History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 200

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 200

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).

Dr. Tolcott Banks was an early practitioner, and partner with Dr. Richmond. Dr. George Blackman married a daughter of Dr. Richmond, and was during a long period a successful practitioner. Drs. Burr and Jancy were also in practice here. The present physicians are Frederick Powers and George B. Bouton.

Among the lawyers who have practiced here are mentioned the names of Samnel B. Sherwood, Eli- phalet Swift, James C. Loomis, Samuel Chamberlain, Theodore Kellogg, M. L. Mason, M. W. Wilson, Wesley Lyon, William K. Seeley, James R. Jesnp, E. M. Lees, Albert Relyea, Joseph G. Hyatt.

MANUFACTURING.

Sixty years ago nearly every house in village or country was a manufactory, and nearly every woman, old or yonng, an operative. He was a poor farmer who did not raise flax sufficient to make all the linen goods required for the use of his family, and a poor man, farmer, mechanic, or laborer, who was not the owner of sheep. In clear, dry weather in February or early March you would hardly pass a farmer's barn without seeing a man hard at work on a coarse- looking instrument, ealled a crackle, breaking flax, to separate the wood part from the fibre, and another man twirling a wheel with five arms to chaw the flax from what was called the shives. In the house you would see, in one corner of a wide, old-fashioned fire- place, a young lady sitting at what was called a double wheel spinning thread ; in the other corner an elderly lady, with two cards in her hands, preparing the tow hatcheled from the flax for a different kind of wheel, called a great wheel, exereise upon which was not un-

frequently prescribed by old physicians as conducive to the health of young girls. By the Ist of June, the spinning of flax and tow being completed, came the spinning of wool, which was continued most of the balance of the year. In about every fourth or fifth house, in a small room or chamber, fitted up for the purpose, would be found a loom with a young lady weaving thread or woolen yarn. In this way, and from these domestic manufactories, nearly all the cloths for wearing apparel of both males and females, as well as bedclothing and many other purposes, were obtained. And so far from employments of this nature being thought mean or vulgar, a young woman could have no better recommendation for matrimony than the great number of pairs of sheets, pillow- cases, blankets, etc., she could show of her own spin- ning and weaving.

In 1805 the first carding-machine (probably in the country) was set up in a small building by one Josh Scribner, which caused quite an excitement for miles around. It was a great curiosity, and people came for many miles around to see it. It would do the work of twenty women and make better rolls, and was indeed considered wonderful. A few years after, another machine, for spinning wool, was introduced, called the spinning-jenny. Dr. Richmond, John Taylor, and some others patronized the invention, but it never paid.

Cotton-manufacturing in Westport was due to the war with Great Britain of 1812-15, and to Dr. David Richmond, who was a manufacturing enthusi- ast. By great exertion he succeeded in forming a company in 1814 which obtained from the Legislature an act of incorporation by the name of Sangatnek Manufacturing Company, the shares to be one hundred dollars each, and capital not to exceed two hundred thousand dollars. Under this charter about seventy- five thousand dollars were subscribed, and the stone mill erected, machinery procured, and business com- menced under the supervision of Lewis Raymond, Esq., early in 1815,-a most unfortunate time, as the war terminated in February of that year. During the war every description of manufactured goods were enormously high ; cotton goods that now sell at ten cents a yard were worth in September, 1814, more than one dollar. Had the war continued two or three years longer the enterprise would probably have been successful, but immediately on the proclamation of peace the large stoek of goods in England, manu- faetured for the American market, which had greatly accumulated during the war, were rushed into our eountry to be sold at any price, with the two-fold ob- jeet of getting rid of old stocks and breaking down American manufacturing. The Sangatuck Company attempted to stem the adverse current, but soon got in debt. The discouraged stockholders refused to pay installments, and in 1818, at the meeting of the stock- holders, it was voted to sell the whole property of the company at auction, and it was knocked down at a

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sum little exceeding four thousand dollars, about enough to pay its indebtedness, leaving nothing for the poor stockholders. The purchasers were a few of the stockholders, who had agreed to form a new com- pany, of whom the largest in interest were Ebenezer Jesup, David Richmond, Moses Judah, and E. Cor- nell, who were with others, by act of the Legislature, incorporated under the name of the Richmondville Manufacturing Company in 1819. The manufactory was burned March 16, 1879.

