USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 37
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ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, BRISTOL
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, FEDERAL HILL, BRISTOL
1
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Congregational Church dates from 1890; it built on Queen Street in 1895. The Swedish Lutheran Lebanon Congregational Church erected its building in 1891, four years after organization, and Rev. A. F. Lundquist came in 1893.
The development has continued until now there are the Con- gregational Church on Maple Street at Prospect Place, the Swed- ish Congregational on Queen Street, Trinity Episcopal on High Street, the Baptist on School Street, the Swedish Baptist on Good- win Street, the Prospect Methodist (built largely through the generosity of John H. Sessions) on Summer Street, the Asbury Methodist on Church Avenue, the Advent Christian on West Street, the Swedish Lutheran on Stearns Street, the Evangelist Lutheran Bethesda on Academy Street, the German Evangelist Lutheran Immanuel on Meadow Street, the German Lutheran Zion on Judd Street and the Roman Catholic St. Joseph's (with parochial school and convent) on Queen Street, St. Matthew's on Church Avenue, St. Anthony's on School Street, St. Stanislaus' on West Street and St. Ann's (French) on West Street. At St. Joseph's reposes a relic of St. Ann and application of it is made at a novena attended by thousands from all parts of New England for nine days each year. Cripples are brought from long dis- tances but Rev. Oliver T. Magnell, pastor of the church, allows no announcements of cures unless they are proved and of a perma- nent nature. The New Haven Methodist Episcopal Camp Meet- ing Association has camp grounds at Forestville.
In school matters there could be no division of sentiment among the colonists; the law was imperative and the will of the settlers was in accord. A formal school was established in 1749 and in 1754 there were two houses, one east of the green, on Fed- eral Hill, and one on Chippin's Hill. Prominent among the schools today are the John J. Jennings School on Burlington Avenue, the Northside School on Terryville Avenue, the Park Street School, the Southside School on Church Street, the Stafford Avenue School, District No. 5, on Fifth Avenue, District No. 10 on Hill treet, the Hill School on Queen Street, the East Bristol School, the Forestville School, the old high school on Summer Street and the new high school on the Boulevard with its theater, gymnasium and other adjuncts which make it in reality what it is in appearance, one of the finest schools in the state. The first
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high school was opened in 1883 when F. A. Brackett was prin- cipal, and there were departments in the First District school- house and in Forestville, the school proper being in No. 3 school- house. The first separate high school building was erected in 1892.
The City Hall is located on North Main Street, housing various departments and the Probate Court. The Fire Department came after costly warning. Fire had followed fire till the Chauncey Jerome Clock Company removed to New Haven and the Terry Clock Company was likely to follow. Then, in 1845, plans were laid but bore no fruit before 1853 when, by public subscription, a house was built within half a mile of the bridge on Main Street, a hand engine and a hose cart were bought and Company No. 1 was organized, quarters being provided on School Street. The first town appropriation was made in 1856. A house and Company No. 2 followed in 1870 and from then on development kept up with the times. No. 1's house is on School Street, Uncas No. 2 on North Main, the Hook and Ladder on Meadow. The calls come in at the central quarters on Meadow Street. J. H. Hayes is the chief. There is an engine house with good equipment in Forest- ville. The Police Department headquarters are next to City Hall. The Water Department has quarters on Riverside Avenue. The new Federal Building at the corner of Main Street and Riverside Avenue was opened in 1913, just 100 years after Lot Newell began handling the mail in his house on North Side. The water supply comes from the Chippin's Hill region, on the borders of East Plymouth to the west, where rise the waters that feed a tributary of the Naugatuck River in the valley west of the ridge, and also the Pequabuck itself.
The Bristol Visiting Nurse and Welfare Association had had to make such hospital accommodations as it could till 1920. Then, through the Chamber of Commerce, Rev. Dr. L. H. Dorchester of the Methodist Church agitated the subject, an association was formed with Doctor Dorchester as president, and Roger S. New- ell gave a site for a building and a nurses' home on Queen Street. Mr. Newell's gift was supplemented by others and by funds raised by popular subscription for suitable accessories, and ground for the building on Newell Road was broken in 1923. Fuller F. Barnes is president of the corporation. Meanwhile, through the
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generosity of the Wallace Barnes Company, a large dwelling- house at the corner of George and South streets was provided.
The Chamber of Commerce-L. A. Wheeler the secretary,- which is alive to every issue of the hour, has rooms in the Center Building on School Street. The Young Men's Christian Associa- tion housed and cared for the association which had kept alive the spark started in 1868. Its quarters are now at the corner of Main and Court streets. The first place for special public enter- tainment was the Bristol Opera House built in 1896. Forestville has had a good public hall since the 1880s. Red Men's Building is also known as Convention Building as it has a large hall for exhibits, and the military company has long been quartered there pending the erection of an armory by the state. For the Boys Club a building costing $125,000, on Laurel Street, is just being completed. The Bristol Club is located on North Main Street. On the same street is the Endee Inn of the New Departure Manu- facturing Company. The Masonic Building on Main Street, the Odd Fellows Building on South Elm Street and the Arcanum Building on Prospect Street are notable structures.
