USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Berlin, Connecticut > Part 12
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(Editor Beale :- Would it not be a good idea to revive this law to apply to some of the drivers of automobiles on our modern highways ?)
Voted: that sheep shall not run at large on the Highways without a keeper.
Voted: that geese shall be restrained from going In the Highway without some person to take care of, and keep them out of mischief.
Voted: that all creatures running at large & which are hereby prohibited shall be subject to a penalty or fine as follows :
For all horse kind and for Horn Cattle. Each one dollar. And for Sheep one shilling pr head. And for Geese Nine pence pr head.
Thirteen haywards were appointed at this time, and the town clerk was directed to "put the doings of the meeting into some publick newspaper." Another meeting was held April 18, 1803, "For purpose of making By Laws for restraining Horses, Mules, Cattle, Swine, Sheep, & Geese, or any of them from going at Large."
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This first stringent effort at village improvement seems not to have met with approval. The next year, April 9, 1804, it was voted: "that Laws md April 18, 1803 for purpose of restraining Horses, Mules, Cattle, Swine, sheep & Geese from going at Large on the commons of this Town be repealed and be no longer in force.
'Test SETH DEMING Town Clerk"
In Vol. 1, page 514, of the old Berlin Town Records appears the following entry :
Seth Deming was born May 21st, 1748. Hannah Gilbert daughter of Mr. Ebenr Gilbert of Middletown was born April 7th, 1758; was married together 11th of June 1777.
Children :
Hannah born 31 March 1778.
Seth born 28 March 1781.
Fenn Wadsworth born 13 January 1783.
Demas born 22 March 1787.
Sophia born 10 February 1793.
Capt. Seth Deming died March 11, 1827, aged 79.
Hannah widow of Capt. Seth Deming died Feb. 9, 1838 aged 79.
Sophia dau. of Capt. Seth and Hannah Deming died July 31st 1826 aged 32.
They were buried opposite the Christian Lane cemetery in a lot on the Deming farm. The graves were enclosed by a high brick wall, which was afterward replaced by Demas Deming with an iron fence.
Sophia Galpin, born September 4, 1783, was a daughter of Deacon Joseph Galpin, who lived opposite the house now known as the Doctor Brandegee place. Sophia was gifted, gay, fond of music and dancing, and withal very beautiful in person. Although her father was a deacon, the young girl managed to attend balls, where she found many admirers. When she was fourteen, Seth Deming, ten years her senior, made up his mind that he must have her for his wife, and for fear that he might lose her if he waited until she grew to womanhood before speaking, he obtained her promise then, and the two were
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betrothed. Soon afterward a young lawyer met Sophia and fell desperately in love with her, but as she was bound to another, she refused to accept the attentions of her new admirer. The despair of the poor fellow, in consequence, was so great that he lost his reason and died in an insane asylum. Seth Deming and Sophia Galpin were married January 29, 1804.
Their children were Seth, Edward, Cornelia M., Julia, Albert, and Catharine. Mrs. Deming played the organ in the old church before her marriage and for a year or so afterward. She was a sweet singer and as they say, her children took after her. As they grew up there were five of them at one time in the church choir.
The daughter Catharine died of scarlet fever at the age of twenty-one. Albert was for a time a member of the firm of Plumb & Deming at the store recently conducted by Henry N. Galpin. Afterward he removed to Wisconsin. He had ten children.
Cornelia M. Deming, second wife of Lyman Dunbar, lived in Buffalo.
Julia married and went to Canada. Edward A. Deming went to La Harpe, Ill., bought a prairie farm, built a log house, married, and had five children. As he prospered he built a frame house, the first in the town, which is now a large city.
After the death of Seth Deming, Sr., his son Seth lived on the old place at the corner, where the first meeting house once stood. After the sons and daughters had all left them, Mr. and Mrs. Deming rented the farm for a year and went west to make a long visit. Mr. Deming spent a year with Edward at La Harpe, while Mrs. Deming stayed with her daughter in Buffalo.
