USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greens Farms > Greens Farms, Connecticut, the old West parish of Fairfield historical sketches and reminiscences > Part 2
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Stony Hill is the same as Long Hill, which extended from the Old Common to the meadows at New Creek, now the property of the Jennings brothers. The word "meadow" in the earliest records refers to what we term today as salt meadows.
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Home-Lots and Pasture Lands
W HEN, in 1648, the colonial town of Fairfield set off home-lots and pasture lands to the five farmers of Bankside, it was trespassing upon the sachemdom of Machamux, and it was not until 1660 that the town, by purchase of this land from its original owners, the red men, could give good and valid deeds to the land.
It was Fairfield's policy to divide its common lands among its freeholders according to rates, values of freeholds, wife, children, etc. Hence the biggest pro- prietors gained new acreage in every distribution and some, by purchase or trading, became extensive land- holders. Many of these early family possessions have come down through the centuries to the present day. However, this plan worked against later settlers, es- pecially the poorer ones, who often could not buy a home site but received permission to build a house by the roadside. I have known half a dozen such in this parish. "Squatters," they were dubbed.
A good illustration of the above-mentioned method of division is the division in 1682 of the Indian Field lands of some 80 acres from Frost Point easterly along the Sound to Southport Harbor. There were 94 di- visions of which Daniel Frost drew number one: I
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Home-Lots and Pasture Lands
acre, 29 rods, 6 feet. The smallest division, 29 rods, went to George Squires.
There appear to have been two divisions of Compo Neck in 1682. The first was three rods per pound, the second was five rods per pound, in all 102 divi- sions.
On January 30, 1671, the half-mile common was laid out from Stratford west boundary to the Sauga- tuck River. The Greens Farms Long Lots Road is the northern boundary of this half-mile common. North of this common the town of Fairfield in 1670 laid out 71 long lots, so-called, some 100 proprietors participating. The breadth in rods ranged from 70 rods to 4 rods. In addition these proprietors were granted building lots and pasture lands.
In this layout of long lots, Simon Couch owned the last one next to the Norwalk boundary line. These long lots extended some miles up country and were laid out as paralleling Stratford's west boundary which was about 22 degrees west of north from the present site of Seaside Park following the present Park Ave- nue in Bridgeport. Later highways were laid out be- tween these long lots. Following the general direction these highways were likewise some 22 degrees west of north and they have been called the "eleven o'clock lines" highways. These narrow long lots were traded, bought, and sold; thus some proprietors increased their landholdings.
[17]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
I can remember when various members of the Jen- nings family owned all of the Indian Fields land. There was only a barn on this land, no house, no trees, and the whole acreage was cultivated in onions, with carrots between the onion rows as a second crop. Occasionally hay or grain was grown for rotation. In 1874 Andrew W. Jennings built the first house on the above land for his son, Wilbur. This homestead was later purchased by Mr. John H. Cole, remodelled and relocated so as to face the water. Eugene G. Henckle is now the owner of this property.
In his earlier life, my father was called upon to ap- praise this land for the settlement of estates. The average price was $75 to $150 per acre, and the heirs would say "Do not give us this Field land, but land to the north among the hills." Today this same land of 80 acres is the site of ten mansions, set among sweep- ing lawns and fair gardens, and the assessed value for taxation runs up into the thousands per acre.
Here is an interesting bit of history about a certain eight-acre tract of ground on the eastern slope of Clap- board Hill, now part of the estate of D. Swing Star- ring. This eight-acre tract of land was laid out by the proprietors of the Common Land for Gideon Hurlbert in 1750, described as "a piece of land in the Parrish of Greens Farms on Clapboard Hill, in quantity 8 acres and 20 rods" and bounded:
"Northwesterly and Northeasterly on the highways;
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know all were by those prouts that & John His of Toinfor ofte The Colony of Connecticut for and in consideration of A corlan porcell of laws inchanged their over and confirmed to use by Nothonderdony june of I Fairfield is an infrument bearing squall of woon dato with Hof presents, have of By Hoto projects do grand dell make over of Confirm conto Hat Nather Mansjet and to his hair & Aringin for ever of working.
