USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greens Farms > Greens Farms, Connecticut, the old West parish of Fairfield historical sketches and reminiscences > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
"Recorded, January 15th, 1706"
Shortly after building the mill it was discovered that Gallup Gap Creek drew off the water of the pond into the Sound east of Sherwood Island, so in 1715 the proprietors of Sherwood Island contracted with a Mr. Seeley of Newtown to build a dam across Gallup Gap Creek, just south of the present bridge to the island. As a proof that such a dam was built, some years ago when the Westport Water Company was ex- tending a pipe line out to Sherwood Island, the men dug into one of the log cribs used in constructing this dam. Mr. John H. Elwood secured this piece of oak
[ 55 ]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
log that had lain in the mud for two hundred and twenty years.
The Sherwoods acquired the mill and when it burned, at the close of the eighteenth century, they rebuilt it a few years later, at the same time erecting the substantial breakwater and sluice gates. From their own virgin forests north of Compo they hewed out great timbers for the construction work. The mill was in existence until about 1895 when it burned.
The Sherwoods developed a valuable industry for the farmers of this vicinity, and also in buying and shipping grain. Their mill specialized in grinding kiln-dried corn meal for shipment to the West Indies. Coasting and packet vessels came in and loaded at the mill. Here, too, was a large cooper shop for the making of barrels. I remember seeing some of the large iron pans, 10 to 20 feet square, for the drying of the meal. It was related to me, years ago, that Mr. Eben Sherwood found Sunday the best day to buy up corn around the meeting-house.
By 1860 farming had changed; less grain was raised, and the gristmilling and kiln-dried corn meal were out of date. The mill stood idle. Then for a number of years barytes, a mineral substance, was ground. This was brought in barrels in vessels and ground ex- ceedingly fine and repacked in barrels of six hundred pounds, and shipped away for various commercial purposes.
[ 56]
The Tide Mill at Compo
The tide mill had an undershot horizontal water- wheel-that is, the outflow of water turned the wheel by the force of the water against the under part of the wheel. The water-wheel was some 18 feet long and about 14 feet in diameter, located outside the mill, and when the gates were lifted the water flowed out with tremendous force, and power was transmitted into the mill. If milling was good, two shifts, night and day, were needed according to the tide. The tide must be ebbing before the mill wheel would run, and continue till the incoming tide equalled the outflow from the pond. The old proprietors, Eben and Daniel Sherwood, were of a milling family for five genera- tions from England.
[ 57 ]
Negro Slaves
N OTWITHSTANDING the supposed equality in the North as contrasted with the patrician atmosphere of the Southern plantations, there were yet three strata in New England society. Bankside society recognized three strata, too, as soon as it became prosperous enough to make class con- sciousness possible. Those who had forged ahead and acquired success in business, profession, or politics, and in careers less pretentious, were bound to be looked up to; as their material prosperity became as- sured their sense of self-importance gave them a cer- tain seasoned dignity which affected their standing in the community, and in most cases they were respected, their less fortunate neighbors taking pride in their attainments. While other communities had their doc- tors, judges, and teachers, Greens Farms had its Es- quires-or "Squares" as our independent fathers called them-and its Captains, while above all was the Rev- erend. But the majority of our people, whose lot it had been to do the drudgery and everyday work of life, were simple, unadorned Bill and Sam. Still even a lower level existed-the negro slaves.
John Green, one of the Bankside farmers, by deed in 1699 gave his negro, Harry, his freedom after his own decease, provided said Harry served five years
[ 58 ]
Know all When by these presents that 100000 Treadwell of y Town & Country of handel for the Consideration of twenty Eight points. Lawful Money in hand held of John thede of1. Fairfiel which is to my full dal faction y: Content have low and Co by these presente fall alcune Convey Confirm & make over my negro gard florow unto the Jahre the & his hiers and Afingnifor Ever to have how wife & Enjoy y Heyro Gard from me my kiss is Exact aforming if. I have good Right to 9. Heyro Gard y in my del full power & Lawful authority to sell footnote of said Good as above raid in Witney, whereof show hereunto det may have & deet then array of faires AD0788 lignedin Aryfence
David Indaall
Deborah Strong
BILL OF SALE OF A NEGRO SLAVE "GARL,"' 1788 From the original in the possession of Miss Dorothy R. Adams
Negro Slaves
to any master of his own choosing for 20 pounds, which 20 pounds were to be added to Green's estate as part pay for his son's education and for board to his father- in-law, Hobby. "Then the said Negro which is now my negro, shall be a free negro and his own man for himself."
