USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 17
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
For the exacting duties of curator under Mr. Gay in the Mor- gan Memorial, Albert H. Pitkin had done excellent service up to the time of his death in 1917. He was born in 1852, the son of Albert Pitkin of colonial ancestry, and had made remarkable collections of his own while connected with the Connecticut Mu- tual Life Insurance Company. To succeed him the manage- ment were fortunate in being able to secure Mrs. Florence Paull Berger, who came in 1918 after several years' experience at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Trained by long periods of study of the best in Europe, she had been given charge of the Depart- ment of Western Art in that institution. With all the rest she has shown that she is expert in arranging exhibitions.
Today's embarrassment is due to lack of endowment. For the Atheneum building fund there is the Samuel P. Avery bequest of $602,000; for the historical society fund, the George E. Hoad- ley bequest of $573,000, and for the library building fund, the Robert A. Griffing bequest of $15,000. To plan the building or buildings with these amounts and a necessary balance and to harmonize the conditions of the bequests is one question, but an equally important one is how to provide the maintenance, for which there is at present the Morgan Memorial fund of $307,- 162, the Susie H. Camp fund of $145,000, the subscription fund of 1891, $272,000, and other funds about $50,000. The total in- come available for expenses is about $45,000. The city has been very fortunate in that it has had to pay but 40 per cent of what other cities of its size pay toward comparable libraries, several cities appropriating the full dollar per capita advocated by the American Library Association. The still wider apprecia- tion of what the library is to the community-of the worth of historical and bibliographical collections if once they could be
933
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
set forth-and the significance of multiform art master- pieces and exhibits which draw thousands to the city, together with the concerts at the memorial and such entertainment as the Venetian costume ball of last winter, will solve these problems. Always the trustees and officers have been representatives of the most keenly appreciative citizens of the community and, in the case of the historical society, of the state. The presidents now are Charles A. Goodwin of the Atheneum, Dr. George C. F. Wil- liams of the historical society, Dr. Melancthon W. Jacobus of the Watkinson Library and Wilbur F. Gordy of the public library.
Doctor Williams is also chairman of the Connecticut Com- mittee of the American Historical Society which is organizing and directing the fast-increasing zeal for local history in par- ticular. Before passing on to the summary of the histories of the other towns of the county it is well to recall the terse words of Hon. Charles E. Hughes :
We are living at high speed, and with multiplying inter- ests, and if we are to deal intelligently with the problems of today and tomorrow we must have the conserving and steadying influence, and the wisdom, which comes from the study of history making available our rich inheritance of experience. We cannot have this advantage, in present cir- cumstances, unless we organize for historical scholarship.
934
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT THE TOWNS
(Marginal number is that of the sequence in origin of all the 169 towns of the state).
1 Windsor, 1633, named from Windsor, England.
2 Wethersfield, 1634, named from Wethersfield, England.
3 Hartford, 1635, named from Hertford, England.
12 Farmington, 1644, "farming-town."
21 Simsbury, 1670, Sim's (Wolcott) town.
24 Suffield, 1674 (Connecticut 1749), south field.
26 Enfield, 1683 (Connecticut 1749), Enfield, England.
33 Glastonbury, 1690, named from English town.
69
Hartland, 1733, Hartford land.
72 East Windsor, 1680.
77 Southington, 1726, south society of Farmington.
80 East Hartford, 1783.
82 Berlin, 1785, named from Berlin, Prussia.
83 Bristol, 1785, named from Bristol, England.
93 Granby, 1786, named from Marquis of Granby.
112 Marlborough, 1747, named from Duke of Marlborough.
114
Burlington, 1806, named from English earl.
115
Canton, 1806, named from Canton, China.
126 Manchester, 1823, named from Manchester, England.
130 Avon, 1830, named from English river.
133 Bloomfield, 1835, named from Hartford family.
141 Rocky Hill, 1826, named from its hill.
144 South Windsor, 1845.
147 New Britain, 1850, parish named in 1754 from Britain.
152 West Hartford, 1806.
153 Windsor Locks, 1833, named from the locks.
159 East Granby, 1822.
164 Plainville, 1831 ("Great Plain").
166 Newington, 1821, parish named 1721 from Newington, England.
The general history of the colony and of all the wars in which colony and state have had a part is given in the general history in the preceding pages.
To further the history of the three Constitution Towns, the other towns of the county will be presented in the following pages according to their civic genealogy and with more regard for date of settlement than for date of incorporation.