percellofaan lying in I hairfists essig part of the log at ft that way John Thompson of part of the long Egyetlen was buy homens feller John. Hiertais, and it is Right now in breadth und a jagoing to I Nollan? Jains, hit is found douthriftonly by the forcion, North inflerty by fry ou .. Paw, Northwesterly by for Godot to Benjamin Qui- fay diarios in feed finde to i Quartey of the Same dalo with the & profit, Southwestonly by PAdores' law, la it Quantily sscondor Bif, with all the privile is of appartiene, thereoutroing or thesands by any scanner of way or MEany Bolongoria mig Except the Cop now on the I few, To have and to hold mots. Hos Nathen oDany jun of to his hair & fique Has grandes parcel of candy Bargrise promis recopi botoro excepto for li & the only je Bolaof for ever more xispl before accepter, affirming may differ to be He truco propridor and to have good night full power and lenfull authority) to soll the provinifit is Milanover atores and that the Poems indicted before the raing & delivery heroof was free & clone from all formar. Bargains dolor mortgage or sicembora is whoforever. i Willep 1) Peroof 4 have her sunto bet way had of food this light day of June carro Demini 1717- digut dector y Delivers Photo was In presence of Pelor Var Sam gregory
to Go bi free ad & deer bofor me.
Pelor Dur Afifland
DEED TO PROPERTY ON LONG LOTS ROAD, 1717
From the original in the possession of Judge Joseph Adams
Home-Lots and Pasture Lands
"Southeasterly on land laid out to the heirs of Sam- uel Buckingham; and
"Southwesterly on land that belonged to the Rev. Mr. Chapman, deceased."
This land was conveyed by the Hurlberts to the An- drewses, and conveyed by John Andrews to John Hyde in 1787. It was left by John Hyde to the Presbyterian Society of Greens Farms (now The Congregational Society) for parsonage purposes and was leased to Reverend Hezekiah Ripley for pasturage.
In 1807 the society leased this land to Hezekiah Phillips and Jesse Jennings for a term of five thousand years. The leasehold of this land seems to have fig- ured about $65 an acre and the total amount was merged in the permanent funds of the society, which are still intact. This procedure seems to have been the only way of disposing of entailed property in the early days. The courts in later years clear such titles by statute law. Today this land is assessed for over $1000 per acre. Lands with a good outlook, even in the woods or on woody hillsides, command large prices for residential purposes far above their agricultural value. And only yesterday we were an agricultural people.
South of the half-mile of common the town of Fair- field set apart 10-acre home plots and 20-acre pasture lands to the early inhabitants. This land distributed by Fairfield helped to make small communities, for
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Greens Farms, Connecticut
two or more farmers built their homesteads near each other or at the corners of cross roads. This plan made neighbors close together for protection and for mutual assistance in farm work.
Often a common or green was left out from the farm lands adjacent. Such was the plan at Greens Farms when the second generation moved across the creek and settled on the southern and eastern slope of Clap- board Hill. On this common was built the first school- house in 1703, and the first meeting-house in 1711.
The early proprietors bought and owned Sherwood Island in common. Then a strip of upland from the common on the southerly side of the land leading to the island was set apart and known until this day as the Horse Pasture.
On the westerly slope of Clapboard Hill Fairfield granted six acres for a parsonage to the first minister, and the West Parish of Fairfield-the ecclesiastical term for Bankside settlers-voted to build a house for their minister. It was a building some 40 feet long, 20 feet wide, with a "chimbly" and 2 chambers, and "cifered" on all sides with shingles (clapboards) 4 feet long. The splitting or riving out of these shingles gave the name to Clapboard Hill. It is a popular fallacy that this name originated from the early cus- tom of clapping boards together to summon the colo- nists to worship from the hill above the meeting-house. Church records show that a certain yearly sum was
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Home-Lots and Pasture Lands
set aside for the beating of the drum for that purpose.
The town also voted two acres to the first black- smith who would locate here. Thomas Nash accepted the offer. His shop and land were near the Hot Hole between Clapboard Hill and the county road, just west of Reverend Chapman's home. He soon became the most important mechanic in the settlement, as he made nails, hinges, hardware for houses, iron work for ox-yokes, carts, chains, axes, guns, carpenter's tools, augers, and was often a silversmith, too.
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The Proprietors Join with Fairfield
T HE town of Fairfield in 1665 appointed a com- mittee to meet with the farmers at Bankside, Machamux, to treat with them concerning "what relation they stand in to us and what said com- mittee shall do in the premises if the town will stand to." The next year another meeting occurred and the following agreement was entered into:
"Articles of agreement between Nathan Gould, John Burke, John Burr, Cor. Hull and William Hill on behalf of the town of Fairfield on the one part and the farmers of Machamux, alias called Bankside, on the other part, witnesseth:
"I. In premesis it is agreed that the above said farmers and the town of Fairfield shall for the future be one township. The above said farmers do adjoin their mile as an addition to the bounds of Fairfield. And said farmers are to be equal in town privileges and charges according to their proprietors, with the rest of the inhabitants of the town of Fairfield. The said farmers are to be subject to town orders about fencing or whatever else shall be ordered as any other inhabitants of the town of Fairfield are.
