USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Danbury > History of Danbury, Conn., 1684-1896 > Part 25
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property it would have become had it lived, but it fell through, and a goodly portion of the contemplated line between here and Hartford is now occupied by the New York and New England Railway.
ENTERTAINING COMPARISONS.
The committee appointed to secure the survey of the road made an estimate of the business in the circular to the public which they issued. These figures, made in 1835, are interesting compared with what the road did the first year after it was fin- ished, 1852-53. The circular estimated its first year's business in freight to be $32,000. The passenger traffic the circular fixed at $10,625, making a total of $42,625. The first report of the busi- ness of the road showed that the earnings for the first fifteen months of its existence was $51,237.70. So the authors of the circular had made a remarkably close estimate. The second report covered a period of eleven months, in which the earnings were $52,706.68. The through fare was 75 cents.
It is not often a new road so fully answers the expectation of its projectors as did the Danbury and Norwalk Road. The directors in the report referred to say :
"The result of the experience of the company since the com- mencement of the operations upon the road has been fully to corroborate the opinion uniformly expressed by the directors, that the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad will prove a successful and profitable enterprise, and the favorable increase of the past year demonstrates that but for the disastrous floods and the unusual expenditures rendered necessary thereby, the net earn- ings for the year would have warranted two dividends of 3 per cent each, paid interest and taxes, and left a surplus of $3348."
The floods referred to were three in number. These occurred in the fall of 1853 and the spring of 1854. They were disastrous in effect, delaying travel for sixteen days, and causing an ex- pense of $4000 for temporary repairs, and $9000 in addition for a thorough reconstruction of the damaged portions.
EXTENSIONS.
In 1870 a branch road from Branchville to Ridgefield Village was built, with a view to accommodating the business of that place. Heretofore the connection had been made by stage. The
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
distance is four miles. In 1872 another branch was built, run- ning from Bethel to Hawleyville to connect with the Shepaug Railway, which runs from Litchfield to Hawleyville. This was done to control the business of the Shepaug Valley. The length of the branch is six miles. The cost of both of these extensions was at the rate of $40,000 a mile. In 1882 the main line was extended from South Norwalk to Wilson Point, a distance of three miles.
THE FIRST TIME-TABLE.
The following is a copy of the first published time-table of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad :
" DANBURY AND NORWALK RAILROAD. ARRANGEMENTS COM. MARCH 1, 1852.
Trains will run as follows until further notice :
Leave Danbury at 6.45 A.M. with passengers only.
66
66
" 12.30 P.M. with passengers and freight.
RETURNING.
Leave So. Norwalk 9.15 A.M. with passengers and freight. 66 66 66 5.00 P.M. with passengers only.
" The 6.45 A. M. train from Danbury connects at Norwalk with the 8.09 A.M. train to New York. Passengers going East can leave Norwalk at 9.13 A.M. The 12.30 P.M. train connects at Norwalk with the 2.21 P.M. express train to New York. Pas- sengers from New York will leave at 7 A.M. and 3 P.M. to connect with trains on the road. Stages will be in readiness at the Ridge- field Station to convey passengers to Ridgefield Village, Lewis- boro, and North Salem.
" HARVEY SMITH, Superintendent. " February 25, 1852."
On October 1st, 1886, the Danbury and Norwalk Railway with all its branches was leased to the Housatonic Railway Company for a term of years. The consideration was 5 per cent on the capital stock of the Danbury and Norwalk Road.
A writer in a Norwalk paper at the time predicted that the deal was made with a view to an ultimate control of the whole
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
system by the Consolidated Road officially known as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railway Company. Such has been the result. On October 31st, 1892, the whole Housatonic system passed into the possession of the Consolidated Road and there remains.
OTHER RAILWAYS.
The completion of the Housatonic Road from Bridgeport to New Milford gave Danbury its first nearest rail approach to tide-water. This was in 1840. Danbury was connected with this road by stage to Hawleyville. At Bridgeport passengers and freight were sent by steamboat to New York. The road was in a crude state, of course. The rail used was an iron strap nailed to a timber. Occasionally it would happen that at a joint an end of one of the rails would become loose, and accidents of a serious nature frequently arose from this cause. The point of the rail would be pushed through the floor of the car, bringing death or serious disfigurement to the passengers in the way. These points were called " snake heads."