A stone in the Bridge Cemetery at Worthington bears the following inscription :
The grave of Sophia wife of Seth Deming, d. Feb. 23d, 1876, aged 92 years. Also in memory of Seth Deming, aged 65 years, and Bruce, his grandson and son of Albert Deming, aged 9 years. Drowned in Lake Erie, August 12, 1845.
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Mr. Deming, when he started to come home from the west, had with him two children of his son Albert, Ambrose, aged nine, and Catharine, aged twelve, who were coming east to be educated.
On the night of August 12, 1845, they were on Lake Erie, bound for Buffalo, where they were to stop for Mrs. Deming. Toward morning their boat began to race with another, which ran into them and cut a large hole in the men's cabin. Every passenger in that cabin was drowned. The women were saved. Catharine was taken from a window in her nightdress.
After the death of his father, Edward Deming sold his farm and made arrangements to come back east in the spring of 1846, to care for his mother in the Christian Lane home.
During the winter preceding, a terrible sickness prevailed about La Harpe and when Mr. Deming started on his way he carried in his arms a little wailing sick boy, James, while Cornelia clung to his side. These were all that were left of the family. Cornelia, now Mrs. Stowe, has a vivid remem- brance of that long journey, of the canal boats and of the sympathy expressed for them. Little James refused to leave his father, but the women used to take care of Cornelia. The children were dressed all in black, even to black pantalets. That New England air would save the life of the sick child proved a vain hope. He died in two weeks after they reached Berlin.
Edward Augustus Deming married second, January 10, 1850, Miss Betsey M. Morse of Litchfield, Conn. They had four children, a daughter and then twins, a boy and girl, died in infancy. The fourth, Edward, now lives in Hartford.
Mr. Deming disposed of the homestead in 1862 to Rush B. Whitmore, who was the first husband of his daughter Cornelia. Their two sons, Arthur P. and Norman A. Whitmore, made five generations who dwelt under the same roof.
The Demings obeyed the Horace Greeley injunction, "Go West, young man. Arthur P. Whitmore is engaged in gold and silver mining at Denver, Colo., and is the owner of several
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claims. His brother, Norman A. Whitmore, is a railroad man in Nevada.
Mr. Deming came to the village and bought the house now the parsonage, where his wife died November 19, 1886. Then, after the second marriage of his daughter, he broke up and spent his declining days with his two children. He died at the home of Mrs. Stowe in Cromwell, June 15, 1896, in his ninety-second year. Mr. Whitmore worked the Deming farm eight years and then sold to Luke Foiren. Now, after passing through the hands of several owners, it has shared the fate of other places in the vicinity and is a part of the New Britain sewerage system. The house is filled with Italians. Mrs. Stowe remembers that when she was a little girl her grand- mother Sophia used to send her with pies and cakes over to Aunt Molly Gilbert's. Cornelia would stop for her friend Adeline Gilbert to go with her, and they would stay half a day with Aunt Molly, who seemed to like to have them there. She was bent double and her hair was white as snow. She kept a great axe beside the door for defense in case she was molested at night. Her cow was stabled close to the house, and the hens sat on the table with her where she ate. When Cornelia came home she would give her some fresh eggs tied up in a rag. Mrs. Stowe remembers too that her grandmother used to send her over to the town house with delicacies for a worthy sick man there.
Still another memory is of an old forsaken house east of the Demings, across the river, back of two great maple trees, where children played, and where tramps slept at night. That house was torn down sixty years ago. Grandma Deming always called it the "Steele place." Can any one tell us if that was the home of Dr. Joseph Steele, on whose land the meeting house was built ?
Dr. Steele had a son Ebenezer, who was a Revolutionary soldier. He married August 10, 1749, Sarah (daughter of David.) Sage.
According to Andrews, "She was the mother of thirteen children, from eight of whom, at the time of her death, March
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16, 1823, had descended seventy grandchildren, one hundred and seventy-one great-grandchildren, and twenty-four great- great-grandchildren, making then in all, 278." Ebenezer Steele and his wife lived in this vicinity until after their chil- dren were born, when they moved to New Britain. Both lived to the age of ninety-four.
