History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 123

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 123

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Tryon's official report of the battle of Norwalk says he retired his men in two columns to the place of his first debarkation unassailed. This is not the fact. The patriots who participated in the battle ever claimed that the British were harassed from the moment of their advance until they left our shores, and that Gen. Garthı's force was beaten on Flax Hill, and the combined forees of the enemy at France Street after two hours' severe fighting. This was the verdict of the

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

old people of fifty years ago, who were eye-witnesses of all that transpired on that memorable day. Barber is again in error when he says six houses only were left undestroyed by the British: there was only that number spared on the line of their advance and re- treat. Tryon's official report says the greater part of the dwelling-houses were set in flames. There were more than thirty houses which were not burned, having been situated principally off the roads over which the enemy passed on the day of battle. The British and Tories burned, all told, on July 11, 1779, eighty dwellings, two churches, eighty-seven barns, seventeen shops, and four mills, in addition to the property heretofore enumerated.

At the date of the battle of Norwalk the town had been settled about one hundred and twenty-five years, and its taxable property had increased from a few hundred pounds to three hundred thousand dollars in 1779. The damage done by the sacking of the town was estimated, by a committee appointed by the Gen- eral Assembly of the State, at about one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, in consideration of which the general government awarded to Connecticut a large tract of land in Northern Ohio, which was partly settled by emigrants from Norwalk.

Historians tell but half the truth when they desig- nate July 11, 1779, as the date of the burning and not of the battle of Norwalk. The enemy were re- pelled or held in check at every point of attack. It took, according to Tryon's report, five hours for his troops to dislodge the patriots at the business centre. So far as we know, but two men were killed and but one wounded or captured on our side, while the Brit- ish, according to Tryon's official report, lost twenty killed, ninety-six wounded, and thirty-two missing or unaccounted for.

Gen. Washington, at the date of the invasion of Norwalk by the British, was encamped with his army on the banks of the Hudson River. On or about July 9th he dispatched Gen. Parsons to Norwalk to assunie command of and "give confidence to the militia and guide their movements." One day's ride brought .Gen. Parsons here, giving him a day or two to marshal his troops for the defense of the town. But, finding the force present inadequate in numbers and discipline to cope with Gen. Tryon's experienced troops and Hessians, he placed in position, on the hill near the rocks, the battery of six cannon brought from Salisbury by Thaddeus Betts two years previous.

Gen. Parsons, with the few troops at his command, determined to meet the enemy in ambuscades, the objective point being the rocks; the line of retreat of all the patriot troops engaged was in that direc- tion. There nearly all the volunteers, militia, and Continental troops united for the final conflict. The result of the fight with Tryon's troops on France Street, sent to dislodge Gen. Parsons's and Walcott's command, shows that the plan of battle was skillfully laid, and that it was no ordinary affair, considering

that there were less than four hundred patriot sol- diers opposed to at least three-quarters of Tryon's force of two thousand five hundred trained troops landed at Cow Pasture and Fitche's Point the night of the 10th of July.

The late Dr. N. Bouton was good authority in our local historical matters. He was personally ac- quainted with all the Revolutionary sires of his time, and was very particular to note all the authenticated facts and incidents communicated by them. In his two hundredth anniversary discourse of the settle- ment of Norwalk he says that the militia and Conti- nental troops, headed by Gens. Parsons and Walcott, were on the hill near the rocks, whence they fired on the enemy at Grummon's Hill. To drive the former from their position Tryon dispatched a large body of troops, who were met by our soldiers in France Street, and greeted them with so warm a reception that their progress was checked, and ere noon they were on the retreat.

Gen. Walcott came to Norwalk in advance of his command. Gen. Parsons came here to direct the movements of the militia. Probably the former came to assume the supervision of the Continental troops of Gen. Butler's brigade stationed in the town. It is very doubtful if Gen. Walcott's command ar- rived in Norwalk after the battle. The greater prob- ability is that as soon as the British were on ship- board Gen. Walcott retraced his steps with a view of intercepting his command. If any troops arrived, they were the remainder of Gen. Butler's brigade. If there are any well-authenticated facts as to the arrival of patriot troops the day following the battle, we have to the present time been unable to find them.

The following quotation from Gen. Parsons' letter to Governor Trumbull, dated at Stamford, July 17, 1779, is conclusive on the point. The general says, "The depredations of the enemy upon the sea-coast of the State Gen. Walcott has doubtless particularly informed you of;" then adds, "The destruction of Norwalk is what I have been a witness of."