In the Danbury Times of July 3d, 1844, we find the following vivid picture of travelling by rail fifty years ago :
" HOUSATONIC RAILROAD.
"It is a fact now well known to the public that the Housa- tonic Railroad, in its present condition, is an unsafe route of travel. As yet, it is true, there has been no accident attended with a great sacrifice of human life; but there have been so many disasters when the passengers have only escaped by the ' skin of their teeth,' that silence to well-apprehended dangers would be a criminal disregard of the public welfare. This is a sufficient reason for the publication of the following card, signed by several of the passengers who were run off the track :
" To the Public :
" The undersigned passengers by the cars of the Housatonic Railroad Company, on the trip from Bridgeport this morning, feel ourselves in duty bound to caution the public against said railroad. When within about three hundred paces of the depot at Newtown, the car in which we were seated was thrown off the track with great violence, and it was only through the inter-
-
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position of a merciful Providence that we escaped without the loss of life. The railroad is in a most dangerous condition, and we counted in a distance of sixty rods over fifty 'snake heads,' from one to three inches high. Nothing but an imperative sense of duty to the travelling public has induced us to caution them against patronizing said railroad."
NEW YORK, HOUSATONIC AND NORTHERN RAILROAD.
This was the official title of a railway that had more name than road-bed. Its familiar local title was "The Dummy," from the fact that a dummy engine was its only motive power. This railway company was organized under the General Railroad Act of 1850, and the articles of association were duly filed in the office of the Secretary of State in October, 1853. The amount of the capital stock was $1,000,000. About two thirds of this amount was subscribed chiefly by people living along the line of the proposed road. The length of the road was thirty-nine and three quarter miles. It was designed to run from White Plains, connecting with the Harlem Railway at that point. It was to take in North Castle, Bedford, Cross River, North Salem, Ridge- bury, Danbury, and finally Brookfield, where it was expected to connect with the Housatonic Road. Its southern object was New York City, and its northern object the great West.
It was expected that the cost of the road, fully equipped, would be $1,500,000. It was estimated that the business would amount to $475,000 a year. Besides this, there was the business that was to come from the Housatonic Road, and, again, that from the Boston and Erie when completed to Danbury. The chief income from freight would be in the transportation of milk to New York City. No road ever had a more glowing future on paper than did this, but capitalists did not appear to look at it through the glasses used by the stockholders, and although considerable digging was done at the south end of the road, and that portion between Danbury and Brookfield was built, the enterprise fell through.
In 1869 so much of the line as lies between Danbury and Brookfield was completed, and a car was put on with a dummy for motive power. It was hoped to catch passengers to and from the West, but the Housatonic Railway Company from the first looked upon the new road with an unfavorable eye, and
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showed it no more favor than it was obliged to. All the protec- tion passengers had at the terminus in Brookfield was the car and a large tree. At this end the line stopped in a meadow at the farther end of a road that is now called Canal Street.
In 1886 the Housatonic Company leased the line, and it re- mained in possession of that company until October 31st, 1892, when it passed with the rest of the Housatonic system into the control of the Consolidated Road.
RIDGEFIELD AND PORT CHESTER.
This railway was not originally designed to run beyond Ridge- field from Port Chester, but later Danbury was taken in. A sur- vey was made, but no work has been done upon the construction, and it stands now as it stood in 1868.
THE SHEPAUG.
As the Danbury and Litchfield Railway this project was broached in 1859. The road was built as far as Hawleyville on the Housatonic Road, and there it stopped. Later the Danbury and Norwalk Company built a branch from Bethel to Hawley- ville, and brought the Shepaug line to its own.
NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND.
This railway, formerly known as the Boston, Hartford and Erie, was originally incorporated in 1846, but it was nearly forty years later that it reached its connection with the Erie Railway via Newburg on the Hudson.
The greater part of its history does not concern Danbury, which place its rails did not reach until 1881. The road was completed from Boston to Waterbury years before it reached Danbury. Every little while our people were pleasantly stirred up by an announcement of a new deal by which arrangements had been made for completing the road to Danbury, but they were doomed to wait a long time for the story to become a fact. In 1881 the road was finished to Brewsters, N. Y., where it con- nected with the New York and Northern Road for New York City. It was believed that it would get a large part of the New York travel from hereabouts, but the expectation has not been realized. A little while later the line was finished to its original western terminal point at Newburg.
