USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Berlin, Connecticut > Part 2
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In 1700, the daughter of Nathaniel Royce received, as her portion, three and a half acres at Dog's Misery. It had acquired this name because a part of the land was a miry jungle, so over- grown with a tangle of thorns and bushes, that when wild ani-
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mals sought refuge therein, and the dogs followed, they stood no chance when their chase turned upon them.
September 16, 1707, "The towne chose Eliezer Peck, Joshua Culver, David Hall, a commetie to see that (dogs) misery hiway may not be pinsht of the twenty rods in any place from the town to miserie whare it was not laid out before the graint was of sd hiway."
Meriden was organized as a town in 1806, but the name was restricted to that territory from the time when, in 1725, the thirty-five families living at the north end of Wallingford, tired of going so far, over bad roads, to the center for their church privileges, formed themselves into a distinct Ecclesiastical Society.
When Captain Belcher received his grant, it was stipulated that he should build a fort with port holes, where he should keep arms and ammunition. This fort was built on the west side of the "old road," a mile and a half or so below the Norton farm, on what was afterwards known, for many years, as the Nelson Merriam place. (One winter, when Mr. Reddington taught in the Worthington Academy, the Merriam children drove up here to school, a sleigh full of them, every day.)
Mr. Perkins says the fort was built in 1664. Barber says it was erected between 1660 and 1667. Davis places the date between 1661 and 1667. Now if, as stated, Mr. Belcher was born in 1647, married 1670, and purchased his first tract of land, after that date, of his father-in-law, the deeds for which were confirmed 1673-4, is it probable that at the age of seventeen, or earlier, he was down in the Meriden woods, sixteen miles from anywhere, building a fort? Ten years later there was use for the fort, with its arms and ammunition.
Rumors were abroad that all the Indian tribes, in New Eng- land, were to unite in an effort to rid their country of the whites. King Philip, who hated the English, was going about, from chief to chief, stirring up their passions. He told them that unless they bestirred themselves they would be robbed of every foot of land that had come to them from their fathers ; that they
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would be crowded out from their hunting grounds; their forests would be cut down, and their people would be scattered like the leaves of autumn.
In 1675 the war broke out with fury, and brought desolation to many settlements, especially in Massachusetts. No attack was made on towns in Connecticut, but the settlers were in mortal fear, and many a stalwart soldier went out from his home to help fill the state's quota, who never returned. Supplies of food and clothing were sent to the army from every household. Taxes were enormous. Houses were fortified, and no man dared go to church, or into his field, or to set his foot outside his door, without a musket, with a pouch of bullets, and flask of powder, at his side.
In 1678, when King Philip's War closed, six hundred men, of our forces, had been killed, and six hundred houses had been burned. Every eleventh family was homeless, and every elev- enth soldier had fallen by disease or the hand of the Red man. With his land, Mr. Belcher had permission to "keep tavern forever." He did not come himself, but sent some one to use the privilege. It is said that the first house was of logs, with iron shutters, the doors driven full of great spikes.
This building proved too small, and in 1690 a new, costly stone house was erected, so substantial, that it was still in use and famous in the times of the French and Revolutionary wars.
John Yale had a farm of five hundred acres lying on both sides of the road, north of the Belcher tavern, and Deacon Yale used to tell about the times when travelers staid at the "Half Way House," as it was called. He said the men, sometimes twenty teamsters at a time, would put their horses under shelter, but they never thought of going to bed themselves-there were only two beds in the house. They fiddled, sang, danced and drank until morning, every man with his gun within reach. One-half of the company staid outside, on guard, the first hours of the night, and then the others took their turn. Pickets were stationed all about, and over on the mountain, to watch against surprise from the Indians. To get their drink, they looked the wagons over until they found a cask of liquor, when
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they knocked up a hoop, bored a hole with a gimlet, drew what they wanted, and then plugged the hole, and drove the hoop back in place.
About the year 1845 the foundations of the old tavern were ploughed up by Mr. Sidney Merriam. The magazine, where the powder was stored, was northwest of the house, and the hollow where it stood may still be seen. The place is now owned by Michaels, the Meriden baker.
North of the tavern was a blacksmith shop, the first in this part of the country.
We have spoken of an old stage road, now abandoned, that ran from Meriden up to Kensington. It is probable that Mr. Belcher laid out that road, at any rate he built a stone wall along its east side. This wall may be seen west of the railroad track, where it bounds the Norton farm, for about half a mile, and extends farther south into Meriden. It is four feet high, and four feet wide at its base. In places it has suffered from the hunters. It was once a great place for rabbits, and the dogs would stand with nose pointed at a hole, in the wall, until their masters came and tore away the stones to secure their prey.
