USA > Connecticut > New London County > Lisbon > Historical sketch of Lisbon, Conn., from 1786-1900 > Part 4
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CHAPTER III.
LISBON.
Its History from 1786.
This Connecticut Lisbon was doubtless named after Lisbon in Portugal, from the fact that Hezekiah Perkins and Jabez Perkins, and other commercial shippers traded from Norwich with Lisbon in Southern Europe and that probably suggested this name.
Among the names of those that came early to Norwich (the Newent-Lisbon territory) from Ipswich, Mass., who became prom- inent in the early settlement of this part of Connecticut were the Bishops, Burnhams, Kinsmans, Saffords, Stevens, and many more quite as important, and later on they were reinforced by the Potters, : Cornings, Lovetts, Allens, Crosbys, Whittakers, Rathbuns, Brom- leys, and Bottoms. These were all energetic, hard-working men who subdued a wild tract of land and made it ready to cultivate crops for maintaining their families.
Says Rev. Mr. Chipman, in looking up their history after wood had become valuable and when they no longer had to burn it up to get it out of the way: They found a good market value for wood if it could be hauled four or five miles. And he cites the example of James Burnham in 1774, who had "in twenty years hauled twenty- five hundred loads of wood, mostly cut by himself and without ac- cident of any kind, to a market five miles distant, for which he re- ceived $1,100. The same man had expended five hundred days' labor in subduing and fencing two acres of land; built with his own hands four hundred rods of stone fence, supplied himself with a new house, commodious and well furnished to fill the place of one with its contents destroyed by fire. Given to the town for a highway one hundred rods of land, erected a school house and painted it, and presented it to his school district, and for several years, without charge, furnished most of the fuel to warm it." He was born in Lisbon and is a good type of what a Lisbon man can do. Many still living will recall, as the writer can, these old farmers clad in their leather aprons or sheepskin, tanned pliable to protect their homespun garments.
"The viands accompanying the cider (of the olden time) were sweet. well-grown Indian corn, beans made savory by well-fattened pork. well cooked in great brick ovens" which the wives of those early settlers knew how to serve in a most appetizing manner. The fathers and the mothers were vigorous thinkers and co-operated with their early pastors in aiding their children to become "like unto their fathers, men of solid character." Lisbon's children have been
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able by their schools and their superior teachers, and the private teaching of their pastors, to inspire the youth of both sexes in long- ings for knowledge, and the ability to get it and apply it to them- selves. In illustration of this fact we have only to look at the long roll or record of men, born and raised in Lisbon, who have emigrated to other parts of the country and become eminent in all the professions, as well as the other walks of life.
The longevity of Lisbon people has become proverbial. Over thirty persons can be recalled who have lived over ninety years, and quite a number have exceeded a hundred years. One of the men born early in Lisbon, the third Jabez Perkins (the father of Erastus Perkins), died in 1853, aged almost one hundred and two years. Many more instances of those very aged could be cited as having been born, lived, and died in Lisbon's present territory.
Connecticut in 1784 decreed that every slave child born after October in that year should become free on attaining twenty-five years of age. The records of Lisbon present an entry made in 1,89 of the birth of a slave and the name of the owner, which entry was made to make sure to that child the freedom of that act.
From that period onward there was continued an increasing op- position to slavery in the State, advancing and hastening that great strife which was to come, and which should forever wipe out the system of bondage in our land. In one modest, humble home of Lisbon there lived a family of the name of Stevens, whose son, named Aaron Dwight Stevens, had such an aversion to slavery that he lost his life in joining with another native of Connecticut in hostile ef- forts, well meant but ill-advised, against American slavery, and came to his death, as the other man John Brown did, near Harper's Ferry in 1859.
Lisbon was ever ready to take a share in her country's strifes in warfare in 1812-15 as well as in the Great Rebellion. We shall en- deavor to give a list of some of their names further on.
Lisbon's inhabitants were mostly farmers in good circumstances who have always been substantially mindful of the claims of man- kind upon them in all emergencies throughout their whole history. They recognized that pauperism was from general shiftlessness or from excessive dissipation, and there was very little sympathy with those addicted to such habits ; hence scarcely any who ever needed to appeal to the town authorities for aid were found among her resi- dents. Suits at law for crime were almost unknown-no man born in Lisbon has been known to deserve a felon's doom.
While Lisbon has not failed to furnish not a few persons who have entered the various professions, and followed the various me- chanical arts, she herself has but few following those trades and arts among her present population. They have had to seek other fields to follow their calling with any success. While Lisbon hardly sup- ports a doctor or a lawyer, or maintains a post-office centre, or mer- chant store, for the convenience of her people, she still is not very remote from these desirable conveniences.
