USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Berlin > Part 13
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out the water to each man in turn, not taking a drop himself until they had all had a supply. He was bitten by a rattlesnake and only the prompt drinking of a quantity of whiskey pulled him through. They discovered exceedingly rich silver ore ledges on the site of what many years later was known as Tombstone, but the hostility of the Apaches and the long route to the coast rendered it impracticable to work the mines. Returning to New York he resided on a fine estate near Sailors' Snug Harbor, overlooking the Bay. In 1859 he married, at Providence, R. I., Mrs. Sophia Sterry Dunbar. She was the widow of Henry Dunbar of Baltimore. The relationship was remote. Mrs. Dunbar had two children: Henry Jr., who died at Panama in 1883, and Sophia, who married Henry D. Hill of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Edward Mauran Dunbar was born at Staten Island, N. Y., in 1860. About the date the war broke out, Mr. Dunbar organized the Continental Bank Note Company. His health, however, was giving way and he was obliged to travel. In hope of finding benefit in the tropics, he went to South America, but the journey was too late and he died at Montevideo, February, 1870, and he was buried on the Isle of Flores. He was a man of wonderful executive ability, but his imperious temper, which could brook no contradiction, stood in the way of success. He pointed out the road to fortune which other and less gifted men followed to the goal. He wrote "Eldorado," an account of Sutter's discovery of gold in California, and was president of the Traveler's Club of New York.
Frederick Dunbar went early to New York and with James M. Brown and Frederick Seaver formed the firm of Brown, Seaver & Dunbar, which lasted several years. Mr. Brown withdrew to enter the banking firm of Brown Bros. & Co., which exists to-day. Mr. Dunbar then went to California where he arrived October, 1849. He was very successful and was rated as a very wealthy man, and had made all his preparations to return when a disastrous fire occurred and all his capital was swept away. The blow was so stunning that his reason was upset and he was unable to engage thereafter in business. He died, never having married, in July, 1892.
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Daniel Dunbar, Jr., was a youth of fine promise, a diligent and attentive scholar, and a very neat letter writer. He was not very strong, and in the fall of 1838 he was sent to St. Mary's River, Fla., where his cousin, Asaph Dunbar, was operating a saw mill. He stayed until spring. He died of appendicitis on May 28, 1839. Here is an anecdote. That forenoon his little sister was left in the room with him for a few moments. The sunlight, falling through the leafage of the crabapple tree, flecked the counterpane with light and shade as the breeze gently stirred the boughs. Daniel's eyes rested on the rippling shadows. He knew that he was dying and he said, "This is a beautiful world. In a few moments I shall have fathomed the deep mystery." Just then others entered and the little sister crept away. Daniel died that afternoon.
CHAPTER IN.
Church History of Berlin .- Early History of the "New Ecclesiastical Society."-The Divisions of the Society .- History of Christian Lane Cemetery .- The Rev. William Burnham and his Family .- History of South Cemetery .- Incidents in the History of the Worthington Church .- Deacon Amos Hosford.
The story of the first settlement in Christian Lane in 1686, on land bequeathed to Ebenezer Gilbert, and of the Seymour Stockade, built of stakes, set sixteen feet high, with a fort within, and cabins for the settlers, who gathered there at night for mutual protection from the dreaded Indians, is familiar to us all, and we have been told that in 1705 permission was granted the fourteen families of Great Swamp village to have a minister and a meeting house of their own.
The new Ecclesiastical Society, which comprised parts of Farmington, Wethersfield, and Middletown, was formed in 1705, but seven years passed before the meeting house was ready. December 10, 1712, a church of ten members was organized, and on the same day the Rev. William Burnham was ordained and settled as its minister. Mr. Burnham was then twenty-eight years of age. He was the son of William Burnham of Wethersfield, was graduated from Harvard in 1702, and had already preached for the new society three years.
The "7 pillars" of the church were: Mr. Burnham, Stephen Lee, Thomas Hart, Anthony Judd, Samuel Seymour, Thomas North, and Caleb Cowles. These, with the wives of Stephen Lee, Thomas Hart, and Samuel Seymour, were the original ten members of the Christian Lane church.
Anthony Judd was the first deacon. confirmed and ordained by a solemn service, after a two-years' term of probation.