The boast of the Bristol Library and Reading Room is that it represents the general interest and effort of the whole community. Long before 1800 there was a library with bookplate reading "The Reformed Library Of New Cambridge." (That was in the days when there was an uprising against the kind of literature pouring into America from overseas.) A "Philosophical Library" was in existence in the First Society in 1792 and was revived in 1803. The third was the "Mechanics Library." The modern library was inspired by the women of the Congregational Church who met to sew and for social intercourse. In 1868, men forming a Young Men's Christian Association got together books for a cir- culating library. Mrs. Augustus Norton, who had removed from Bristol, made a bequest of $5,000 for a public library in 1891 and gave her own collection of books. By voting a special tax, the town has the high honor of being the first in the state to take steps for putting good literature freely before the public. In 1893 Mrs. Julia M. Tompkins of Chicago left $5,000 for the institution and Mary P. Root made a bequest.
The library was opened in the second story of Ebers Block in
37-VOL. 2
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January 1892, T. H. Patterson in charge. He was succeeded by the present librarian, Charles L. Wooding. The lot at No. 51 High Street and the dwelling on it were bought in 1896 and the building served the purpose till replaced by the present handsome structure at No. 5 High Street, designed by William Potter of Bristol and New York, in 1906. By subscriptions and by bequest of C. S. Treadway the building fund had accumulated to $45,368. Mr. Treadway and Edward B. Dunbar, who also gave liberally, had been earnest workers on the committee but did not live to see their hopes realized. To Judge Epaphroditus Peck fell the honor of making the report that the public subscriptions had completed the fund required. Features of the institution are a valuable historical collection and one of the finest exhibits of Indian and prehistoric relics in the country, given by the collector, Dr. Fred- erick H. Williams. Accessible here is the town's history com- piled by S. P. Newell, Judge Peck and Prof. Tracy Peck of Yale, a son of Bristol, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary in 1885. The Bristol Historical and Scientific Society has its quar- ters on Summer Street.
The people who could make Bristol an industrial marvel de- spite handicaps could also maintain the intellectual standard. Roswell A. Atkins (1826-1903) was of those who put the results of historical research into print. He was in manufacturing, with J. Atkins & Company and with John Winslow, till he took up surveying and became interested in research. At one time he was chief of the Fire Department and from 1892 to 1894 he was judge of probate. In the earlier days Henry Alexander Mitchell (1805-1888) wrote valuable articles. He was a graduate of Yale and of the Litchfield Law School, served in both branches of the Legislature and was judge of the Superior Court. Benjamin F. Hawley (1808-1887), a Farmington man by birth, came to Bristol as a boy. He taught school many years and was town clerk much of the time, judge of probate from 1858 to 1875 and through most of these years town treasurer. Twice he was sent to the Legislature. Henry A. Seymour (1818-1897), born in New Hartford, developed real estate and helped organize the sav- ings bank, of which he was president. Another president of that bank was Wilfred Nettleton, who came as a boy from Waterbury
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where he was born in 1825. He invented several things, made ten-dollar sewing machines and after 1871 spent most of his time traveling. He lived to be ninety-nine. Roger S. Newell was a well known Farmington abolitionist. He married Joseph R. Hawley's sister.
Samuel P. Newell (1823-1888), his son, opened a law office in Bristol in 1849 after graduating at the Yale Law School. His son, Roger S. Newell, 2nd, judge of probate, succeeded to his large practice and to his partnership with John J. Jennings. Mr. Jennings (1835-1900) was born in Bridgeport and was graduated at Yale in 1876. He married Samuel P. Newell's daughter. His son, Newell Jennings, has been judge of the Supe- rior Court since 1922. Many who became prominent at the bar studied in Judge Newell's office. Among them was Noble E. Pierce, at one time partner, who has served in the Legislature and was delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1902. The town's delegate to the convention of 1918 was Bryan Hooker. He was of Woodbury birth, fifth in descent from Thomas Hooker. In Bristol he established one of the first woollen mills in the state and for years held public office, dying at the age of sixty-two. He was the father of Bryan E. Hooker of Hartford, and he in turn was the father of Mayor Thomas W. Hooker of Hartford. Adrian J. Muzzy was long one of Bristol's leading merchants, state senator, developer of real estate and with considerable inter- ests in Carlsbad, Colorado. His name was given to the athletic field which he did much to promote.
The Bristol Press was founded as a weekly in 1871 by Rev. C. H. Riggs who sold it in 1888 to Thomas H. Duncan. The Bristol Press Publishing Company was established in 1891 and bought the paper, Mr. Riggs continuing as editor till 1893. Arthur S. Barnes, Yale '02, became editor and manager and in 1916 began publishing a daily edition. The company absorbed the Farmington Valley Herald in 1908 and the New Hartford Tribune in 1911 and consolidated them as the weekly Farmington Valley Herald.