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Lisbon has had two turnpike roads running through her terri- tory from north to south constructed by incorporated companies, which had toll gates for gathering money of all travelers to pay cost of construction and repairs. At the beginning of the latter part of the last century the toll gates were abolished and the roads abandoned to the town for care and maintenance. One of these turnpikes was from Norwich Town over Lovett's Bridge north to Canterbury and Brooklyn, the other starting from Norwich Landing crossed Lathrop's Bridge ( near Tunnel Hill), kept on a parallel line with the Quinabaug River, and crossed it at the Jewett City Bridge: thus proceeding northward and eastward through Plainfield to Boston and Providence. Both these turnpikes maintained stage lines carrying United States mails and passengers, which daily brought to these farmers and their families a close touch of outside life.
U. S. MAIL BETWEEN NEW YORK AND BOSTON.
Lisbon has now two railroads passing through her territory. one of which gives her a station recently denominated Lisbon ; an- other station called Versailles, on the same railroad, is situated be- tween Lisbon and Sprague. Still another station, on the Norwich and Worcester Railroad at Jewett City, is very close to her eastern border and much used by all residents of Lisbon.
By a recent aid of a Free Rural Delivery, No. 4. from Norwich. Lisbon gets a daily service by the Postal System. All of which is duly appreciated, and perhaps in no very distant day may be supple- mented by a trolley line, which now is much needed.
Lisbon's misfortunes have been not to have a central growth. "a pivotal point"; her situation has been by the side of two consider- able rivers, furnishing very fine water-powers, but when developed they have increased her population upon her outer borders, and have been grasped away from her to increase and enhance other new towns, when she should have got more benefit from them. The old residents of Lisbon used to complain that their taxes were made too
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high in support of so many bridges to build and keep in repair. They had to bear half of the expense of Jewett City Bridge, across the Quinabaug. then across the Shetucket there were three others to be maintained --- viz .. Lord's Bridge, Lovett's Bridge, and Lathrop's Bridge, which by frequent floods would be washed away and need rebuilding. There has been recently built at Taft another bridge across the Shetucket, which gives a fourth on that river. However, Lisbon gets many advantages by the overflow from these new vil- lages springing up on her borders. Within Lisbon's former terri- tory. Hanover, now the township of Sprague, it had but one consid- erable water-power stream running through her territory, which Lisbon lost in forming the new township of Sprague.
No small town or territory was ever favored with a greater percentage of water-power privileges than Lisbon, or ever got so little from such favorable advantages.
She had on the east side the Quinabaug River, from the Aspi- nook Bleachery in Jewett City down to its union with the She- tucket, where there is said to be undeveloped power, now near the railroad tunnel. "Here also is now being constructed a large plant to utilize compressed air for power.
On her western border the Shetucket River, rich with water- power, gave the splendid results seen at Baltic Village, in the township of Sprague. Still lower down the river and just above Lovett's Bridge the Shetucket River has had a dam erected which has created a manufacturing village at Occum: between that vil- lage and Taft below there is said to be an undeveloped power for future use. The immense factories at Taft. called the "Ponemah Mills," are held in great admiration of all who are interested in man- ufacturing textile products in our country. With the above rivers on cach side, and the "Little River" running through the centre of the town, Lisbon gained great privileges. The most northern priv- ilege on the Little River has been the Allen's Woollen Mill, owned and operated by that family, until recently, for several generations. Formerly, just below the Allen's Mill, was established a rubber fac- tory. which made shoes for several years, but was aferwards moved to Colchester.
Still further down the stream an old saw mill and grist mili existed, which was changed and utilized by a German named Obernau, who established a paper manufactory there, and after- wards a power privilege just above it was developed, by erecting other paper mills, which were operated by Obernau, Reade & Branch successfully during the war of the rebellion and subse- quently.
Next below on. Little River, nearly one hundred years ago. there was a yarn mill called John Gray's Factory. It was later used and improved by Hiram Tarbox in manufacturing jewelry.
The village was then called Eagleville for quite a long period ; it now goes by the name of Versailles. This Versailles power from time to time has been very much enlarged and improved and suc-
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cessfully operated by different parties in making cloth fabrics, for which it has a large and splendid factory. At the present time it is operated by the Uncas Manufacturing Company of Neich. All the thrift and wealth of the above villages has been lost to Lis- bon and gained by Sprague through the division of the town in 1861.
