USA > Connecticut > Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley > Part 22
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Nathaniel Gaylord went from Windsor to Pinemeadow in 1678, and settled there. His descendants, like those of the first settler, Denslow, owned the property for about 225 years.
They were the only families in Pinemeadow - the Denslow and Gaylord - for thirty years. In 1708, Amos Dibble, the grandson of Thomas Dibble, moved from Windsor to Pine- meadow and built his house near the ravine now called Dibble
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Hollow. In 1752, the Dibbles moved to Torrington, at that time being settled. Other Windsor families which followed, were those of Ezekiel Thrall, who built on the corner of Center and Elm streets ; Palatiah Birge, in the same year, who built to the north and west of the Thralls, about a mile and a half, and a considerable portion of his property is still owned by members of the family ; Seth Dexter and Jabez Haskell, who came from Rochester, Massa- chusetts, in 1769; and some time in the five years following, Ensign Samuel Wing and Samuel Coye built houses on West street, but they have no descendants in Windsor Locks now.
In the summer that the Declaration of Independence was signed there were nine families in Windsor Locks. They were Dexter, Haskell, Coye, Wing, Birge, two Gaylords and two Denslows. Their patriotism was such, that with the exception of the Coye family, the heads of the other eight were serving in the Revolution in 1776, and Captain Martin Denslow had the enviable distinction of being an original member of the Order of Cincinnati.
The first school-house was built by Haskell and Dexter in 1776, on land belonging to Mr. Dexter, and in 1783, a charter for a ferry across the Connecticut River was granted. The first saw- mill, was one built by the Denslows on Kettle Brook, about 1742. They sold it to Isaac and Daniel Hayden. In 1769, it became the property of Haskell and Dexter and in 1784, they built a grist- mill below the sawmill. They, and the descendants of the two families, owned and operated the mill for seventy-five years when it became the property of the Dexters and is still in that family. In 1781, Ensign Eliakim Gaylord and Elijah Higley built a grist- mill on Pinemeadow Brook.
WAREHOUSE POINT.
W AREHOUSE POINT, directly across the Connecticut from Windsor Locks, was so called because William Pynchon, the great merchant and financier of his time, north of Hartford, built a warehouse there for storing his merchandise. Fur-pelts and the product of the soil were sent from Springfield around to Boston, in 1636, by water. Mr. Pynchon built his warehouse as near the foot of the falls as his
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vessels could go and then carted the merchandise from Spring- field, a distance of fourteen miles.
Sailing vessels seldom went up the Connecticut above Hart- ford. In 1820, there were sixty flat-boats of from ten to eighteen tons burthen which carried freight from Hartford to the up-river towns. As a twelve-ton scow was as large as it was possible to pole up the falls, all boats with more than twelve tons of freight discharged their excess at Warehouse Point. This freight was then carted up to Thompsonville in ox-carts and there reloaded upon the flat-boats. These flat-boats were poled up from Hart- ford, unless there was a wind from the south strong enough for them to slowly sail up. In going up the falls twelve men were required to pole the heavy boats. The canal that was built in 1829, from Windsor Locks to a point in Suffield, nearly opposite Thompsonville, obviated the difficulty of the falls.
SUFFIELD.
T would probably be difficult to enumerate the persons who, as children or grown-ups, have wondered how that queer little square piece of Massachusetts happened to extend down into Connecticut, without any apparent reason, purpose or advantage. This little projection, about two miles square, has been a part of Massachusetts since 1804.
In the early days, the bounds between Springfield and Wind- sor were not accurately known, with the exception of the point at the north-west bounds of the projection. This point had been fixed. The western bounds of Springfield, which in those days included a portion of Suffield, were erroneously believed to ex- tend to this fixed point. The knowledge of the error was ob- tained through a warning from Connecticut to a Mr. Moore, who occupied the square of land, to be present for a militia train- ing. He refused to obey the summons on the ground that he was not a citizen of Connecticut. The matter was taken to the Legislature and upon examination it was found that this piece of land two miles square must be left to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.
