History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 161

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 161

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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654

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

"There is a good tan-work in this town, in which about fifty vats are occupied. It lias, however, been the custom for almost all the farmers to tan their own leather, and do many other parts of mechanical busi- ness. There is also a hatting-manufactory, in which about five or six workmen are employed to good ad- vantage; it furnishes the inhabitants with hats and sends abroad work to a handsome amount. There are likewise two boot- and shoe-factories, which will probably send abroad five thousand pairs of boots and shoes ; the materials they work are chiefly brought fron New York or abroad. Cabinet-work is done in town,for the inhabitants and some of the neighboring towns. It has already been observed that the inhabi- tants manufacture all the wool they raise, and a con- siderable quantity is brought from abroad.

" A large quantity of ducking (not for sale, but for the Southern market), perhaps three thousand yards, at one shilling per yard, is annually made and sold. The great quantities of cotton cloths, as muslins, etc., imported and sold at a low price, has a tendency to discourage making American cloth, though many make linen and exchange with the shopkeepers for cotton goods.

" There are no breweries in this town, and the gen- eral custom, which used formerly be practiced, of making small-beer for family use, is almost entirely neglected, except for sake of the lees to make bread.

"There were formerly deer, bears, wolves, pan- thers, and wild-cats in our woods, and beaver in our ponds, but they are now extinct. We have red and gray foxes, some few raccoons, woodchucks, gray and striped squirrels. There were at the first settlement great numbers of rattlesnakes and snakes equally poi- sonous, but they are almost destroyed. One method for their destruction was the turning of swine among them, which devoured them. About the year 1780, and for several succeeding years, the canker-worm de- stroyed our apples and apple-trees in many of our or- chards to a very alarming degree ; but about the year 1794, in the spring season, soon after the leaves and worms made their appearance, there came into the orchards several flocks of uncommon birds, a little larger than a blue-bird, of a brown color, and picked the wormns from the trees, as was also the case with a number of flocks of pigeons, which greatly checked them, and the frost which happens sometimes the latter end of May entirely destroyed them, so we have not one canker-worm since that has been heard of.

"Respecting the bird, it has never been seen with us since, except it be the one that appears in the win- ter, which, if it is the same, is considerably changed in its color.

" There were a few barberry-bushes in town that were for a long time kept for medical purposes; the great blast of wheat about the year 1775 induced people totally to destroy them.

"It is an undoubted fact that a bunch of those bushes, not more than an armful, blasted several fields

of wheat, so as totally to destroy some and much in- jure others, at half a mile's distance. As to the cause of their blasting, it is conjectured that it is their sour- ness, as it is observed that wheat delights in light sweet soils, which naturally produces the white and red clover. It has also been observed that wheat- fields lying near swamps producing cranberries have been blasted by them ; but it is necessary, in order to produce this destructive effect, that the weather be moist and the wind blow in a direction from the bushes or swamp to the fields of grain, when the nox- ious effluvia which the bushes emit fills the air, and being of such a nature that as soon as it comes in contact with the straw it poisons it, and destroys it so as to afford no nourishment to the kernel.

"There are two places or houses built for public worship in the First Society and two in Ridgebury, one of which, the Episcopal, has gone to decay. One of the houses in the old society is used by the Con- gregationalists, and the other by the Episcopalians. Mr. Thomas Hawley, from Northampton, was settled in the first society soon after the town was settled, in the year 1714, and was their first pastor and continued till the year 1739, when he deceased in the prime of life. He was an able divine, a man of great frank- ness and sociability, an excellent scholar, and was very useful to the town, not only as a minister but in a civil capacity, serving them as their town clerk, and doing almost all their writing business until his death.

"As an encouragement for his settlement in the ministry, in the then infant state of the town, he re- ceived one twenty-ninth part of the land to himself and his heirs. Some of his descendants are now living - in the town. His salary was small at first, but in- creased gradually as the people became more able ; but it may be remarked as a capital error in the origi- nal proprietors of this town, as in many others, in giving away the right of soil. It is probable that had what was given to Mr. Hawley been appropriated to the ministry and for religious purposes, that the in- terest at this day would have defrayed all the ex- penses of the society. Some may perhaps think it best, and that it endears a people and their minister supporting him by tax. Mr. Jonathan Ingersoll suc- ceeded Mr. Hawley in the ministry. He was from Milford. He was ordained in the year 1740, and fulfilled for many years his duty with ability, ingraft- ing himself in the affections of the people, and was universally beloved and esteemed. Some years before his decease a shock of the palsy weakened his body and mind, but he continued to do his duty in office until near the time of his death, which was on 2ª October, 1778, after which time there was a succession of temporary preachers until 6th of July, 1786, when Mr. Samuel Goodrich, of Durham, was ordained, and is the present pastor. It is worthy of remark that the people in this town have always been attached to their ministers, and great harmony and peace has subsisted between them.