The marked increase of population from 1850 to 1860 of over three hundred persons was due to the growth of the Baltic Village, which is now a part of the town of Sprague, having been separated from Lisbon the following year, 1861 -- thus leaving Lisbon at the next census, taken in 1870, but 502. For the next following years after Sprague was set off Lisbon did not increase much, if any, nor will she very soon perhaps again return a thousand souls, for her territory is very small-I think the smallest town, or the smallest save one in the State. Lisbon, unlike many towns, had but few other than those of English descent ; formerly, nearly all were so: but more recent observation brings in a greater number or percentage of foreign born citizens.
The smallness of a town or county does not always militate against its usefulness to mankind in a larger sphere. Rev. Mr. Chipman. from whom I quote largely in writing upon this point, says: "The small county, Buckingham, in England, when it fur- nished to that country the one man, John Hampden, rendered to England a more valuable service than any of its greater counties, even collectively taken, ever gave. The hamlet of Scrooby, in England. hardly to be found on a map, while it trained such men as William Brewster and William Bradford, equalled and sur- passed the greatest cities in conferring benefits on the English nation, as well as on the whole world. The roll of the inhabitants of Lisbon has heretofore contained a part of the descendants of those men, and in that roll are yet numbered persons whose surnames are derived from that great man who, at Scrooby and Amsterdam, was the pastor of those men -- John Robinson.
No search has been specially directed for ascertaining how many Lisbon families are descended from the company, then little regarded and since so renowned, which were landed from the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620. But it has incidentally appeared that descend- ants of at least twelve individuals in that company-namely ( Ruling Elder) William Brewster; ( Merchant ) Isaac Allerton : (Assistant ) John Howland; and ( Warrior) Miles Standish-have lived in Lisbon.
Lisbon has sent out many distinguished men to settle other towns: several removed their residence to Norwich Landing: other of her sons were carly emigrants to New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Central New York, and Eastern Ohio. A few went to Murrayfield, Mass., which they named Norwich; of late years that name has been changed to Huntington, although one part of the town has a post-office still called Norwich.
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The towns of Kinsman and Kirkland in Ohio were named from Lisbon men who settled there. Among Lisbon's sons may be men- tioned members of congress, judges, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and missionaries.
Rev. Daniel Waldo, although not a native resident of Lisbon, but so near her border in Scotland, was highly beloved and re- vered by the Lisbon people. He was early in Home Missionary work in New York State: he was acting minister of the second church of Lisbon in 1834. He was born roth September, 1762; graduate Yale College 1788; died July 30. 1864, nearly one hundred and two years old. He was called Father Waldo, and was a chaplain in the U. S. Congress from 1856 to 1858, and then ninety-four years of age; showing another instance of longevity of natives of Lisbon and vicinity.
Rev. James Alexander Hazen was born at West Springfield, Mass., 1813; graduate Yale College 1834: died October 29, 1862. He was pastor of the second church of Lisbon from his installation. December 1. 1862, till his death. He was the last minister in Han- over society while she remained an integral part of Lisbon. As Hanover is no longer in Lisbon, but in the town of Sprague since 1861. we omit following her history from that date.
Bunny
NTERSURY
MAP OF LISBON.
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CHAPTER IV.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Dr. Joseph Lathrop, D.D., was born in Lisbon, 1731; graduate Yale College 1754; died 1820. His descendant, Samuel, graduate Yale College 1792; died 1846; who for several years was a Member of Congress-from 1818 to 1826.
Rev. Nathan Perkins, D.D., fourth son of Captain Mathew and Mrs. Hannah Bishop Perkins, was born in Lisbon ( Newent), May 18, 1749: graduate C. N. Y. 1770; died January 18, 1838. Preached at West Hartford after he had been settled in Wrentham, Mass.
Gen. Simon Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon, in 1771; died November 19. 1844. He was a land surveyor when a young man about twenty-four. He married Nancy Anna Bishop; removed to Warren, Ohio, in 1804. He is said to have done valuable service in the war of 1812-1815. His father, Simon Perkins, was a lieu- tenant in the Continental Army. Born October 25, 1737; died September 7, 1778. He was the second son of Dr. Joseph Perkins and Mrs. Mary Bushnell Perkins, and a grandson of Deacon Joseph Perkins and of his first wife, Martha Morgan Perkins. This General Simon Perkins, who removed to Warren, Ohio, became a thrifty and prominent citizen of that place. He was the father of the late Henry Bishop Perkins, who died in Warren March 2. 1902, who was well known throughout the State and country as a multi-millionaire, and has left three children, now living in Ohio. One of his sons, Henry Bishop Perkins, Jr., died October, 1900.