When John Pynchon settled Springfield he believed that he was included in the Connecticut plantations. In 1642, Massa- chusetts employed Woodward and Saffery to survey the bound- ary between the two Colonies. They fixed the eastern end of the boundary and then sailed around through the Sound and up the Connecticut, when they pretended to take up the line and continue it. Their line included a part of Windsor and was many miles south of the boundary claimed by Connecticut. That Colony was naturally dissatisfied. A proposal was made to Massachusetts for a mutual adjustment of the boundary, but noth- ing came from it. In 1694, Connecticut had the line surveyed and found that the survey made by Woodward and Saffery was very much too far south. Under these conditions, the people of Suf- field and Enfield, who had settled under Massachusetts jurisdic- tion, continued to encroach upon Windsor and Simsbury. This
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led to heated disputes and animosities, so another attempt was made to settle the disputed boundary, in 1700, but without re- sult. In 1702, the line was run by commissioners of both Col- onies and was placed by them far to the north of the old bound- ary, but Massachusetts refused to accept their report. In 1708, Connecticut's " dander " was up. Commissioners were appointed to run the boundary. They were given full power, and unless Massachusetts agreed to the boundary, as run by the commis- sioners, Connecticut decided to appeal to the Crown. Massachu- setts did not agree at once, but in 1713, a joint Commission came to an agreement on July 13. This line was so far north that En- field, Suffield and Woodstock were found to be in the Colony of Connecticut. As compensation for encroachments, Massachu- setts granted a tract of land, called The Equivalent Lands, in the western part of the Colony, to Connecticut. This was sold by Connecticut in 1716, for $2,274, the money being given to Yale College. But even then, the boundary was not fixed, for there was the later dispute occasioned by Mr. Moore, in 1800, and the final fixing did not take place till 1804.
Suffield was purchased by John Pynchon from the Indians for $200. In 1670, Massachusetts granted the territory to Pynchon with the right to lay it out and settle it as a township, so its set- tlement and incorporation took place in 1670, and the township continued under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts till 1752, when it was annexed to Connecticut. It is a town of extensive and beautiful views and fertile soil.
One of the most prominent citizens of Suffield was Gideon Granger. Mr. Granger was born in Suffield on July 19, 1767. He prepared for College and entered Yale, graduating at the age of twenty in 1787. He studied law, after graduation from Yale, and was admitted to practice in 1788. As a lawyer, Mr. Granger was notable. When but twenty-six years old, in 1793, he was elected to the Legislature of Connecticut, where for a number of years he made himself a power by his energy, his mental attain- ments and his unceasing desire and willingness to serve the peo- ple of the State to the best of his ability and, as his ability was great, the service was great. Mr. Granger was a strong believer in the public school system and it was chiefly due to his exertions
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that the school fund, for which Connectieut early became famous, came into existence.
In 1801, Mr. Granger was appointed to the office of Postmaster General of the United States. He continued to fill that important office till 1814. In that year he moved from Connectieut to Canandaigua, New York. The people of his adopted home soon recognized the faet, that the famous Yankee was of the elass and manner of man they desired for their law manufactory in Albany, so he was elected to the State Senate in April, 1819. He con- tinued in that body till 1821, when failing health made his resig- nation a necessity. His death occurred in his home in Canan- daigua, on December 31, 1822. Mr. Granger was as prominent as a writer as he was a speaker and, like his publie speaking, his writings were generally on political subjeets. He wrote strongly in defence of the administrations of President Jefferson and Gov- ernor Clinton, over the pen names of "Algernon Sidney " and "Epaminondas ". His writings in support of the school fund were signed "Seneetus ".
Two other men whose lives reflected honor upon Suffield, but who were not natives of the town, were General Phinias Lyman and Oliver Phelps. General Lyman was born in Durham, in 1716, but he was a resident of Suffield for many years after his graduation from Yale College. After his College days he studied law and opened his first office in Suffield. General Lyman was one of those who took an active part in the boundary-dispute be- tween Connectieut and Massachusetts. For a number of years he was a magistrate. In 1755, in the French and Indian War, he was a major-general of the Provincial troops in the British Army. . After the elose of that war General Lyman went to England as the authorized agent of the officers of the Provincial troops, to carry through a elaim upon the home government for them. He was opposed and delayed, as was the eustom when any of the Colonials were asking, or demanding rights, or remuneration from Great Britain and was at one time obliged to return to America for an extension of his powers. Finally, he succeeded in obtaining from the Government a grant of an extensive traet of land on the Mississippi, not far from where Natehez now is. He sailed for this property, that had been granted to the Colonial officers, and sent one of his sons to bring the family there, but
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before they arrived, General Lyman died, in 1774. Mrs. Lyman died on ship and the Spaniards reclaiming the territory, the other members of the Lyman family left that place.