Negro slaves were owned by many of the propri- etors. However, it was a mild form of slavery, and there were but a few slaves on each farm. Slave labor in the North never was an important enough factor to smudge a debasing fringe upon the free labor of the whites, and in 1848 slavery was forever abolished in Connecticut. But many negro people continued to live in Greens Farms as respected residents. Charles Roe, the last of the slaves, was sexton of the third meeting-house, that was burned in 1852. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Monroe lived in the Aaron Lockwood house and were regular attendants at the church, un- der the pastorate of Mr. Relyea. They owned their own horse and buggy, and lived a self-sustaining life on their little farm. Mrs. Monroe was once heard to remark, not very complimentarily, on some of her white neighbors' "driving down to the village to get rum." They were superior in moral outlook to some of their white neighbors.
Aunt Lazette Hyde lived in her own little house on the back road off the Turnpike, now the home of Michael Bowers. Notwithstanding her pipe, which
[ 59 ]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
Mr. Birge remembers her smoking as she sat in his grandmother's kitchen, telling stories and gossiping with great gusto with his grandmother and Aunt Betsey, Aunt Zette had the dignity and manner of a cultured lady, for she had served in the family of the Norwalk Bissels and the Jesups. Her name indicates that she came from slaves of the Hyde family. She always considered herself a part of the family and was loyal to it, and was held in deep affection by the grandchildren, who looked up to her in true South- ern "mammy" fashion.
[ 60]
Men of the Sea
T HE West Parish of Fairfield, which included Greens Farms, Compo, and the present town of Wesptort to the Saugatuck River, has furnished many renowned men who followed the sea. From the earliest colonial times the local trans- portation of the shore towns was by vessel. The prod- ucts of the forests and farms were shipped by packet to New Haven, Providence, Boston, and New York.
The Connecticut shore, indented by many tidal creeks and rivers where the ebb and flow of the tides ranged from three to eight feet, made harbors for ships of light draft. In the early times the country roads were only cart paths, with little inter-town transpor- tation by wheeled vehicles. So it was quite natural that young men, growing up and living by the seaway of the Sound, should ship before the mast.
In the beginnings of our coasting and ocean-carrying trade for the last century, our virgin forests contained trees suitable for ship-building, and pine trees for masts. Many small waterfalls provided water power to operate the old-fashioned up-and-down sawmills. There were sturdy oaks for keel and planking, locusts for knees, stanchions, and trunnels. There were many shipyards and the trade of shipwright and carpenter was a good one. Careful search was made for trees
[ 6] ]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
with crooks and bends that, when hewed out, fitted into place without steaming or bending. It is reported to me by Benjamin F. Bulkley, Sr., nearer ninety than eighty years of age when he died, that a small sailing vessel was built on the Sasco River, just below his mill on the Post Road.
For the men of the sea I have always had great re- spect. Some of these men hailing from Greens Farms that I have known are the Sherwoods-Franklin, Fred- erick, and Francis, triplets, all deep-sea captains. Captain Franklin commanded the brig Carolina and owned one-fourth share of her. Captain Charles Allen of Compo, whose last ship, Francis Burritt, built in Saugatuck about 1850, was laid up at Gray's Creek on the Saugatuck River in 1875, had two sons, Cap- tain Charles H. Allen and Sereno Gould Allen, who, after sailing various packet vessels out of Saugatuck and Westport, had built the steamer Sarah Thorpe for Westport and New York trade. At that time New York freighting was on the wane, being largely car- ried by railway.
Captain John B. Elwood of Greens Farms com- manded the schooner Connecticut, sailing from New York to New Orleans in 1840. Captain Elwood brought up a large family here, all the members of which took a prominent place in the social life of the community.
Two brothers, Captains John and Peter Bulkley,
[ 62 ]
Men of the Sea
whose home was then on the Country Road, near Bulk- ley Avenue, Greens Farms, sailed coasting schooners from Westport. Abram Sherwood, a brother of the triplets already mentioned, ran a packet line to and from Westport and New York. One of his cargoes was fifty kegs of powder for merchants in Danbury.
Captain Lewis Hale was commander of the fastest clipper ship sailing out of Boston to Mediterranean ports bringing in tropical fruits. Captain Henry Pier- son Burr, son of Daniel Burr of Greens Farms, com- manded the first American ship to enter Japanese ports after they were opened to the commerce of the West. Captain Hezekiah Elwood, born in Greens Farms, sailed the Mary Elizabeth, of the Jennings Line, be- tween Southport and New York in the market trade. Many thousands of barrels of onions and mixed loads of vegetables and farm produce were handled each season, and sales of produce returned, without the loss of ship or of the money during his lifetime.