Sixty years ago, diagonally across the way, south from the Steele place, there were foundations of another old house, all overgrown with cinnamon roses, tiger lilies, bell flowers, and "Bouncing Bets."
Grandma Deming said the house was burned. Some woman lived there who loved flowers. Who was she ?
Further research has thrown more light on the Deming family. Seth Deming, Sr., whose grave is in the small enclosure opposite the Christian Lane cemetery, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, and was promoted from the rank of lieutenant to that of captain in the 5th Regiment, Light Horse Cavalry.
By a deed drawn in 1784, Moses Deming gave to his son Seth, land in Worthington Parish, "bounded east on Wethers- field line, south and west on Highway to extend so far north from the south highway as to make twelve acres, together with the dwelling house he lives in, and the barn thereon standing, which lands I judge to be worth £108 lawful money." This disposes of the theory that Seth bought out his brother Moses, whom we must place over in Beckley Quarter. This Moses died in Whitestown, N. Y., in 1809.
The inventory of his estate included the following item : One sixty-fifth part of Berlin Academy, appraised at $10.
In 1790 Moses Deming, Sr., deeded another tract of four- teen acres, to his son Seth, described as being land that he, Moses, bought of the committee appointed to sell highways and common lands.
Hannah, daughter of Moses Deming, was the wife of Abijah Porter, a Revolutionary soldier. She died in 1829, aged sixty- nine. He married second, Sarah Hubbard, widow of Hart Hulbert. They lived in Beckley Quarter on the cross street
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next north of Beckley station. The house which stood on the north side of the way was burned about the year 1845.
The Jacob Deming mentioned, with his wife Lucy, was a brother of Moses, son of Jacob. Lucy was the daughter of Hezekiah Hart.
Shortly before the death of Jacob Deming, Jr., July 29, 1791, he deeded land to Israel Deming, as expressed: "In consideration of the love, esteem and affection I have and do bear to my cousin Israel Deming."
This Israel Deming was the great-grandfather of Deacon Francis Deming of Worthington village. Mr. Deming's line runs back through Israel, Abraham, Daniel, and Thomas, to Jonathan and John of Wethersfield.
Demas Deming, youngest son of Capt. Seth Deming, born March 22, 1787, was a soldier in the War of 1812, with the rank of lieutenant, stationed at New London. He afterward went into business in Baltimore with General Ripley, father of the Confederate general of that name.
In 1822 he went to Terre Haute, Indiana, where at that time there were only a few log cabins. Now, his son Demas is president of the First National Bank of the city of over 36,000 inhabitants. Demas Deming was so fortunate in his invest- ments and business that he became what was uncommon in his day, a millionaire. Every summer he brought his wife, with four children and two servants, back to Christian Lane to spend a few weeks in the home of his birth. He died at Terre Haute, March 3, 1865.
Fenn Wadsworth, born January 13, 1783, second son of Seth Deming, Sr., and his wife, Hannah Gilbert, served in the War of 1812. He married Sally Loveland. He was a physician.
Moses Deming, in 1792, "for parental regard and affection," deeded to his son Lardner "a tract of land containing twenty acres more or less, bounded south on highway; east on Isaac and Abel North; west on my own land; north on Charles Nott which said piece of land I estimate to be worth £117, lawful money." The father reserved for his lifetime the use of wood and feed on said land.
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Mr. Deming was now three-score and ten years old and he seemed to be settling his own estate. We are trying to find the house where he lived.
In 1791 the committee for exchanging highways order "Mr. Moses Deming to open the highway leading from sd Deming's to Seth North's, and that sd Deming be allowed a year to open and fence sd highway."