Oliver Phelps was born in Windsor but he grew to manhood and received his commercial education in Suffield. He became one of the greatest property owners and financiers of his day. He moved to Granville, Massachusetts, and there became one of the principal traders of the time. In the Revolutionary period, he was employed by Massachusetts in the Commissary Depart- ment of that State. In this department his transactions were im- mense and his own paper was accepted as a circulating medium. In 1789, he and the Hon. Wm. Gorham purchased from Massa- chusetts a tract of land in the western part of New York, known then as the Genesee country, comprising 2,200,000 acres. Up to that year it was the largest purchase of land, made by but two individuals, in the entire country. Another great land purchase was made in 1795, by Mr. Phelps, William Hart and other men, in Ohio, consisting of 3,300,000 acres. Mr. Phelps finally set- tled in Canandaigua, on his Genesee property and in 1802, he was sent to Congress from the western district of New York.
Suffield was a part of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, till 1749. As early as 1660, ten years before the purchase by Pyn- chon, it was known as Stony River Plantation, but in 1670, the name of Southfield was officially given to it. The Committee that was appointed to have charge of the affairs of the place, when it should be settled, petitioned for a change of name to Suffield, in June, 1674, and Suffield it has been for 231 years.
This committee was composed of Captain John Pynchon, Cap- tain Eliazur Holyoke, Lieutenant Cooper, Quartermaster Colton, Ensign Cooley, and Rowland Thomas, of Springfield. This Committee was similar to the one appointed to manage the affairs of Fresh Water ( Enfield) and the presence of any three members of it were sufficient to transact business. In January, 1671, a system of rules for the settlement were adopted and the place was laid out in lots very much as was done in Enfield. The rules in regard to settlement and sale were about the same, but the size of the lots was greater, they being forty, fifty, sixty, and eighty acres. A lot of eighty acres was set apart of the Church, and about the same number of acres as a gift to the first minister 18
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to be settled. Forty acres were appropriated for the support of a school; 500 for the Colony, and from twenty to thirty for a common in the center of the town.
About one hundred families applied for grants upon which to settle, but the breaking out of King Philip's War, in 1675, stopped everything for the prospective settlers feared to leave the larger towns. In the spring of 1677, nearly all of the few to whom grants had been made returned. After the war, in 1678, additional grants were made and highways were opened. The Northampton road so frequently referred to in the old records was originally a trail between the Connecticut towns on the west side of the Connecticut River and those in Massachusetts. This trail passed through Westfield, Massachusetts, which was a trad- ing post for many years before it was settled in 1658, thence to Northampton. Later, it was widened and made into a cart-road for communication between the Massachusetts river-towns and Hartford. It was kept up by the towns as an important and necessary means of communication.
On October 12, 1681, the General Court directed the Commit- tee to call a meeting of the voters, for the purpose of organizing the town. On January 2, 1682, the Committee met for the last time and granted additional lots so that there were one hundred proprietors in Suffield, sixty-two of the number being men with families and thirty-eight unmarried men. The first birth in the new settlement was that of Ephraim Bartlett, on June 17, 1673 ; the second was Mindwell Old, on February 4, 1674. Although no one, English or Indian, was ever killed in any war, nor mas- sacred by Indians within the bounds of Suffield, still, as early as 1681, there was a company of militia in Suffield. The officers were Lieutenant Anthony Austin and Ensign George Norton. Norton became captain of the company in 1692. Notwithstand- ing the fact, that the location of the town was such that no fighting took place in it, in any of the many Indian wars of Colonial days or in the Revolution; and that no Indian attacks were made or murders committed, in Suffield, that place furnished its full share of men, for service outside its bounds, in all of the Colonial wars and in the Revolution.