Captain Ebenezer Allen ran the schooner Remsen between Southport and New York in the market trade starting about 1883. This old schooner finally was allowed to rot on the mudflats just below the Sauga- tuck carriage-bridge; its hulk can still be outlined in the mud at low tide.
Captain Charles H. Jennings of Greens Farms fol- lowed the coasting trade for some years in his younger life, later marrying a daughter of Captain Charles
[ 63]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
Allen of Compo and settling down as a farmer on Long Lots Road.
The schooner Ella Jane (see picture opposite) was built in Nyack, N. Y., in 1855, as a sloop rig for lumber freighting on the Hudson River, but was changed to a schooner rig, and was owned by Captain Charles H. Allen of Black Rock, formerly of Compo. He sailed the boat in the packet trade between Bridgeport and New York. Later his son, Charles Thorpe Allen, com- manded this vessel, and from him I was able to obtain this information. Ella Jane was the fastest sailer on the Sound; notice the pennant, won in a race, flying from the masthead.
The last of the captains of the market vessels is In- crease A. Parsell, who came to Greens Farms in 1865. Beginning as an onion grower on the fieldlands of Andrew W. Jennings, he had a hankering for the sea, and bought an oyster sloop. He became Captain of the Meeker Line out of Southport, 1900-05; he then took the steamer Capt. Depoy for three years, and then retired for life, taking up farming. Captain Parsell and his wife still reside on Maple Lane; a few years back their son, Alan, married the last descendant now living in these parts of Simon Couch, the sixth of the first original settler in Machamux.
I have studied the wages paid as shown in the ship- ping books and find that the captain was paid $50.00 per month, with a small commission for passengers
[ 64]
MAIELLA. JANE. <
THE ELLA JANE Fastest packet boat on the Sound
From the original by courtesy of Captain C. T. Allen, Greenport, L. I.
Men of the Sea
carried; first mate, $30.00; seamen, $10.00 to $20.00 and "found." Captain Franklin Sherwood with his barque Carolina, charged for a trip from New York to Charleston, S. C., first class, $20.00; second class, $16.00; and steerage, $6.00. The cargo, northbound, was principally cotton, while the down cargo was largely New England manufactured products and baled hay and cabbage for ship's account. The packet and coasting vessels often went to Albany for lumber and to Perth Amboy for coal.
Now the coasting schooners are rarely seen on the Sound. The old captains hailing from Fairfield, West Parish, and Compo have entered their last port be- yond.
[ 65]
Steamboats on the Long Island Sound and the Saugatuck River
J UST over a century ago, in 1826, the New Haven Steamship Company began its route, New Haven and New York. My uncle, Thomas B. Hill, who was a little boy about that time, has told me he had heard that in early times the New Haven boat called at Cedar Point, Compo, to take on passengers for New York. This statement I cannot verify by any one living today, but it seems quite natural that as Westport was a tide-water village where trade from Easton, Newtown, New Milford, and Danbury came for shipping that such would be the case. This line continued for many years; its noon sailings down the Sound were as regular as the clock.
In 1840 on a cold January night, the thirteenth, the steamer Lexington from New York bound eastward loaded with cotton, took fire off Eaton's Neck, Long Island. About 140 persons lost their lives. The pic- ture opposite is a reproduction from an engraving made by Thayer of Boston at that time. My father and many others watched the burning of the Lexington from the hills along the shore of Greens Farms. It was a bitterly cold night with ice all along the shores, and Southport Harbor was frozen over. The steam- boat could have made a landing on the beach if it
[ 66]
LEXINGTON
BURNING OF THE STEAMBOAT LEXINGTON January 13, 1840
From original print loaned by Captain Increase A. Parsell
Steamboats on the Long Island Sound
could have been steered, but its connection between the pilot-house and tiller were ropes which soon burned, and so the captain lost all steerage-way. The next morning the Meeker Market boat from South- port cut a channel through the ice and sailed out onto the Sound and circled around. It picked up two or three persons who had saved themselves by floating on bales of cotton.
Captain Lyman Banks of Greens Farms, who owned the farm where Wynfromere Dairy Farm is today, in early times had a steamboat called the Rush Light, which he operated on the Saugatuck River and Long Island Sound to New York, but this venture was soon given up. In the two seasons during the closing years of the sixties the Greens Farms people chartered a steamboat that came into the cove at Compo Mill and took the whole community on an excursion to the Thimble Islands beyond New Haven. One night, about thirty-five years ago, the New Haven steamer C. H. Northam was rammed just above the water-line, but she made the beach just west of Frost Point.