Edward Augustus Kendall in his history, published 1809, writes of this wall as follows:
When the road between New Haven and Hartford was originally made, a Mr. Belcher, received a stipend from the government, on condition of his residing here, and keeping an inn, or, as it is called, a tavern. The Indians were at this time troublesome, and mention is made of a wall, built by Mr. Belcher, as if for purposes of defense.
In this way however it could be of no use; for it was of more than a mile in circuit, and formed of uncemented stones, raised only four feet high, like the walls at present common in the country. This wall however, had some extraordinary personages among its builders.
It is current in tradition, that fourteen or fifteen settlers came into Mr. Belcher's neighborhood, from the town of Farmington, of whom the whole band possessed unusual strength and stature. Two were of the name of Hart. Of these, one, whose son at the age of seventy years is still alive (1809), is said to have had bones so large, that an Indian, who, with others, was passing through the settlement, stopped and examined him with surprise. Mr. Hart and his fellow-giants were employed by Mr. Belcher on his wall.
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A stone south of Albert Norton's barn marks the ancient southeast corner of Farmington.
On the old Colony road, about twenty rods south of the point where the turnpike branches off toward East Meriden, a great oak tree, on the west side, marks the division between Hartford and New Haven counties, and also the town line between Berlin and Meriden.
A barn about thirty rods south of the Norton house, sometimes used as a cider mill, used to stand on the north side of the hill, below Galpin's corner, where the foundations still remain. It was purchased before the Civil War and removed to its present location by Henry Norton.
Ebenezer Gilbert, son of Jonathan, married Hester Allyn, daughter of Captain Thomas Allyn of Windsor and Abigail, his wife, who was a daughter of John Warham, first minister at Windsor. On the Warham side the Gilbert family claim rela- tionship with Rev. Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr, Timothy Dwight, Judge John Trumbull, General William Williams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Sherman, ex-President Woolsey, Rev. John Todd, Grace Greenwood, Rev. Horace Bushnell, Elizabeth Stewart Phelps, and others equally worthy of note.
Hester's grandmother Allyn was Margaret Wyatt, whose ancestry has been traced back through Richard Plantagenet, King John of England, Henry II; Matilda, daughter of William the Conqueror, and King Alfred the Great to Adam, seventy-six generations distant from Hester. What are you giving us ? Honor bright! it says so in one of the genealogies, and to think the poor girl had to settle down in "this desolate corner of the wilderness"-a worse case than that of the Bolderos-but then her husband owned a farm of 300 acres, besides much other property, and he was the only "Mr." in the community excepting the minister.
Ebenezer Gilbert was received to the Christian Lane church by letter from Hartford in 1718-19. At a meeting of the society held January 7, 1716, "Insign" Isaac Norton was appointed to obtain a decent and fashionable "cushing" for the desk of our
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meetinghouse. He seems not to have performed this duty, and at the annual meeting December 1, 1718, Mr. Ebenezer Gilbird was appointed to obtain a convenient "cushen" for our meeting- house desk.
At a meeting of the Society held November 17, 1717, "Insign" Isaac Norton, Sergeant Benjamin Judd, and Mr. Ebenezer Gil- bird had been chosen a committee "to order the prudentials of a school in this Society and offer their advice about it at the next meeting."
The committee reported December 1, 1718:
This Society being so very scattering in distances & our ways so very difficult, for small children to pass to a general school in the Society great part of the year. We the Subscribers advice is, that this society be divided into 5 parts or "Squaddams," for the con- venient schooling of the children That the first part or squaddam be all the Inhabitants south of the river called "betses," "Honhius or Honehas" river, including Middletown neighbors with them. And the Inhabitants in Wethersfield bounds be another part or squaddam. And that all from "betses" River to the River called Gilbirds, Northward, to be another part-& that from Gilberds River Northward, till it includes Dea Judd & John Woodruff be another part & that the rest of the society North be another part & further that the money allowed by the country be divided to each "squad- dam" according to the List of the Inhabitants within the limits thereof & the rest of the charges so arising shall be leaved on ye parents or Masters of ye children who are "taut."
Ebenezer Gilbert died in 1726. By his will, dated July 17, of that year, he bequeathed £300, to his dear wife Ester, together with the improvement during her natural life of one-half of his Eastermost dwelling-house, within the bounds of Farmington. To his daughter Sarah he gives £200, and to his sons, Moses, Jonathan and Ebenezer, he "bequeathes all my housing and lands in Farmington, Hartford and Symsbury to be equally divided amongst them. Excepting my eldest son Moses shall have my said dwelling House in Farmington above & beyond his other Brothers parts."