655

RIDGEFIELD.

"The Episcopalians built their first house of pub- lic worship in the year 1740; they never had a clergy- man to themselves steadily, but have successively employed a number, -first, Mr. Caner, then Mr. Beach, Mr. Fowle, Mr. Townsend, Mr. De Lancey, Dr. Perry, and lastly Mr. Butler, who is esteemed a worthy man and gives good satisfaction to his people.

"Ridgebury Society was set off in the year 1763, and Mr. Samuel Camp was ordained to the pastorate care of the Congregational Church in the year, who still continues their minister. He is a man of a feeble bodily constitution, a critical scholar, a sound and orthodox divine, retentive memory, and great logical abilities. There has been in years past a number of people who call themselves Baptists, who showed much zeal in religion and met in private houses for worship. At the present they are much on the de- cline. A few have joined the Methodists, whose preachers, thongh very zealous, have made but little impression on the minds of the people in this town. Almost all the people attend public worship with the Congregationalists or Episcopalians, and there is and has been for a long time past the utmost harmony and friendship prevailing between the several denomina- tions of Christians here, who frequently worship to- gether aud evince the efficacy of that spirit whose leading character is charity. A spirit of litigation has also greatly abated, and it is worthy of remark that at a late session of the County Court for this county there was not one man from the town during the whole term except one of the judges, and we never had any man living in the town who was a lawyer by profession.

" The church under the care of Mr. Goodrich eon- sists of one hundred and thirty members.

"The whole number of inhabitants belonging to the congregations is eight hundred and fifty.

"There have been seventeen hundred and fifty baptisms since the year 1743, and one hundred and seventy pay taxes to the Congregationalists.

" About the time that Paine's ' Age of Reason' came abroad, Infidelity presented itself to view, and, like Milton's description of Death, 'Black it stood as night, fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell ;' the horror of its features digusted the people to sueh a degree that it has not yet had one advocate in this town.

"The salary giveu Mr. Ingersoll was seventy-five pounds ; to Mr. Goodrich one hundred and fifteen pounds and twenty cords of wood annually. The list of the town, fifty-one thousand dolls; of the First So- ciety twenty-two thousand dolls. Publie worship is here maintained by tax only.

"Schools in this town are maintained, 1st, in part by the produce of the sale of lands in Litehfield County by the State, and appropriated to the school; 2ª, by the produce of an excise duty laid on rum and tea, but the act, proving unpopular, was never carried into general execution. The money paid in by this town was returned and appropriated for the benefit of

schools. 3ª, by the forty shillings on the thousand, as it is commonly called; 4th, by the produce of the sales of the Western lands; and lastly, in case of de- ficiency, by a tax on the scholars.

"The wages given to masters is from fifteen to eight dollars per month, according to number of scholars and the ability of the teachers. There is taught in our schools reading, writing, arithmetic, and gram- mar, some catechiising, and a little manners. It has been remarked that since the visiting committee have attended to their duty, our schools are under better regulation and our scholars make greater proficiency. There are a number of young people who have been taught in our schools who have gone into other parts and taught with applause. Board for children is from seventy-five cents to one dollar per week, and tuition from fifty cents to one dollar per quarter.

"The number of poor who receive aid from the town do not exceed ten or twelve, of which number not more than two or three receive their whole sup- port. Those that do are foreigners, being those men- tioned before, one of which was a laborer and the other a soldier who wrought jet-work in cedar since he has been in this country till he was near eighty years old, and he will to this day, being in the ninety- sixth year of his age, sing a martial air he learned in Flanders and cry 'God save King George!' Those who receive partial aid do some work, and receive some assistance from relations and particular friends. The old soldier has been bid off to the lowest bidder for several years from seven shillings sixpence to six shillings per week. We have no poor that are charge- able but what beeame so by bodily imbecility.