Those historians who have given July 12th as the date of the destruction of Norwalk were probably misled by Barber, from the fact that he makes Tryon say that he landed on the 12th.

Dr. Hall and nearly all the modern historians of Connecticut have given the same date as being that of the burning of the town. Even the Norwalk Gazette, Aunt Phebe, and the omniprésent Onesimus, who was always in the wood-pile when anything was about to transpire, and upon whose assertions much of the history of the event is based, also say that it occurred on the 12th. If Aunt Phebe and Onesimus in this instance failed to be correct, it is not impossible that other portions of their statements are also incorrect, -at least somewhat colored, as both had the name of having been rather visionary and superstitious withal.

The date of the burning of the town was settled by Dr. Nathaniel Bouton in his historical discourse deliv-

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ered in Norwalk in 1851, in which he says, "On Saturday, the 10th, the British fleet appeared in our harbor," and " as the morning of the Sabbath dawned the British troops were seen concentrating from both sides of our harbor at Grummon's Hill, and the roar of cannon and fire of muskets, in strange contrast with the usual stillness of the Sabbath, deepened the terror of the scene." The doctor fixed the date of the event with no dispute in view.

Whatever we have or may say in relating the remi- niscences of Norwalk which have gained credence and been incorporated into its local history will be in no spirit of unjust criticism, but with a view to arrive at the truth and to show the improbability of some of the stories which for more than a quarter of a century have been supposed to be facts. Every statement in the history of the town not sustained by at least a probability should at once be discarded from it, the mystical features of which have obtained credit since the death of those who participated in the engage- ment of July 11, 1779, and sanctioned by Dr. Hall's history, made up in part by interviewing the very aged people of the town. Some of these reminis- cences were incredible, as were some of the incidents related of Gen. Washington and of Dr. Franklin when they were said to be journeying through Nor- walk.

Gen. Washington may or may not have passed through the town on or about June 26, 1775, soon after his appointment by Congress commander-in- chief of the Continental army. He made the tour of the Northern States very soon after the adjournment of the first session of the first Congress, with the view of harmonizing the discordant elements rife in the country, and of observing the material growth and condition of the people since the close of the Revolu- ionary war. James Seymour, Sr., related that Gen. Washington passed through the town soon after he was inaugurated President of the new republic, and when opposite his residence he saw an improved plow by the roadside and alighted from his carriage, seized its handles, and examined it closely, making many in- quiries as to its efficiency.

It is important to know on which of these occasions Miss Phebe Comstock saw Gen. Washington, in order to prove her reminiscences of him correct and worthy a place in the annals of the town.

It will be necessary to examine one of Miss Phebe's stories of an earlier date in order to test her memory relating to those given by her concerning the burning of the town in 1779.

At the age of sixteen she and her slave O'ne, it is said, rode into town on horseback to see Dr. Franklin, the philosopher and sage. In the summer of 1773, Dr. Franklin was in the northern counties of Eng- land, and while at the Lake of Derwent, it is said, for the gratification of the persons with him, he smoothed its ruffled surface with oil, which he carried in the head of his cane. Perhaps this story preceded his

return to America, and as he passed through the country the children were eager to see the man who had performed so wonderful a feat in the old country. Hence the story of his smoothing the rippled waters in Norwalk.

October, 1723, Benjamin Franklin left Boston to seek his fortune. He visited it three times from that date, making the journey each time by water. Dur- ing 1763 he planned a tour of the northern colonies to examine the post-offices. This is the only time that he was in Norwalk. So there should be no cre- dence given to her story as to her seeing Dr. Franklin quieting the rippled waters on the church green in the town with spirits of turpentine. The story was a creation of her childish dreams. She or O'ne never saw him, for the very good reason that they were both born about 1763, the year Dr. Franklin inspected the post-offices.

The true accounts of the events of the battle of Norwalk were corroborated by all those engaged. When Thomas Benedict, Nathaniel Raymond, Thomas Walter, and Daniel Hoyt, Joseph and Major Warren, Samuel Richards, and many others, related incidents of the Revolution and the burning of Norwalk, each confirmed the story of the others as to time, place, and the nature of the occurrences, thus establishing the facts beyond controversy.