The road east from Seth Deming's must be much older than this, to allow time for houses built thereon to have fallen into decay. As long ago as 1716, the town of Wethersfield ordered a highway through Great Swamp village. The road that runs east around the little schoolhouse, now ends at the Mattabesett beyond the house of George H. Ripple, but years ago it extended on easterly across the lots until it came out on the highway near the old Isaac North house, now owned by Aaron M. Bell. When Moses Deming was ordered to open this road nothing was said about bridges. Teams forded the river and foot passengers crossed on logs or waded as they chose.
The Lardner Deming house stood next north of the school- house. In 1814, Mr. Deming borrowed $400 of Edmond Bol- dero and secured the debt by a mortgage deed on his place, described as "bounded North on Seth Deming, East on my own land and partly on Chas Nott, South on highway, West on high- way with dwelling house and other buildings thereon. Being the Homestead where I now live."
In 1804 Lardner Deming was appointed collector of the State tax, an office of great responsibility. He married first, April 5, 1787, Mary Dunham, and they had six or seven chil- dren. William Riley, the eldest son, married Eunice Strong, daughter of Priest Nathan Fenn. They removed to New Lyme, Ohio. Their son, John Deming, invented the celebrated Deming pump. A daughter of Lardner and Mary Deming was married to William Crane of Augusta, Ga. Their descendants are still living in that city.
Jane Augusta Deming, youngest daughter of Lardner Deming and his second wife, Sarah Griswold (Williams), married Mr. Ketcham of Birmingham, Ala .; she died there in 1882. A daughter, Mrs. Margaret Ketcham Ward, and her family, are
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residents of Birmingham at the present time. George Griswold Deming, own brother of Mrs. Ketcham, went south with her and died a few years since at Rome, Ga.
Mrs. Lardner Deming had a daughter, Nancy Williams, by her first marriage, who became the wife of Deacon Cyprian Goodrich of Kensington. Their two sons, William and Henry Goodrich, live in Philadelphia. Lardner Deming died Decem- ber 6, 1855, aged ninety. His farm, with the old red house, was sold to Albert Belden of Rocky Hill, a Second Adventist.
Mr. Belden, in the belief that the world was coming to an end in 1843, had disposed of his property, almost giving it away, and now that the calculation had failed he had to start anew. His children had not been sent to school, for the reason. that they would have no use for an education, but they felt the loss of it keenly as they came to maturity. Mr. Belden tore the old house down, after a few years, and built anew on the same site. In 1895 the property had changed owners, and the house was burned to the ground. Still another built there is now occupied by an estimable Swedish family, Wall by name.
Years ago, a young lady who lived at this Lardner Deming place was ill a long time. She declared that her head was turned half way around and no one could convince her to the contrary. Finally a new physician was called, who, when told of her trouble, said: "Anybody can see that, but I can set it right." He twisted her head about this way and that and then said "Now it is straight," and she said it was.
By permission, the following extracts are given from letters written by Mrs. Margaret Dunbar Stuart of New York City :
It is a delight to me after all these years to recall our neighbor Col. Galpin.
Joseph Galpin was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and bore his erect military carriage at the age of eighty. He was a man of great personal dignity, of comfortable property and a large pension.
Mrs. Seth Deming, his daughter, was a very beautiful woman even in extreme old age. Her daughter Cornelia was married to
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my father's brother, Lyman Dunbar. I called upon her in Buffalo after she was eighty years old.
Of the family, Mrs. Stuart writes that :
They were the perfection of neat and perfect housekeeping. Col. Galpin's clock was always right. He had not a sun dial but he had noon marks, and four o'clock marks of the sun shadows by which he regulated his timepiece. I was often sent there to get the exact time to set our own clock by. This was before the days of matches. I have known my mother toward tea-kettle time, summer afternoons, to send there for a live hickory coal to light our kitchen fire.
Deacon Daniel Galpin was brother to Col. Joseph Galpin and lived next door to Parson Goodrich, my grandfather. He was of a more ardent temperament than Col. Galpin. He spoke in prayer meetings, and was a warm abolitionist.
In a wing of his house was a shop where he whittled logs into pumps. Also his daughter Mary utilized this shop for her dame school.
