USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Cornwall > Historical records of the town of Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut; > Part 24
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James Douglas, tenth child of Dea. William3, b. May 20, 1711; d. Aug. 18, 1785, aged seventy-four.
THE WADSWORTH FAMILY.
Rev. Samuel Wadsworth was a minister in Killingly. He had three sons, who came to Cornwall about 1740,-Samuel, Joseph, and James.
Samuel Wadsworth married Sarah, daughter of James Douglas, and had only one child, Rachel, who married Hezekiah Gold. By her he received her father's farm on Cream Hill, which has passed by descent to the present owner, T. S. Gold. Samuel Wadsworth died Jan. 2, 1813, aged sixty-six. Sarah, his wife, died April 16, 1820, aged seventy-seven .*
Joseph Wadsworth married another daughter of James Douglas, -- Eunice, and had three sons, Warren, Samuel, and Douglas. About 1800 he sold his farm on Cream Hill to Hezekiah Gold, and removed to Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y.
James Wadsworth married Irene Palmer, and had a son, Dea. James Wadsworth, one daughter, who married an Ingersoll from
* Strange as it may seem, I remember her, though but two years old at the time of her death. (T. S. G.)
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IIISTORY OF CORNWALL.
Bethlehem, and a second daughter, who married Hawley Reed, of Cornwall.
Dea. James Wadsworth had sons-John Palmer, a farmer living in New Marlborough, Mass .; Stiles, Franklin, Henry, a Congrega- tional minister in New Jersey; and one daughter, who married Darius Miner, and lives in Torrington. His children had all left town previous to the death of Dea. James Wadsworth, and the dwelling, with a portion of the farm, was purchased by T. S. Gold.
Industry, frugality, and simple Christian consecration were characteristics of Dea, Wadsworth and his wife, and though their descendants have all removed, yet will their memories long be cherished by their friends and neighbors.
JOSHUA PIERCE, the father of Joshua, John, and Seth Pierce, and of several daughters, belonged to Pembroke, of Plymouth County, Mass. He bought the place now occupied by Maj. Seth Pierce, May 17, 1748, consisting of three hundred and three acres, of Joshua Jewel. Joshua Pierce was the venerable ancestor of the Pierce family. He was a poor boy, put out to a hard master, who treated him with much unkindness and severity. But when he became of age, the severe training which he had received made him an industrious, economical, and respectable citizen. He gave half his wages of one year's hire, when living at Pembroke, for the building of a house for the worship of God. He was remark- ably prosperous in acquiring property. He gave £3,000 for his farm, which he bought of Jewel. He here increased in wealth, and was very liberal towards all benevolent objects and ever remembered the poor; and such was his reputation and standing that he was one of the first chosen to represent the town in the legislature, to which place he was re-elected for ten different sessions. He was a good ministerial man for the sake of their sacred office. He showed himself a genuine descendant of the Puritans in principle and feeling. Generally the descendants of this venerable Joshua Pierce have been prosperous and respectable, having a blessing resting upon them. He died at the age of eighty years, on March 13, 1794. He had five daughters. Eliza- beth and Eleanor married two brothers, Amos and Solomon John- son. Sarah, the second daughter, married Jonathan Chandler. The younger, Priscilla, and Anna, married Perez and Titus Bonney, two brothers. Mr. Pierce married, for his second wife, a widow Starr, from Danbury.
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RECORDS OF EARLY AND PRESENT RESIDENTS.
Joshua, second, his oldest son, had children,-Joshua, Samuel, Captain John, and Lorain, who married Captain Nehemiah Clark. Joshua, third, married Betsey Paine, and had children,-Mills, a farmer in Cornwall; Fayette, who went to New York; Colonel Dwight, who remained in Cornwall; and a daughter, who married Dr. B. B. North.
Captain John, the youngest son of Joshua, second, had daughters who married Menzies Beers and Rexford Baldwin, and remained in Cornwall; and two sons, who removed to Plymouth. His second wife, Sally Russel, still survives, living with her daughters at Cornwall.
John, second son of the elder Joshua, lived where William Harrison now lives. He had one daughter, who married in Washington. He went to live with her, and died there, aged about ninety.
Captain Seth Pierce, the youngest son, inherited the homestead. He was a very liberal man. When the old meeting-house was moved down to the plain, he put on one bent at his own expense. He was a large and thrifty farmer, breeding horses and cattle in large numbers, having at one time eighteen horses. At this time Captain Pierce and Noah Rogers were the largest landholders in town, each listing over one thousand acres.
