USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Berlin > Part 6
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bus, King of Egypt. Milesius was contemporary with King Solomon, and it makes us feel like giving the latter the endearing title of "Uncle Sol" when we read that his Egyptian wife is supposed to have been a sister of Scota.
King Cormac Mac Art, called Ulfhada, on account of his long beard, was the 115th monarch of Ireland. He excelled all his race in wisdom, learning and goodness. Prior to the year 560, the kings of Ireland had their royal residence on the beautiful hill of Tara, twenty-one miles northwest of Dublin. The story of King Cormac Mac Art and his life at Tara in the third cen- tury reads like that of Solomon and his household as related in I Kings 4. He had always one thousand one hundred and fifty persons in constant attendance at his "Great Hall" which was 300 feet long, thirty cubits high and fifty cubits in breadth, with fourteen doors. His service of plate, in daily use, consisted of 150 pieces-flagons and drinking cups of gold, silver and pre- cious stones, besides dishes, all of pure gold and silver. King Cormac ordained that ten choice persons should attend him and never be absent from him. These were:
1. A nobleman to be his companion.
2. A judge to explain the laws.
3. An antiquary to preserve the genealogies of the nobility.
4. A Druid or magician to offer sacrifice and presage good or bad omens.
5. A poet to praise or dispraise every one according to his actions.
6. A physician to administer physic to the king and queen and to the rest of the royal family.
7. A musician to compose music, and to sing in the king's presence.
8, 9, 10. Three stewards to govern the house and the servants.
With the exception that since the Christian faith was adopted the Druid or magician was changed to a prelate of the church, this custom was followed without change by all the succeeding kings down to the sixtieth from Cormac. The ancient records of Ireland at Tara were brought to complete accuracy during the reign of Cormac. Of several learned treatises written by King Cormac, one, "Kingly Government," is still extant.
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THE HART FAMILIES
In his actions and judgment Cormac was so upright that seven years before his death God revealed to him the light of his faith, and thenceforward he refused to worship the idol gods of the Druids, whereupon they caused his destruction by the "ministry of damned spirits, choking him as he sat at dinner, cating of salmon, some say by a bone of the fish sticking in his throat, A. D. 266, after a reign of forty years."
St. Rodanus, in anger, because his brother was held a prisoner by King Dermot, laid a curse on Tara and it was forsaken as a royal residence in the sixth century. In 975 Tara was described as a desert overgrown with weeds and grass. Some earthen ramparts and mounds are now all that remain of its ancient magnificence.
The Harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As if that soul were fled.
So sleeps the pride of former days, So glory's thrill is o'er; And hearts that onee beat high for praise Now feel that pulse no more.
No more to chiefs and ladies bright The harp of Tara swells; The chord alone that breaks at night Its tale of ruin tells.
Thus freedom now so seldom wakes The only throb she gives Is when some heart indignant breaks To show that still she lives.
"That still she lives," was shown in 1843, when Daniel O'Connell, greatest of Irish patriots, held monster political meetings in every corner of Ireland. There was never a mob, and, thanks to Father Mathew, there was no crime or drunken- ness at those meetings. The greatest rally of all was on August 15, 1843, at Tara, when the attendance was estimated at three- quarters of a million. Of the limited editions of The Stem of
.
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the Irish Nation, a few copies were placed in the libraries of large cities in America. A complimentary copy was sent to the Librarian of Congress, and another is in the Philadelphia Library. The latter may be taken out by a deposit of ten dollars.