One day there was a sudden noise and my brother, a little boy saying his letters, was greatly pleased to find the Deacon had fallen over his pump log.
At one time Deacon Galpin put up a sign on his pump shop, "Anti-Slavery Books for sale here."
This subjected him to some persecution and it was torn down by the roughs of the village.
Colonel Joseph Galpin died December 26, 1840, aged eighty-six. Deacon Daniel Galpin died July 9, 1844, aged eighty-eight.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Dunbar Family.
(Article found among Miss North's papers, written by Inglis Stuart.)
The Dunbar family, of Berlin (or of Worthington as it was first designated), traces its descent as follows :-
Robert Dunbar,1 born 1630, settled at Hingham, Mass., 1657, and died there October 5, 1693.
John Dunbar,2 born Hingham, Mass., December 1, 1657, date of death not ascertained-presumably New Haven, Conn.
John Dunbar,3 born 1690, died Wallingford, Conn., May 13, 1746.
John Dunbar,4 born Wallingford, Conn., September 28, 1724, died there October 24, 1786.
Aaron Dunbar,5 born Wallingford, Conn., January 13, 1748, died Plymouth, Conn., date not ascertained.
Daniel Dunbar,6 born Plymouth, Conn., March 28, 1774.
Daniel Dunbar came to Worthington about 1800 and died there (when it bore the present name Berlin) December 28, 1841. He is the one identified with the early history of Berlin, where all his children were born.
Edward Ely Dunbar,7 eldest son of Daniel Dunbar.6
Frederick Dunbar,7 second son.
Daniel Dunbar, Jr.,7 third son.
Margaret Elizabeth Dunbar,7 daughter of Daniel Dunbar.6 Edward Mauran Dunbar,8 son of Edward Ely Dunbar.7
Edward McVey Dunbar,9 son of Edward Mauran Dunbar.8
Margaret Elizabeth Dunbar married Homer H. Stuart; chil- dren :-
Katharine Dunbar Stuart,8 married John Godfrey Duns- comb ;
Homer Hine Stuart, Jr.,8 married Margaret . Beckwith Kenny ;
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Inglis Stuart.8
Katharine S. Dunscomb's children, viz. :- Margaret S. Duns- comb,9 Cecil Dunscomb,9 John Carol Dunscomb,9 and Godfroi Dunscomb.9
Homer Hine Stuart, Jr.,8 has one child, viz. :- Homer How- land Stuart.9
The foregoing is the descent as it stands July 20, 1910.
Referring now to the individuals alluded to in the foregoing chain :-
While the name indicates Lowland Scotch extraction, it is not, so far as I am aware, known where Robert1 was born. His wife's name was Rose (surname not known). She came with Robert1 and died October 5, 1693, at Hingham, Mass. Few details of them have survived. They appear to have been substantial, respectable individuals in the Hingham Settlement.
John Dunbar2 has left few traces. I think Mrs. E. McCurdy Salisbury, in her Lyme, Conn., Memorials, traces his descend- ants in her monograph of the Diodati family. John Dunbar2 married Mattithiah Aldridge of Boston, Mass. She was the daughter of George (and Catharine) Aldridge (see History of Mendon, Mass.) and was born July 10, 1656, married July 4, 1679, and died 1699 (at New Haven ?). The date and place of the death of John Dunbar2 has not been ascertained with certainty, but is presumed to have been at New Haven, Conn., and to have occurred before the decease of Mattithiah.
John Dunbar3 has left scarcely more than his name. He married Elizabeth Fenn (born April 29, 1692, daughter of Edward Fenn and Mary Thorp) June 14, 1716 (see Town Rec- ords of Wallingford, Conn., Vol. 2, page 783). John Dunbar3 died May 13, 1746. His wife died November 2, 1751.