This is not the case when Miss Comstock and Ones- imus related their adventures during the same period. Their words stand upon their naked assertions. They never had the credit among their contemporaries of secing a tithe of what they claimed they saw, par- ticularly during the 10th and 11th of July, 1779. It is not to be presumed even that Dr. Hall, when ques- tioning Miss Phebe Comstock, did not understand what she said. He gave her statements just as he re- ceived them from her lips, and was well aware that the lady was giving an account of her own acts, not those of her mother. So Dr. Hall did not get the affair of raking salt-hay mixed or muddled, for he was remarkable in comprehending the ideas of others in conversation, and noted for exactness of statement.

When it is said that Miss Comstock and her slave were on the meadows raking salt-hay when the British fleet anchored in the harbor in 1779, the critical reader knows that it was not the fact,-first, for the good reason that when Norwalk was laid in ashes the inhabitants were in the midst of their grain harvest ; second, our people were never in the practice of ent- ting salt-hay until the grain was stored. August and September have from time immemorial been the months for cutting and stacking salt-grass. The statement, then, that Onesimus and his mistress gave the first alarm when the British were about to invade the town is simply a canard.

The British shipping was seen by the coast-guard, early on the morning of the 10th of July, advancing towards the north shore, and they gave the usual alarm. Can there be a probability even that the twain,

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

after the commotion caused by the morning alarm, went down to the meadow to gather grass and stayed there all day ? Who believes that this colored oracle looked up about sundown and beheld the British fleet in the harbor ?

Neither were they on the meadows after the town was burnt. If they were, and the people rallied and captured two " red-coats," where is the history of the event recorded ? Who ever heard the account except from the lips of these persons? The whole story is an improbability. The statement of Onesimus that he saw the harbor full of British vessels manned by red-coats gives a positive denial to the assertion of the colored oracle, for the enemy were never in the harbor in force after July 10, 1779. No doubt but he had a great scare, and mounted his horse and rode home, but it was long after the war. But, as the statement appears, Onesimus, when he reached his home, tells the elder Phebe that the British had come. Here Miss Phebe is lost sight of, and the slave and Mrs. Phebe proceed to the hill, and she climbs into an apple-tree,-sweet, of course,-and from her lookout sees the red-coats carrying their dead and wounded to their boats; which supposes they may have been moored on Grummon's Hill. But it so happened that they were auchored at Cow Pasture and Fitche's Point. Who is so simple as to believe that Mrs. Comstock from her perch saw the river, or Grummon's Hill even? It is about six miles from the hill where she sat to Cow Pasture; even with a powerful eye-glass she could not see either. Which are we to believe? Miss Phebe says she got into the apple-tree and saw the enemy; Onesimus says that it was the elder Phebe who climbed the tree the red-coats to sce. Doubtless the statements are the result of impressions derived from conver- sation of older people heard at so early an age that the listeners were finally led to believe that they had really seen all which they related of the events of 1779.

With these facts before us, their reminiscences of the British landing and burning of the town should no longer have a place in the history of Norwalk.

REMINISCENCES OF THE INDIAN CITY OF NARA-

MAKE AND ITS FOUNDERS, AND OF THE PAM- PASKESHAUK .- INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTION- ARY WAR IN THEIR LOCALITIES.

One mile south of the city of South Norwalk, and midway between it and Five-Mile River landing is an inlet or arm of the Sound, now known as "The Cove," which from the commencement of commerce between New Amsterdam and the New England colonies has been a safe anchorage for vessels in the carrying trade from the northeasters which at certain seasons of the year sweep across it. This inlet, or the stream which empties into it, was known by the Indians as the Pampaskeshauk. Later the inhabitants called it Hoof and Horn Creek, from the fact that cattle often per-

ished in the brook at the crossing of the highway. The Pampaskeshauk was the west bound of the pur- chase by Richard Webb, Nathaniel Ely, and others, of the Indians, Feb. 15, 1651, which said, "Brook and passage the bounds west extendeth up into the country by marked trees; and the aforesaid land bounded on the south with the sea, and on the north with the Mohliakes' Country." As the Mohegan In- dians possessed the country bordering on the Hudson River, probably the purchase from the Norwalk In- dians by Webb and Ely extended to Byram River.

The first white settlers of Norwalk named this stream Rooton Brook, Rooton being the name of the territory bordering upon it on the west. Its course from the cove is due north through Ely's Neck, and it forms the west bound of this city from Springwood to the west corner of Bouton Lane and the old Boston Turnpike. This country, "butted on the sea," is the territory over which the "Cow-Boys" and Tories raided in 1778 and 1779, and is one of the most picturesque localities in Norwalk. It is surrounded on the north and west by promontories covered with oak, chestnut, walnut, maple, and the North American cedar, the slopes of which and the plain west and south in olden times yielded good crops of the cereals and pasture of large herds of cattle, which were exchanged for mer- chandise with masters of vessels coasting between "Manhattan Island" and the settlements on the Con- necticut River. One mile west of this locality is sit- uated the "Cove in the Rocks," though now partially obliterated. In 1781 it was in the parish of Middle- sex, and in the town of Stamford, over which the Rev. Dr. Mather presided as its pastor.