Mrs. F. A. North, some years since, wrote to Mr. O'Hart of Dublin, author of the Stem, and asked him if he could tell her how Stephen Hart of Farmington was connected with the O'Harts of Ireland. In reply he said :
I am satisfied that your ancestor was descended from Stephen Hart of Westmill, Hertfordshire, England, who is the first of the name recorded as living in that country, and I believe that said Stephen Harte was a descendant of Lochlaan O'Hart
Mrs. North is referred by Mr. O'Hart to the "Irish Pedigrees" for further information. The work of a genealogist brings him a scanty livelihood. Mr. O'Hart confided to Mrs. North an account of his straightened circumstances. He says :
In 1889 Providence was pleased to take from me in the fortieth year of his age and unmarried, my good and only son, who up to his death affectionately allowed me £100 (sterling) annually out of his income as chartered Public Accountant in Dublin, and in 1894 died my cherished friend, the late George W. Childs of Philadelphia, Pa., who on the death of my son did benevolently grant me a muni- ficent annuity . . but as the good Mr. Childs did not mention in his will his generous intentions toward me (and my dear wife if she survived me) his estate has refused the annuity to me.
(Mr. Childs had promised to continue the annuity during the life of Mr. O'Hart.)
The letter goes on to say "These two deaths have in my present old age left me and my dear wife in very straightened circum- stances ." A paper enclosed gave a list of subscribers to a testimonial to Mr. O'Hart. The donations as there men- tioned amounted to £43, "in recognition of his invaluable services in elucidating Irish and Anglo Irish Pedigrees and Ethnology."
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THE HIART FAMILIES
We will now turn to Lower Lane, where, in ancient times, were four colonial houses, in a row, all occupied by Hart fam- ilies, descendants of Deacon Stephen Hart of Farmington, born about 1605, at Braintree, in Essex County, England. Stephen Hart was at Cambridge, Mass., 1632; at Hartford,* with Rev. Thomas Hooker's company, in 1635, and was one of the eighty- four proprietors among whom Farmington lands were divided in 1672.
John Hart, the eldest of the three sons of Deacon Stephen Hart, lived near the center of the village of Farmington. One night, in 1666, the Indians set fire to his house, and all the family, with the exception of his eldest son John, who chanced to be away from home, at Nod (Avon), where he had gone to care for some creatures, were burned to death.
The public calamity was increased by the destruction of the town records, which were kept in the house. i
Captain John Hart, son of the John Hart and Sarah his wife, who were burned, married Mary, daughter of Deacon Isaac Moore of Farmington. They had five sons and two daughters.
Lieutenant Samuel Hart, fourth son of Captain John Hart, born 1692, was a resident of Great Swamp in 1723, when he carried two bushels of wheat, valued at eleven shillings, to Mr. Burnham, the minister, as his tax for the support of the church at Christian Lane.
He married, December 25, 1723, Mary Hooker, daughter of John Hooker, Esq., of Farmington. John Hooker was regis- trar, and you should see his beautiful handwriting, as it appears on the deeds of his time.
* Tradition says, "The town of Hartford was named from a ford dis- covered by Deacon Stephen Hart and used in crossing the Connecticut river at a low stage of water-Hart's ford."
+ It is a pleasure to say that the early church records of Farmington which were said to have been burned in the house of John Hart, were discovered in Hartford in the winter of 1841-2. The book, its pages closely written, is about five and a half inches in length by four in width. It is to be hoped that a certain volume of Worthington church records, borrowed some twenty-five years since, and never returned, may have escaped the waste paper man, and that it may yet be discovered.
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The home of Samuel and Mary Hooker Hart was west of Isaac Norton's on the northwest corner, now owned by Deacon Leonard C. Hubbard.
Samuel Hart, Sr., died September 30, 1751, aged fifty-nine, leaving three daughters and one son. The second daughter, Mary, became the wife of the eminent physician, Joseph Wells of Wethersfield.
The plan had been to give to the son Samuel, who was a boy of "good parts," a liberal education, but he was only thirteen when his father died, and his mother could not make up her mind to send him away from home.
He devoted himself to the care of the family and inherited his father's farm. He was connected with the local train band of which he became the captain. His father, Samuel, had held the office of lieutenant.