"2. It is agreed that the farmers shall possess as their proprietory property all such lands and meadows as they have already in fence as is on the east side of
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The Proprietors Join with Fairfield
Compo Creek leading up to Muddy River, which they have now in their possession.
"3. That if said farmers desire it, there shall be laid out for each farmer in some convenient place, 15 acres of upland for their own use and property.
"4. It is agreed that John Green shall enjoy freely 5 acres that he possesseth on the west side of Compo Creek to be to him and to his heirs forever if the town sees good to grant it."
(Note: It appears to the author that this five acres may be the same as the land within the Colonial Bury- ing Ground. From some searches I can find no record of transfer of lands for this cemetery.)
5. Refers to sufficient foot bridges across Sasco and Mill Rivers.
6. Refers to notices of town meetings.
"7. It is agreed that such agreement as said farmers have already entered into about a bridge over Gallup Gap going to their lands shall be abiding as formerly each with the other."
Notwithstanding the above agreements of the farm- ers with the town, Fairfield "springs" this:
"8. It is agreed that such Indian deeds whether by gift or purchase shall be surrendered up to the town upon consideration of the premises by the farmers."
(Probably as a conciliatory gesture to disarm the an- tagonism which "8" was bound to arouse, the mother town generously added:)
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Greens Farms, Connecticut
"9. It is agreed that the farmers' west bridge near their houses, which now lieth over the creek,* shall for the future be maintained out of the town treasury. The farmers with cows are not to pay to the town herd.
"10. It is agreed that of the above third article covering the grant of more land doth only respect the five first farmers that settled here, viz: Thomas Newton, Daniel Frost, Henry Gray, John Green and Francis Andrews."
II. Refers to two acres. Robert Beacham. "All the above said parties have hereunto set their hands this 20th day of Jan. 1666."
The General Court acquiesced to this document of agreements and ordered the added mile to be laid out to Fairfield. However, the proprietors at Bankside continued to own and administer Fox or Farmers', now Sherwood, Island in common, and more or less ig- nored Fairfield's interference. Adjoining this land by a stretch of beach and salt meadow was Little Island of some ten acres. John Green at one time owned some
* The above refers to the creek to the west of the Bankside farms and is first mentioned here: strange indeed that no early deed hinted at its existence; strange, too, that it was not used as a boundary for which purpose it was na- turally adapted. It was never given a definite name, being generally known as the Farms Creek, Green Farms Creek, and more popularly New Creek. To my mind a most appropriate name would be "New Gallup Gap"-that would perpetuate a historic name in our annals. This creek was an important harbor for small coasting vessels in the early times, having a wide channel up through the salt meadows above the bridge. I have been informed that in early times there was a dock and warehouse and shipping port along the coast at the foot of Bridge Hill, now the property of the Jennings brothers. This creek has its outlet into Long Island Sound at Burial Hill.
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The Proprietors Join with Fairfield
acreage of it. The title was in the Andrews family from that day until a few years ago when the Honor- able John H. Perry sold it for the heirs of that family. Today it is a part of Sherwood's Island State Park. It is wooded over its entire surface.
The settlement of the mile frontage of the proprie- tors and the town of Fairfield as above stated, started the younger generation to migrate over the creek and take up lands on and around Clapboard Hill.
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The Second Generation
T HE Andrews family settled on the slope of Clapboard Hill, and "Elmstead," the home of the author and the six-acre home-lot, was in that family until 1816 when my grandfather, John B. Jennings, bought the farm.
The Couch family secured the land to the east of the common reaching to the salt-water creek and the Bridge Hill lot now owned by the Jennings brothers.
Christopher Sturges had a small home-lot on the easterly end of the present S. Morgan Barber property, and he was granted a site for ten vats, but the exact location of this colonial industrial plant I cannot as- certain.