John Dunbar4 (references to him will be found in History of Plymouth, Conn., by Senator Atwater, who is one of his descendants) was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and, with the exception of his son Moses, all of his sons served with him in the same regiment. He married Temperance Hall (born April 16, 1727, daughter of Jonathan Hall and Dinah Andrews), November 8, 1743 (see Town Records Wallingford,
10
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HISTORY OF BERLIN
Conn., Vol. 1, page 546), and died October 24, 1786. His wife died in May, 1770.
Aaron Dunbar is also referred to in the Atwater History. The date of his death is not at hand, but as he lived in Ply- mouth, Conn., it presumably can be obtained from there. He was a man of very fine appearance in his later years, despite the fact that he was totally blind. He married Mary Potter March 26, 1773. She died July 18, 1827.
Daniel Dunbar graduated in the Class of 1794, Yale, and was a Phi Beta Kappa man. For a time he was an instructor in Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. He then went to Litchfield, Conn., and studied law. While at Litchfield he roomed at the same house with Frederick Wolcott and Samuel Whittelsey, and it is a notable fact that the three comrades married three sisters. Frederick Wolcott married Sarah Worthington Goodrich, Samuel Whittelsey married Abigail Goodrich, while Daniel Dunbar married Katharine Chauncey Goodrich. These were three of the daughters of Rev. Samuel Goodrich and Elizabeth Ely. Daniel Dunbar6 married Kath- arine Chauncey Goodrich at Berlin, September 12, 1817. She was born at Ridgefield, Conn., December 4, 1791, and died at Berlin, Conn., October 15, 1873. (See Goodrich Family, also Chauncey Memorials.)
Daniel Dunbar was usually called Squire Dunbar. He built and lived in a house nearly opposite the Congregational church. He had a good practice as a lawyer and was greatly beloved. He represented the town in the legislature, but was averse to public office. He was especially painstaking in looking after the affairs of the poor and unfortunate, and it was with diffi- culty that he could be induced to send in his bills. He settled the estate of Captain Newell, and the heirs were so pleased with his mangement that they presented him, as a token of esteem, with a pair of tall silver candlesticks and a beautiful silver tray containing an inkwell and a sander for blotting. He was a portly, ruddy-faced man, with blue eyes and white hair, and full of fun and geniality. He suffered a stroke of paralysis some months before his death, which left him helpless, but it
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was a curious fact that during this period of incapacity he used to read his Hebrew Bible without difficulty. The shock was brought on by family misfortune. His son Edward, who had engaged in business in Boston, was involved, while abroad, by the poor judgment of a partner, and Daniel Dunbar insisted on coming to the rescue although not in any wise liable. This took a great part of his property, but it enabled Edward to meet the firm obligations. Then the sudden death of his son Daniel was a great grief. Both these misfortunes took place close together.
Edward Ely Dunbar was named after an uncle on the maternal side, who lived at Goshen, N. Y. In early life Edward went to Boston and entered the establishment of Abbott Lawrence. His business qualifications soon were apparent and he was sent to England to buy goods. On his return he formed a partnership,-Dunbar & Motley,-and the firm's prospects were good, but, as stated, his partner did not use sound judg- ment and Edward returned from another voyage to find the firm badly involved. After this he went to New York and became a partner of Lewis and Arthur Tappan. Here he recouped himself, but had a disagreement with his partners and about 1845 withdrew. After the close of the Mexican War he traveled in Mexico and returned from there in 1848. In November of that year, he started for California and crossed the Isthmus of Panama, arriving at San Francisco in January, 1849. He amassed a fortune there in a short time. He opened the first mint and the gold coins of Dunbar & Company were widely known and to-day bring enormous prices at coin sales. He came east about 1852, and, after a brief season of leisure, organized with Col. Sam Colt of Hartford, Conn., a corpora- tion entitled "The Sonora Exploration Co." He undertook the leadership of the expedition and led it through what is now Southern Arizona and the State of Sonora in Mexico. There was great hardship and it laid the foundation of the disease from which he died-consumption. Once they were out of water and came near perishing. In a valley a tiny spring was discovered and he took his station with a teaspoon and doled
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