HARTUAND
SOF
ELD
110
Thumpsonville
Hartlond
West Suffield
105
Haze
Suffield
BEnfield
1
EAST
West Granby
GRANB
ENFIELD
133
WINDSOR Windsor Locka
Melrose
nsted
Warehouse Points
16
LOCKS
"Tarif ville
North
SIMSBURY
Scanh
Canton
for
Poquanock
110
EA
SI
CANTION
WINDSOR
WINDSOR
West
BLOOMFIELD
Cantoni
Windsor
East Windsor Hills
Contrat
Wetaquel
Bloomfield
17
Conto
South
Wooping
Pobo
5
Resepvoit!
1
Avon
T
6
Manchester
320
18
H
RTFORO
East Hartford 312
South
Burlington
138
ONY
Farmington
11 10
17
Addison
113
Buckland
Glastonbury
BRISTOL
3
CEGLASTONBURY!
JBristol
113
[13
Forestville
South Glastonbury
MARLBORO
P
er
Marlboro
~
Berlin
SOUTHINGTON/
Kensington
Quinnipiac
Southington
78
926
/BERLIN
WETHERSPIE
Withprofile
Pe
equ
073
NEW
UNS
{NEW
Rocky Hill
ROCKYY
HILL
RTFORD
TARMI
BUCK RIS
TON
164
Manchester
Hart Er
Unionvitle
EAST
MANCHESTER
BURLINGTON
SOUTH WINDSOR
- 128
CUT
Windsor
W123
WWES
Sitebuty
Simsbury
(Hopkin
3281
Edet Branby
GRANBY
307
North Granby
303
East Hartland
MAP OF HARTFORD COUNTY, 1927
Adjoining: On the North, Massachusetts; East, Tolland County; South, New Lon- don County at Marlboro, Middlesex County to Southington, New Haven County to Burlington; West, Litchfield County. Improved highways, solid black or bars across, official numbering. Shaded section (at Canton) shows Nepaug Reservoir, partly in Litchfield County
Phanvilk
L ANCIENT WINDSOR
MOTHER OF RENOWNED LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT AND IN WAR-ELLS- WORTH, GRANT, DEWEY, NEWBERRY AND OTHER FAMILIES-HISTORIC CHURCH AND HOMES-VILLAGES AND BLOOMFIELD.
Though with a beginning strikingly independent and romantic, the early history of Windsor has been seen to be closely interwoven with that of the three Constitution Towns. Ludlow's departure was a distinct loss but the revered Pastor Warham was to continue his ministry for many years. On the site of the corn mill his followers gave him, there is still a mill but no pond, such as he helped to dam back, for electricity has displaced it. He had been made pastor of the church in England in 1630 and had come with the main part of it to Windsor in 1635. This is there- fore the oldest church society in Connecticut and it is also the old- est Congregational society in the world except the Southwark Church in London. At the celebration in 1892, when a tablet bearing the names of the pastors was unveiled, Rev. Dr. George Leon Walker, of Thomas Hooker's First Church of Christ, of Hartford, referring to a remark of a predecessor of his, Dr. Joel Hawes, that the Windsor Church was not the oldest, said that his audience might take it as an act of expiation of that error that another pastor of the Hooker Church admitted it. In the exigen- cies of routine life, not much thought had been given to historical research till the latter part of the nineteenth century.
The spot where Lieut. William Holmes of the Plymouth Col- ony in 1633 set up his trading house has been marked by a boulder placed by Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. It is a mile southeast of the present church and is on what is called the "island." This was the first real house in Connecticut, if we except the new fort at Dutch Point. The original township was forty-six miles in circumfer- ence, lying both sides of the Connecticut River, from Sims-
18-VOL. 2
937
938
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
bury to Ellington, inclusive. The location selected by the Ply- mouth men, south of the Farmington River, which flows into the Connecticut from the west, has long been the center, but the loca- tion of the Dorchester party, north of the Farmington, where Palisado Green still is, and where the new-comers built their church, was for years the business center and has historic houses. The first highway in the state was built by order of the General Assembly from Hartford to Windsor in 1638. The purchase of land from the Indians has been described. The extension south- erly and westerly to Mount Massacoe was bought in 1666. After the extension westerly the Simsbury section was settled but aban- doned during the reign of terror caused by King Philip's war. Windsor was much concerned in the Massachusetts boundary dis- cussion for many years. By the Bay Colony's interpretation the line ran at Bissell's Ferry, giving Enfield and Suffield to Massa- chusetts, and it was not till 1749 that the wrongs were righted. In the settlement Windsor yielded over 7,000 acres to her two neighbors on the north and east and was allowed unused lands elsewhere to dispose of.