I never visit the " country butted on the sea" with- out reviving the thoughts and emotions experienced on my first visit to it in boyhood, when from cliff and tree came audible sounds, making the hairs to stand on end, questiouing, "From whence and whither go- ing?" And as the sun sank behind the hills the shadows of objects animate and inanimate would lengthen iuto fantastic forms. If I ran or walked the phantoms were present whispering, "This is sacred ground. Here are the graves of the sachems and the tribe over whom they ruled, whose spirits for two hundred years have made this place their abode. Tread lightly on their graves. If the tomahawks, arrows, mortars, pestles, wampum, or bones are dis- turbed, rebury them so deep that they shall never be molested again by sacrilegious hands. The avarice of the white race robbed us of the right to life, liberty, and country. For a few valueless trinkets it took from us our heritage. By war and the introduction of fire-water it depopulated our village as with the besom of destruction. The implements and the hu- man bones buried here are the seals that the title of the red man to the soil is still unrevoked."

Upon the point of land lying between the Pampas- keshank and Norwalk Rivers are the remains of the ruins of an Indian city of no mean dimensions of the

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Naramakes, a clan of the once-powerful Mohegan nation, a remnant of which were in existence after the settlement of Norwalk in 1651. Winnepauke,- who sold to Rev. Mr. Hanford, in 1690, his island "Lying against Rooton,"-Cachenoes, and Naramake were sachems of independent clans of the Mohegans, after whom their respective villages and the territory possessed by them were named. Mahackems, Ma- touwacks, Swanoys, and other clans who held sway over the country between Norwalk and Manhattan Island were also independent clans of the same nation. The "Mahackeins," or " Makentons," sold their lands to Capt. Patrick, as did Maramnacke a portion of his, all of which was conveyed in the same deed. The first named lay west of the Pampaskeshank, and the latter east of it. These various clans, though inde- pendent, seem to have been under a sort of federal government, similar to that of the United States of America, for the common defense. Bancroft the his- torian says that the "country between the banks of the Connecticut and the Hudson was possessed by in- dependent villages of the Mohegans." The Indian city referred to, without the least doubt, was one of those independent villages, and was named after Nar- amake, its founder, a descendant of whom was one of the signers of the deed to Patrick. Hence, may not Norruck, Northwalk, and Norwalk-names by which the river and adjacent country were known by our ancestors-have been a perversion of Naramake? It is an error which those unacquainted with the Indian dialect might naturally have fallen into. Tradi- tion says that Naramake; whose name stands second in the deed conveying to "Daniell Patrick" eertain lands in 1640, was a descendant of a chief of the same name, whose possessions had been reduced by con- quest to the small territory purchased by Patrick.

There is a reasonable certainty that the Indian name of the land "butted on the sea," at the date of the settleinent of the town by the whites, was Nara- make: Trumbull says that the Indians often named places .after their principal men. But De Forrest de- nies that they did so. Nevertheless it was a fact as to certain localities in this town. For instance, Mamachi- mon's and Chashenoe's Islands still retain the names of those sachems who sold them to the "Inhabitants of Norwalk." No historian has ever intimated that the Norwalk River derived its name from any pecu- liarity in the color or in the ebb and flow of its waters into Long Island Sound, or the beautiful islands which guard its mouth, or the natural scenery of the coun- try bordering upon it, has any significance from which it could have derived its name. Hence we conclude that the Indian name of this town was Naramake, and that it was named after the ancestor of one of the sa- ehems who deeded to Capt. Patrick "the ground called Sacunytenapucke, Meeanworth, Asumsowis, and all the land adjoining to the aforementioned, as far up in the country as an Indian can go in a day ;" probably to the south bound of the land possessed by the Ram-

poos at Ridgefield, lying west of the Naramake River. Naramake, after disposing of his lands to Capt. Patrick, removed to Ridgefield and joined the tribe known in history as the Rampoos. When this tribe, in 1708, sold its possessions to a company of settlers from Norwalk and Milford, he went to the far West and was lost sight of.