A new company was formed in 1828, of which the prominent stockholders were Eben Jesup, William H. Jesup, Samuel Avery, Hezekiah Allen, Lewis Raymond, Edward M. Morgan, and others. They obtained an act of incorporation in 1829, under the name of The Branch Manufacturing Company, capi- tal not to exceed two hundred thousand dollars. The capital subscribed and actually paid in was only forty thousand dollars. This company purchased the old mills and water-privilege of Samuel Coley, and erected the building now Kelley's mill, and put into it the requisite machinery for spinning and weaving eotton goods. An Englishman named Shawcross was some way concerned in the business. Work commenced in the mill, under the general superintendence of Wil- liam H. Jesup, in the fall of 1829, and for two or three years was supposed to be doing moderately well, althoughi few and small dividends were made. The Compromise Bill, as it was called, passed by Congress in 1833 to quiet Southern nullification, dampened the spirit of manufacturing, and told heavily upon small establishments like the Branch. The stock ran down. Instead of stopping and waiting for more favorable times, the mill was kept running, latterly under the management of Capt. H. Allen, but early in 1841 a crisis was reached. The property had been some time mortgaged for several thousand dollars to Jesup Wake- man, of Southport. The stockholders refused to pay the installment required to pay the debts, and Wake- man petitioned for foreclosure of his mortgage. In February, 1841, the whole property, mill, houses, water-privilege, machinery, and about twelve acres of land, was sold to Capt. Allen for the sum of five thou- sand dollars. Capt. Allen continued operations at the mill to near the time of his death, in 1850. The prop- erty was subsequently sold to William Wood for twenty-one hundred dollars, subject to a balance of Wakeman's mortgage. Wood sold the machinery out of the mill, and the mill for the purpose it is now used.

William and John Wood, about 1847, erected a mill for making eotton wadding, at a considerable cost, which would probably have paid well liad not the fire-fiend elaimed it.

Taking the business of cotton-manufacturing in Westport, from its eommeneement in 1815 to 1850, it is evident the losses will vastly exceed the gain. Whatever benefit the public derived from it, the stockholders suffered.

2 COMMERCIAL.

From the early settlement of Connecticut to a time not very remote Fairfield County was the largest grain-growing county in the State, and the towns of Fairfield, Norwalk, Wilton, Weston, and Redding the best in the county. Seventy-five or eighty years ago, of every one hundred of the male population not less than eighty-five were farmers. The princi- pal, almost the entire, source from which money was obtained was the products of the soil. The men of that period were not eight-hour men, but sunrise-to- sunset men,-robust, hard-laboring, industrious fel- lows, obtaining from the earth annually large quanti- ties of rye, corn, oats, flax-seed, etc., beyond what was required for home consumption, for which a market was sought, and wherever was a convenient place for lading and unlading vessels, a store or stores were erected. Saugatuck River being navigable farther up from the Sound than any other in Fairfield County, its head of navigable water (notwithstanding the un- favorable surface) was selected as a suitable place for commencing business; here, according to tradition, the first store was built near the upper bridge, and the second a little below where now stands Tom Mil- ler's barber-shop. What the amount of exports were at the beginning of the present century can only be conjectured, but from my recollection of the numbers of vessels employed, and the show of loaded teams from the country, not less than one hundred thousand bushels of grain, corn, rye, and oats, and considerable quantities of flax-seed, dressed flax, butter, etc., were annually shipped from here, the rye mostly to Bos- ton, Providence, and other Eastern ports. A great deal of the corn raised at that period was kiln-dried, ground, and put up in hogsheads of eight hundred pounds each for the West Indian market. Nearly every mill within five miles of the shore had a kiln for that purpose. Quite a business also was carried on with the West Indics. The brig " Atlantie" was built by E. & D. Coley, for Beattie & Raymond and some others, for this trade, and continued in it until lost coming from Turk's Island, laden with salt. A large sloop called the "Sally," built by Capt. Stephen Thorpe, was also in this trade, and occasionally some other vessels.