Ferries obviously were an important adjunct. John Bissell, from 1642, was operating one across the Connecticut when in 1649, the General Assembly took official notice and made his grant run for seven years. It continued in the Bissell family till 1677, and then reverted to the town, by which, under contracts, for many years with the Bissell family, it was kept in use till recent years. Henry Wolcott was promoter of the Farmington River Ferry, as was Roger Wolcott in 1735. A bridge was built in 1749 and periodically was carried away by floods till replaced by the present steel bridge, the seventh. Henry Wolcott was the first constable, succeeded by John Porter, in 1639. Dr. Bray Rosseter was recorder or town clerk till he removed to Guilford in 1652. Matthew Grant was town surveyor and also successor to Rosseter as town clerk-a saint in the estimation of all historians for he kept elaborate records in the form of a journal, with not a few personal touches. There were whipping posts on each of the greens north and south of the "rivulet" or Farmington River. Women had to take their part in the administration of justice. "Reproachful speaking" was a grave offense and when the daugh- ter of one "H. D." thus spoke against Mrs. John Bissell, "H. D."
4%
2
PALISADO GREEN, WINDSOR
1. Lieutenant Walter Fyler (1640) now Windsor Historical Society's Home. 2. The Welles place, 1780. 3. Old Covered Bridge. 4. The Chaffee residence. 5. Home of Poet Edmund Rowland Sill. 6. Where Major John Mason's House stood. A. Road to old ferry. B. "Inside Path"
941
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
or his wife was commanded by court to use the rod upon her naked body "in the presence of Mrs. Wolcott and Goodie Bancroft," two of the foremost women of the plantation.
"Mr." Francis Stiles' previously mentioned incursion in 1635, with his party sent by Sir Richard Saltonstall, under the authority of the Warwick patent, to establish a domain for the earl, was what settled the Dorchester people in their preference for this particular part of the wilderness. Stiles was obliged to report-as told in the next chapter-that only a park across the river could be had. He and his party of forty participated in the distribution of lands, and after building a house he remained for some time before removing to Stratford. In his party were the first women for Connecticut, Rachel (Mrs. John) and Joan Stiles. President Ezra Stiles of Yale was a descendant of Francis. The local historian and genealogist, Dr. Henry R. Stiles, distinguished as a homeopathic physician in New York State and in Scotland, was also a descendant of the family.
The colony was made up of exceptionally strong men. George Hayes was ancestor of President Rutherford B. Hayes, Thomas Dewey of Admiral Dewey, and Matthew Grant of President U. S. Grant. Of Grant descendants over four thousand were recorded in the family association which held its meeting in Windsor and Hartford in 1889. Special interest attached to the Grant home- stead in South Windsor. Joseph Loomis, whose house was built in 1640, was the founder of the oldest ancestral estate in America remaining still in possession of the family. He was ancestor of Senator Morgan G. Bulkeley, Senator George P. McLean and Murray Crane. The homestead lot of Lieut. Walter Fyler, one of the original church members, and of his son John, on the Palisado, is among the notable places of the town; the house, which was built in 1645 and in which was the first post office, is now the home of the Windsor Historical Society. Nearby was the home of Major John Mason.
On the site of "Mr." Francis Stiles' home stands one of the most distinguished houses in New England, cherished by Ruth Wyllys Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, with all its Ellsworth and other colonial treasures-the Oliver Ellsworth homestead. The place was bought in 1665 by Josiah, grandfather of Oliver Ellsworth, and remained in the family 239 years. Capt.
942
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
David Ellsworth, father of Oliver, built this house in 1740. Oliver enlarged it by adding the ell, in 1780 after his service in France, and on the occasion of his daughter's marriage. Thirteen elms were set out, one for each of the original colonies. Thereafter it was known as Elmswood. The colonade porch was built for Oliver's son, Martin. The gift to the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution was made by the heirs of the family in 1903. On the walls of the room in which Lafayette slept on his visit to Windsor is the first wall paper ever used in Connecticut. Deacon John Moore's house, built in 1654 and pre- sented to his son on his marriage, lingered on Broad Street Green in its original state until the latter part of the eighteenth century when it became a part of a modern structure on Elm Street. The grandest house was that of Squire Allyn near by, the scene of social entertainment and of court sessions. It stood till the early '60s. Near it Judge H. Sydney Hayden built his mansion which is still one of the most prominent on the green.
Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) began as a farmer's boy, and planning to be a minister, went to Yale. There he was dismissed for some still unknown misdemeanor at the end of two years and went to Princeton, where he was graduated in 1766. Having abandoned the church for the bar, he had begun practice with office in Hartford, when he married into the distinguished Wol- cott family across the river, choosing Abigail, aged 16. His great work has been recited in the general history. Member of the Con- tinental Congress, influential delegate to the convention that drafted the federal Constitution, United States senator, chief justice, minister to France, his love for his boyhood surroundings strengthened rather than otherwise and he retired to spend his last days at the homestead.
William Wolcott Ellsworth (1791-1868), third son of Oliver Ellsworth, was born in Windsor. He was graduated at Yale in 1810 and attended the Litchfield Law School of Judges Reeve and Gould, after which he was in the office of Chief Justice Thomas Scott Williams, his brother-in-law. He married the eld- est daughter of Noah Webster. Living in Hartford he became a member of the First Church and was deacon for forty-seven years. For five years from 1827 he was a member of Congress, serving on important committees and favoring a moderate pro-
DR. HENRY R. STILES Historian of Windsor and Wethersfield
......
....
Hoy.s . M ....
Nuora Worries
.
ยท
.
---------------
.
---
GREAT RIVER.
Downinto
GREAT.
-----
7710
-------
- 2
-
MAP OF
+ WINDSOR ~
.1653-1650.
MAP OF EARLY WINDSOR
1. Palisado Green. 2. Site of first house in Connecticut
-------
945
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
tective tariff. He resigned to resume his practice. He held office as governor from 1838 to 1842. Twice he was offered the United States senatorship but refused to be a candidate. The Legisla- ture in 1847 elected him to be a judge of the Superior and Su- preme courts, where he remained till he reached the age limit. On his retirement his interest in public affairs did not abate and he was very helpful during the Civil war period.
In the days of Indian alarms when something more than a palisade was needed, Thomas Stoughton's stone house not far from Stiles' was known as a place of refuge under the name of the "stone fort." It stood till 1809, crudely but firmly built and enlarged. There also were two wooden "forts" on Stiles' land. In 1650 there were 116 houses and 600 souls.
Rev. John Maverick, whose colleague Mr. Warham was, and who had been unable to come from Dorchester on account of ill- ness, died not long after the pilgrimage. Rev. Ephriam Huit, formerly a minister at Wroxhall, England, came from Boston with a party, was ordained preacher in 1639, and the church building was constructed near the center of the "triangle north of the river." He died in 1644. Mr. Warham ministered alone till 1668, when Nathaniel, son of President Charles Chauncey of Harvard, was proposed for colleague, but for some reason there was opposition. A meeting having been ordered by the General Court, a vote was taken. The candidate won 86 to 52, whereupon the dissenters were allowed to form a new church. Under Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge and meeting at the town house, they were called "Presbyterians," but not accurately.
Rev. Mr. Warham died in 1670, fortunate in the affairs of this world as in those of the next. He was an ancestor of Rev. Jona- than Edwards, Rev. Timothy Dwight, Judge John Trumbull, Aaron Burr, Gen. William Williams, President Woolsey of Yale, Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs of Brooklyn, "Grace Greenwood" the writer, Gen. W. T. Sherman, Rev. Dr. Gardiner, Alsop the poet and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. He had saved his society from the agonies the Hartford and Wethersfield churches suffered over the "half-covenant" discussion. He had accepted the new plan of baptismal rights in 1658, suspended it in 1665 because of what he had heard, and then had allowed it to be resumed by Mr.
946
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Chauncey in 1668. One of the first churches to endorse the inno- vation, it was among the last (in 1822) to drop it. Nor was he greatly concerned over the course pursued by John Eno, the bar- ber, who, an Episcopalian, argued that he should be taken into the church or else be relieved of the church tax, and, getting no satis- faction, carried his case to the General Assembly, along with John Stedman and William Pitkin, a prominent Hartford citizen.
Wrangling between the mother church and the society of the separatists having subsided, they came together again, Mr. Chauncey and Mr. Woodbridge were allowed to depart and in 1684 Rev. Samuel Mather of Branford was ordained. In 1710 Rev. Jonathan Marsh of Hadley was called to aid him, and on Mr. Mather's death in 1726 Mr. Marsh succeeded him, continuing to 1747. It was during Mr. Mather's ministry that sections of the town began to be set off as parishes, East Windsor, settled in 1680, being the first, then Poquonock in 1724, and Wintonbury (now Bloomfield) in 1726. At the beginning of Mr. Mather's pastorate a new church was built on the site of the old one. When Rev. William Russell of Middletown was called in 1754 as the first pastor since Mr. Marsh's death, trouble had arisen over the location of the new church that must be built. Those south of the Farmington insisted that it should be there. Following cus- tom they asked the General Assembly to send a commission to decide it. The south side won but the north side persisted and in 1762, with Rev. Theodore Hinsdale as pastor, built a mile and a quarter north of the original site. The separation continued until 1793. Mr. Russell had been succeeded by Rev. David Sher- man Rowland of Newport in 1776, with his son Henry A. as col- league, from 1790 till his death in 1794 when his son succeeded him, continuing till his death in 1835.