The estate inventoried £4455 19s. 11d. of which "dear wife Ester" received £300, and half the dwelling-house! Included in the list of personal property were: a negro £100, a negro
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woman £45, boy £100, child £30, total £275. The widow Gilbert died October 4, 1750. One item among specific bequests made in her will reads "I give my grandson Thomas Gilbert my son Moses son one Silver Spoon." The residue of her real and personal estate which inventoried £326 5s. 11d., she divided equally among her sons Moses, Jonathan and Ebenezer.
Moses Gilbert, baptized June 22, 1707, married Elizabeth Hooker. Their son Ebenezer, born January 15, 1741-2, mar- ried May 27, 1762, Mary Butrick. She was at one time a member of the Worthington church, but their house was opposite the John Ellis place, a short distance over the Berlin line in New Britain. Ebenezer Gilbert was killed in the Revolution- ary army, February 15, 1776. Their son Sylvanus, born February 10, 1763, also died in the army.
Widow Mary Gilbert married second, November 19, 1778, another Revolutionary soldier, Lieut. Elisha Booth, with whom she moved to Hartland. After the death of Lieutenant Booth she returned in 1800, to the old Gilbert place, where she died March 30, 1831, aged eighty-six. She was buried in New Britain, where it is probable that the graves of the two Gilbert soldiers may be found.
Charles S. Ensign, counsellor at law, of Newton, Mass., a descendant of Seth Gilbert of Berlin, has in his possession the original 300-acre Gilbert deed. He is of the opinion that the red brick Gilbert house was built by Ebenezer about the year 1709, and that it was the house willed by him to his son Moses, or possibly that it was one of the taverns which Jonathan Gilbert was allowed by General Assembly to maintain between Hartford and Wallingford.
It is probable that the foundations are the same, but the pres- ent house was built by Hooker Gilbert, born June, 1751, son of Moses and Elizabeth (Hooker) Gilbert.
The brick was made on the farm, southwesterly from the house, and "Gilbird's River" now washes around into the pit from which the clay was dug. Some of the bricks, used for ornament, are very hard and black. They shine to-day as if enamelled. The process by which they were made is lost.
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Without doubt those bricks were the first made in Berlin, and now the north part of the original Gilbert farm, and nearly all other farms in that region are full of clay pits, brickyards, kilns and Italians.
Hooker Gilbert married first, Candace Sage, who died May 15, 1805, aged fifty-one. He married second, Sarah Hooker. She died December 4, 1840, aged seventy-nine. He died two days later, December 6, 1840, aged eighty-nine.
Moses Gilbert, 2d, born March 17, 1793, son of Hooker Gilbert and Candace (Sage) his wife, married Renie Rebecca Steele. Her mother's name was Beccarena. Her father, Wil- liam Steele, a noted fifer in the War of the Revolution, died March 28, 1825, aged sixty-eight.
A long indenture paper, dated August 17, 1839, shows that Moses Gilbert leased his farm on shares, for three years, from April 1, 1840, to Abner P. Welcome. Other papers show that he spent those years traveling in Virginia, selling clocks. Gilbert children of later generations remember that the garret of the old Gilbert house used to be full of clocks, which they were allowed to play with.
A pocket-book contains many notes given for clocks long since outlawed. Mr. Gilbert bought, December 27, 1843, of William Leftwick a tract of land in Braxton County, Va., containing 3,873 acres, which he paid for in bonds, horses, etc. As late as 1865 he was trying to negotiate a sale of that land for $1,000, but it is said that it was sold for non-payment of taxes. When oil wells were discovered there an effort was made to redeem the property, but it was too late, and the Gilbert name does not appear in the list of "Oil Magnates."
A curious recipe was found with Mr. Gilbert's Virginia papers. Outside it reads :
Recpt for Curing Cansors. Jan. 18, 1831. tod by a mane frome Kentuckey & he had one & kured it By the same med son.
Inside it goes on :
January 8th, 1831. Recpt for Curing Cansors :
Take Six Galens of Strong lye & Bile it down to apint then takit of & stur it till it Becomes Cold then take the same quanetey
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of salt stur it to gether till it Becomes a Save then a plie two plars- ters twise in twenty fore ours & when the flesh Be Comes hard take a rasar & shave it of till it Becomes smooth with the other skin & when you think the Cansor Becomes ded then take the yelk of uneag & Beswax & rosum & muten talur & simer them to gether and make a save & a plie once more in twenty four ours till it dros it out & if the roots Brake of then a plie the pastur a gen till it kill it.
