USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Berlin > Part 10
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THE PORTER FAMILY
The large horse barn, east of the house, was burned after the place came into the possession of Richard Murray.
The field south of the Christian Lane school house, called the Lee lot, came into the possession of Mr. Porter, and when he was about sixty years old he planted it full of apple trees. When asked why, at his time of life, he should set out apple trees, he replied, "I expect to live to send fruit from this orchard to Queen Victoria." He did live to gather a bountiful harvest of apples from what came to be known as the "prizo orchard of the state."
The trees were started in this way. Seeds from common apples were planted and cultivated. In the fall of the second year the saplings were pulled and stored in the cellar, where, during the winter, they were grafted. In five years from seed the trees were in bearing.
Cyrus Root, Jr., who is the authority for this description, gives a list of the variety of apples, all grown on the Lee lot. It includes the Baldwin, Peck's Pleasant, Roxbury Russet, Hubbardston's Nonesuch, Belden, Sweet, Yellow Bell-flower, Gravenstein, Sweet Russet, and Rhode Island Greening. There were also Porter and spice apples there. Mrs. Webber used to dry the spice apples on shares.
In after years it was sad to see that orchard browned, as by fire, from the ravages of canker worms.
Mr. Porter was fond of children. He even allowed them to swing on that patent gate. One day a little girl who lived in that neighborhood started to walk over to Upson's store in Kensington, on an errand for her mother. She lost her money in the road, and began to cry. Presently Mr. Porter met her and asked her why she cried. Then he took money from his own pocket, gave it to her, and sent her on her way, gratefully happy.
On Sunday the Porter horses always knew that they were to stop and add to their load any woman or child walking toward the village church.
In his zeal for town and village improvement, Mr. Porter sometimes gave offense by urging people beyond their inelina-
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tions. One day as he came up the street he stopped to speak with a housewife out in her yard, and said: "You ought to have a fountain here." She straightened herself up with hauteur and said, "Can't you make a few more suggestions, Mr. Porter ?"
In 1849, when subscriptions were solicited for the new church in Worthington, the name of Norman Porter was placed on the paper for $1,000. In 1852, when the recently-built spire was found so defective as to be in danger of falling to the ground, he subscribed $125 toward repairs. Again, in 1855, after the great revival, under Mr. Love, when galleries were added to the church, he gave $200. On these subscrip- tion papers may be seen the name of Captain Norman Peck, who matched Mr. Porter by giving $1,000 for the new church in 1849, $125 for repair of spire, in 1852, and $200, for galleries in 1855. Samuel C. Wilcox, who contributed $300 in 1849, gave $100 in 1852, and $200 in 1855.
Norman Porter died January 20, 1863, aged seventy-three years, as recorded on his white marble monument in the Bridge cemetery.
Norman Porter, Jr., only child of his parents, born in Ken- tueky, was in sympathy with southern life and, in the autumn of 1863, as soon as he could settle up the family affairs after his father's death, he removed to San José, California. His wife, Hannah, was the eldest of three daughters of Captain Peck. Their children, born in Berlin, were Mary, Arthur, Margaret and Evangeline. Two daughters, Anna and Eliza- beth, were born in San José.
Arthur has been successful in the business of silver mining in Nevada.
After the recent earthquake the family felt unsettled. They said the only safe place they could think of was Berlin.
The mother of Norman Porter, Jr., was born in 1796. She went with her son to spend her declining years in San José, and died there at the age of ninety-six.
We do not know the history of the little brown house opposite the Porter place. James Richardson, a shoemaker, lived there many years.
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In 1786, Isaac North, Jr., for the consideration of £22, deeded six acres of land to his son, Abel. This land lies on the north side of the road coming toward the village from Christian Lane, and the house, with brick basement, thereon standing, long known as the Pollard place, was built by Abel North, whose wife was Sarah Wilcox. She used to bake most excellent shortcakes on a slanting board, before the open fire.
The place next east of Abel North's, now used as a town home, was occupied early in the last century by Blakeslee Barnes, who married Almira Porter, one of the daughters of Samuel Porter.
Mr. Barnes had unusual natural business faculty, and in his occupation as a tinner, conducted, with a number of apprentices, in a shop near his home, he was quite prosperous. Denied the advantages of schools in boyhood, he studied, after he began business, to make up his lack of book knowledge.
Leonard Pattison learned his trade of Mr. Barnes and then went to Lexington to work for Norman Porter.