Samuel Hart, born January 21, 1738, married, October 10, 1757. Rebecca Norton, a girl of eighteen, daughter of Charles Norton. They had seven children, and then Rebecca died, July 28, 1769, in her thirty-first year. Captain Hart married. sec- ond, October 4, 1770, Lydia, daughter of Captain John Hins- dale, who lived up on the "Street." Lydia was twenty-three when she took charge of Samuel Hart's little flock, and she had ten children of her own. The names of Rebecca's children were :
1. Rebecca, born January 30. 1760, married William Cook of Danbury.
2. Samuel, born May 17, 1761, married, April S, 1791, Mary Wilcox, daughter of Stephen Wilcox.
3. Charlotte, born October 17, 1762, married December 2, 1784, Orrin Lee.
4. Asahel, born May 6, 1764, married, September 23, 1790, Abigail Cowles.
5. Anna, born February 16, 1766, died of consumption, March 25, 1784, aged 18 years.
6. Jesse, born January 3, 1768, married, November 28, 1792, Lucy Beckley.
7. James, born March 5, 1769, died April 12, 1770-1.
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The children of the second marriage were :
S. Mary, born September 23, 1771, married John Lee.
9. John, born January 23, 1773, died September 13, 1816, aged 44 years.
10. James, born Dec. 26, 1774, died December 25, 1796, aged 22 years, at Staunton, Del.
11. Theodore, born August 30, 1776, died November 1, 1815, at Petersburg, Va., aged 39 years.
12. Lydia, born September 18, 1778, married Elisha Treat.
13. Betsy, born September 21, 1781, died -, aged 11 years.
14. Huldah, born July 12, 1783, died January 31, 1784.
15 Nancy, born March S, 1785, married Joshua Simmons.
16. Emma, born February 23, 1787, married, 1812, John Willard, M.D.
17. Almira, born July 13, 1793, married, October 5, 1817, Simeon Lincoln; second, John Phelps.
Ten of these children lived to marry and have families. A notable assemblage, indeed, their descendants would make, if they could be brought together for an "Old Home Day" at Berlin.
Captain Samuel Hart was the first clerk and treasurer of the Second Congregational Church of Berlin, in 1775. His views in regard to the final salvation of mankind differed from those of his brethren in the church, and he withdrew from their fellowship in 1807.
It was said of Mr. Hart that while his thoughts were strong and clear, he was unwilling to speak in public until he had committed them to paper-in writing. He was a lover of books, and at evening it was said that he would gather his large family about the open fireside, and read to them, from the best English authors, Young, Locke, Thomson, Milton, and others of his favorites. There was at that time a village library from which he might have drawn his books.
An old account book kept by David Webster, Esq., of Berlin, contains the following entries :
Dec. 1784. Worthington Library company, Dr. to Chesterfield's Letters, 2 vol. a 24 agreed with committee. Feb. 25th, 1783, Cr. by cash rec'd of Peat Galpin, part for books.
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"Peat" Galpin lived in an old house that stood on the site of the large Edwards house now owned by Luther S. Webster. The inside cellar door of that house was Pete Galpin's front door.
The graves of Lieut. Samuel Hart and his wife, Mary (Hooker) "Heart," and of Captain Samuel Hart, with his wives, "Rebekah Heart" and Lydia (Hinsdale) Hart, are in the South Cemetery at Worthington. The inscription on Lydia Hart's stone reads as follows :
In memory of Mrs. Lydia Hart, Relict of Capt. Samuel Hart, who died Jan. 18th, 1831, Æ 84. Her generous self devotion in the various relations of Daughter, Sister, Wife & Mother, are best known to those who best knew her, but that hope of Salvation which made her life cheerful and her death serene, was in the mercy of God through a Savior.
We have heard that once on a time a certain D. A. R. Chapter was rent asunder because they could not agree on the spelling of this name Hart or Heart. In the old deeds it is given first one way and then another, by members of the same family, and even for the same individual.