The market-boat business commenced in 1806. Rowland & Barlow and Capt. Samuel Pearsal built a vessel for that purpose called the "Pedler." She was to make weekly trips to and from New York, earrying any articles of produce or materials that might offer, and sell the same on a commission, usu- ally of eight per cent., or a penny on a shilling, and for the accommodation of passengers had a better than usual fitted-up cabin : price of passage, fifty cents. The business was found to pay, and in 1814, L. T. & S. E. Downs bought a sloop called the " Diana" for the same business, and built a new ves- sel, the "Intrepid," in 1815, and in 1817, G. Bradley & Co. built the "Iris" for like trade. Before the

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Housatonic Railroad was opened there was consider- able freight from New Milford and Newtown, and- until the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad-much of the freight of Danbury and Bethel. If we could go back, say to 1825 or 1830, and step on board of one of those boats as it was about to leave, in the month of April or May, we should see in the hold one hundred to two hundred bushels of oats, ten to twenty bags of rye flour, one hundred to one hundred and fifty tubs of butter (averaging about twelve pounds each), five to ten barrels of eggs, fifty or more boxes of hats, boxes of combs, boxes of axes, and any quantity of bundles of unknown contents. On deck we should see five to ten calves, and in the cabin or on the quarter-deck ten to fifteen passengers. On her return we should find bales of mackerel, barrels of logwood and other articles for the hatters, two or three thou- sand Rio Grande (or perhaps city) green horns for the comb-makers, and not unfrequently several hogsheads of rum, pipes of brandy, and barrels of gin for the gro- cers, a few barrels of wheat flour, dry-goods boxes, molasses, sugar, etc.

CHAPTER LXXXIII. WESTPORT (Continued). ECCLESIASTICAL.

Congregational Church, Green's Farms-Congregational, Saugatuck- Methodist Episcopal-Church of the Holy Trinity-Christ Church- Universalist Church.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHI.#

IN the town of Westport, Green's Farms scems to be the oldest parish and settlement. The Indian name was Machamux, which in time was corrupted from the original and improved into Maximus. The people near the centre of Fairfield called this west settlement the Farms at Bankside. Afterwards a public-spirited man in this settlement, named John Green, was honored by its being called Green's Farms, which was recognized as such in 1832; it was gener- ally spoken of as the Fairfield West parish till after the Revolution.

This settlement was begun in 1648, when "it was agreed that Thomas Newton, Henry Gray, and John Green shall have liberty to sit down and inhabit at Machamux." Daniel Frost and Francis Andrews were added to the three, which were the proprietors of the settlement for twenty years. Their lands and residences were near the shore, extending from the place of the late Mr. Phipps westward, and when they died were buried on Mosquito Hill. Daniel Frost lived east on a point of land which took its name from him, Frost Point. Of the settlers, Newton fled to the Dutch owing to some misdemeanor on his part. Gray has representatives to-day in Westport, as

is indicated by Miss Gray's popular school. Francis Andrews was represented by Daniel Andrews and the sons of Ebenezer Andrews, late of Chicago, who lic under massive monuments in the lower cemetery. John Green has not a representative, though he was mentioned last in 1728. John Green, Jr., lived in Stamford, which may account for it.

In 1711 there were eighty-eight persons in Compo, and in Maximus one hundred and eighty-two,-in all two hundred and seventy persons,-who had to travel from two and a half to eight miles to attend church, which must be done on foot, horseback, or in ox-carts.

Parish privileges were granted May, 1711 ; the rec- ords begin at this date. Rev. Daniel Chapman was the first pastor, with a salary of seventy pounds, although the church was not organized till four years later. In 1713 it was voted that a house should be built for the minister, forty-two feet long; twenty feet wide, two stories high, and a cellar under one end, two chamber chimneys ; for covering, shingles four and a half feet, and to be set on six acres of land. This house stood on Mr. Bedford's land, near the old well.

The church was organized in 1714 with seven mem- bers: Thomas Nash, John Andrews, Samuel Couch, Henry Gray, Joshua Jennings, (said to be spelled on the church record "Goshshew Jinnins"), Jonathan Squire, and Joseph Lockwood. The way churches were then organized in Connecticut was to choose from their number seven prominent individuals, who were called the seven pillars. These seven entered into covenant and formed the church ; then the rest united with them on profession of faith.

Rev. Daniel Chapman, the first pastor, was the son of Deacon Nathaniel Chapman, of Saybrook, and grandson of Robert Chapman, one of the first settlers of that town. He was born 1689; graduated from Yale College, 1707. He married Grissel Lovel, or Lovewell, of the island of Cape Breton. He inherited several tracts of land in Saybrook, and fifteen hun- dred acres in Hebron. Little is known of him as a preacher. He was pastor here twenty-six years. He was dismissed in 1741, having near that time been " overtaken with too much drink."

It was then a discourtesy to refuse to partake from the decanters which always stood on the sideboard. so his case is no wonderment. He died in Green's Farms soon after this. He had seven children, one of whom, Phineas, married Sarah Ketchum and set- tled in the parish. He was taken prisoner at his own house while loading his goods into an ox-cart to es- cape with his family from the British. His treat- ment while a prisoner resulted in his death. He was a captain in the Revolutionary war. He died at his home in 1782. He also had two sons, Maj. Albert and Lient. James Chapman, who were officers in the same war. Their descendants are yet in this town, and are scattered through the country, and are spoken of as the " big guns " of the nation.

