsons to remove the fence off the highway between his house and the village of Unionville."
Regret was expressed in the Vote to repeal the vote passed in relation to shaping the road and ditches leading from oppo- site the Female Seminary west to Main Street near the house of Auguttus Ward passed May 8, 1854.
At the town election October 5, 1868; Thomas Treadwell was elected Town Clerk, Winthrop M. Wadsworth headed the
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board of selectmen and the last recorded vote written by Mr. Cowles was ... "That the assessors of the town be instructed to make an examination of the real estate in this town with the view of making a more proper assessment and equalization of the taxable property to be set in the list & also to ascertain how property is assessed in other towns in this vicinity and to be governed accordingly."
One of the major calamities in the history of Farmington occurred during this period. On July 21, 1864, fire broke out in the great barns back of the old yellow house which had been the home of Rev. Timothy Pitkin and with a wind from the north that day, and the men of the village working in the mead- ows beyond the river, soon the great barns were a mass of flames and the fire was spreading to the nearby houses. An old gentleman of Farmington, who was fourteen years old that year, has said that it was well known just which small boys in the village were playing in the barn that day. The church bell was rung frantically, but with the wind blowing the sound from the meadows, the men working there could know nothing of the fire until one of them saw smoke rising from the village. Horses were quickly taken out of their harnesses, rakes and cultivators were left in the field and men rode their horses madly into the Main Street. Bucket brigades were formed from wells, which were low at that time of the year. Women brought food and drink for the men, who labored without rest or success through the day and night. Altogether, all buildings from south of the present Mill Lane, to the Noah Porter homestead were lost, only the stone walls of the "Old Stone Store" remaining standing. This store, built by Major Timothy Cowles, had seen the beginning of Miss Sarah Porter's school. Here, too, John Hooker and Joseph R. Hawley had their law offices before their removal to Hartford and here Thomas Cowles also had his law office. An old photograph of the still smoking ruins with tired. fire-fighters standing before it, is in the possession of the writer.
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