USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greenwich > Greenwich old & new; a history > Part 5
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As A result of this memorial, Greenwich did not have to pay taxes for the year 1783. But besides relieving the town of this burden, the General Assembly made provision for reimbursing
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individual citizens. This money was paid with funds derived from the sale of part of the land in the "Western Reserve." It was a separate account from the "Connecticut School Fund" or "Town Deposit Fund."
To attempt to clear up a financial question generally mis- understood we must go back in colonial history to the year 1662. In the charter given to Connecticut, Charles II, with a sweeping gesture, granted land to this colony with the Pacific Ocean as the western boundary line. A few years later part of this land was granted to Pennsylvania. After emigration made this territory valuable, Connecticut asserted a claim which of course was disputed by Pennsylvania.
The question of this western land was still undecided in 1774 when we find Greenwich taking an interest in the matter. At a town meeting it was decided that the "prosecuting of said claim to said lands will be tedious and expensive (ie. cost of law suit against 'Mr. Penne')." Dr. Amos Mead and John Mead Esq. were sent to a general meeting of town delegates at Middletown to discuss the problem. Nothing seems to have been decided by this meeting but finally in 1782 the question was decided in favor of the State of Pennsylvania.
There was, however, a tract of land in Ohio which belonged to Connecticut and was known as the "Western Reserve." Most of this land was sold by the state. Part of the total derived from the sale of lands called "sufferers' lands" was paid as indem- nity to citizens of towns along the Sound who had suffered damages from British raids during the war. Greenwich was one of these towns.
Later Greenwich received its share of the income from a fund distributed among all the towns of Connecticut. This was known as the "Perpetual Fund" or "Connecticut School Fund" because it was especially designated that the income was to be used for the support of the town schools. This school fund de- rived from the sale of the "Western Reserve" has been con-
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fused with still another school fund known as the "Town Der posit Fund." In 1836 a surplus from the national treasury was, distributed among the states of the union. Connecticut's share was over a million dollars and each town in the state received. a share of the principal. Greenwich received about $9,000 and this Town Deposit Fund is now in the Greenwich Trust Com- pany, and the income is still used to help pay for the schools.
It would be interesting to know what happened to the money from the sale of the Western Reserve but there is no record. of it, so we may assume that through the years it was gradually absorbed into the regular town funds.
Due to the Revolution, town government as well as every- thing else was demoralized. Reorganization was necessary, so it was during this period of upheaval that the church took over most of the responsibility of the schools and we find Greenwich divided into what was called "School Societies." There were three in 1795, Greenwich, Horseneck and Stanwich. There was. one private school in Old Town which had been conducted by John Perrott since 1766.
Greenwich had been cut off from New York during the war but as soon as the British left the city, trade was resumed, and. it was not long before the shipping of market products from Greenwich increased to a much greater volume than before the war. And so we find the inhabitants quietly going back to their- farms, holding on to their precious land and thus keeping the town a simple rural farming community such as it had always, been.
Since very little that was new or exciting ever took place here one of the big events of the week was the passing of the: stage coaches which ran through Greenwich on the route from New York to Boston. The stage line was first established in. 1772, the fare was four pence a mile and the coaches ran once a week.
The coach service was discontinued during the war but in.
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1787 "the stages made three trips a week in summer and two in winter." The roads here were especially rocky according to several accounts and at Horseneck there was a steep hill at each end of the town where passengers often had to get out and walk to lighten the load for the horses. Frequently in winter when the roads were especially bad, coaches were stuck in deep muddy ruts. The inhabitants would crowd to the rescue, bring- ing their farm horses to help pull out the imbedded coach, while children flocked around to see the excitement and gaze at the travellers.
George Washington passed through Greenwich on October 16, 1789, and stopped for a short time at the Congregational Church in Horseneck which stood and still stands on a high point of land overlooking the town and the harbor. Later he wrote in his diary, "The superb landscape which is to be seen from the meeting house is a rich regalia."