Edward Jesup, the founder of the honorable Jesup family in Greens Farms and later in Westport, was born in 1663 in either Newtown or West Farms in New York State, and when three years old was brought to Connecticut. In due time he became a freeman of the town of Fairfield. He married Elizabeth Hyde in 1692. He was a cultivator of the soil, and also gathered from the abundance of the sea which was at his very door. He, like the others, lived plainly but had a liberal supply of needful things. In 1721 he deeded by will to his son Edward as follows, in part:
"My homestead at Maximus or the West Parish in
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The Second Generation
said Fairfield containing all my lands adjoining to- gether where my new dwelling house standeth be it in quantity more or less. And is bounded easterly by lands of Thomas Couch; south by John Andrews meadows or a highway in part and partly by land of John Lockwood; west in part by a highway and in part by land of John Lockwood; north by the Com- mon, together with all the buildings, fruit trees, gar- den, yard and fences."
This property is later described as being where the homestead of the late Austin Jennings was located. Long Hill, a wooded ridge leading from the old com- mon to the salt meadows, is mentioned. The building of the railway in 1848 bisected this homestead and the Old Green or Common. The mention of Long Hill establishes the location beyond a doubt. This Jesup property also included the homestead of the More- houses that faced the Green or Common at the inter- section of Greens Farms and Beachside Avenue, where now reposes the memorial boulder.
On the crest of Clapboard Hill where the red man first viewed Machamux, "the beautiful country," stands the residence of William H. Davis, and just south is the homestead of Michael Hawie. This lot was called the Clapboard Hill Lot in a conveyance of 1838. In a very early will there is mention of the "Heather Bite Meadow," of which I have already spoken. An oak tree is mentioned as the western
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Greens Farms, Connecticut
boundary of the original colonial town of Fairfield. There is a large oak tree still standing on the rounding point of upland of the old Bridge Hill lot near the Jennings brothers' estates, and this may be the loca- tion of that early oak tree. I do not know. Many other interesting facts and places I cannot locate, as for instance, where Widow Abigail Jennings had her tavern.
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The Fairfield West Parish
A® FTER the adjustment of the mile frontage be- tween the proprietors at Bankside and the town of Fairfield, in 1666, the country in- creased in inhabitants, the settlers spreading around Compo Pond to Compo Hill, up the Saugatuck Valley and into the Long Lots region toward the Aspetuck River. These early settlers were of Puritan stock, God-fearing, frugal, hard-working.
Thus, by 1708, having so numerous a settlement, the people of Machamux petitioned the General Court to be set aside as a separate parish. This, Fairfield did not relish and, under her objections, the matter went over until October, 1710, when the petition was re- newed, and the General Assembly at its May session in 1711 voted to grant the petition unless Fairfield should show sufficient reason against it.
In the foregoing petition it was shown that from Henry Gray, Jr.'s, place in Compo to Samuel Couch's place the distance was 2 miles. From Couch's place to the schoolhouse in Machamux was 172 miles, lacking 4 rods, and from this schoolhouse to the meeting-house in Fairfield 472 miles and 70 rods, the whole distance from Compo to Fairfield, 8 miles and 66 rods. The inhabitants numbered west of Sasco River to Macha- mux, 182, and in the Compo section, 88-a total of 270 persons.
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Greens Farms, Connecticut
In May, 1711, by order of the General Court, the West Parish of Fairfield was established. The com- mittee set the eastern bounds at Sturges Highway and Sasco River; south, Long Island Sound; west, the dividend line between Fairfield and Norwalk; north, Redding.
On June 12, 1711, was held the first parish meeting. At this meeting John Andrews was chosen recorder and 70 pounds were voted as the salary of the Rever- end Daniel Chapman as minister. The first Macha- mux meeting-house was not fully completed but it was used for services. Since that date continuous ser- vices have been held in the West Parish of Fairfield, now the Congregational Society of Greens Farms; the fourth meeting-house now being used was built on the site of the third. The continuous records are pre- served. Early records contain vital statistics, births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths; nearly a thousand deaths are recorded, each with a brief word or two as to cause-sickness, accident, or military service.
I have traced the names of soldiers from the West Parish who served in the French and Indian Wars, the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Span- ish and World Wars, all but the Mexican. Many of these veterans are buried in the Colonial Cemetery and in the Greens Farms Church cemetery. Indian children and negro slaves were among those baptized.
In 1835 the town of Westport was set apart by the
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THIS MEETING HOVLE 0UZ
CHYRCH OF CHRIST ORGANISED
MINISTERS
DANL CHAPMAN 1711 THO F DAVIES 1829 R S EGGLESTON 1859 DANL BUCKINGHAM 1742 DANL C. CURTIS 1840 BENJ J RELYEA 1861 HEZK RIPLEY 1767 GILES M PORTER 1844 HENRY DAVIES 1890 ED W. HOOKER 1821 CHAS BENTLEY 1850 ROBT J. THOMSON 1894 CHARLTON B. STRAYER 1902
IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO GOD THIS TABLET ERECTED JUNE 12 1911 BY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH GREEN'S FARMS CONN.