In 1736 the house (church) was too inadequate.

* By Mrs. Kate E. Perry,

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

In 1738 a new one was raised, but was not finished till several years later. The members had pew spots as- signed them according to their rank in society ; each had to build his own pew.

Rev. Daniel Buckingham, born in Milford, 1713, graduated at Yale College, 1735, succeeded Mr. Chapman in 1742. His salary was five hundred pounds. At this time there was a great depreciation in money, but as that decreased they increased his salary. In 1756 the parish was divided by petition of the northern part, and was called the Fairfield Northwest parish,-now Norfield, iu Weston. In 1756 five men of this parish died in the army in the French-and-Indian war. They were Abel Fountain, David Hendricks, Jethro Morehouse, Phineas Squire, and Thomas Sherwood.

The Sherwoods are numerous now in this section. An uncommon occurrence was noted among them this fall (1880), when three triplet brothers, Francis, Frederic, and Franklin Sherwood, gave a party to celebrate their seventieth birthday. Seventy-five people were present, and were arranged at three tables, one of each brothers doing the honors to the guests at his table.

Rev. Mr. Buckingham (a name cherished in the State, and to which Governor Buckingham added lustre) died in 1766. Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, the third minister, succeeded Mr. Buckingham in 1767, and occupied the pulpit here for more than fifty years. Mr. Ripley was born in Windham, Conn., in 1743. His grandfather was one of the early settlers of Massachusetts, and his grandmother was the daughter of the famous Governor Bradford, of Ply- mouth. He graduated at Yale College in 1763.

The most memorable period in the history of the parish during his ministry was the time of the Revo- lutionary war, as it was continually liable to destruc- tion while the British had possession of Long Island. The parish was invaded by them twice, and proba- bly would the third time, had not one of the farmers, who had a terrible voice, used it so effectually as to cause them to desist and return to their boats. It was towards night, when he was out for his cattle, and, seeing the move of the British, he began to give com- mand, as if he had his forces near. The British, hearing him and fearing they might be overcome, yielded to the successful strategy, and Compo and the Farms were saved that time.

On July 8, 1779, after Tryon's forces left Fairfield ruined, they fired every dwelling in the lower part of the parish for more than a mile. One or two houses were saved, where the flames were extinguished. They burnt the church and the buildings, clothing, furniture, and provisions of the following persons : Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, Nathan Godfrey, Grummond Morehouse, Dr. Ebenezer Jessup, Simon Couch, Widow Eunice Morehouse, Ebenezer Morehouse, George Bat- terson, John Davis, Abraham Andrews, Widow Sarah Andrews, Jessup Wakeman, Gideon Morehouse, and

Moses Kent. The last named occupied the home of the late Francis L. Hedenberg, but his house must have been elsewhere in the parish. His wife was Mary Wakeman, who lived a little north of the house of the late Burr Jennings, -probably the Wakeman house, now standing, which has considerable local celebrity, and is without doubt the oldest house in Westport. A copy of one of the early issues of the New York Herald was recently found there, and forwarded to the New York Herald office. It was a happy circum- stance at the office; they immediately reproduced it and scattered it over the world again. The house in Saugatuck of Moses Kent is in good repair; it was modernized several years ago, and here Mr. Hedenberg married Mary Burr Thorp, March, 1826, and in 1876 they held their golden wedding. Their son, Gould Burr Hedenberg, and his wife, Mary (Wood) Heden- berg, held their silver wedding simultaneously in the same house. F. L. Hedenberg was a native of New- ark, N. J., and his mother * was active against the Hessians.

The church being burnt, worship was held several years in private houses. The first year they agreed to meet in the house of Daniel Burr, the grandfather of Daniel Burr, who lived in the old house near Mr. William Burr. The third church of this parish was built between 1783 and 1789. Deacon Thomas Nash, who occupied the first house at the west, with its piazzas and banisters fronting the south, with its noble elms in front (later the home of Mr. Daniel Burr), gave the land, and seemed to be filled with the spirit of progress characteristic of his father and grandfather. He was a man of indomitable will, and, having some difficulty with the society, he left and joined the Episcopal Church.