This view is now completely obstructed by buildings and trees but when George Washington stood admiring the land- scape there were only a few scattered salt box farmhouses sur- rounded by cultivated fields, and pasture land which sloped gradually down to the blue water of the harbors and the Sound where market sloops sailed leisurely by on their way to and from New York.
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IV. DEVELOPMENT
W ITH THE BIRTH of the nineteenth century Green- wich was a self sustaining and modestly successful agricultural community. While the nation was fo- menting with the internal strivings of the Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian schools of political philosophy; while the monied aristocracy and the common man were fusing their principles into the paradox of Americanism, and eyes were turning west- ward toward the frontiers, this tiny fragment of Connecticut seems to have kept its hand to the plow and looked with long- ing eyes not westward, eastward (or upward consistently, if early church records can be trusted) but downward to the soil for its advancement and well being.
When the good men of the town gathered, it was to discuss such matters of import as whether they should build a town meeting house or to continue to pay twenty five dollars a year in rental for the house they then used, the renters winning out against the builders. Between discussions of the weather, crops, and the virtues and shortcomings of the market boat skippers, there must have been speculative arguments over industry as exemplified by Walter Swan's paper mill down on the Mianus River, but their real interest and excitement seemed to concern that age old agrarian complaint, the condition of the roads.
Since 1792, Jabez Fitch, Ebenezer Mead and William Knapp
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in their roles as commissioners had been collecting for the town the toll fees from all travelers on the Stage Road, but it would seem either that these funds had not been put back into the roads, or the amounts collected were inadequate, for the road was in bad condition. It was so bad that in 1802 a local lottery was organized for the improvement of the inland route running from where the Second Congregational Church now stands through Bedford, Stanwich and Pound Ridge. In their adver- tisements of the lottery the promoters said very uncompliment- ary things about the main stage route.
The following year, however, saw great improvements start- ed on the stage route. The General Assembly granted a charter in 1803 to the Connecticut Turnpike Company and improve- ment and maintenance of the route were placed under the con- trol of this company. There was some local opposition, due no doubt to the proposed confiscation of roadside property and the passing of toll fees to a corporation outside the community, but the road was considerably improved and continued to be the main highway of travel. That route was roughly the route that is known today as the Boston Post Road. For fifty-one years tolls were collected by a private company, and by the time control was returned to the town the coming of the rail- road had destroyed its money making possibilities.
Out of the bickerings over roads and tolls culture proudly raised her head in about 1805 when a band of subscribers, "fully impressed with the utility of Library institutions" and "conceiving that the dissemination of useful knowledge tends to reform the morals, enlighten the understanding, refine the man- ner and dispose men to the support of good government and civil society" established a public institution which was called the town library.
War is not a subject to be lightly treated and the War of 1812 is no exception. It had its tragedy and its cruelty but as it concerned Greenwich the war had a distinct Gilbert and
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Sullivan touch. Enemy ships were seen, a few shots were fired, alarm bells were rung, sleeping sentinels were the butts of prac- tical jokes, but there was not a single casualty. However, many Greenwich men fought and distinguished themselves elsewhere both on land and sea.
It was 1818 before there appeared a current of change with enough force and vitality to disturb the placidity of Greenwich life. No community in the state of Connecticut could have re- mained aloof from the political battle that was being waged by the increasingly powerful American Toleration party. After years of struggle against the firmly entrenched foes of conserv- atism that ruled the state through the Federalist party, the Tol- eration party won success and elected its candidate, Oliver Wolcott, governor in 1817. It was he who fathered the consti- tutional convention at Hartford in August, 1818, by which far reaching and powerful political reforms were effected. A new and improved machinery for the administration of government within the state was created; the prerogatives of the executive, legislative and judicial branches were clearly defined, but prob- ably the most significant measure in the light of Greenwich history was the radical divorce of church and state, securing "the same and equal privileges to all denominations of Chris- tians."