The first passenger train to pass through Danbury upon the
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
New York and New England Road ran from Brewsters to Boston, July 25th, 1881.
ELI T. HOYT, FIRST PRESIDENT OF DANBURY'S FIRST RAILROAD.
Eli T. Hoyt was born in the district of Great Plain, on Septem- ber 25th, 1793. The farm which was his birthplace was bought directly from the Indians by his great-grandfather, John Hoyt, who was one of the original eight settlers of Danbury. Upon reaching manhood Mr. Hoyt came into the town and engaged in business with his brother, Russell Hoyt. In 1817 the firm began the manufacture of hats, and established a sale store in Charles- ton, S. C.
In 1840 Mr. Hoyt retired from business, but not from active life. He interested himself in the project of railway communi- cation with the Sound, and was one of several who obtained a charter from the Legislature for such a road in 1835. From that time until the road was built, in 1851, he worked steadily and faithfully in the face of a host of difficulties and discourage- ments for the success of the enterprise. He was the first presi- dent of the company, and retained that position until August 25th, 1864, when the controlling interest in the stock passed into the hands of Norwalk parties.
Mr. Hoyt was representative of this town in the House for 1833 and 1834, and in 1844 was elected to the Senate from this district. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Danbury Savings Bank, and a director in the Danbury Mutual Insurance Company. He united with the First Congregational church in 1831, and was chosen a deacon in 1858. For fifty years he was a teacher in the Sunday-school.
His kind heart and generous hand were always ready when there was need. Some of his deeds of helpfulness were neces- sarily made public, but many of them are known only to those who were the recipients of his kindness. In the church he was most generous, and by giving freely himself incited others to do likewise. To the last day of his long and useful life he was in- terested in the pleasures, the projects, and the needs of those about him.
He died suddenly on August 14th, 1893, passing in quiet sleep from the night of earth to the dawn of heaven. His memory is green, and his "works do follow him."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY-FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
IN 1696, the year of the formation of this church, Danbury had been organized as a town but three years, although its first settlement was in 1684. Among the records of a General Court held at Hartford, May 14th, 1696, we find the following : " Upon the petition of the towne of Danbury this court granted them liberty to embody themselves into church estate in an orderly way with the consent of neighbor churches." Previous to this a meeting-house had been built on "the Town Street" (now Main Street), a little north of the present Court House. The court grant above quoted is the only record in existence respect- ing the origin of the church, not even the names or number of the original members being known. It is supposed that Mr. Seth Shove was ordained pastor at the time the church was organized in 1696.
Seth Shove was the son of Rev. George Shove and Hopestill [Newman] Shove ; was born at Taunton, Mass., December 10th, 1667 ; graduated from Harvard College in 1687, and was in Sims- bury, Conn., from 1691 until he settled in Danbury .* The pas- torate of Mr. Shove was terminated by his death, October 3d, 1735. His tombstone bears the following inscription : "Here lyes buried ye body of Rev. Mr. Seth Shove, ye pious and faith- ful pastor of ye church in Danbury 39 years, who died October 3d, Anno Domini 1735. Etatis suc, 68."
On January 5th, 1735-36, Mr. Ebenezer White was unani- mously called by a town meeting to become the minister of the Danbury Church, on a salary of £200 (of the then tenor) and the use of the parsonage " while he continues to be their min- ister and holds to and abides in the Presbyterian or Congrega- tional order." He was ordained pastor on March 10th of the
* History of Taunton, Mass. By Rev. Samuel Hopkins Emery.
REV. SAM'L G. COE. OLD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
DEACON LEWIS S. HOYT. DEACON ISAAC IVES.