In 1810, the manufacture of cigars made of imported tobacco
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was started by a dissolute inebriate of Spanish extraction ; an expert cigar maker who had become a tramp. Simon Viets dis- covered his skill as a cigar maker and, purchasing some Spanish tobacco, started the first manufactory of the kind in the Con- necticut Valley. The tramp taught the trade to some of the Suf- field girls and the cigars were sold to peddlers who distributed them over New England.
Anthony Austin was probably the first schoolmaster, in 1696, and the first schoolhouse was built in 1704, on High Street Common. This first schoolmaster's great-great-grandson, Ste- phen F. Austin, was the founder of Texas. Stephen's father, Moses Austin, obtained from the Mexican Government a grant of a vast tract of land in Texas about 1820, where he intended to form a colony, but he died two years later without having accomplished his purpose. Stephen then went to Texas to take charge of the property. He laid out the City of Austin, which bore his name, and was the commander-in-chief of the Texan army and was the director of affairs there for some time.
Dr. Sylvester Graham, whose name will be perpetuated so long as graham bread is made and eaten, was born in West Suffield in July, 1794; the son and grandson of clergymen, himself be- came a preacher and temperance advocate. He became impressed with the belief that the only remedy for intemperance, and the best method for preventing disease, was in correct living - es- pecially in proper diet - which he believed was a vegetable diet. The so called " Graham system " of diet and graham bread bear his name. A pamphlet which he wrote on bread making, in 1837, caused so muchi opposition among the bakers in Boston, that Dr. Graham, his system, and his bread, was given free advertising through their mobs, of a value not possible to estimate in dollars. Dr. Graham was an eloquent public speaker and a fine writer. A work which death prevented his finishing - Philosophy of Sacred History - was written to prove that his vegetarian theory was founded upon the Bible.
The first meeting-house in Suffield was built in 1680, and its minister was the Rev. John Younglove, who taught the Grammar School in Hadley for six years previous to being settled over the parish in Suffield. There was but one Church in Suffield from the
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settlement down to 1740. On January I of that year, the second society was incorporated and the meeting-house was built on Ireland Plain.
There was a society of New Lights, or Separates, who held meetings in the homes of the members, in 1742. In 1763, they had a Church and the Rev. Israel Holly was ordained as its pastor. Several years later the majority of the members became Baptists and the minority returned to the Congregational Church, Mr. Holly becoming a minister of that denomination. The Bap- tist Church mentioned was organized in 1769, with the Rev. Joseph Hastings pastor.
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ENFIELD.
E NFIELD is almost unique in at least one respect, for no history of Massachusetts is complete without including the history of Enfield for the first seventy years of its existence, nor would a history of Connecticut be complete that failed to include the entire history of Enfield.
When William Pynchon, " the father of Springfield," Massa- chusetts, settled on that portion of the Connecticut, he believed that he was within the jurisdiction of Connecticut and so Enfield, which belonged to the territory settled by Pynchon and his com- pany of settlers, was believed to be in Connecticut. That this belief was general, is shown by the fact, that Mr. Pynchon, as a magistrate, attended a Court held in Hartford in November, 1636. There is the further evidence, that Agawam - as Spring- field was first called - was assessed, in 1637, with the other towns of Connecticut to provide its quota of soldiers for the Pequot War, and to pay its portion of the expenses of that war.
In 1642, through the carelessness or ignorance, or because of both carelessness and ignorance, of two surveyors who surveyed the boundary between Massachusetts and Connecticut, the line was fixed by them so far to the south that it included all of the Town of Enfield, which was settled in 1681 by people from Salem, Massachusetts, as well as other portions of Connecticut. From 1642 till 1752, Enfield was within the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts, a period of seventy-one years, but it was not without vigorous opposition on the part of the inhabitants of Enfield and the Colony of Connecticut, an account of which is given in the chapter on Suffield. The reason the inhabitants of Enfield were anxious to be a part of Connecticut instead of Massachusetts was, that the Connecticut Colony was more liberal and its system of town government most admirable.