Hannah Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon. July 7, 1701 ; died 1745. She was the daughter of Jabez Perkins, Esq., and Mrs. Hannah Lathrop Perkins. She married October 16, 1718, Capt. Joshua Huntington, born December 13, 1698; died August 26, 1745. He was one of the earliest of the shippers from Norwich Landing. afterwards called Chelsea. The oldest child of Capt. Joshua and of Mrs. Hannah ( Perkins ) Huntington was Jabez, born August 7, 1719; died October 5. 1786. He had been a successful merchant in Norwich and was well known in the West India trade. During 1750-1763, two or three years excepted, he was a Representative
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in the Colonial Legislature, and was Speaker of the Lower House 1760-1763. He was one of the State's Council of Safety in the period of the Revolution ; appointed in 1776 one of the two Major- Generals of the Connecticut Militia, and a year afterwards was a sole Major-General. One of his children was Jedadiah Huntington, born August 4, 1743 ; graduate H. C. 1763; died September 25, 1818. He was a Brigadier-General in the Continental Army, afterwards Brevet Major-General ; Sheriff of New London County ; Treasurer of State, Connecticut, and a member of the Convention by which Con- necticut accepted the U. S. Constitution. Appointed in 1789 Collector of the Customs for New London district, and held that position under four National Administrations. He was one of the original Cor- porate Members of the A. B. C. F. M. One of his sons was Jabez Huntington, graduate Yale College 1784, a President of the Nor- wich Bank : another was Joshua Huntington, graduate Yale College 1804, a pastor of the old Sonth Church in Boston: another son was Ebenezer, born December 26, 1754; graduate Yale College 1775; died June 17, 1834; a Brigadier-General chosen in 1810, and in 1817 a Member of Congress; also a Major-General of Connec- ticut Militia. One of the daughters of Major-General Jabez was Mary, wife of the Rev. Joseph Strong, D.D., of Norwich; and another was Elizabeth, wife of Col. John Chester, of Wethersfield. whose daughter Elizabeth was wife of Eleazer F. Backus, of Albany, N. Y., and was the mother of the Rev. John Chester Backus, of Baltimore, Md., and of Rev. Trumbull Backus, D.D., of Schenec- tady, N. Y.
Susanna Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon, January 29, 1752; died September 10. 1810: was a daughter of Capt. Mathew and Mrs. Hannah Bishop Perkins: she married August 13, 1772. Rev Jolin Staples, of Taunton, Mass: born 1744; died February 15, 1804: first pastor of the second church in Canterbury till his deathi. Among their eleven children were Seth Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1797 ; died 1861 : a distinguished lawyer, resident in New Haven and in New York; appointed with Nathaniel Terry and David Deming. 1815. to revise all the militia laws of Connecticut. Job Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1808: died 1861: and Sophos. graduate Y. C. 1809; died 1826.
Rev. William Potter was born in Lisbon, February 1, 1796, the second son of William and Mrs. Olive Fitch Potter. William, the last named, was born in Ipswich, Mass., January 29, 1758; the second son of Anthony and Sarah ( Fuller ) Potter, said Anthony having died in November. 1758; his widow married Josiah Wood. Her son, William, was brought by them to Scotland, Conn .. in 1762, from which he moved to Newent. Lisbon, in 1777. where he died May 27. 1832. The wife of the above named William Potter. Sr.,
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was a daughter of William and Mary ( Paine) Fitch, the former a son of Hon. James Fitch, of Canterbury, Conn .; the latter a daughter of Rev. Elisha Paine, Jr., originally a lawyer in Canter- bury, Conn., Pastor of a Separatist Church in Bridgehampton, L. I., and in his time closely connected with the origin of the denomina- tion called Separatists, now extinct. William Potter, Jr., attended the Academies at Litchfield. now Morris, and at Clinton, N. Y., and was approved by the Windham Association, January 20, 1820, and later in the same year was ordained at Killingly, Conn. He was a missionary to the Cherokee Indians for some twenty years at. Creek Path, Ala. Since then he has been in ministerial service in Ohio He married Laura Weld, of Braintree. Vt., a niece of Rev. Ludivicus Weld. Pastor in Hampton, Conn., from 1792 to 1824.