Moses Gilbert, 2d, died August 30, 1882, aged eighty-nine. Renea Rebecca, his wife, died February 28, 1862, aged sixty- eight.
They had seven children. The eldest son, Moses, 3d, mar- ried, in 1850, Lucelia Steele, daughter of Jefferson Steele. He was a little man. The boys used to call him "Whiniky" Steele. He was a drummer in the State Militia, and was very proud when dressed in his regimentals. Mr. Bulkeley remembers attending in October, 1843, the last great general training at Hartford, when 5,200 men in arms assembled on the north meadows, Colonel Richard M. Johnson, the reputed slayer of Tecumseh, and ex-Vice President of the United States, reviewed the troops and as the parade passed through Main Street, little "Jef." Steele walked the whole distance, with his hand resting on Colonel Johnson's carriage.
A small account book kept by Alfred North, 1830-1-2, recently discovered, throws light upon the occupation of Jef- ferson Steele. It appears that the young man, Alfred, traded off a flute for a watch, giving three dollars to boot. Immedi- ately began entries thus :
Jeferson Steel Cr.
By repairs upon my watch 75
By do do 67
By Watch Chrystal
20
Do 16
By cleaning Watch 50
50
By cleaning do
By mending mainspring to watch 20
June 1832 Albert Hulbert Cr.
By Bulls Eye Watch, price agreed 7 00
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The late William Gilbert, son of Moses, 2d, in company with his sons Edwin and Henry J., carried on an extensive business in market gardening. Henry J., who is a carpenter also, had a shop north of the brick house. The greenhouses were on the south side.
Mrs. Frank Bailey, a daughter of Moses Gilbert, 3d, still lives at the north end of Christian Lane. Mrs. Lucy Gilbert, widow of Edwin, who died in 1901, lives, with her daughters Cora and Florence, in the new house next south of the brick house, and these are all who remain to represent the family on the tract of land granted to Jonathan Gilbert in 1661.
Henry J. Gilbert was the last of the line to occupy the old homestead. The odor from the sewer beds, directly in front of the house, only seventy-five feet away, made it unbearable as a residence, and it was sold in January, 1906, to the city of New Britain. Now the place swarms with Italians, laborers from the brickyards-eight beds in the garret, they say. Henry Gilbert, when asked if he ever heard any Indian stories, said "No, only this": His grandfather Moses told him that one day, when he had been at work in his field, he found, on his return, an Indian in the house. He said he took a horsewhip and drove him away.
Thomas Gilbert, to whom his grandmother Hester willed one silver spoon, married a Mary North. They had a daughter Mary, born 1761, who was married to her cousin, Joseph Gilbert.
These three inscriptions in the Christian Lane cemetery, read between the lines, tell a pathetic story :
Joseph Gilbert died May 8th 1784 æ 26.
Miss Lydia only offspring of Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Mary Gilbert d Oct 4th 1802 aged 19 yrs & 10 mos.
Mary wife of Mr. Joseph Gilbert died April 25th 1859 aged 98.
Joseph Gilbert's estate was insolvent and his land had to be sold to pay the debts. Mary, his widow, went to work, bought more land, had a cow and chickens, and kept up heart, for had she not a child to love and rear ? Then "Miss Lydia" died and after that her mother, as they said, "took to cats." She owned a little house and barn over in the lots, northwest from the John
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Goodrich place, where she lived, with only her animals for com- pany. She had the Gilbert passion for land and added to her possessions until she owned forty-seven acres, or more, lying in sight of her home.
Deacon North carried his daughter there to see her one day. The house, as remembered, had three rooms. One on the south- east corner was used as a sort of entry way. West of that, the most comfortable room of the three was devoted to a lot of hens, right in the house.
"Aunt Molly," as every one called her, lived and slept in a room which extended across the north side. On her bed was a cat nursing a litter of kittens. Toward the last it was thought unsafe for Aunt Molly to stay alone and she was carried over to the brick house to end her days. There, her work of nearly a century done, she used to sit before the great fireplace and smoke her clay pipe, and doze and dream. What interesting stories she might have told for this history.
After Aunt Molly's eyesight failed, her greatest comfort was to repeat, from the Bible, chapter after chapter which she learned in childhood. One day when Doctor and Mrs. Brande- gee called to see her she recited for them the whole of one of the longest chapters in John.