Soon after the church was formed, it was agreed "that the members should hold conference meetings on the first days of
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every Month in the year, to begin about 2 hours before sun- set at the Meeting house, and sd meeting shall begin with prayer by one of the Brethren, who shall propose a Text of Scripture, and a question or questions, on the same, in writing, then to be discoursed on, by his next brother, by House row, by word or by writing, if sd Brother shall see cause. And the Pastor of the Church, and the sd brother from whom an answer is expected at any Meeting, shall at the same meeting lay down the Text of Seripture, and the question or the questions thereon arising to be discoursed on at the next meeting, to his next neighbor successively, till every brother in the Church has taken his turn, then he shall begin again who first proposed the ques- tion, and so on successively."
It was also agreed that "none should be present at sd. con- ference, but those in full communion, but by liberty from the church."
It was taken for granted that the women, if present at those conference meetings, "kept silence."
Two years later, January 11, 1714, the society voted "To build a pulpit and seats in number and form as followeth, to say, two pues on each side of the pulpit, and three long seats on each side of the brode alley to be left from the pulpit to the east door of said meeting house, leaving convenient allies toward ye north and south dores." "The said pulpit and pues to be built batten fashen."
The work was not completed until 1716, when the "decent and fashionable cushing" was ordered for the new desk.
This little church, with four short pews and six long seats, soon proved inadequate for the growing congregation, and, in 1720, a contract was made with Richard Austin and Moses Bull, of Hartford, to put in galleries: They to receive in payment, "£31 in Bills of eredit . or else in good Mercha [ndise], Wheat, rye, or Indian Corn, at the price the Merchants generally in Hartford or Wethersfield will accept the said sorts of grain in way of payment of debt due to them." The contractors agreed to "put and trim decently 4 pillars to be set under the beams of said galleries . the said . committee providing suitable pieces of timber hewed square."
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The galleries, with four seats in each side gallery and eight seats in the front gallery, were to be "finished workmanlike - after the manner of the work in the Galleries in Farmington Meeting-house."
The heartburnings caused when the meeting house was seated according to "age, list, and whatever makes a man honorable," have not been recorded. At the annual meeting: "7 Dec. 1724, it was voted & agreed that Thos Hart & Saml Bronson, jun. should oversee ye Youth on ye Sabbaths in the time of exercise, to Restrain them from unreverent behaviors therein, for the year ensuing." Not long after the new galleries were completed the house was again found too small. Families who had come into the Society and settled miles away from Chris- tian Lane also complained that they were "under great dif- ficulty to attend the public worship of God by reason of the length and badness of travel especially at some seasons of the year."
A vote of the Society was taken January 26, 1729, to build a new meeting house over on Seagt. John Norton's lot. The vote stood forty-two in the affirmative and thirty-six in the negative. This new location was near the Milo Hotchkiss place, more than a mile southwest from the old house. The troubles that followed have been told by the Rev. W. W. Woodworth in these words :
The seeds of forty years of strife were in that vote. Serious diffi- culties arose respecting the location. Recourse was had in the most solemn manner to the lot to decide the question. An advisory coun- cil was called to decide what the lot did not settle. The council advised that the site indicated by the lot was the place pointed out by Providence to build the meeting house upon; but the people would not build it there. The General Assembly of the colony was next appealed to. In May, 1732, that body appointed a committee to repair to the parish, view the circumstances, and fix the place for building the meeting-house.
The committee fulfilled their trust and "pitched down a stake in Deacon Thomas Hart's home lot." The society would take no measures for building there, and in October, 1732, the General court "ordered, directed, and empowered the constable
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of the town of Farmington to assess and gather of the inhabi- tants of Kensington ninepence on the pound of the polls and ratable estate on said society, and deliver it to the treasurer of the colony ; who was ordered, on receipt thereof; to pay out the same to Captain John Marsh, Capt. Thomas Seymour, and Mr. John Church, all of Hartford, who were appointed and empowered to be a committee, or any two of them, to erect and finish a meeting-house, at the place aforesaid, for the society aforesaid." Kensington Society at that time comprised nearly all of the present town of Berlin, and a part of New Britain.