After a while Mr. Barnes moved up on to the street where he died, August 1, 1823, aged forty-two years. It is supposed that he built the house which he occupied, and which was afterward purchased and remodeled by Captain Peck, now owned by Daniel Webster.
The town of Berlin bought the Town farm, with buildings thereon, November 7, 1833, of Seth Deming, described by him as "the place where I now live." In the cellar, fastened firmly into the wall, are two iron rings, once used to secure charges of the town who were violently insane. There was a fine brass knocker on the front door of the house, and Mrs. Laura (Barnes) Willard, who was born there in 1808, obtained it from the Selectmen in exchange for a modern bell.
We have been reminded that one of the tenants of the Burn- ham-Porter house, after its removal, was Edmund Kidder, a useful, honest, steady, sober man, who died there February 23, 1885, aged one hundred years, six months and six days. He was one of the oldest Free Masons in the country, but was
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unable to attend their meetings in his old age. He voted for Jefferson in 1804.
Born in Fairfield, Conn .. in 1764. his father died when he was eleven years old. and at the age of thirteen he shipped on board a merchantman for the East Indies. He made a three- years' cruise and sailed around the world. Later he took up the trade of stone mason. He worked at various odd tasks in the neighborhood up to his last summer and could swing an axe as well as a man of sixty. He was fond of reading, and was always pleased to receive copies of the Sailor's Magazine.
A bachelor up to the age of fifty-seven. he then married. in 1841, Lydia Fielding Johnson, widow of Shadrack Johnson. of Hartford, twenty-five years his junior. and they had three children. Mrs. Henry Moore, whose first husband was Darius Richardson, was a daughter of Mrs. Kidder's first marriage. The only father she ever knew was her mother's second husband.
Edmund Kidder was buried at the south side of the family lot in Maple Cemetery. Next north is the grave of Mrs. Kidder, who died October 26, 1Sss, aged seventy-nine. These two graves are unmarked. Next north of the father and mother lies a daughter, whose stone bears the following inscription :
Elizabeth T. Lamb. Daughter of E. R. and L. F. Kidder, Born Jan. 17, 1842 Died July 22d 1861.
Opposite the town house, on what is now a barren field sur- rounding the Porter farmhouse, as it came to be called. there stood, within the memory of some now living. a grove of wal- nut trees. Farther south. near the Middletown turnpike. were many grand old trees of walnut, chestnut, and oak. spared from the ancient forest. so dense were they as to hide the prospect from one road to the other. Here, village picnics were held.
One year, Clark Talbott attempted to run the old tavern as a temperance house. To help eke out expenses he served a Fourth of July dinner, spread on tables in the shade of those trees. The tickets were sold for seventy-five cents each, and the people in their desire to assist the temperance landlord, all went forth to dine with him on the occasion.
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One Sunday school pienie on that ground is especially remem- bered, in the time of Mr. Love, when Miss Mary Talcott, a successful Sunday school teacher, was active in trying to make everybody have a good time. " One of the boys, now in Washing- ton, D. C., recalls his first experience with ice cream that day, and a girl, now gray-haired, wishes she could have another piece of the delectable sponge cake made by Mrs. Florence Brande- gee. Her receipt called for ten eggs, their weight in sugar, the weight of six eggs in flour, juice and grated rind of one lemon, and a saltspoonful of salt. As for the rest it depended on the skill in mixing and baking.
At that time, on the south side of the turnpike, opposite the Porter grove, were acres of land covered with trees and under- growth, known as Captain Peck's woods. Another piece of woodland, west of the Abel North house, which until quite recently remained uncut, was very attractive to the lover of wild flowers.
Almira Barnes, daughter of "Blakslee Barns," was married to Thomas G. Fletcher, a lawyer of New York City. They had two sons, Frank H., born 1831, married Helen Clapp; and Charles S., born 1833. Mrs. Fletcher died in 1835. A deed on record at New Britain shows that she came to the age of twenty-one November 15, 1833, and in that year Esquire Dunbar sold for her, buildings and land that came to her from her father's estate. The property conveyed consisted in part of a lot, once owned by Samuel Porter, situated southwesterly from Riverside or Bridge Cemetery, with barn, "Cider-mill house" and "Still house" thereon.