He had sons, Major Seth and John H .; and daughters, who married Franklin Gold, Oliver Chapin, and Ezekiel Birdseye. Major Seth inherited the homestead, which he still holds at the age of ninety-two. He graduated at Yale in the class of 1806, and, having been born May 16, 1785, is the oldest living graduate of the college. A bachelor, his life has been that of a quiet farmer, and he still enjoys good health in his green old age, and is much respected by his fellow-citizens. John H., second son, was a farmer; built the corner house, so called, which he occupied; and was killed about 1825, having been crushed by a cart.
Doctor JONATHAN HURLBURT came from that part of Farmington now called Southington, having bought of Timothy Orton 120 acres, in 1746. He is thought to have been the first that practiced medicine in the township. It seems that his medical profession was not his only employment. He was also a mechanic, and made plows. His son Ozias lived and died on the same place where his father did, a little south of the Sedgwicks. He had a natural taste for poetry, and published a poem on the great hail storm which occurred in the summer of 1799. He lived to a good old age.
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HISTORY OF CORNWALL.
His brother, Joab, lived near him, and died some years before him. Both are buried in the old Cornwall Hollow cemetery.
MATHEW MILLARD, from East Haddam, was one of the early permanent citizens in Cornwall. He located and built on the west side of the street opposite to the house of the late Judge Burnham. He was one of the largest land-holders in Cornwall; was a very respectable citizen, and was authorized to obtain a minister at the first town meeting. Mr. Millard had but one child that lived to ma- ture age-a daughter, Achsah. She married Elisha Steele of West Hartford, called Deacon Steele, who, after the death of his father- in-law, occupied his house and homestead. The house was sold to Wm. Tanner (called Great Tanner on account of his extraordinary size), a native of Rhode Island. John Jones bought the house and place of Tanner, and afterwards it was purchased by Judge Burnham, and occupied by him till he bought the habitation of the Rev. Mr. Palmer.
SAMUEL MESSENGER of Harwinton, was one of the first settlers, a surveyor, a very active and useful inhabitant. His residence was on the spot where the Rev. Hezekiah Gold built and lived, at the Center. Mr. Messenger was here in the summer of 1739. He bought a whole right of Ephraim Smedley of Woodbury, soon after the sale of the town in 1738.
According to town records, Mr. Messenger's son Daniel, who was born March 18th (old style), 1740, was the first birth of the early settlers of the town. Mr. Messenger, in four or five years, sold his place to his brother Nehemiah Messenger, and he, in 1757, sold to one Joseph Mather. The Rev. Hezekiah Gold then was settled here as minister, and bought the place of Mr. Mather, and erected the house which he occupied until his decease, in 1790. His youngest son. Wakeman, owned the house and homestead, and he having sold to Captain Peck, removed to Pompey, N. Y. Captain Peck sold to Theodore Norton, from Goshen. The next owner was Mr. Darius Miner, followed by his son-in-law, Mr. Johnson, who erected a new house in place of the old one. His widow and family still reside there.
GEORGE HOLLOWAY, from Pembroke in Massachusetts, came with his brother John to this town from New Fairfield, in the spring, 1740. He was the most prominent among the first settlers in office, character, and influence. He was directed by the Assembly to call the first town meeting; was a justice of the peace, first town clerk, captain of the militia, and bore the title of Doctor Holloway.
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RECORDS OF EARLY AND PRESENT RESIDENTS.
His handwriting in the first Town Records is quite ordinary, and his orthography more imperfect. He had a wife, but no children. His brother John, who for some years survived him, never married.
At the public worship which our forefathers regarded with the strictest pertinacity at the very first of their settlement, and when they had no public teacher, and when Daniel Rugg was by town rule to pitch the tune for the choir, it was the allotted duty of Doctor Holloway to select and read the Psalm. He was consid- ered to be one of the most wealthy men in town. He settled on the hill near the first meeting-house, and erected the house which Ithamer Baldwin occupied many years, and which was on the same ground on which his widow resides. Mr. George Holloway died in middle life, and having been too much engaged in public life he had necessarily neglected his private affairs, and left his estate insolvent.
Woodruff Emmons became the owner of the Holloway house, and kept a tavern there during the Revolutionary War.
THE EMMONS TAVERN.
One hundred years ago, in the center of the town there was a tavern of some notoriety in its day, which stood near the summit of a high hill, overlooking in a southern direction a wide extent of country, embracing a beautiful valley.