The Indian city of Naramake was situated upon Belden's or Wilson's Point. Its boundaries can now be more easily traced than many of the landmarks of the first settlers of the town. East of the residence of the late Mrs. Wilson is a plot of land of several acres known as Platt's Meadow, upon which were lo- cated the wigwams of the tribe, beneath the soil of which are found fragments of carthenware, shells, stone hatchets, mortars, pestles, arrow-heads, and stones laid by human hands. South of this is another plot of land, which must have been used by the tribe as a feasting-ground, beneath the surface of which are the bones of animals and birds and oyster-shells from two to six feet deep. To the left of this is a piece of arable land used by them as a garden, in which they cultivated every species of herbs for medi- cal purposes. The elder Dr. McLane's attention having been called to this field, he said that there was no disease to which the human race was subject but a remedy could there be found. Grasses and weeds cannot thrive in the soil, as it is thoroughly impreg- uated with shell-lime.

The remainder of the land in this locality has the appearance of having been a common field for the sepulchre of their dead. Probably each head of a family had apportioned to him a certain quantity of land for cultivation, which was also used as a family burying-ground. Numerous skeletons of the Nara- makes have been exhumed, all of which were found in the same position, with the head elevated and facing to the east. That this tribe was distinet from those buried in the Old Indian Field is evident from the fact that in the latter the skeletons are found in various positions and facing north, south, east, and west. From this fact the inference is that previous to the time when our ancestors settled here Naramake was a sort of eity of refuge for the disaffected of the tribes in the surrounding country. The bones dis- covered in the vicinity of this ancient city indicate that they were of large stature, and their skulls that they were of larger brain than the average of savages.

There were indeed giants in the land. The bones of an Indian taken from a shell-grave on this field a few years since, when set up, measured seven feet five inches. Though it may seem incredible, we have for it the word of C. E. Wilson, who says that Dr. Mc- Lane also saw the skeleton. It may be asked, From whence came this people? No doubt they descended from the Five Nations, as both buried their dead facing the east. Further, the implements found in the shell-graves of Naramake are more elaborately wrought than those found in the graves on the Indian

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Field. As the Five Nations were superior to other tribes in artistic skill, in government, war, and the knowledge of the geography of the country, so it may be implied that the inhabitants of this Indian city, who showed equal skill particularly in the finish of their implements, were of the same blood. Mr. C. E. Wilson presented to the writer several Indian relics found at Naramake. The arrows and spear-leads formed from basalt are superior to anything of the kind yet discovered in the Old Indian Field or any other locality in this town.

Upon the heights above the west bank of the Pam- paskeshank are also the ruins of two lesser villages of the same clan. As there is no fcasting- or burial- place in the vicinity, it may be inferred that they were places of defense or outposts of the main city. These promontories still indicate that they have been at some period fortified, from which is an outlook towards the east, south, and west of unsurpassed gran- deur, from which also is seen the entrance into Nor- walk Harbor, around which stand as sentinels Cack- enoes', Mamachimons', Chackancnos', and numer- ous other islands. Further to the east is "Cackcnoes de Long Island Sca," over which the Indians passed in their frail canoes, but which is now studded with every species of vessel in the carrying trade between ceutres of commerce. Still farther on is seen " Cack- enocs or Long Island," which may also be seen on a cloudless day with the naked eye, its banks of pure white sand in contrast with its verdure of forest and cultivated fields, together with the church-spires of the town of Huntington and Eden's Neck Light- house, the headquarters of Governor Tryon in 1779, at which date a personage of large frame and ener- getic will resided at the base of the outlook described, who, though a professed religious character, rode sev- cral miles just to say to a relative, " Ask your wife if you may be rich." Indeed, lie was literally lord of about all he surveyed. His possessions were bounded east by the Pampaskesliank, south and west by Long Island Sound and Rooton River. In the year 1769 he reared a new domicile on a risc of ground sloping towards the river, the chimney of which for more than a hundred years has been one of the ranges to designate "Great Rocks," and not unknown in these days to persons who angle in the deep waters of the Sound, and to the harbor-masters who pilot vessels through the " Middle Passage." This house was well protected from the cold winds of winter by the hills and forests on the north and west, and fanned by the gentle breezes of midsummer from the " Cackenoes de Long Island Sca." Its locality is one of the pleas- antest and most desirable places for a residence within the purchase made by Daniel Patrick of the chiefs of the country in 1640. It will be necessary to describe that new house. It was a two-story frame building, with a long steep roof in its rear. The main timbers were oak, fourteen inches square and covered with chestnut shingles, with the butts four-

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 123

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572