A clump of trees, on a rise of ground, by a bend in the stream, about fifteen rods south of the road, marks the site of the distillery. Aunt Mindwell Hart said it was a wonder that they were not all drunkards, with so much eider brandy around. It is not known that any of the family ever were drunkards. Norman Porter was a strong temperance man, and so outspoken as to gain the ill will of men of different views. One day, as he drove up to the post office, at Mr. Galpin's store, a young rowdy stepped up to him, with a horsewhip, and gave him a
S
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thrashing. Mr. Porter was an old man then, and the act was severely condemned by the community.
Captain Peck bought Mrs. Fletcher's property and the "still" was turned into a dwelling house. Peter Mullen lived there and worked for the captain. His wife, with an abundance of water running close by her kitchen door, took in washing.
A boy who lived there came to the district school, his head alive with pediculus capitis. Colonies of the pest soon swarmed. Teacher and pupil shared alike in the invasion, and careful mothers cried "Mercy on us" when they found what their boys and girls brought home from school. Kerosene was not then on the market, and one poor woman sent to a neighbor to ask the loan of her fine tooth comb. She said she wanted to use it to comb the lice from her children's heads.
This still house was sold to E. S. Kirby, who moved it over near the railroad station, where it was used as a liquor saloon.
In the deed of conveyance from Mrs. Fletcher in 1833, the "Point house" was included. It was described as occupied by Samuel Durand. A part of this house which still stands near- est the point, east of the cemetery, was made from Blakeslee Barnes's tinshop, moved from the north side of his house up on the "Street." The names "blue house," "blue house ceme- tery" and "blue house bridge"-the north bridge-were given because, as before stated, the house was once painted blue. This dwelling house was remodelled by John Staveley.
A short distance farther east brings us to another point of land. The deeds of this place show that it was purchased November 6, 1832, by Cyrus Root, from Samuel A. Hamlin, and that on the same day he sold it to Horace Sheldon for the price of $400. The house was then there but not the brick shop, which was built by Sheldon who was a blacksmith and shod stage horses. On April 2, 1835, he sold out for $1,200 to Benjamin R. Fanning, who was also a blacksmith. In the Riverside cemetery, on a little stone is the following inscription :
Clarence Lee, only child of Benj. R. Fanning and Charlotte Fanning, d. May 28th, 1854, aged 3 yrs. 4 mos.
How many hopes lie blasted here.
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Mr. Fanning had an unusually bright mind, but the loss of this little son embittered his soul and he could never rise above the blow. His wife, a refined, gentle, home body, died September 2, 1885, aged seventy-four years. Mr. Fanning married again and removed to Portland, where he died February 6, 1892, aged eighty-one years.
The Fanning place is now the home of Alonzo Sweet and his wife, Alice Wilson [Dillings] Sweet. The large open field opposite, on the south side of the way, was owned, a hundred years ago, by Pete Galpin, who was seventy-seven years old in 1808. On November 7 of that year he sold, to Amos and Elisha Edwards, for $100, sixty-five rods off from the east end of that lot. It was bounded south by Jesse Hart, which shows that Mr. Hart then owned the hotel property.
Amos and Elisha Edwards were brothers of Josiah Edwards, who kept the store on the northwest corner at the top of this hill. They built a house, barn and shop, on their land, and then, September 23, 1816, sold the property to John Lee, 2d, son of Captain James Lee of Bristol. He was born May 28, 1766, and married at the age of twenty-two, Abigail Gerome. The children began to come the next year, and seventeen years later, thirteen had been born to them. Unfortunately, the last six died young, and the mother followed them to a "land of rest." In 1809, the father married, second, widow Charlotte (Dorr) Neff. She brought to his home at least one child of her first marriage, Delia Neff, who became the wife of Nelson Atwood (grandparents of Clarence Atwood).
The names of the Lee children were: Jeptha, John, Henry, Juba, Abigail, Edward, Aurilla, Jerome, Ebenezer, Lucy, Lucy, Polly, and William. Then, after the second marriage, three more children, Edmund, Charlotte, and Sally, came to bless the Lee household.
Charlotte was the wife of Benjamin Fanning; her brother, Edmund Francis Lee, married Melvina Allen, "daughter of Thomas G. Addison, a descendant of Joseph Addison, Prime Minister of England and author of the Spectator. He was a civil engineer of some note at Louisville, Ky.," where he
.
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died July 15, 1857. Edward Gaylord Lee died at Janesville. Wis., in 1862. He had four sons and one grandson in the Civil War. John Lee. the father, his two sons. Jeptha and Henry, and William Palmiter, the husband of his daughter. Aurilla, were all in the War of 1812.