A PERIOD OF CONTRASTS
THOUGH the church and state were legally separated in 1818 the spiritual, political and social life of the people throughout the first half of the nineteenth century cannot be so clearly divided. The position of men within the church folds continued to have great influence on their general standing in the com- munity life in all its aspects.
Religious zeal throughout this period would mount and fall in recurring waves. The pendulum would swing from the rigid restraint of nearly fanatical puritanism to periods of relapse and
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back sliding that brought with them intemperance and indiffer- ence to their spiritual welfare.
It was a period of amazing contrasts. In the early years of the century we find laws forbidding travel and social inter- course on the Sabbath, fines for working on Sunday and fines for failing to attend church services that often were held in buildings that had been erected through lotteries and reached by travel over roads that were constructed by funds that a gamb- ling populace had contributed.
Labor was scarce and cooperation at harvest time and other occasions when workers were needed gave rise to gatherings where good fellowship and gayety gave relief from the mon- otony of daily toil. Convivial "bees" and frolics encouraged "kissing games and joyous mirth" and not infrequently liquor played an important role in the festivities.
To a later generation it would seem odd that the celebrations held in conjunction with the ordination of ministers gave rise to some of the gayest dinners, balls and roisterous parties.
Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College, in his "Travels in New England" gives his impression of Greenwich in the early part of the century. He wrote:
"The township of Greenwich is formed of rough, stony hills, particularly on the road. More wild and desolate scenery can scarcely be imagined than that presented to the traveler during the first two miles. But the grounds at a little distance both above and below the road are smoother. The soil is of the best quality and fitted for every production of the climate. There is not a more fertile tract of the extent in the state.
"Greenwich is divided into three parishes, West Greenwich on the West; Greenwich on the East, and Stanwich, a part of which is taken from Stamford on the North. West Greenwich is vulgarly called Horseneck, from a peninsula on the Sound. anciently used as a pasture for horses, and it is the largest, richest, and most populous part of the township.
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"Greenwich contains four congregations, three Presbyterian (the writer undoubtedly meant Congregational) and one Epis- copal. The last is in West Greenwich and is a plurality, sup- plied at times by the Episcopal minister of Stamford. The Pres- byterian church is a neat building standing on an elevation commanding a rich and very extensive prospect of the Connec- ticut shore, the Sound and Long Island. The whole of this town- ship is filled with plantations.
"The inhabitants of West Greenwich are distributed into two distinct classes. A part of them are Connecticut people in their character. The rest resemble not a little the people of the neigh- boring county of West Chester. Generally they are in easy cir- cumstances.
"The houses are like those in the county of West Chester. They are built on every road, where the property, and the con- venience of the owner dictated. On the great road they stand at moderate distances so that the whole tract is populated.
"Greenwich, the first or oldest parish, is separated from West Greenwich by the Mianus River, a sprightly millstream, enter- ing the Sound about four miles from Byram. The surface of this parish is also generally rough, and the soil excellent, especially towards the Sound.
"The inhabitants have been distinguished for their indiffer- ence to religion and their neglect of the education of their children."
There is some basis for Dr. Dwight's statement about educa- tion. However, he fails to mention that the apathetic attitude toward education was not purely local. School societies all over the state were poor, and because the children were indispensable as farm helpers, the school term was only about four months long. In 1851 it was lengthened to six months and not until 1870 was it extended to thirty weeks. Conditions improved with the use of the academies with their broadened curriculum. The Greenwich Academy was established in 1827 as an institution
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for both boys and girls. All branches of the English education were taught. While the tuition fees were not low, many families sent their children and the Academy is still flourishing, although it is now a purely feminine institution.
One incident of the early century which helped to brighten the life of the community was the visit of General Lafayette. On August 20, 1824, General Lafayette passed through Green- wich on his tour of New England. He was met at the state line by a representative group of citizens and a Connecticut troop of horse. After a reception at Dearfields, the home of Colonel Thomas Mead, the party and most of the inhabitants gathered at the brow of Put's Hill, the ladies on one side and the men on the other, where the ladies of the town had erected a floral arch bearing a suitable inscription, crowned by a flag which had been carried at the battle of White Plains. Here the General descended from his carriage and as he walked down the hill, the salute was fired. The Rev. Mr. Lewis delivered an historical address and in parting said, "General, America loves you." "And I, Sir," replied the General, "most truly love America."