The breakwater extending out from Cedar Point at Compo was built by the government in 1837 to pro- tect the Saugatuck Harbor from filling up with sand.
[ 67]
Our Burying Grounds
S IMON COUCH, who was the sixth settler at Bank- side, living on the home-lot just west of John Green, was buried on land belonging to him west of Frost Point looking out on the Sound. This he had set aside as a family burial place, and it was long known as the "Couch Burial Hill." This is now our Burial Hill Park. Many of our early settlers lie here for it was generally used as a cemetery until 1725. Mrs. Lorinda Banks Dibble, whose early home was near the old elm tree on the present cove at Bank- side, told me that she had kindred buried on this hill. As a boy I remember many tombstones on this hill, but when the town took it over, in 1893, only one broken headstone remained, also the marking of two or three graves by large round stones placed at the head and foot.
At the Legislature held in the winter of 1893, the Selectmen of Westport, Samuel B. Wheeler, William H. Taylor, and the writer, had a bill presented by its representative, Edward M. Lees, and enacted by the Legislature, to acquire this hill for a town park "as a public park, square or common, for the use and en- joyment of the public under such rules and regula- tions as may be made by said town." The enactment
[ 68 ]
Our Burying Grounds
is available in the records of the town of Westport to any who care to study it further.
At a later period Mr. Edward T. Bedford gave some three-quarters of an acre of salt meadow adjoining the park on the north to enlarge the approach and park- ing space.
A roadway approach was laid out from the Greens Farms Shore Road to the park, which later was some- what changed in location by mutual arrangement with Mr. Gordon, an adjoining proprietor. The front- age of the park on the water is some 400 feet. A stone breakwater was built when Lewis P. Wakeman was First Selectman of Westport, by Charles Chapman, a contractor.
Burial Hill Park is noteworthy for being the first state organized park on the shore.
A very early burial place is in Compo on a knoll among cedar trees on the west side of Compo Road going along the road south from the Minute Man monument. A few brownstone slabs still stand to mark the final resting place of some early inhabi- tants. The Compo Hill Chapter D. A. R. of Westport is assuming the care of this old burial ground, lately marking it with a bronze tablet.
About the year 1725 Colonial Burying Ground on the south side of the country road just west of Muddy Brook seems to have been set apart from the common. That it was so set apart seems to be proved by the
[ 69 ]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
fact that there can be found no deed or gift of this land as a burying place. In the early ministry of the Reverend Hezekiah Ripley, the parish voted to allow him to fence the grounds so as to pasture his sheep thereon.
The identity and location of a piece of land is often established when it bobs up as a boundary of another tract more definitely located. The following descrip- tion of an adjacent tract is useful in establishing the whereabouts and age of this cemetery-a description of the land forming the late Henry B. Wakeman's homestead, now belonging to Mrs. Frances Manners.
Mr. Lacey of Southport, already quoted, says: "As bearing on the question as to the old burying ground, we find in Vol. 9, page 374, Fairfield, under date of March 12, 1749-50, as follows-'Samuel Burr, Thomas Hill and James Smedley, Committee, surveyed and laid out to Dennie Chapman of Fairfield on the right of Ephraim Jackson's which said Chapman purchased in the second division of Common in Fairfield, 17 acres and 12 rods of land bounded on the west or southwest part on Higgins homestead and part on land belong- ing to Gideon Hurlburt at Petticoat Lane Point and the southeast with a straight course with the south- west line of said Hurlburt's fence at said point to a creek on the southeast: on the northeast with the bury- ing place to a heap of stones at the Country Road; on the west from said heap of stones to ye northeast cor-
[ 70]
Our Burying Grounds
ner of said Higginses Homestead or common land.' "
Petticoat Lane is the lane on the west of the Manners property, leading down to Petticoat Point below the railway where this point juts into Compo Pond. The author personally knows that Henry B. Wakeman, who was his uncle, always called a certain lot just north of the railway and near Compo Creek, the "Chapman Point Lot."
This historical burying place still functions-several old families have maintained their original plots, and scattered about are marked and unmarked graves of our forefathers, and the graves of many of our foreign- born neighbors and friends-all, seventh generation American, or first generation, resting together after lives spent in doing simple and big things for the even- tual betterment of Greens Farms.