Jesse Hart, born 1768, married 1792, was a cabinet maker. Before he kept the hotel, at Boston Corners, he lived in the brick house, now owned by Leon LeClair. It is probable that he built that house. His first wife, Lucy Beckley, died in 1814, and, in 1822, he married, second, Mindwell Porter, daughter of Samuel Porter. Mr. Hart died in 1827, aged fifty-nine. Mrs. Hart survived him forty-eight years, and died July 6, 1875, aged ninety-one. It had been the custom, whenever there was a death in the community, to toll the church bell. Mrs. Hart's daughter, Mrs. Jane Hart Dodd of Cincinnati, said she could not hear the bell toll for her mother, and that was the first case remembered when the right was omitted.
Aunt Mindwell, as she was familiarly known, will always be remembered, by those who knew her, for her quaint speeches. She lived, in her latter years, with her two sisters, Mrs. Almira Barnes, and Mrs. Sophia Camp, in the house now owned by
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THE HART FAMILIES
Mrs. Hopkins. The "Sisters" were noted for their hospitality. They were always ready to open their house for missionary meetings, and prayer meetings, for the sewing society and to entertain guests.
Lydia Hart, fifth child of Samuel Hart and Lydia Hinsdale Hart, married Elisha Treat of Middletown. They were the grandparents of the Misses Emily and Adeline Wilcox of West- field Society, Middletown. ,
It is known that Mrs. Emma Hart Willard, in her poem "Bride Stealing," written in 1840, took the utmost pains to make the story historically correct. She said she had no idea, when she began it, of the difficulty she would have in collecting the facts.
Of the Harts she says :
And thither hied, in friendly part, Norton's next neighbor, Ensign Hart, Whose comely spouse was, when he took her, The modest maiden, Mary Hooker, They walked with firm and even mien Their little Sammy led between.
The genealogical books, copying from old church records, tell us that all these children of Lieut. Samuel Hart, and of his son Captain Samuel, were born in Kensington, or possibly in Farmington, and that is true.
Miss Abby Pattison used to point out a stone, set near her house, which marked the old boundary line between Farmington and Middletown.
The first Ministerial Society, formed October, 1705, in Great Swamp parish, or "ffarmington village," as it was sometimes called, received the name of the Second Society of Farmington.
In May, 1722, its name was changed, by General Assembly, to Kensington.
The Act, as recorded, reads thus :
Resolved by this Assembly that the 2d Society of Farmington, with what of Wethersfield & Middletown is by this Assembly annexed thereto, shall for the future be called and known by the name of Kensington. Passed by both Houses 1722.
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HISTORY OF BERLIN
Until the final division of the church, in 1772, nearly all of what now constitutes the town of Berlin was, ecclesiastically speaking, Kensington.
The Samuel Hart dwelling house stood a little way north of the present house, on the corner. Some of the timbers from the old house are a part of Leonard Hubbard's wood-house. The well, south of the house, is the same that was used by the Harts. After Mr. Hubbard purchased the place, Mrs. Willard and her sister, Mrs. Phelps, called there and asked for a glass of water from the well of which they drank in childhood. Mrs. Willard left with Mrs. Hubbard, a framed engraving of herself, with the request that it might always remain in the house.
A gravestone at the Bridge Cemetery in Worthington bears the following inscription :
Thomas Hart, Died Sept. 21, 1832, Aged 78 years, The youngest brother of John, Elihu, Jonathan & Ebenezer, sons of Ebenezer Hart, who died 1795, Which was the son of Ebenezer Hart who died 1773 Which was the son of Thomas Hart who died 1771 Which was the son of Thomas Hart who died -
Which was the son of Stephen Hart, Who arrived in America & settled in Berlin, 1635.