" We had the last year not more than five taverns in town, though in years past we have had donble that number; they are not much frequented by the inhabitants of the town. The grog-drinkers and brandy-tipplers have fonnd a way to be supplied at a cheaper rate than they can obtain at licensed inns, and it is necessary that they should be prudeut.

" In regard to climate, the height of our situation in the atmosphere and the descent of the land to the north renders the air, though cold, exceedingly salu- brious. Different disorders have prevailed in differ- ent seasons, owing to different causes. The main street in the town, being on the highest laud or near it, has ever been healthy; near the lowlands and ponds in the skirts of the town the fever and agne and other fevers have prevailed. There are some in- stances of nervous fevers almost every year, which generally proves mortal. The dysentery sometimes visits us, but has never made great ravages. Symp- toms of putridity have appeared in some fevers, and have in some instances proved suddenly fatal, vet never been alarming. The smallpox has been fa- miliar, and has in a great measure left its terrors since the practice of inoculation, which has been gen- erally adopted by almost all the inhabitants. Three or four hundred have had it in a season, ont of which

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656

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

number from one to two have died ; it is a very small expense. People here generally marry young, and are very prolifie; in six families a number of years since, all living in one neighborhood, there were seventy-five children.

"The number of births greatly exceed the number of deaths. There may have been four thousand since the settlement of the town. The annual number of deaths, on an average for ten years past, will not ex- eeed twenty,-about one in a hundred of the inhabi- tants. There has been one instance of a man who deceased in town one hundred and two years old ; he was born at Eastehester, in the State of New York, and came into this town in his forty-fourth year, by name Richard Osborn. He was a very religious man, slender in body, had been a justice of the peace and deacon in the prime of life, was temperate in his habits and diet, but animated in his passions. There have been many instances of persons living over ninety, and great numbers who survive eighty, and considerably active. There are now living in the town three over ninety, and twenty who are eighty or more.

"In October a remarkable thunder-gust, tornado, or hurricane passed through the northerly part of this society and the south part of Ridgebury, destroying everything in its course in this and the neighboring towns. Eleven buildings were nearly destroyed, and three or four entirely. Several dwelling-houses were damaged in a surprising manner, but none of the in- habitants were destroyed or very materially injured.

" Our elevated situation occasions the earth to be covered mueh deeper and longer with snow than the neighboring towns, but we are not exposed to inunda- tions, being so near the head of the streams. There have been for several years great swarms of inseets (especially the rosebug) moving to the northward and northwest ; some have supposed them to be the Hes- sian fly. For several years past a sort of caterpillar worm has prevailed upon the trees, both fruit-trees and forest-trees. In the latter part of summer, espe- eially, the wild cherry-tree, many of the red and black ash-trees have been destroyed in the swamps and low grounds, and if not cheeked in their progress by Providence threaten wide destruction.

" Our little town has not much to boast of superior genius or intelleets, though nature has been by no means niggardly to us in the distribution of her powers. The natives of the town are undoubtedly endued with as good natural capaeities as any people on earth, though few of them have any great degree of acquired learning. The person who happens to be mnost employed by his fellow-freemen in publie busi- ness soon elaims and has the most notice. And we have many persons who never mounted the publie stage of business, who only want to be ealled up and employed to exhibit talents which by experience would shine.

"Our various mneelianies and artifieers improve

gradually in the beauty if not in the strength of their various manufactures. In regard to the viees of the people, though it might be prudent to draw a eurtain to hide thein, yet they will in one occasion or another become public. Robbing orchards and gardens in the season of fruit is the most prevalent, and other indulgenee of fleshly appetites frequently eause re- pentance. The amusements commonly in vogue are ball, chess, quoits, and daneing. The people, by fre- quently stirring up, are attentive to their eivil privi- leges and religious institutions. In liberality the people are not deficient, and have always furnished their quota for the publie service. We have a small library of about one hundred and fifty volumes, established about five years sinee, and annually aug- mented."

SKETCH OF RIDGEFIELD IN 1855.