REV. ROLLIN STONE AND WIFE.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
same year, and for more than twenty-six years preached with rare acceptance to a united people. In 1763 the first symptoms of any disaffection appear. The minutes of the church meet- ings record in the fewest words possible the votes taken in suc- cessive gatherings during these discussions. No indication of favor or prejudice, no display of feeling appears in these model records, but the history of the differences is recorded in two thin pamphlets published in New Haven in 1764. These accounts show that the dispute was one of those frequent conflicts on points of obscure doctrine which so often disturbed the early churches in New England, and which led not infrequently to the establishment of new churches and even of new towns. "A Brief Narrative of the Proceedings of the Associations against Mr. White, Pastor of the First Church in Danbury, since the Year 1762" (thirty pages), was printed by some friend of the pastor ; while " A Vindication of the Proceedings of the Asso- ciation and Council by the Committee of the First Society" (seventy-nine pages) presents officially the position of Mr. White's opponents. From this statement it appears that on May 31st, 1763, while the eastern Association of Fairfield County was in session at Bethel, five of Mr. White's parishioners (Benjamin Sperry, Daniel Taylor, Jr., John Wood, Thaddeus Benedict, and Samuel Dickinson) presented allegations to the Association that "Mr. White, whose principles and preaching we have till lately highly esteemed, has embraced some new sentiments which are to us contrary to the Gospel as explained in the Saybrook platform." To illustrate these sentiments vari- ous expressions are adduced from ten or more sermons of Mr. White, the first of which may be partly quoted as an example of the rest and as a specimen of the fine religious distinctions of those days. In a sermon from these words, " There is none that seeketh after God," he (Mr. White) said that " any person who has an earnest desire after an interest in Christ is a true believer, and may rejoice as such ; that no natural man ever seeks after an interest in Christ in any sense, for to seek always supposes faith in the person that does seek."
Without waiting to receive Mr. White's answer, for which he desired suitable time, the Association had adjourned after call- ing a special council to meet in Danbury on August 3d, " to hear and determine the case respecting the Rev. Mr. White."
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
This call for a council aroused considerable feeling in the Dan- bury Church, and on June 28th they renounced the Saybrook platform as their rule of church government, and owned them- selves to be a Congregational church, holding communion " not only with Congregational churches, but with those under the Saybrook platform." This action became a greater offence to the consociations than any utterances of the pastor. It was claimed by him and by the church that he had been called according to either the Presbyterian or Congregational order, and by a large majority the church expressed its preference for the latter.
The minority pointed out that in 1708, long before Mr. White was called, the church had been represented in the meeting of Fairfield County churches which adopted the Saybrook platform as their rule, and Mr. White responded that he was not a party except to the terms of his call. Notwithstanding this attitude, Mr. White and his adherents submitted the promised answer to the council on August 3d in the form of proposals for harmony. These proposals, which led to a three months' truce, were signed by Ebenezer White, Thomas Benedict, Jr., Ebenezer Barnum, Joseph Peck, Benjamin Boughton, Ebenezer Benedict, Daniel Benedict, Samuel Gregory, John Trowbridge, Nathaniel Gregory, Thomas Stephens, and Samuel Barnum.
The dissatisfaction continued, however, and the united Council of the Eastern and Western Associations met on January 3d, 1764, to hear the case further as regarded Mr. White and the conduct of the church in renouncing the Saybrook platform. The council denied the right of the church to renounce the Say- brook platform " without having asked a dismission from these churches," and gave notice to Mr. White that his pastoral rela- tions would be dissolved by the council if he should not " own and retract what he had said or done amiss" (including his lead- ing his church to revoke their votes above referred to), etc.
The church and its pastor declined to revoke their action, and so notified the council when it met again on March 26th by a letter from Mr. White and a paper signed by the deacons and others of the church.
It would seem that so far as these papers related to points of doctrine they were sufficiently satisfactory, but on the point of refusing to accept the Saybrook platform in place of Congrega-
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tional rule Mr. White was firm, pointing out his objections and declaring, "I cannot, therefore, consistent with a good con- science, adopt it as being in all respects a proper rule of church government." This the society had again recently voted to maintain.
The council thereupon drew up their judgment that "this council do acknowledge those that have signified their adherence to our constitution as continuing to be the First Consociated Church in the First Society of Danbury ;" and "in these cir- cumstances this council find themselves obliged to declare that the pastoral relation between the Rev. Ebenezer White and the church and the First Society in Danbury ought to be dissolved." The final paragraph, which restrained Mr. White from preaching in the churches of the Consociation "till he should make satis- faction to the acceptance of the Consociation," was warmly con- tested, but was finally carried by a small majority.