The building was distinguished by the peculiar architecture not altogether uncommon at that period in the construction of the better class of dwellings. Large massive scrolls and roses of carved work ornamented the tops and sides of the doorways, while the windows, of six by eight glass, were surmounted by heavy angular projecting caps. The doors were wrought with curvili- near styles and panels, surmounted also like the windows with the angular projecting caps. The body of the house was painted a light red, the windows and doors being trimmed with white. The large square chimney-top exhibited, neatly cut in a stone on its front side, the figures 1758, being the year in which the house was built. Few dwellings at the present day exhibit so elaborate a finish as appeared in its exterior. The interior was more plain. The best rooms, however, were finished with a dark, heavy wain- scot, nearly half way to the ceiling above, on three sides, while on the fourth the wood-work covered the whole. A plaster of lime mortar covered the remaining portions of the walls. On the
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HISTORY OF CORNWALL.
chimney side of each of the front rooms there was a huge fire- place, with a wooden manteltree, in the wainscoting above which there was inserted an immense panel, some four or five feet in breadth. The remaining parts of the house were done with plain wooden ceilings, leaving the joists, which were neatly planed, naked overhead. The wood-work was painted either red or blue; the latter being considered the most genteel color, was applied to the two front rooms of the first story-the one being used for the best room or parlor, and the other as the bar-room. In one corner of the latter was a space six feet square, parted off by a ceiling four and a half feet high. This inclosure was called the Bar. Around the two posterior sides of the bar were placed several shelves containing various articles, of which the most conspicuous were several square bottles filled with different kinds of liquors. One was labeled Old Holland Gin, another French Brandy, and a third Orange-peel Bitters. By the side of these stood drinking vessels of various kinds, some of glass and others of pewter. A large conical loaf of white sugar, enclosed in a thick dark purple paper, was also conspicuous, while beside it stood a large, round, covered wooden box, containing many broken pieces of the same, ready for use. The furniture of the bar-room consisted of a large heavy oaken table, composed of a single leaf, one or two forms or benches, and some half dozen splint-bottomed chairs.
The house here described stood upon a terrace some three or four feet high, sustained on two sides by a wall of unhewn stones, the entrance being up a flight of large stone steps; the side-hill posi- tion of the building rendering this arrangement quite convenient. Just exterior to this terrace, and about thirty feet from the build- ing, stood the sign-post, from the rectangular bar of which was suspended the sign.
In front of this tavern was an open space or common, sixteen rods in width and forty in length, called the green; it was nearly destitute of trees, and furnished the ordinary parade ground for the militia, and place for town gatherings on gala days or other public occasions .* On the opposite side of the green from the tav-
* From the papers of Capt. Edward Rogers, we select a bill from this tavern showing the depreciated state of the currency :
THE COMASSARY GENERAL OF FORRAGE,
to SAMUEL BASSITT, DR. To keeping Colo" Sprought's 2 horses 6 days on hay that was good in Stable, £6 14s. 4d.
January 1780.
SAM'L BASSITT.
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RECORDS OF EARLY AND PRESENT RESIDENTS.
ern, and near the northwest corner, stood the meeting-house, a large and respectable looking edifice, where all the inhabitants of the town usually met on the Sabbath. Fronting the extreme southern part of the common or green, stood the parsonage of the Rev. Hezekiah Gold; about half a dozen other dwellings completed the center village.
WV HIPPING-POST AND STOCKS.
About six rods from the tavern, and directly in front of it, near the traveled path, stood a wooden post about ten inches square, and seven feet in height placed firmly and perpendicularly in the earth. Near the ground a large mortice was made through the post, in which were placed the ends of two stout pieces of plank, five feet in length, lying edgewise, one to the other. The under one was made immovable in the post, while the upper plank was movable up and down by a hinge-like motion. Between the edges of these planks were four round holes, one-half of each hole being cut from each plank; the two half circles when joined made an opening of the right size to embrace a person's ankles. On the outer ends of these hori- zontal planks were appended a stout iron hasp and staples, designed when in use to be secured in place with a heavy padlock. The fixture here described answered the double purpose of posting warnings for town meetings or other public notices, as well as for a whipping-post and stocks.
A spot like the Center Village, connected so intimately with many revolutionary incidents, is deemed worthy of the particular notice here given. Time has wrought many changes in the place since that memorable era. The broad common has, by the cupidity of adjoining proprietors, been reduced to the width of an ordinary highway. The venerable church has long since been removed, and given place to one of quite a different construction; and the famous old tavern has relinquished its commanding seat upon the
THE COMASSARY GENERAL OF FORRAGE,
to ASA EMMONS, DR. To keeping Colo11 Sprought's 2 horses 1 week in Stableª at good hay, £9 0 0. ASA EMMONS. February 1780.