In 1807, Moses Sherwood gave an acre of land ad- joining on the east of the present meeting-house lands for a cemetery, and it was named the Greens Farms Cemetery. Local popular usage long ago dubbed it the "Upper" graveyard, while the Colonial burial place is known commonly as the "Lower" graveyard. We cling to our customs and traditions.
In 1912, Edward Coley Birge gave an added strip two rods wide on the east side of this cemetery as a memorial of his father and mother, the late Deacon Henry and Rachel Coley Birge.
This burial place still functions, though much of the
[ 7] ]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
space is taken. For the last century most of our dead have been interred here, and an inspection of the tombstones will serve as a roll-call of names known in this parish for generations-names of men and women who rank high in our parish annals. Reverend Ben- jamin J. Relyea is here; the three Elwoods, Lucy and Frank and Everett, whose Sunday-school work influ- enced for good the entire youth of the parish during the first quarter of this century; Mrs. Emily Jennings Beers, for upwards of fifty years foremost in our Ladies' Aid Society, an organization that each passing year makes more unique as a living relic of an early day; Miss M. Louisa Hyde, last descendant of the house so renowned and influential.
Now a part of the Greens Farms Cemetery is the little Burr family burial ground on the south side. Miss Helen Ward Banks lies here.
[ 72 ]
The Country Road
T HE Bankside farmers proved their Puritan spirit of independence when on their own account they bought the land of the Indians and later migrated along the cattle trail and settled here. This trail, with all its turns, undulations of coun- try, hills, streams, and valleys, led from the Sasco (Sasqua) ford to the Saugatuck and was, probably, the original Indian trail. The cattle trod it first, then little bands of home-makers bound for Bankside, and eventually it became a cart path; it is now our aristo- cratic Beachside Avenue, its width of 33 feet still re- calling its more primitive state.
Kings Highway, leading from Fairfield, abruptly stops at the Sasco River ford. In all the early records the continuation of this highway has been called "the Country Road." This road was laid out after 1660. The early proprietors in naming their highways as in everything else, recognized no individual, state or po- tentate. That is why it has been so difficult to trace out property lines of lands bordering public, and name- less, highways.
During the closing years of the "Farmers' Club" the members considered the naming of the streets below the half-mile common. Therefore, commencing at the Sasqua ford the first street leading north is Bulkley
[ 73 ]
Greens Farms, Connecticut
Avenue, named for the family who seemed to have had Fairfield affiliations rather than Greens Farms. Continuing along this Country Road to the point near the residence of William Stewart Hemson, in 1865-66, a new road was laid out and built through to Southport connecting with West Way Road of that village. A very old house stood on the hill to the north, the homestead of Joseph Wakeman.
A few rods to the west along the Country Road, Clapboard Hill road forks off. On this road the Good- sells, Beerses, and Taylors had early home-lots. From here the Country Road, "Sas Creek Lane" now re- fined into "Sasco Creek Lane," branches to the south and meets the original cattle trail (Beachside Avenue). The first Joshua Jennings, who became a very large landholder, appears to have had his home-lot at the southwest corner of the intersection of these two roads. This location is suggested from the following tran- script of records as compiled by Mr. Lacey:
"Charlotte Jennings was the wife of David Jennings, whose father was also named David, the latter being the son of Joshua Jennings. This Joshua Jennings on January 7th, 1804 gave his son, David, a deed of 17 acres at the south west corner of Sasco Creek Road and Greens Farms Road, describing it as 'The Old Homestead.' This David died in 1831, and in the dis- tribution of his estate, the corner lot went to David, his son (husband of Charlotte), and the 6 acres ad-
[ 74 ]
The Country Road
joining on the west, described as the 'Old Home Lot' went to Talcott Jennings."
There is no question in my mind but that this is as nearly a correct location as can be obtained, for "Aunt Charlotte's" house stood on this lot until quite recent years.
To the right again, Maple Avenue branches to the north, and Maple Lane to the south. Midway between Maple Lane and Polly Morehouse Lane, which leads to the freight station, on the south side stood the old First Methodist Church, a barn-like structure which was torn down many years ago, its communicants merging with the Southport church. Where Greens Farms Creek flows to the Country Road and meets the fresh-water stream is a calamus swamp lot, now the property of Mr. Thomas Shaunnessy. Next we cross the approach to the Greens Farms station which was relocated here when the railway was four-tracked in 1897, thus making a new right of way to Beachside Avenue along the creeks south of the railway. Right across the road to the right is the old Alvord Home- stead. Next is Turkey Hill Road, which forks off from the present Beachside Avenue and the northeast cor- ner of the old green, running in a generally northerly direction until it intersects with the Long Lots Road.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.