According to reliable records the family history as given on that stone, is incorrect. Deacon Stephen Hart, the progenitor of the New Britain and Berlin Harts, came to Hartford with Mr. Hooker in 1635. He was a leader in the settlement of Farmington in 1640, and he died there in 1682-3 aged seventy- seven years. He never lived in Berlin, although in his will he mentions his land in "Great Swamp."
Thomas Hart, son of Stephen, born 1644, captain of the Farmington train band, thirteen times chosen deputy; four times speaker of General Court; chairman of committees to
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THE HART FAMILIES
protect the natives from "illegal trading" of lands with the whites; "to draw a Bill to prevent disorders in Retailers of strong drinke and excessive drinking" and "to prepare a Bill to put in execution the reform Lawes" was a man of wealth and influence. It is said that he owned 3,000 acres of land which was divided among his children.
"Worshipful Captain Thomas Hart," as he was called, died August 27, 1726, in his eighty-third year, and was buried with military honors.
The Hart homestead in Farmington was opposite the meeting house.
A clause in Captain Thomas Hart's will reads as follows :
I give my two sons, Thomas Hart and Hezekiah Hart, all my right in lands that have fallen to me within ye limits of ye Great Swamp Society.
This son Thomas was the Deacon Thomas who lived on the corner west of the Driving Park, and whose "home lot" was taken as a site for the second meeting house. He was a member, with his wife, of the Christian Lane church, in 1712, and was chosen deacon, after probation, 1719. He was Clerk and Recorder for the Ecclesiastical Society; six times a member of General Assembly, for the town of Farmington; chairman of memorialists and petitioners, justice of the peace, and was described as the most influential man in Kensington. His son, Deacon Ebenezer Hart, inherited the place, which is now known as Mott's Corner, and married widow Elizabeth Lawrence. They had five sons :
Ebenezer J., born at Kensington, July 29, 1742, removed to New Hampshire, where he died in 1796, aged fifty-four years. He was the grandfather of Jonathan T. Hart, the manufacturer of Kensington.
Jonathan, born at Kensington in 1744, was a graduate of Yale in 1768. He was in the public service from 1775 to 1791, and was slain by the Indians, November 4, 1791, at St. Clair's defeat. He held the military rank of major.
5
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Elihu, born March 4, 1751, was the unfortunate one of the family. He removed to New York State, where he failed in business. He was imprisoned for debt, and died in the jail at Coxsackie, N. Y.
Doctor John Hart, born at Kensington, March 11, 1753, graduated from Yale in 1776, and soon after entered the army as surgeon. He died October 3, 1798, aged forty-five years.
Thomas Hart, born 1754, whose faulty inscription suggested this account, was the fifth and youngest son of Deacon Ebenezer Hart, and his wife, Elizabeth Lawrence. He never married, but remained on the corner homestead, and adopted a daughter of his brother Ebenezer, Lydia Hart, to whom he gave the property.
In 1834, the second year after her uncle Thomas died, Lydia Hart was married, at the age of fifty-four, to Theron Hart of New Britain, and they lived on the place until her death in 1850.
Captain Thomas Hart, father of Deacon Thomas, was also a maker of reeds, for use in weaving. In his will, dated July 24, 1721, is the following clause :
I give unto my son Howkins Hart all my reed making tools, great table and joynt tools, which he has already in his possession.
Deacon Thomas Hart's wife, Mary (Thompson), died Octo- ber, 1763, aged eighty-three years. Lieut. Isaac Norton, father of Tabatha of "Stolen Bride" fame, died January 10, 1763, in his eighty-fourth year.
At the beginning of the next year, January 11, 1764, Deacon Thomas Hart, aged eighty-four, and Elizabeth, widow of Isaac Norton, aged seventy-nine, were united in marriage, by the Rev. Samuel Clark. She died March 28, 1771, and was buried beside her first husband in the South Cemetery, at Worthington.
Deacon Thomas Hart died January 29, 1773, aged ninety- three years, lacking three months. By his will, made 1760, Deacon Hart gave to his grandson, Elijah Hart of New Britain, all the tools of whatsoever name he used in making reeds for weaving by looms ; also all the cane he might have at his decease.