This Hartford committee "speedily and effectually" did their work. They erected a house, "60 feet in length and 45 in breadth, containing in the whole about 1500 persons." This house, built "about one rod south of an apple tree, partly dead," in Deacon Hart's home lot, was on the north side of the high- way leading from the Town house to the railroad station, not far from the corner, west of the dwelling house of the late Cyrus Root.
Oak timbers from the first church building were used in a cow-house on the Gilbert place.
The Berlin chapter, D. A. R., secured one of these timbers, which they have had made into picture frames. The more worm-eaten holes, the choicer the frame.
The first division of the ancient Society of Kensington came in 1754, when, at the May session of the General Assembly, it was enacted "that there be another Ecclesiastical Society Erected & Made . ... within ye bounds of Farmington & shall be "known by the name of New Briton."
The question of this division had been agitated since 1739, when the inhabitants of the north part of the parish petitioned "for liberty of four months to meet at some convenient place for the case of our travel to attend the public worship of God."
When the New Britain church was formed, April 19, 175S, fifty of its sixty-eight members were received from the Kensing-
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ton church. One hundred and seventy-four remained with the mother church.
That meeting house, built so "speedily" by the Hartford committee, seems not to have been appreciated. According to the Colonial records, Thomas Hart and others, inhabitants of the Society of Kensington, sent a memorial to the General Assembly of 1764,
Representing that the meeting house in said Society for many years last past has been decaying and for want of proper & season- able repairs is becoming very indecent and not fit and comfortable for the purpose of public worship, and that the different sentiments of the inhabitants of sd Society are such that they cannot by vote agree to repair sd house or build another.
A committee was sent by the assembly to "view the circum- stances," but the people could not agree, except to make the house comfortable for another year. A vote had previously been taken "to shingle the fore ruff" and to repair the windows.
Three years later, in 1767, Selah Hart and others of the society of Kensington sent a second memorial to the assembly,
Representing that the meeting house is become ruinous, unsafe, indecent & uncomfortable to meet in for public worship, and that a place in sd society for building a new meeting house hath been ascertained and that no vote or agreement of sd society can be obtained either for repairing sd old meeting house or for building a new one at sd place, whereby the attendance of the inhabitants of sd society on public worship is rendered uncomfortable, and will probably be impeded without the interposition of the assembly.
The feeling in regard to the meeting house may be inferred from an action taken by the society January 11, 1770, when it was voted,
That Messrs. Elisha Savage, Amos Peck, Elias Beckley, Capt. David Sage, Ezekiall Kelsey and others, twelve in all, be a committee to oppose any persons that may pull down, destroy, or carry away, any part or appendage belonging to our meeting house .. . . Any boards, shingles, glass, window-frames or other
thing or matter whatsoever without due order of the society to prosecute to final judgment any such person or
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persons that hath, may or shall hereafter pull down, destroy, break, or carry away any part of said meeting house
This was carried by a majority of twenty out of one hundred and sixty-one votes cast.
All along there had been an undercurrent of feeling that another division was inevitable. This feeling came to a head when, in June, 1771, one hundred and thirty-seven men signed a paper, by which they agreed to submit the whole matter to arbitration. Colonel John Worthington of Springfield, Colonel Oliver Partridge of Hartford, and Mr. Eldad Taylor of West- field, in the Province of Massachusetts, who were appointed to the task, came, studied the situation, accepted it, drew the dividing line, and set stakes for two new meeting houses. On May 6, 1772, as appears by the Colonial record, the society, by their agent, sent a memorial to the assembly,
Showing to this Assembly that it is best and absolutely necessary for the mutual peace & real happiness as well as from the limits, situation, extent & wealth and other respects that sd society should be divided into 2 distinct ecclesiastical societies by a north & south line, which they have a long time laboured to effect; and sd south soc'y having now mutually agreed that the most reasonable line of division will be in the following manner and form; to wit:
Beginning at the South line of the sd Soc'y at the place where the river cld Belcher's river crosses the sd line, thence extending northerly by sd river until it comes to the 4-rod hiway until it comes to the south side of Selah Hart Esq'r land, thence east on the line of sd Hart's land to the same river again, thence northerly a direct course (leaving sd Hart's now land on the west if any of it should happen to fall east of sd course) to a point on the highway 10 feet east of Deacon Ebenezer Harts dwelling house from thence north to the north line of sd society, to include however the whole of sd Deacon Hart's farm on which he now dwells in sd west society.