No attempt was made by the people of Springfield to settle Enfield, the territory placed in Massachusetts by the carelessness of Woodward and Saffery, the surveyors, for more than thirty years. In the autumn of 1679, John Pynchon, Samuel Marsh-
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field, Thomas Stebbins, Sr., Jonathan Burt, and Benjamin Par- sons, were appointed a Committee to dispose of the land at the Falls and about Freshwater Brook - Thompsonville - to set- tlers. The proprietors were required to occupy their land and build houses upon it within three years from the date of the grant, and they were not permitted to own two home-lots nor to sell the land granted to them till they had lived upon the grants for seven years. The purpose of the grants was to settle the place permanently, not to encourage land speculation. Each grant included a home-lot and thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty acres of farm land. The inhabitants were required to lay out roads through their land when they were needed. At this early period ir the history of America, that systematic care of the trees, which makes Connecticut and Massachusetts villages and cities notable for the great number and the magnificence of their shade trees, was begun. Besides requiring building within three years, seven years' residence and the laying out of highways, the grants in- cluded that all trees standing in the highways should be left for shade and ornament. This was not peculiar to Enfield, but it happened to be one of the stated requirements of the grants, instead of becoming a Town law later, after the settlement had been organized.
In 1680, at a meeting of the Committee held in March, it was decided that it would be just and right to purchase from the Indians their natural right to the land. The matter was placed in the hands of John Pynchon and £30 were appropriated for the purchase. He secured a deed from Totaps, the chief of the tribe occupying the land, for £25. This deed was for that por- tion of Enfield that is to the south of Freshwater Brook. A deed for that portion of the town to the north of that brook was obtained by William Pynchon in 1678. The natives were treated fairly and they and the white settlers lived in peace and even good- will. Enfield never was harrassed, or troubled in any way, by Indians.
Sometime previous to the grants by the Committee, a few grants had been made to individuals. As the persons to whom the grants were made never occupied the land granted to them, no settlement was effected till the grants by the Committee, in 1679.
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The first settlers of Enfield were John Pease and his sons, John, Jr., and Robert, who came from Salem, Massachusetts, with their families and settled on their property, about a mile to the south from Freshwater Brook. In consideration of the fact that they were the first settlers; the. Committee made their grant two or three rods wider than the other allotments. Their . allotment was made in July, 1680, and it is probable that the two brothers spent the winter there, and doubtless built the log house to which they brought their families, in the spring or summer of 16SI.
The settlement. grew rather rapidly, for new inhabitants ar- rived in considerable numbers soon after the allotments were made. The settlement was made on a ridge rising about 130 feet above, and one-half a mile to the east of the river. The main street was laid out on the top of this ridge, running parallel with the river. The land to the east of the ridge slopes very gently toward the east for about two miles, to the ravine through which the Scantic River flows, so the view was equally good in both directions and gave to the inhabitants an opportunity to see any hostile Indians who might be approaching. In 1683, less than three years after John Pease and his sons arrived, the popula- tion of Enfield had increased so greatly, that it was thought the time was ripe for sending a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts, for incorporation as a distinct town. Springfield, of which Enfield was a part, endorsed the petition. The General Court granted the petition, and named the new town Enfield. Enfield did not have its own officers till the spring of 1688, the Committee being directed by the General Court to manage town affairs. The Committee was composed of broad-minded, liberal men who administered the government in harmony with the wishes of the inhabitants. The first official of Enfield was John Pease, Jr., who was elected to the important office of constable. It was a very important office in those days for the constable was : the local representative of the King. The first election was on July 15, 1683, when the Committee called the inhabitants together for the purpose. At the expiration of the term of the constable he nominated three men from among the inhabitants, whom he "regarded as being best suited to fill the office, and then the in- "habitants voted for the man they wanted. Another instance of
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the Committee's liberal spirit was shown in February, 1684, when it appointed John Pease, Sr., Isaac Meacham, Jr., and Isaac Morgan to act as selectmen. The powers of the Committee were suspended from 1684, to 1689, by the revocation of the Charter of Massachusetts by the King. After the restoration of the Com- mittee to authority, it continued but three years, the last meeting being held in March, 1692. Before the end of the year, the two surviving members of the Committee turned everything over to the Town of Enfield.
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