John Lee came to Berlin from Burlington in 1816. He was a blacksmith, and shod stage horses in his shop, which stood east of the house. He died August 18. 1844. at the age of seventy-eight years. His wife. Charlotte. died Septem- ber 3. 1836. aged sixty-four years. Their graves are at Riverside. The Lee place is now owned by Dr. R. E. Ensign.
At a town meeting held in December. 1785. it was voted "That the Parish of Worthington may erect a Pound in sd Parish at their own expense, in such place as shall be most convenient."
Where the first pound was situated we do not know. but within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, it was east of John Lee's blacksmith shop. It was about fifty by thirty-six feet in size. and was surrounded by a strong high fence. When animals were inside. a row of boys sat on the top rail of that fence. James Richardson had six sheep that lived on the high- way, and whenever a neighbor's gate chanced to be left open. in rushed that flock to trample and destroy the garden. One day, when the hayward was half seas over. he came across those sheep and drove them to pound. That ended the nuisance.
Once a large flock of sheep owned by a butcher were impounded there. The owner refused to reclaim them and one morning the sheep all lay on the ground with their throats neatly cut. as if by butcher. If animals were not redeemed within a certain time they were sold by the town.
Daniel Galpin, constable. sold at auction, July 23. 1802. six sheep that had been impounded. They were struck off to the highest bidder for $4.75.
When creatures fed on the commons it was customary to mark them. and to have the mark recorded. Some of those marks. taken from the early records. are as follows :
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Elishama Brandegee Jr. Ear Mark is a hole in Each Ear and a Bobtail. Recorded May 21st, 1811.
Roger Riley's Ear Marke is half erop under the Right Ear and also a Bole'd tail. Recorded March 22, 1800.
Samuel Wilcox Mark is a half penny underside the right ear, a slit between the head & the half penny & Crop of the left car. Recorded Nov. 21st, 1792.
Until within a few years a front fence was an expensive necessity. The iron fence, removed not long since from the front of the village church, was intended to last forever. The bill for this fence, dated April 6, 1853, sent to Norman Porter and committtee, was for $378.00.
The pound, which was a part of the hotel property, was sold, May 26, 1883, by Landlord Henry Gwatkins, to Alfred North, for $100 cash, and with this lift, Mr. Gwatkins took his wife on a trip back to their old home in England.
The small dwelling house, of which the pound is now the south yard, was built about 1880 by Albert Holt to rent as a market.
A description has already been given of the Edwards carriage factory that stood opposite the John Lee place. The tinners' business, now conducted on that site by Homer F. Damon, was established by James B. Carpenter and S. C. Wilcox, and afterwards continued by Lorenzo Lamb, now of Hartford.
This hill, known for over forty years as "Deacon North's Hill," was formerly a quagmire when the frost was coming out of the ground.
Mrs. Almira Barnes died March 29, 1858, while away on a visit. She was brought home, and, as the procession attempted to come up the hill, the carriages stuck fast in the deep mud. Soon after this Deacon North took from the town a year's contract for repair of roads. He dug a trench, three feet wide and three feet deep, in the center of this hill, from the top down to the tinshop, and filled the space solid with stones. Another springy place that he made firm was over east of Wil- liam Bulkeley's. He spent more than he received for his year's contract.
CHAPTER VI.
The Root Family .- The "Lee House" and its Occupants.
John Root, one of the early settlers in Farmington, was the ancestor of the Christian Lane families of that name. His will, dated April 21, 1684, reads as follows :
I, John Roote, sen. of the town of Farmington do make this my last will & Testament: I give to my wife Mary Roote a constant comfortable maintenance to be paid to her by my Executors during her widowhood and £20. But in Case she marry again, I give her £20 more, and then the Constant maintenance to cease. I doe solemnly charge my sons Joseph & Caleb, as long as the care of their Mother shall be incumbent upon them to carry very dutifull and tenderly toward her & see from time to time that she want nothing for her comfortable support, and I hope that the Overseers of this my will will have an eye to this care. To each of my sons which are already married, 20 shillings; & to my gr children 5 shillings. I give to my daughter Mary, the wife of Isaac Brunson £15. I do confirm to my son Steven Roote the 20 acres of land which I engaged upon his marriage with his Wife that now is.
I give to my son Joseph both my Looms with all the Tackling. To my sons Caleb & Joseph I give the remainder of my Estate.
Stephen Root, son of John, and father of the John who came to Great Swamp, was called the "Giant of Farmington." He was well built and of herculean strength and powers. In height he was six feet and six inches. He was one of the greatest racers of his day and was never outrun except by an Indian. He was in the Narragansett war and was in the fight when the fort was destroyed. He carried a sword and a huge musket, now held as priceless family treasures.