The following raey sketch of this town is from the pen of S. C. Goodrich, familiarly known as "Peter Parley," being a letter addressed to his brother :

." DEAR BROTHER,-I greatly regret that you could not continue your journey with us to Ridgefield. The weather was fine, and the season- crowning the earth with abundance-made every landscape beautiful. The woods which, as you know, abound along the route spread their intense shade over the land, thus mitigating the heat of the unclouded sun, and the frequent fields of Indian corn, with their long leaves and silken tassels, all fluttering in the breeze, gave a sort of holiday look to the scene. Of all agricultural crops this is the most picturesque and the most imposing. Let others magniloquize upon the vineyards of France and the olive-orchards of Italy : I parted with these scenes a few weeks since, and do not hesitate to say that, as a spectacle to the eye, onr maize-fields are infinitely superior. Leaving New Haven by rail, we reached Norwalk in forty minutes; an hour after, we were at Ridge- field, having journeyed three miles by stage, from the Danbury and Nor- walk station. Thus we performed a journey in less than two hours which cost a day's travel in our boyhood. You can well comprehend that we had a good tinie of it.

" As I approached the town I began to recognize localities,-roads, lionses, and hills. I was in a glow of excitement, for it was nineteen years since I had visited the place, and there was a mixture of the strange and familiar all around which was at once pleasing and painful, -pleasing because it revived many cherished memories, and painful be- cause it suggested that time is a tomb into which man and his works are ever plunging, like a stream flowing on only to disappear in au unfath- omable gulf. The bright village of to-day is in fact the graveyard of the past generation. I was here like one risen from the dead, and come to look on the place which I once knew, but which I shall soon know no more. All seemed to mo a kind of dream, half real and half imagmary, -now presenting some familiar aud cherished remembrance, and now mocking me with strange and baffling revelations.

"Nevertheless, all things considered, I enjoyed the scene. The physi- ognomy of the town-a swelling monnd of hills rising in a crescent of mountains-was all as I had learned it' by heart in childhood. To the north the bending line of Aspen Ledge, to the east the Reddiug Hills, to the west the Highlands of the Hudson, to the south the sea of forest- crowned undulations sloping down to Long Island Sonnd, all in a cool but brilliant August sun, and all tinted with intense verdure, presented a scene to me-the pilgrim returning to his birthplace-of unrivaled in- terest.

"In general, the whole country seemed embowered in trees,-freslı and exuberant, and strongly in contrast with the wornout lands of the old countries,-with openings hero and thero. upon hillside and valley, consisting of green meadow, or pasture, or blooming maize, or perhaps patches of yellow stubble, for the smaller graius had been already har- vested. As I came within the precincts of the village I could not bnt admire the fields, as well on account of their evident richness of soil and excellent cultivation as their general neatness. The town, yon know, was originally blessed or cursed, as the case may be, by a most abundant crop of stones. To clear the land of these was the Herculean task of tho early settlers. For many generations they usurped the soil,

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RIDGEFIELD.

obstructed the plow, dulled the scythe, and now, after ages of labor, they are formed Into sturdy walls, neatly laid, giving to tho entire landscapo an aspeet not only of comfort, but refinement. In our day these wero rudely piled np with frequent breaches,-tho tempting openings for vagrant sheep and looso yearling cattle. No better evidence can bo afforded of a general process and improvement than that most of theso have been relaid with something of the art and niecty of mason-work. The Mat Olmsteads and Azor Smiths of tho past half-century, who laid stono wall for Granther Baldwin and Gen. King at a dollar a rod, would be amazed to see that the succeeding generation has thrown their works aside iu disgust and replaced them by constructions having somewhat of the solidity and exactitude of fortifications.

" As we passed along I obsorved that nearly all tho houses which ex- isted when we were boys had given place to new, and for the most part larger, structures. Here and there was an original dwelling. A general change had passed over the land : swamps had been converted into mca- dows; streams that sprawled across the path now flowed tidily beneath stone bridges; little shallow ponds, the haunts of muddling geese, had disappeared ; the undergrowth of woods and copses had been cleared away; briers and brambles once thick with fruit or abounding in birds' nests, or perchance the hiding-place of snakes, had been extirpated, and coru and potatoes flourished in their stead. Iu one place where I recol- lected to have unearthed a woodehuck I saw a garden, and among its redolent pumpkins, cucumbers, and cabbages was a row of tomatoes,- . n plaut which in my carly days was only known as a strange exotic producing little red balls which bore the enticing name of love-apples.