The West Society kept the name, the minister, the church records and the communion service; the East Society in gratitude to Colonel Worthington for his wise counsel, adopted his name.
This division line, as it comes in from the south, crosses the road half-way between John Norton's house and his millpond ;
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thence it follows north on a road, now seldom traveled, until it comes to the General Selah Hart farm, now owned by heirs of the late Mrs. Jacob C. Bauer.
To divide farms would make confusion in paying church taxes; Mr. Hart had particularly requested that all his land might be in Kensington, and so here the line turns directly east until it comes nearly over to Lower Lane.
At the point where Blue Hills brook and Belcher brook unite, the line turns again and goes directly north to a large stone, set as a mark, about half a mile northwest of the old Seymour fort, where it meets the New Britain south line. This New Britain line was extended, in 1754, from Shuttle Meadow Lake, east until it crossed Christian Lane, about one-eighth of a mile north of the Fort, and was terminated a short distance east of Christian Lane. The division line between the two societies runs near Mott's corner, ten feet east of Mott's east door.
The hall now owned by the Agricultural Society stands in Worthington; the cattle sheds are in Kensington, the line is about half way between the hall and sheds.
The early settlers around the fort at Christian Lane carried their dead back to Farmington or to Hartford, but Captain Seymour, according to tradition, had given a plot of ground for a burying yard and was himself the first to be laid there. Whatever his intentions were, it is evident that the society had not received a title to the land. The actual deed was given November 1, 1718, by the Rev. William Burnham, who,
for the regard he had for the public welfare of the parish at Great Swamp in the southeast part of Farmington & in considera- tion of the society releasing him from 20s, he promised to encourage the building the Meeting house, he gave, sold, conveyed & set over to Thos. IIart & Thos. North a committee of said society a piece of land containing by estimation half an Acre, moreor less, in length 10 rods & in breadth 8 rods.
It is part of the same lot that originally was James Bird's, and which I purchased of Sam'l Semer, and it is understood that it is for the use of said Society, for a possession, for a Burying ground forever-said society is to maintain a good fence at their own cost, and I am not to be taxed for any part of the expense of a division fence as the law in other cases provides, and further until such divi-
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sion fence is made, the said society are not to feed the ground or any way use it except to bury their dead. Said land is situate on a knowl of up land lying a little to the North of a stream called "Gilbird's River," and abutteth east on the highway that passeth North from the Meeting House and butts North on land of Nath'l Not, West & South on my own land.
Signed Win. Burnham.
Stephen Lee Ebenezer Gilbert Wit.
This cemetery, the oldest in Berlin or New Britain, is situated on the west side of the road, about one-half mile south of the Seymour place, the distance divided by the brick Gilbert house. Most of the stones placed at the graves in this yard previous to 1730, if stones there were, have disappeared; one hundred and thirty-eight remain (including those of more recent date), the oldest dated 1726. The inscriptions show that twenty-four persons who lived on this street, or near it, lived to an average age of over eighty-four. In the decade including 1741-1751, forty burials are recorded on stones; of these, an unusual num- ber of young persons, in 1741-2-3, would indicate some fatal epidemic at that time. Those who have recorded these inscrip- tions have found the lettering on the footstones often more legible than that on the headstones, and in doubtful cases the matter was cleared by turning to the footstone. The headstones nearly all face the rising sun, and it is possible that the eastern storms have worn away the marks of the chisel.
In 1737 it was "voted and agreed that Elisha Goodrich may take within his own enclosure the burying vard of this society, for five years, provided the said Elisha Goodrich clear and keep the said yard from brush and keep swine from rooting the same."
Now, what about that "good fence ?"
Mr. Alfred Andrews in 1867 made the following statement: This time honored cemetery had been sadly neglected for many years previous to 1845, when by the enterprise and liberality of Mr. John Ellis, some few subscriptions were obtained from indi- viduals, and an appropriation of $30, from the parish of Worthington, in which it is located, and a neat white fence, erected on sunk stones,
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with iron braces, at a cost of $160, an undue proportion of which expense was paid by himself.