THE COMASSARY GENERAL OF FORRAGE,
to SALMON EMMONS, DR. To keeping Col' Sprought's 2 horses 4 weeks & 1 day, Stabled on good hay at 15 dolars pr head pr weak, £37: 6s: 6d.
December 1779 & January 1780.
SALMON EMONS.
32
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HISTORY OF CORNWALL.
hill-side, which is now occupied by a handsome residence of more modern style. The stocks and whipping-post have disappeared, and are to be found nowhere within the limits of the State; a change caused by the onward march of a more enlightened and refined civilization.
The old parsonage occupied by the Rev. Mr. Gold has recently been removed, and the spot is now occupied by a handsome mod- ern edifice owned and occupied by the family of Mr. Palmer John- son. About 1820, Erastus Gaylord kept a store on the corner of this green, south of the old tavern. He removed to Madison, N. Y., in 1827, but the store was continued by others for more than thirty years. Here was the post-office of Cornwall, till it was removed to the Plain about 1850. For many years this was the only office in town, which now boasts of six offices.
When we consider the events which here transpired during the stormy period of the Revolution; when we contemplate that this now quiet hill was then alive and resounding with the bustle of those who came, leaving the plow in the furrow, and the grain ungathered in the field, to peril fortune and life for their country in its awful extremity; that here, as upon one of Nature's great altars, many a heart was devoted to the sacred cause of freedom, and that here were often gathered bands of stalwart men whose minds glowed with patriotic fire; that here, on this very spot, they pledged themselves on the issue of the great cause in which they engaged for victory or death. Who can fail, as the mind's eye dwells upon this consecrated spot, to venerate those once throbbing hearts, glowing minds, and stalwart forms which have long since passed away.
But the hill-side, with all its rural beanties, still remains, and who can contemplate its bold and picturesque scenery and not feel his heart glow with something of that same old fire of seventy-six, and entertain a purer and holier devotion for the welfare of our common country ?
JOHN CLOTHIER, who was one of the first permanent settlers, resided for some time on Cream Hill, and finally settled on the Cotter place, near the Housatonic river. This farm of 160 acres was made a present to him by Thomas Ballard, who had no chil- dren. Mr. Ballard was from Plainfield. He first settled almost opposite the house of Noah Rogers, from whence he removed to the Cotter farm.
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RECORDS OF EARLY AND PRESENT RESIDENTS.
SAMUEL ABBOTT was one of the early settlers from Danbury. He located in the East Street. He first erected a log-house, and afterwards a large and commodious residence a few rods south west of the house of the late Ebenezer Birdsey. This house was burned in the middle of the day by the accidental ignition of dry flax, supposed by means of a cat. This was before the existence of insurance on buildings or their contents-all the furniture and clothing of the family being in the house, were, with it, totally con- sumed, which calamity at once reduced Mr. Abbott from a state of affluence to poverty.
Mr. Abbott was a very worthy citizen, and for several years a deacon of the Congregational Church. His children were Samuel, Abel, Nathan, Seeley, and Daniel, and a daughter who married Jesse Jerrods, from Long Island. Samuel Abbott, Jr., is said to have been regardless of religion until he was more than eighty years old. He did not attend public worship, but in 1811 he was in a surprising manner changed in his views of religion. At the time of a revival, he became under deep conviction, which he struggled desperately to suppress. After a time his heart yielded to the power of Divine Truth, and he became a humble and earnest Christian, and united with the Congregational Church in South Cornwall. He lived to be eighty-six years old, and died in the full hope of a glorious immortality.
THOMAS TANNER, one of the original settlers, came from Litch- field, with his son William, being of age. Thomas settled on the old road east of the Burnham place, and died there; house since occupied by John Kellogg. William had sons,-Consider, who removed to Ellsworth; Ephraim, to Warren, and kept tavern opposite the meeting-house; Tryal built the gambrel-roofed house since owned by Tyler Miner, and early in this century went to Ohio, Joseph to Green River, N. Y. Dea. Ebenezer Tanner was also a son of William.
JETHRO BONNEY, and his brother Perez, came from Pembroke, Mass., about 1760. Jethro owned the Beardsley place, and after- wards the Judson place. Perez settled on Clark Hill, and had sons,-Perez, Titus, Asa, and Jairus. Perez and Titus married Priscilla and Anne, sisters of J. Beirce. Stephen, son of Perez, occupied the same place as his father. Titus lived on Clark Hill till 1813, when, with his oldest son, John, and his son-in-law, Joshua Bradford Sherwood, he went to Nelson, O. Jairus was a soldier, deserted, and went to the District of Maine.
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HISTORY OF CORNWALL.