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THIE HART FAMILIES
Hezekiah Hart, fourth son of Captain Thomas Hart of Farm- ington, born 1684, was assigned a "puc" in the Christian Lane church, in 1716-17. His father, in his will, dated 1721, gave him all his lands in Great Swamp. He married, in 1710, Martha, daughter of Benjamin Beckley of Beckley Quarter. They had nine children, of whom Zerviah, born December 16, 1728, was married, December 19, 1761, to David Webster, Esq., as his second wife.
Hepzibah, born April 16, 1732, was married January 18, 1753, to Isaac North, son of Deacon Isaac North.
Mrs. Hart died September 7, 1752, and Mr. Hart died on the 29th day of the same month. Their tombstones are in the South Cemetery at Berlin.
They have many descendants who would like to know exactly where they lived. It is probable that their home was on Hart Street, in one of the houses long since torn down.
Zachariah Hart, fifth son of Hezekiah Hart and his wife, Martha Beckley, born January 5, 1733-34, married, March 23, 1758, Abigail, daughter of Joseph Beckley. She died July 12, 1765, aged twenty-eight years, when he married second, June, 1766, Sarah Parsons.
There were in all eleven children, of whom Sarah, born 1770, was married to Shubael Pattison. She used to say that when she was two years old, her father, Zachariah Hart, built the house now owned by heirs of the late James B. Reed. This house, now a hundred and thirty-four years old, was built of fine selected timber, and will outlast many a modern structure. The inscription on the tombstone of Mr. and Mrs. Hart, in the Bridge Cemetery, reads as follows :
In memory of Mr. Zechariah Hart who died Dec. 26th, 1811, in the 78th year of his age.
In memory of Mrs. Sarah Hart, reliet of Mr. Zechariah Hart, who died Jan. 26th, 1813, in the SOth year of her age.
From cruel death no age is free, Nor sex, nor birth, nor blood you see, Tho' we were old, our time has come And you must follow to the tomb.
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HISTORY OF BERLIN
The Zachariah Hart house now stands alone at the north end of Hart Street. From that point a new road was extended, in 1865, straight north until it joins "Berlin Road," half way between the village and the depot, while the old "highway" turns directly east and runs up to the old church.
Not far from the corner, on the north side of the east road, there stood, until a few years since, a house known as the Jarvis- Tuttle place. The southwestern view, from this site, is one of surprising beauty. The house was the home of Ebenezer Hart, born November 27, 1722, eldest son of Isaac Hart.
In 1741 Ebenezer Hart was one of a committee to receive funds from sale of "western lands" that may be divided to that part of this society that dwell in the bounds of Farmington; "to be loaned out by said committee"; "always disposing of the interest thereof for the support of a lawful school in this society."
The name of Ebenezer Hart's wife was Martha. They had four children when he died, November 17, 1753, in his thirty- first year.
Abel Hart, their eldest son, who married Mary Galpin, sister of Deacon Daniel Galpin, had one son and ten daughters. They removed to New York State. Without this Abel Hart family, if we include that of Hezekiah Hart, we may count, by name, sixty Hart children, born on this one street, and there were others, whose names are lost to us.
Captain Isaac Hart, son of Captain John Hart of Farming- ton, was baptized November 27, 1686. He came, with his brother, Lieut. Samuel Hart, to Great Swamp, where, in 1713, he was collector for the Ecclesiastical Society. In 1715 he was appointed surveyor. In 1720 he was credited with one and a half bushels of corn at 5s. 9d. on the rate bill for support of the minister. Money was scarce in those days, and men paid their church taxes in grain, or firewood, or with whatever they could spare from their farms.
Isaac Hart married, November 24, 1721, Elizabeth Whaples. Their names appear in a list of members of the Christian Lane
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