In his will, dated October 16, 1716, Stephen Root gave to his son, John Root, "a pair of brown steers," all his "wear- ing clothes," and "half his husbandry tools." John, born at Farmington, 1685, was already hard at work clearing up a farm
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in Great Swamp. The ground was covered with bushes and wild grapevines, and those brown steers had a plenty of exercise.
John Root was strongly built, with broad shoulders and large hands, but he was not so tall by eight inches as his father, Stephen, and those wearing clothes would make over nicely for him. Besides clothes were clothes in the days when women carded, spun, and wove the material, and cut and made every garment that went on to the backs of the family.
John Root married July 10, 1716, Margaret, daughter of Col. John Strong of Farmington. Their house, which is still standing on the west side of the way at the south end of Chris- tian Lane, unchanged as built in 1712, is a rare model of the homes in which our ancestors dwelt two hundred years ago. The barn was built in 1706.
Are not these two buildings the oldest in town ?
Dwight Root and his sisters, the Misses Elizabeth and Han- nah Root, children of the late Timothy Root, are the last of five successive generations who have lived on this farm. The family have in their possession the deeds by which the once extensive farm was acquired by John Root. One given by Ebenezer Gilbert is dated June 4, 1708.
The oldest deed of all is signed by Samuel Oxuis (his mark). Sounds like an Indian name. The land is described in three parcels "known as the widow Oxuis her land," witnessed before Thomas Hart, Justice.
Attached to the deed is a paper signed by mark E of Eliza- beth, mother of Samuel Oxuis, by which she gives her well beloved son power of attorney to sell her land.
John Root was never sick in his life until three days before his death, when he had lung fever. He and his wife were buried in the Christian Lane cemetery. Their inscriptions read as follows :
Mr. John Root, d. Nov. 16th, 1764, aged 80.
Margaret, wife of John Root d. Apr. 20th, 1751, aged 60.
Their son, John Root, married May 26, 1762, Anna, daugh- ter of Dr. Joseph and Elizabeth Hollister Steele. He was six
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feet two inches in height, with large shoulders, and was remark- able for strength and agility. Foot races were very popular in his day and he was one of the greatest runners Berlin ever produced. He ran a race with John Judd, with a log chain wound around his body, and defeated him. He died November 8, 1781, aged fifty-eight, after a sickness of sixty days of lung fever.
Asahel Root, born February 11, 1766, son of John Root and Elizabeth Steele Root, married Hannah Goodrich, sister of "Uncle" John Goodrich. Asahel Root died August 2, 1818, aged fifty-two. Hannah, his wife, died in 1847, aged seventy- seven. Their eight children were: Jesse, Asahel, Amos, Cyrus, Samuel, Timothy, Rebecca, and Hannah, all born in the Root house, still standing.
Jesse, who was a school teacher, lived with his brother Timo- thy, on the homestead, and died unmarried, January 22, 1852, aged sixty-two. He was the genealogist of the family, and to him we are indebted for many of the facts given in this account.
The inscription on the gravestone of Asahel Root, Jr., in the Christian Lane burying ground reads as follows :
Asahel Root died at Farmington Aug. 7th, 1833 aged 40; interred here. His father Asahel, his grandfather John & his great-grand- father, John Root, rest near this spot.
The widow of Asahel Root, Jr., was married, second, to Deacon Cyprian Goodrich of Kensington.
Amos Root went to New York State as a school teacher, and married there, in 1830, Orpha Stanton. They came to Berlin and lived for a time in the old Elishama Brandegee house. Afterward their home was in Meriden. They had thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters. Of the sons, Joseph, Reuben, Timothy, and Cyrus were soldiers in the Civil War.
Benjamin, the youngest son, has held for many years a place of responsibility in the Bridgeport post office.
Mrs. Amos Root died in Meriden in 1896, aged eighty-nine.
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Cyrus Root, who married, in 1829, Delia A. Stocking of Blue Hills, purchased the Oswin Stanley place, over on the road leading from the Root farm to the railroad station. The house, on the south side of the way, its roof with the long back slant called a "lean-to" or "linter," still stands. The great farm barn opposite the house was destroyed by fire a few years since. Besides the care of his farm, Mr. Root owned a blacksmith shop, east of the barn, where horses and cattle of the neighborhood were shod.
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