John Ellis was the father of Martin Ellis. He lived in the large old-fashioned house next east of the "Martin Ellis cor- ner," so called. The foundation stones of his work done on the cemetery fence sixty years ago remain, but the broken slats lying flat on the ground remind one of the old adage that "what is everybody's business is nobody's."
On the east side of the road, at the top of the hill south of the railroad, and about a quarter of a mile south of the cemetery, may be seen a stone, recently placed there by the Ruth Hart chapter, D. A. R., of Meriden, to mark the site of Berlin's first meeting house. The land on which it stood was leased from Dr. Joseph Steele, and "peter blin," of Wethers- field, was the carpenter. The building was occupied in 1712, without pulpit, "pues" or galleries, but with a debt of £60 to Peter Blinn.
The Rev. William Burnham, born July 17, 1684, was a son of William and Elizabeth [Loomis] Burnham of Wethersfield. His grandfather, born 1617, of Hertfordshire, England, who came to Hartford about 1647, was a lawyer of good education and ability. Shortly before his deatlı, in 1688, he made a will, by which he gave his house and home lot to his unmarried daughter, Rebecca. His wife, Ann, was made executrix and the will was given to her to keep.
Two years later Rebecca was married to William Mann, who complained that the will had not been exhibited in court, and that he, the said Mann, was like to be dispossessed of what his father gave his wife.
The marshal served the complaint on Ann and summoned her to appear in court with the will. This account is given for the sake of the following quaint reply sent by Mrs. Burnham :
24 June 1690.
Honred Sor, Mr. Ayllin: Thes ffew Lines are to Lett you under- stand my Ssorrowffull condishon. I have bene weke and Lame a
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long time, and Now did begin to be som what beter be ffor my son Will man did make so much trobell by ye authority in Sending up ye Marshall, and by Souerving Warnts on all my Children, by which mens greved me very much. as I have declared to ye marshall when he was at my house.
Thear ffor my earnest desir is that you would Not Let any thing goe fforward in a way off Setling my estate whillst I can Spak with you my Sellffe, and then I hop I shall do it to all my Childrens' Satisffaxsion.
Ye writin which my son Will man took, I know not what was in it, for I never heard it read. My son Will man asked me to see ye writing. I told him he mit. So when he had it he took it and put it in his pocit with out my Leveffe.
off an X Burnham.
William Burnham, Jr., married May 18, 1704, at the age of twenty, Hannah, daughter of Capt. Samuel Wolcott and Judith [Appleton], his wife, of Wethersfield. They were living in Great Swamp in 1709.
On consideration that Mr. Burnham should remain with the church as its minister nine years, the Town of Farmington voted, December 23, 1707, to give him fifty acres of land in three parcels "to be taken up in our sequestered lands not prejudicing highways or former grants."
The grant was laid out to him "in ye Great Swamp upon the plains beyond ye boggy meadow Southward & lyeth in length 8 score rods. Butting east on ye highway 160 rods; West on common land, North & South on common land 50 rods."
In regard to common lands, as the unappropriated land was called, settlers gave the town so much trouble by putting out fences to take in more than belonged to them that encroaching committees were appointed. At the town meeting held January 2, 1793, it was voted that "the committee for the Parish of Worthington enquire into the encroachments on Christian Lane and remove the same."
One of the conditions of Mr. Burnham's settlement, as drawn by his own hand, was that "the house begun by 2d Society be finished in the manner and to the degree that is ordinary in this country for such sort of houses, that is to say the two Loer
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rooms, at or before the last day of March that shall be in the year 1710, the remainder within twelve months after, I only finding glass and nails."
Further reference will be made to this house, which stood on the site of the Norman Porter place.
Mr. Burnham was a faithful pastor and a sound preacher. On election day, May 10, 1722, he preached before the General Assembly at Hartford. His sermon, entitled "God's Prudence in placing men in their Respective Stations & Conditions asserted and shewd," was published "by order of Authority," 1722.
Mr. Burnham served the church until his death, September 23, 1750, in the thirty-eighth year of his ministry. His wife, Hannah, died March 16, 1747, and he married second, Widow Buckingham, who died soon after their marriage.
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