WAVE OF PURITANISM
BY THE '30s a wave of religious enthusiasm had swept over the state, making its influence felt in Greenwich. Old blue laws that had been abolished in the political reforms and state-church sep- aration of 1818 were revived and enforced during this period. Having cast these laws aside previously because they seemed binding and restraining when backed by the authority of the governing powers, at this time it was the will of the people themselves that bound its way into the statutes, and oddly enough that will was a sternly puritanical one that in some in- stances regulated man's conduct on the Sabbath more rigidly than before. Reform was the keynote, backsliders were punished by the churches, not however without cause; laxness in the moral standards could no longer be tolerated.
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The records of the First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich afford a typical example. The church was torn be- tween expelling members and bringing before the meeting those who no longer attended of their own volition. Committees were zealous in visiting such members and obtaining evidence for charges, including those of drunkenness and immorality.
In the case of Mary Peck, which dominates the records for some time, the charges were: "1-Wilfully absenting yourself from the communion and fellowship of the church for two years past. 2-Slandering some of the members of the church and wishing to leave the church without giving satisfaction." The accused finally appeared and being steadfast in refusing to give satisfaction, in the form of a written confession, was expelled by unanimous vote.
In another instance the congregation was quite upset over a male member who "had made dirision of the Lord's Supper last winter, with a glass of brandy in one hand and a pack of cards in the other." Added to this were additional charges of "wilful falsehood and profane swearing in general instances," also "drunkeness and denying the faith of the gospel." This member shared the fate of Mary Peck.
Needless to say church membership languished and in 1836 there was but one man left in good standing; the women found him guilty and the church was manless. For some time the women acted as deaconesses and took the collection. The men were slow in returning to the fold but assisted in erecting the new meeting house. By 1853 there was a determined effort to round up delinquent members and from then on the church thrived. After the Civil War the records are less concerned with church discipline and there is noted a growing interest in church fairs, the Sunday School and various societies.
During this period many new churches were founded. Christ Church became a parish in 1833, and Emanuel Chapel in Glen- ville opened in 1842. Round Hill waited until 1849 for an
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Episcopal church. The North Greenwich Congregational Church dates from 1827 and the Steep Hollow Sunday School from 1850. There was a Methodist Episcopal Church in Round Hill in 1826, Stanwich and North Cos Cob in 1830 and Horseneck in 1844. Glenville had a Baptist church in 1853. Catholic mass was heard for the first time in 1854 but no church was built until 1860.
AMERICA GROWS UP
BY 1830 America had begun to grow up. We no longer feared Europe and the nation turned its back on the sea coast and gave its undivided attention to the development of the West.
The population of the East was almost wholly agricultural. It consisted largely of the descendants of the pre-Revolutionary settlers who had the same attachment for the land as their an- cestors who had cleared it. Work was a virtue and life was simple. A shoemaker might have followed in the footsteps of his father and reasonably have expected his son to do likewise. There were almost no great fortunes and when Astor, a foreign born immigrant, died in 1848 leaving $20,000,000 the psycho- logical effect was enormous. New visions of wealth and success were opened to men who previously had not dared to hope.
Americans have been conditioned to change from the very beginning. Our earliest settlers left their European homes for a change from conditions which they considered intolerable. They came to this country to find political and religious freedom and most of all because there was land for the taking, land on which they could establish farms for their sustenance and for their children to inherit. There was land enough for all and if they did not have complete religious freedom, at least the condition was of their own making.
Despite this, between 1830 and 1850 more than 16 per cent of the native population of the northern states left their homes and went west. This left a tremendous vacuum in the east which
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was filled almost simultaneously by foreign immigration. The early settlers and their descendants had a great prejudice against working for anyone but themselves and as the industrial revo- lution progressed the jobs were naturally filled by the poor- classes of foreigners who had failed to make a living at home and had come to this land of seemingly golden opportunity where a backwoodsman had become president and a fur trader- had made a fortune.