For this third church application was made to the Legislature for assistance, which was only granted in giving them their proportion of the five hundred thousand acres of fir lands, lying in the wilderness of Ohio, granted by the State to compensate those who had suffered from the war. A tax of ninepence on the pound was levied, the fir lands sold, the par- sonage and school funds borrowed, the society pledg- ing to pay the interest annually; the principal has never been heard of since.

Rev. Mr. Ripley was chaplain in the Continental army, attending to his parish simultaneously. In the Revolution he lost his house, furniture, and a portion of his library. During public service alarm- ing tidings were frequently received, therefore per- sons were stationed at such points to give warning of

* Charles Hedenberg was a native of Sweden, wlio adopted the United Colonies for his home, as he married Jane Vanalst, of New York City." He followed the sea. By diligence and industry he became captain, and finally owner, of the ship. He died at sea, May 11, 1768, leaving a widow and two sons, from whom have descended all there are in the United States bearing that name. One of these, Charles, was honored with a document, presented in 1787, by James Duane, Esq., Mayor of New York City, called the " Freedom of the City." This paper fell to his son, F. L. IIedenberg, who preserved it with great care.

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the approach of the enemy. In 1790 he was chosen a member of the corporation of Yale College, which he continued twenty-seven years, resigning it on account of the infirmities of old age. He and Dr. Timothy Dwight were warm friends. Their inter- course was frequent and most endearing. The degree of D.D. was conferred on Mr. Ripley by the College of New Jersey in 1802. During the years 1815 and 1816 thirty-eight persons united with the church. He married Dolly Brintnall, of New Haven, in 1765, and their union existed over sixty-six years. She died August, 1831; he died December the same year. They had four children, one of whom, William Brint- nall, graduated from Yale in 1786, became minister in Lebanon, Conn., and died in 1822. He was chosen fellow of Yale, 1817.

Dr. Hezekiah Ripley was a man of commanding presence, and in his conference with Washington on his way to Boston, on public matters, it would be difficult for the painter to find a finer subject than these two patriots communing on the interests of the country. The doctor accompanied Washington to Stratford Ferry.

Dr. Ripley is the subject of a fine article in "Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit," and was contributed by Rev. Thomas F. Davies, in 1849. Four of Dr. Ripley's great-grandsons bore arms in the late civil war, one of whom lost an arm in the second battle of Bull Run.

The fourth pastor of this church was Rev .- after- wards Dr .- Edward Hooker, a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, first pastor in Hartford. His father was the Rev. Asahel Hooker, who was settled in Goshen, afterwards in Norwich, Conn. His mother was Phebe Edwards, of Stockbridge, Mass., descended from President Edwards, of Princeton College. He graduated at Middlebury College, Vt., 1814, com- pleted his theological studies at Andover, Mass., in 1817, and was ordained in Green's Farms, August, 1821. He married Faitlı Trumbull Huntington, a descendant of Rev. Jolin Robinson, the celebrated Puritan. His was an honored and successful ministry seven years, when he resigned, and was dismissed in 1829. He had charge for twelve years of a church in Bennington, Vt., from the years 1832 to 1844, when he accepted the professorship of Sacred Rhetoric and Ecclesiastical History in the Theological Seminary at East Windsor, Conn., which he filled until 1848, when he became pastor in South Windsor in 1849, and continued until 1856, when he accepted a call to Fairhaven, Vt., which he continued till 1862, when, in his declining years, a respected and honored father in the ministry, he went to reside with his son, a pastor in Naslıua, N. H.

The fifth pastor was Rev. Thomas F. Davies, who was born in Redding, Conn., 1793. His father was Thomas Davies, a physician in that town. He was fitted by Rev. Dr. Ely, of Huntington (then Ripton), for Yale College, from which he graduated in 1813,

having entered in 1809. He taught school a year or two, pursuing his theological studies under Dr. Dwight. Hesettled in Huntington in 1817 to preach, but ill health compelled him to accept the invitation to remove to New Haven, in 1819, and become editor of the Christian Spectator, a prominent religious peri- odical. This he continued several years, but ill health here necessitated his removal to Redding. His health sufficiently restored, he accepted a call to Green's Farms, where he labored ten years, when he, from ill health, was forced to retire again, when he removed to New Haven to superintend the education of his sons. He afterwards resided in Redding, then with his son-in-law, Deacon E. B. Adams, in Green's Farms, where he died Feb. 16, 1865. He left three children, one of them a distinguished Episcopal clergyman. Mr. Davies was a man of superior ability and quali- fications. He was genial, social, and polished.

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 200

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