" At last we came into the main street. This is the same,-yet not tho same. All the distances seemed less than as I had marked them in my memory. From the meeting-lionso to 'Squirc Keeler's-which I thought to be a quarter of a mile-it is but thirty rods. At the same time the nudulations seemed more frequent and abrupt. The old houses aro mostly gone, and more sumptuons ones are in their placo. A certain neatness and elegance have succeeded to the plain and primitivo charac- teristics of other days.

"The street, on the whole, is ono of tho most beautiful I know of. It is more than a mile in length and a hundred and twenty feet in width, ornamented with two continuous lines of trees,-elms, sycamores, and sugar-maples,-save only here and there a brief interval. Some of these, in front of the more imposing honses, are truly majestic. Tho entiro street is carpeted with a green sod soft as velvet to the feet. Tho high- road runs in the middle, with a footwalk on either side. These passages are not paved, but are covered with gravel, and so neatly cut that they appear like pleasure-grounds. All is so bright and so tasteful that you might expect to see some imperative sign-board warning you, on peril of the law, not to tread upon the grass. Yet, as I learned, all this em- bellishment flows spoutaneously from the choice of the people, and not from police regulations.

"The general aspect of the street, however, let me observe, is not sumptuous, liko Hartford and New Ilaven, or even Fairfield. There is still a certain quaintness and primness about the place. Hore and there you see old respectable houses, showing the dim vestiges of ancient paint, while the contiguons gardens, groaning with rich fruits and vego- tables, and the stately rows of elms in front, declare it to be taste, and not necessity, that thus cherishes the reverend hne of unsophisticated clapboards and the venerablo rust with which timo baptizes unprotectod shingles. There is a stillnoss about the town which lends favor to this characteristic of studied rusticity. There is no fast driving, no shouting, no railroad whistle; for you must remember that the station of the Danbury and Norwalk line is three miles off. Few people are to be soen in the streets, and those who do appear move with an air of leisuro and tranquillity. It would seem dull and almost melancholy were it not that all around is so thrifty, so tidy, so really comfortable. Honses, white or brown, with green window-blinds, and embowered in lilacs and fruit-trees, and seen beneath the arches of wide-spreading American elms,-the finest of the wholo elm family,-can nover bo otherwiso than cheerful.

" I went, of course, to the old Koelor tavern for lodgings. The sign was gone, and, though tho houso retained its ancient form, it was so neatly painted, and all around hnd such a look of repose, that I feared it had ceased from its ancient hospitalities, I, however, went to tho door and rapped : it was locked. A bad sign, thought I. Ere long, how- ever, a respectable daue appeared, turned tho key, and let me in. It was Anne Kecler converted into Mrs. Ressequie. Ilnd it been her mother, I should only have said that she had grown a little taller nnd more dignified; as it was, the idea crossod my mind,

"'Fanny was younger once than sho is now !'

But it seems to me that her matronly graces fully compensated for all the might have lost of carlier pretensions. She looked at me gazingly, as if sho half knew me. She was ubont Inquiring my name, when I suggested that sho wight call me Smith, and begged ber to tell me if she could give mo lodgings. She replied that they did sometimes receive strangers, though they did not keep a tavern, I afterwards heard that the fanilly was rich, and that it was courtesy more than cash which induced thew to keep up the old habit of the place. I was kindly received, though at first as a stranger. After a short time I was found out, and welcomed as a friend. What fragrant butter, what white bread, what delicions sueco- tash, they gave me! And as to the milk, it was just such as cows gave fifty years ago, and upon the slightest euconragement pyritively pro- duced an envelope of golden crem. Alas! how cows have degenerated, especially in the great cities of the earth! In New York, London, or Paris, it is all the same. Ilo who wishes to eat with a relish that the Astor Honse or Morley's or the Grand Hotel du Louvre cannot give should go to Ridgefield and put himself under the care of Mrs. Ressequie. If ho he served, as I was, by her daughter,-a thing, however, that I cannot promise, -he may enjoy a lively and pleasant conversation while le discusses his meal. When you go thero-as go yon unist-do not for- get to order ham and eggs, for they are such as we nte in our childhood, not a mass of red leather steeped in grease and covered with a tough, bluish gum, as is now the fashion in these things. As to blackberry- and huckleberry-pies and similar good gifts, you will find them just such as our mother made fifty years ago, when these bonuties of Providence were included in the prayer, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' and were a worthy answer to such a petition.

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 161

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