The committee of the church arranged at once to have another minister preach for them the following Sabbath in the meeting- house, while the adherents of Mr. White, being a majority of the church, provided themselves with temporary quarters in a house.
The seceding party declaring themselves independent of the Consociation, formed a new church organization under the name of the New Danbury Church. Retaining Mr. White as pastor, they built a house of worship in 1768, which nine years later was burned by the British. In 1779 Rev. Ebenezer White died, and soon afterward the New Danbury Church became extinct .*
The following extracts from the society's book of this church will be of interest to readers, as showing the ways in which our fathers walked over a century ago :
" At a meeting held on June 1st, 1754 : The Church by Vote Do appoint & Impower Thomas Benedict, Capt. Daniel Taylor,
* The handing down of given names from father to son, in which our ancestors so much delighted, has been the cause of many mistakes and much mixed history. In this case, although Rev. Ebenezer White became somewhat liberal in his theo- logical views, there are records to prove that he did not become a follower of Sandeman, as has been erroneously stated. In the centennial sermon (to which we are indebted) of Rev. Joel J. Hough, delivered in the First Congregational Church of Dan- bury, on July 9th, 1876, we find the following in regard to the New Danbury Church : " The church was greatly weakened by the loss of their meeting- house, and by defec- tions to the Sandemanians, among which was that of Rev. Ebenezer Russell White (son of Ebenezer White), who in 1768 had become colleague pastor with his father."
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Capt. John Wood or Either Two of them to be a Committee with full power to ask for and receive into their Care and Custody the Silver Basen belonging to this Church for the Use of Baptism as also the Utentials belonging to this Church for the Use of the Table for the Sacrement of the Lords Super as platters, flaggins, Cups, Juggs, lining &c. and the Same to hold and Secure for the Use of the Church."
" At a Society Meeting held January 3d, 1755, it was voted ' that the piue Madam White Uesed to Set in shall bare in Dig- nity with the piue opposite and be Reckned as one in Dignity with sd Seat The Middle piue in the alley to be Reckned Next after the Third in Dignity according to the formour Dignifying of Seats and the hind piue in the alley to be Reckned Next after the fourth Dignity, according to the old Seatting the Rest to be as formourly Dignifyed and the Number of persons to be put into The new piues to be left with the Society Committee to order and Give Directions to the Committee who are to seat sd. house.
" Att sd. meeting Deac. Joseph Peck and Deac. Daniel Bene- dict moving to the Society for a Seat in sd. Seatting Votes that sd. Deacons have the liberty of setting in the fore seat in Case the Deacons Seat Cant be made Convenient to their Esceptence. Att sd. meeting Mr. Halley and Mr. Willey Voted to Set in the 2 long seat, Mr. Ambler to Set in the piue on the left hand of the End Doer, Mr. Clark to Set in the Same, Mr. Bennit in the Seat below the piller Seat, Mr. John Trowbridg in the piue the Right Side the End Doer also Mr. Daniel Comstock in the same piue.
" Att sd. meeting the Society by Vote allow Mr. Daniel Taylor his Request to Set in the fore Seat in liue of ye first piue.
" Att sd. meeting Isaac Hoyt undertook to Tell people where to Sett after Seatting for £0 .- 2-0."
" Att a Society meeting held in Danbury in the prime Society, December 22d, A.D. 1755, voted, that Mr. Adam Clark Set in the piue on the South Side of the End Doer his wife accordingly against him.
" Voted also that Mr. John Trowbridg Set in piue with Mr. Clark his wife accordingly against him."
" At a Society Meeting legally warned held in Danbury Decem- ber the 14th, A.D. 1756, Capt. John Benedict Moderator. The
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meeting-house to be Sweept was lett to Dann'l Starr for- 0-19-9.
"The meeting by Vote is adjourned to the 21 of Instant December at 9 of the clock in the four Noon."
December 21st, " Voted that here be but Ten men Seatted in the first piue all The Rest the Same Number in Each piue and Seat as in the last Seatting. Voted also that persons Give in their ages to sd. Committee by the 15 of January Next."
In 1767, " Mr. John Trowbridge, Mr. David Whitlock, Ensign Eleazer Starr, Mr. Philip Corbin, and Mr. James Bradley are by vote Desired to Take Cair and Tune the Psalms in our Publick worship."
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