Dr. Jedediah Burnham, born in Newent, Lisbon, April 3, 1755; died in Kinsman, Ohio. March 11, 1840; was the oldest child of Capt. Benjamin Burnham, Jr., and of his first wife, Mrs. Jemima (Perkins) Burnham. Benjamin Burnham, Sr., along with three brothers and a nephew, were early emigrants to Lisbon from Ipswich (now Essex), Mass. He married. April 20, 1727, Mary, born Jan- uary 20, 1707-8, daughter of Robert and Rebecca ( Burley ) Kins- man, born in Ipswich, Mass., December 21, 1696; died October 15, 1737. Dr. Burnham, after receiving medical tuition from Dr. Joseph Perkins, Sr., practiced his profession in his native place until his removal to Ohio in the spring of 1817, and was also before his removal employed much in Parish and town affairs. He married, April 27, 1799. Lydia Kent, born September 19, 1752. Their oldest son, Jedediah, born July 19, 1806, was father of Jede- diah Kent Burnham, graduate Y. C. 1854; an attorney at Fort Smith. Ark.
Rev. Aaron Kinne was born in Lisbon, son of Moses and Abigail ( Read) Kinne. April 26, 1742, graduate Y. C. 1765; died 9th July. 1824. He was a pastor in Groton. Conn. He was a home missionary in New York and Berkshire County, Mass. Mar . ried Mary ( Wolworth) Morgan and they had eleven children ; two sons graduated at Yale College 1794 and 1804.
Dr. Elisha Perkins, third son of Dr. Joseph Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon. January 16, 1741 ; died in New York, September 6, 1799. After completing his study with his father he settled in Plainfield, Conn., and had an extensive practice as a physician. He invented, about 1796, a sort of mechanical remedy called Tractors, which was thought to effect remarkable cures by some.
Dr. Elisha's son, Rev. John Douglass Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1701 : died 1847: was a home missionary in 1795. His son, Rev. .
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George Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1803: died 1852; was a pastor in Jewett City, and his. son, Benjamin Douglass Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1794. died 1810, was an eminent bookseller in New York, and his daughter, Susan, married first Josiah Lyndon Arnold. Esq., graduate D. C. 1788; died 1796; and second, Hon. Charles Marsh, LL.D., graduate D. C. 1786; died 1849. She was the mother (by first marriage) of the Hon. Lemuel Hastings Arnold, graduate D. C. 18II ; died 1852, who was a Member of Congress and a Gov- ernor of Rhode Island. Susan also was mother of Lyndon Arnold Marsh, graduate D. C. 1819, and of Hon. George Perkins Marsh, LL.D., graduate D. C. 1820, who was Minister of the United States to Turkey, and to Italy. A grandson of Dr. Elisha Perkins above was Dr. Elisha H. Perkins, of Baltimore, Md.
Dr. Joseph Perkins was born in Newent, Lisbon, November 25, 1704; graduate Y. C. 1727 ; died July 7, 1794. He was eldest son of Deacon Joseph and Mrs. Martha ( Morgan) Perkins. Deacons Joseph. and Jabez Perkins, and their brother Mathew Perkins, were among the earlier settlers of Lisbon. They were born at Ipswich, Mass. They were the sons of Jacob and Mrs. Elizabeth Perkins. Said Jacob, to whom his father's homestead was be- queathed. was one of the six children who. with their parents. John and Judith Perkins, came from England in 1631. This John Per- kins was among the first twelve occupants of Ipswich, founded by Hon. Jolin Winthrop. Jr., founder afterwards of New London, Conn. Elizabeth, a daughter of Jacob. and Mrs. Elizabeth Perkins, was by her husband. Thomas Boardman, mother of Margaret (Boardman), wife of Capt. Richard Manning, of Ipswich, whose daughter, Anstice, became the wife of Samuel Chipman, of Salem, Mass.
Dr. Perkins, after applying himself to the study of medicine and surgery, established himself in Newent and soon showed him- self an able practitioner. In both departments of his profession he had alike knowledge and skill. He continued to practice until near the close of his life. Patients sometimes were resident at his house. making it substantially, if not formally, a private hospital. He was especially distinguished. as has been said, as a surgeon. The "heroic" practice, as by him exhibited, was not the daring of an experimenter who was rash. but the courage of one who knew exi- gencies and responsibilities, and as well knew what resources he had for meeting them. His abilities were appreciated in other than professional lines. He was elected selectman when a little over thirty ; was made a deacon of the church at the age of thirty-eight years, and to the last justified the confidence he had gained. Dr. Perkins married first. July 17, 1728. Lydia Pierce. of Plainfield : she died January 8. 1730. aged twenty-four years. He married again.
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