THE BURNHAM PLACE was sold in 1757, by Rev. Solomon Palmer (eighty-five and one-half acres, house, barn, and orchard), to Noah Bull, of Farmington. That house is still standing, being the back part of the Burnham homestead. In 1759 Noah Bull sold to Joel Gillett, of Great Nine Partners, N. Y. Judge Burnham bought the place in 1792, of Jerrett Kettletop, of New York city.
RECORD OF THE BURNHAM FAMILY.
Oliver Burnham m. Sarah, dau. of Noah Rogers, third, and had children,-Oliver Rogers; Franklin; William; Rhoda, m. Victori- anus Clark; Mary A., m. Rev. A. Judson; Clarissa, m. Alvin North; Emily F., m. Rev. John Clark Hart; Harriet, m. Rev. Grove Brownell.
Dr. RUSSELL came from Guilford. Sold the Holloway House, in April, 1777, to Salmon, son of Woodruff Emmons. Dr. Russell, with his father-in-law, John Pattison, removed to Piermont, N. H. This was the Emmons tavern (elsewhere described), torn down about 1846 by Ithamar Baldwin, who built upon the site.
EBENEZER SHERWOOD, son of John Sherwood, of Fairfield, a Baptist minister, and one of the early proprietors, in 1770 settled on the farm afterwards owned by Parson Stone, now (1877) the estate of Jolın C. Calhoun. He died in 1785. His daughter married Joel Millard, son of Nathan Millard, and lived on Cream Hill.
TIMOTHY COLE, from New Milford, married Rebekah, daughter of old Sergeant John Dibble, lived south of Truman Dibble, and died in 1783. He was uncle of John and David Cole, who came from same town. His son Ezra built the house formerly occupied by Timothy Bronson, and in 1845 by W. Barber. Seth sold his place in 1800 to Asa Emmons. Thaddeus, having lived at Rogers' mill, went to Tioga, N. Y. John Cole bought of Orlo Allen; had three sons,-Edmund, Irad, and Martin, who had the mill where now stands Gold's grist-mill; the saw-mill on the turnpike near West Cornwall, now Henry Cole's; and built the grist-mill at West Cornwall, now owned by Wood and Mallinson. David Cole was a Revolutionary soldier, but his health failed, and he came to Cornwall in 1773. Had one daughter, Rachel, who married Wil- liam Allen. He lived at Cole's mill, a few rods west of his brother John.
JONATHAN SQUIRES, an original purchaser of two rights, was
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RECORDS OF EARLY AND PRESENT RESIDENTS.
another enterprising pioneer from Plainfield. In 1739 he settled on Cream Hill, southwest from Mr. Douglas's place, on the road (long since discontinued) leading from Rexford's to the grist-mill. His son Reuben, who came with him, established himself on the place where Captain Joel Wright resided, which property now belongs to his only son, John Wright. (Thomas Wilson, 1877.)
Jonathan Squires was a man of activity, and was frequently employed in the public business of the town. But few of the first settlers were more wealthy than he. A daughter of his married Mr. Samuel Scovill, grandfather of Jacob Scovill, Esq. Mr. Squires died in this place at an advanced age.
THE RUGG FAMILY.
Thomas Rugg, in 1739, came from Woodbury and built a house on Rugg Hill, near the Housatonic River. As the "hard winter " set in, he left his wife and three small children, and went to Woodbury to obtain supplies, expecting to be absent but a few days. Before he could return, there came on a terrific snow-storm which lasted many days. The scanty supply of food in the house was exhausted, and one of the children died from starvation, and they might all have perished from the same cause had not Mr. Douglass, living on Cream Hill, went on his snow-shoes to inquire after them. Finding them in this suffering condition, he brought them all on his ox-sled to his house, and kindly cared for their necessities until Mr. Rugg's return. This family, disheartened by their afflictions, returned in the spring to Woodbury.
THE JOHNSON FAMILY.
Amos Johnson removed from Branford to Cornwall in 1742. He was accompanied by his wife and two sons. His wife was Amy Palmer, a sister of Solomon Palmer, the first settled minister in Cornwall. Mr. Johnson settled where the late Amos Johnson lived, now (1877) Mr. Fairchild's, and the farm was retained in the family over one hundred years. The two sons were respec- tively named Amos and Solomon." The former was born in 1733, and the latter in 1735.
Descendants of Amos.
Amos Johnson, second, was a captain in the Revolutionary War. He married Elizabeth Pierce, a daughter of Joshua Pierce. They had twelve children, of whom nine survived childhood, viz., Amos, Elizabeth, Timothy, Anna, Lucy, Samuel Pierce, Buckley, Urena, and Palmer.
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