HISTORICAL TABLE, GREENS FARMS CHURCH
SILVER COMMUNION SERVICE Dating from about 1712
The Fairfield West Parish
General Assembly of Connecticut and to accomplish this the Fairfield West Parish gave its consent for it held more or less authority in town matters. The build- ing of the turnpike in 1800 made a new thoroughfare through the parish and changed somewhat the high- way intersections. Near the close of the century a new means of transportation was built on this high- way-the electric trolley line. A little later the road- bed was hard surfaced as a state highway and today it sustains a very large automobile and truck travel to and through Connecticut. The large old house stand- ing on the Post Road near Turkey Hill, long known as the Lamberton House, was the toll gate even back to the days of the stage coach.
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Topography of the West Parish
N ORTH of the present Long Lots Road the land rises to an elevated plateau intersected by valleys and little streams. This elevated land continues northerly and northeasterly to where it dips abruptly down into the valley of the Aspetuck River, outside the confines of the territory we are con- sidering. From this elevated plateau there is a wide range of vision over intervening hills and lowlands and out to Long Island Sound. To the northwest the high- lands dip sharply and stretch over into the Hockanum Plains, which appear to have once been the bed of a bay whose northerly shore rose abruptly into the wide expanse of hills of Weston and Wilton.
To the south of Long Lots Road three parallel hills, Turkey, Clapboard, and Benjamin, point toward the sea, and further west the plateau stretches down through Hill's woods and Compo Hill to Compo. Turkey Hill we can visualize as the abode of wild turkeys in the early time; Clapboard Hill we must surmise to have been the source of straight-grained riving timber for the clapboard covering of the early houses; Benjamin Hill was probably named for Ben- jamin Rumsey who once lived on its southern slope, and in whose house school was kept.
Below these foothills is a plain of gravelly and sandy
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Topography of the West Parish
loam reaching down to the waters of the Sound, while at the foot of Long Hill, which is the extension of Clapboard Hill, there is a wide expanse of salt-mea- dow land extending to the beach. On one side of Long Hill is a system of creeks formed by the tidal inlet of New Creek; on the other is an expanse of some 80 acres of salt meadow, with numerous circling creeks all connected with Gallup Gap Creek.
Before 1835 the proprietors of the old Compo Tide Mill succeeded in closing Gallup Gap Creek, thereby turning its waters into Compo Pond. Then the salt- meadow proprietors, in righteous indignation, dug a ditch known as "Long Ditch," some 500 feet, connect- ing Gallup Gap Creek from the west with the Greens Farms and New Creek system on the east. This they had a right to do as they were on their own land. The ditch was comparatively narrow when dug, for I re- member that as a boy I was able to jump across it. In recent years this ditch has widened into a canal a rod wide and ten feet deep.
All this plain land and salt-meadow land was formed by terminal moraines when the great ice cap was re- ceding. We see many indications of the action of the ice cap on these plain lands in the gravel and sandy knolls and pot holes. Some of these pot holes become never-failing ponds of water with neither inlets nor outlets. One may be seen on the Bulkley property over near Sasco River. Another is in the front yard
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Greens Farms, Connecticut
of Miss Lillian Wald in Compo. From these plain lands have been cleaned off many boulders, rounded and showing the force of the grinding action of the ice cap. Mr. E. C. Birge dug up on his farm one quartz stone 18 inches by 12 inches, rounded and polished to a perfect egg shape. Close to these rounded boulders would lie other irregular sharp-edged rocks, carried down on the ice many miles from the parent ledge. At Roseville, at Hill's Woods in Compo, and on Cross Highway at Bayberry Lane, the soil has been com- pletely scraped off the original rock bed and we can see scratchings on the rock surface by the glacial ice. Up on North Avenue on the Corbin farm (the old Huldah Meeker place), the water sheds in three direc- tions. From the east part of the field it flows east- ward and eventually into Muddy Brook; from the north part into Dead Man's Brook near Mrs. Charles B. Meeker's home; from the southwesterly part, down into Burr's Pond and on into the little brook back of the old academy. A topographical casuist claims that if a well-sharpened pencil were stuck in the ground at the correct spot, a raindrop falling on it and splitting would take these three several courses in its passage to the Sound.
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