The condition which prevailed in Greenwich was not unlike that in the rest of New England. Everyone farmed or was in some way dependent on farming. The people of Greenwich were subject to the same waves of religious and political thought as. the rest of New England. How then did it happen that Green- wich proceeded to ignore the industrial revolution and to resist the lure of the West? Why was it not swept into the wave of western emigration which between 1830 and 1840 made great inroads on the population of such a nearby city as Stamford and affected nearly every town in the state? During this decade the population of Greenwich increased by a modest 120 per- sons, while the population of Stamford fell off 194 despite a counter wave of immigrants brought in to work in the new mills and to build the railroad.
Of course Greenwich did not entirely escape either move- ment. Some of its citizens no doubt pulled up their stakes and' started for the West in search of fortune. And there were feeble attempts to make Greenwich an industrial center which would vie with Stamford, most of which attempts died before they were well started. Too, most of the early factories were established in Mianus, in Glenville, in Pemberwick or East Port Chester, close to the town line, and labor was drawn largely from Stamford and Port Chester. About 1838, however, the present Sherwood Place was given the name of Mechanic Street and Colonel Thomas Mead invested a large sum in a carriage factory. Although Elijah Lent, who was in charge, had learned.
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from the famous Stivers, the enterprise dwindled until by 1865 the buildings were abandoned and in a dilapidated state. The last traces were removed in the "70's when the street was re- named Sherwood Place. Summer visitors and new residents were loath to rent on a street with such a commercial name. With the razing of this factory went the last effort to make Green- wich proper an industrial community, and even today the only industrial activity is to be found on the fringes of the town, with the labor largely supplied from outside the town's borders.
An example of the indifference to industrial expansion was to be found in the case of the railroad. Greenwich had an op- portunity to become a "halfway station" where the trains would stop to refuel and where the passengers could find refreshment. This entailed selling more land and the price put on it was so exorbitant that the "halfway station" went to Stamford. Evi- dently Greenwich had no desire for the business which would certainly come to the town.
It would be nice to think that the citizens of Greenwich re- sisted the lure of the West and stayed here because it was so beautiful. It would be gratifying if it could be said that they refused to sell their land because it had come down to them from their fathers. The plain fact is that they did not go West because they could make money right here. They held on to their land because the produce raised on it could be shipped to New York and sold for an enormous profit.
The Greenwich farmers of the mid century were in an envi- able position both from a financial and social standpoint. The town was self-sufficient and continued to resist change for a great many years. By the time the West stole their market, it was evident that the destiny of Greenwich was to be a residential community and there were few factories and no unsightly slums to stand in the way. The farmer tenaciously held on to the land which had been won for him by his great grandfather. Yet it is to be wondered whether he suspected that in less than 100
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years the cultivated fields of which he was so proud would be allowed to lie fallow, shaded by trees and used for no agricul- tural purpose.
TRANSPORTATION
UNTIL the coming of the railroad it was necessary to travel either by stage or boat. The first steam boats appeared on the Sound in 1815 and a boat from either Norwalk or Stamford stopped regularly at Rocky Neck from about this date.
While time was of little importance and a visit to either New York or Hartford was perhaps an annual event for the average person, not a daily one, travel was simple. The people living on the Sound had always preferred travelling on the "salt water." This leaning was perhaps encouraged by the comparative dis- comfort of travelling by stage, over bad roads and with uncer- tain accommodation. It was easier and far more pleasant to take a boat. There were three packet boats a day from Mianus, two from Cos Cob and two from Horseneck. Though they took pas- sengers, the cargoes of farm produce which they carried laid the foundation for many Greenwich fortunes. When the popu- lation increased to a point where the process was reversed and food was shipped in instead of out, these boats gradually stop- ped running.
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