The two societies were reunited largely through the efforts of Oliver Ellsworth, General Newberry and Capt. James Hooker. In 1794 the present church was built a little south of the original site and near the old burying-ground. Ebenezer Clark was the architect, using plans secured by Chief Justice Ellsworth from the architect of the church at Pittsfield. One of its features was a clock with wooden works; this was removed in 1844 and now is in the possession of the historical society. The steps of the old church were used in the new one and on the underpinning the dates 1757 and 1794 were carved. The land of the First Society
LIEUTENANT WALTER FYLER HOMESTEAD, WINDSOR, 1640 Facing Palisado Green. Oldest House in Windsor. Owned and occupied by Windsor Historical Society
ELLSWORTH HOUSE, WINDSOR
Home of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. Now the property of the Connecticut D. A. R.
949
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
was sold and the proceeds applied for the support of a free school directly across the river-the Union School, the "Academy," open to pupils of both sides, and now a bakery. In further compensa- tion to the south-siders (whose church had been near the north- east corner of Broad Street), the causeway and bridge had been built. In 1822 the Conference House was built on the south side. A bell was presented to the church in 1804 by the will of Henry Allyn who prescribed that it should be tolled in his memory for one hour every May 8; the will was not executed but the heirs agreed that this provision might be carried out, till after a few years all consented to its discontinuance.
The other pastors installed were Charles Walker in 1836; Spofford D. Jewett in 1839 ; Theodore Adgate Leete in 1845; Ben- jamin Parsons in 1861 and Gowen C. Wilson, who had served in the Civil war with the United States Christian Commission in Virginia, in 1866. Rev. Mr. Wilson's successor in 1892 was the present incumbent, Rev. Roscoe Nelson, who was born in Canaan, Maine, in 1861, and was graduated at Bates College in 1887. He came here immediately upon finishing his theological course. His record of years of service bids fair to exceed that of Founder Warham.
The Connecticut branch of the National Society of Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims in raising a fund to commemorate suit- ably the founders and the location of the first orthodox Congre- gational Church in America. It is hoped to have the unveiling in 1930 on the occasion of the three-hundredth anniversary of the establishing of the church in England.
In the old burying-ground, remarkable for its ancient stones, is one in honor of Rev. Ephraim Huit, believed to be the oldest original stone in New England. Some stones bear earlier dates but are not original. The inscription carries a mystery which no one has solved :
"Heare lyeth Ephraim Huit, Sometimes Teacher to Ye Church of
Windsor, who died September 4, 1644
Who When hee Lived Wee drew our Vital Breath, When hee Dyed his dying was our Death,
Who was ye Stay of State, ye Churches Staff, Alas the times Forbid an EPITAPH."
950
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
The first minister of what is now the Trinity Methodist Epis- copal Church was Rev. George Roberts, in 1790. An edifice was erected in 1822 on the corner of Broad and Central streets. As the congregation increased, that building was torn down and the present one at the corner of Poquonock and Bloomfield avenues was built. Rev. Dr. Archibald Tremayne is the pastor. Doctor Tremayne in 1926 established the Daily Vacation Bible School which now numbers over 225 pupils.
The Episcopal parish of St. Gabriel was established in Decem- ber, 1842, and its building was consecrated in January, 1845. Later this building, on the Hartford Road, south of Broad Street, was transferred to the Roman Catholics. The parish name was changed to Grace Church and Trinity College professors conducted the services till 1860 when Rev. Reuel H. Tuttle came. Four years later a stone structure was built at the southeast corner of Broad Street. On Mr. Tuttle's resignation, Rev. Benjamin Jud- kins succeeded him in 1871. Rev. James B. Goodrich came in 1881. In 1883 Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Harriman entered upon his long career as rector. Born in Indiana in 1852, graduated at Trinity in 1872 and at Berkeley in 1876, and having served as rector at Winsted and Portland before coming to Windsor, Doctor Harriman continued till 1920 when he was made rector emeritus. He also was archdeacon of the county, secretary of the diocese, junior fellow of Trinity and trustee of Berkeley Divinity School and of Loomis Institute. Rev. L. Roberts Sheffield was his successor. The present rector is Rev. Wilfred L. Greenwood who was installed in 1927.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.