Jonathan Gilbert of Hartford, who by grant of General Assembly, in 1661, and by further purchases came into posses- sion of a tract of land extending from "Wethersfield bounds to Wallingford," died in 1682, aged 64. His estate inventoried £2484 17s. 09d. His will, dated September 10, 1674, reads as follows :
I Jonathan Gilbert of Hartford do make my last Will & Testament. I give to my wife Mary Gilbert the use of homestead and Dutch Island, Land I bought of Mr. Callsey, Land exchanged with James Richard, pasture I bought of Andrew Warner, also my wood lott on the west side of Rocky Hill, tiil my son Samuel attain to 21 years of age, then to be surrendered to him, with certain reservations to her during life, then all these to Samuel and his heirs forever, he paying to his brother Ebenezer £30. I give to my son Jonathan Gilbert half the land at Haddam I bought of James Bates & Thomas Shaylor, or £20 in other estate, which is his portion with what he
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had before given him. I give to Thomas Gilbert my House & House lott on the south side of the Rivulet. I give to my son Nathaniel Gilbert my farme at Meriden and £30 more. I give to my daughter Lydia Richison 20 Shillings. I give to my daughter Sarah Belcher 20 Shillings; to my daughter Hary Holden 20 Shillings; to my daughter Hester Gilbert £100; to Rachel Gilbert £100.
I give to my son Ebenezer Gilbert, all that 300 acres of Land I bought of Capt. Daniel Clarke in Farmington, also that purchase of Land I bought of Massecup, commonly called and known by the name of pagonchaumischaug; also £50. I desire my wife do remem- ber Hannah Kelly & give her 20s, and more at her discretion if she prove obedient. I give to my grandchild, John Rossiter, £10; to my gr. child, Andrew Belcher, £5; to my gr. child, Jonathan Richeson £5. I make my wife sole Executrix, and desire Capt. John Allyn, my brother John Gilbert, and Sargt. Caleb Standly to be helpful to her, and that she satisfy them for their pains.
Witness : JOHN TALCOTT, JOHN GILBERT, JONATHAN GILBERT, L. S.
Mary (Wells) Gilbert, widow of Jonathan, died July 3, 1700. In her will, dated May 23, 1700, she describes herself as "I, Mary Gilbert of the Town of Hartford. . widow and innholder." The "inn," which was kept by Jonathan Gilbert and his wife, as early as 1661, is said to have stood on or near the site now occupied by the Hartford Times.
Gravestones to the memory of Jonathan Gilbert and Mary are in the Center churchyard at Hartford. Their eight chil- dren were Hester, Lydia, Rachel, Mary, Nathaniel, Ebenezer, Samuel and Sarah.
Nathaniel Gilbert is not mentioned in his mother's will. He died unmarried at Meriden.
There seems to have been some difficulty over the disposition of Mrs. Gilbert's wearing apparel. November 14, 1701, nearly a year and a half after her death, Capt. Caleb Standly and Lydia, his wife, testified in court under oath :
That we, being at divers times together with Mrs. Mary Gilbert in her last sickness, did hear her declare that it was her will that her two daughters that attended her in the time of her sickness, 2
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viz., Lydia Chapman and Rachel Marshfield, after her death, should have all her wearing clothes divided between them, and that they should have them as they were appraised in the inventory, and be well paid for their attendance upon hjer. All which the sd. Mrs. Mary Gilbert declared to us.
Richard Seymour, keeper of the Fort at Christian Lane, was slighted recently and we must return to speak of him. Captain "Seamer" was the leader of the company of families who came from Farmington in 1686 to settle on the farms this side of "Blow Mountain," and he was granted by vote of the whole town the munificent sum of £1, as a gratuity for planting the new colony. It was a great shock to the little community when, in 1710, he was killed by the fall of a tree. There are many descendants of Richard Seymour who may be interested to have an account of the administration of his estate, as entered in the Probate records at Hartford, here given in full :
Seamore, Richard, Farmington, Invt £ 416-13-03 Taken 29 Novem- ber, 1710, by Thomas Seamore' Thomas Hart and Thomas Curtis. Court Record, Page 23-4 December 1710: Adms granted to Han- nah Seamore, widow, and Samuel Seamore, son of sd. decd.
See File.
An agreement by the children and widow of Richard Seamore for dist. of ye sd. estates vigt.
To the widow, her thirds in the moveable estate and in lands; also a share in the lot called Bacholders, valued at £1-13-07. Bachelder was a Farmington name.
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