High up among the trees in the western part of the city towers what is known as the "Castle" which was many years in building and which very nearly marks the old home of Hon. Elisha
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N. Welch. Mr. Welch, who was born in East Hampton, began his career in Bristol in a very humble capacity but while still a young man, as told, bought the old Brown clock factory in Forest- ville and proceeded to build a business that was the equal of any of its kind in Connecticut. At his death he left an estate valued at $3,000,000. Mrs. Atkins-Makay was his oldest child. After much travel and many visits to European art galleries and struc- tures of architectural interest, she longed in her later years to establish a country home near her birthplace. She bought sixteen acres of the high land across West Street from where she had lived as a child and there, 500 feet above sea level, began to create what was like a baronial estate, which she named Brightwood. Most of the granite for the buildings was quarried on the place. The castle itself is of Gothic design in general. While the work was progressing and when not traveling abroad, she lived at Brightwood, in a cottage she had built near by the castle. Her death occurred before she had completed her plans. The prop- erty was bought by Albert F. Rockwell who occupied the castle in 1911 after he had expended about a million dollars on the land and buildings and elaborate furnishings. The estate then in- cluded thirty acres; the park Mr. Rockwell had given the city adjoined it. Mr. Rockwell lived here till he removed to Farming- ton in 1924. At his death in 1925, while a resident of New Britain, the estate passed to his wife by whom it was sold in 1928 to a syndicate of Hartford and West Hartford men who are to adapt the property for building lots.
Forestville, not having been cleared of its great trees, received its then appropriate name when the mills that have been men- tioned began to appear on its portion of the Pequabuck. Nehe- miah Manross was the first settler. Ingenious people were born here and drawn here. It was allowed a post office in 1847 and assumed further independence when it became a station on the present Highland Division of the New York, New Haven & Hart- ford railroad in 1850-the railroad which runs in a double curve through the city itself. The Memorial Boulevard extends east- erly to the Pequabuck at a point almost half way between Queen Street of the main city and the parallel King Street in Forestville, between which the gap of open country is fast being closed.
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THE BROWN INN, BURLINGTON
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ยง BURLINGTON
The territory in the northern part of "West Woods" was not taken up by the early settlers of New Cambridge (Bristol). It was crossed and recrossed many times by the Windsor and Hart- ford adventurers who went over to Litchfield to explore the land that had been granted when there was fear that Governor Andros of all New England might seize what had been granted to no one, but about the middle of the eighteenth century there was here and there a family that had braved the wilds. Among them, in the western part, were Asa Yale, Enos Lewis, Joseph Lankton, Sr., Joseph Bacon and Seth Wiard; in the northern part, Abra- ham and Theodore Pettibone and Nathaniel Bunnell, and in the eastern part John and Simeon Strong.
When in 1774 the General Assembly established the ecclesias- tical society of New Cambridge, it also, by separate vote, estab- lished that of West Britain, inasmuch as the northerners were averse to a union, as previously explained. Twenty-one years after Bristol's incorporation as a town, or in 1806, West Britain carried its long-cherished point in the Assembly and secured separation as the town of Burlington, covering 20,160 acres. Al- together there was quite a variation from experience of other set- tlements. Though the settlers were almost fanatical in their reli- gious zeal, they never had applied for "winter privileges" or parish rights, inasmuch as they were Seventh-Day Baptists, from the colony of Roger Williams. They had migrated from West- erly, Rhode Island, nineteen of them all told, led by Rev. Jonathan Budick and Deacon Elisha Stillman. They were doers but not recorders of their doings; hence we do not know the motive of their long journey into the land of the Puritans-into a dense wilderness. It is tradition that they speedily set up their place of worship in 1780, ten miles north of the present Burlington vil- lage, and were earnest in their service. For some reason, how- ever, a considerable portion of them passed over into New York state where there was a large church, and after half a century from the beginning, the church was no more.
The Congregationalists were lacking in the otherwise uni- versal regard for colonial church regulations, for they took no steps toward formation of a society till 1783. In that year the
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present society was established, with twenty-six members. Rey John Miller of Torrington was settled as pastor and the society again was somewhat exceptional in that it retained him till 1831. The church was located on the slope of Meeting-house Hill, about opposite Zebulon Cole's tavern. The next church, dedicated in 1808, was built northeast of the first one and remained there till 1836 when it was removed to the present site and was practically rebuilt.
The Methodists, who nowhere were congenial with the Con- gregationalists at that time, went south a way for their structure in 1814 but came up to the village in 1835. Nathan Bangs, later president of Wesleyan University, was one of their early pastors.
Farming is the only occupation. The town is coming to be more and more appreciated for its romantic beauty, a delightful place for summer residence. The mysterious "Leather Man" who for years silently roamed western Connecticut on an almost unvarying schedule, had the woods of Burlington as one of his stopping places. Considerable fiction gathered around him be- fore he was found dead in one of his lairs near Mount Pleasant, New York, but it could only be established that he was of French descent. His clothing was of leather pieces sewed together by himself. He would appear regularly at the rear doors of certain houses along his route, which included eastern New York, and silently receive dole of a cup of coffee and some bread. The pic- ture presented here is believed to be the only "close-up" ever obtained. It was taken in 1885.
Since a portion of the town was cut off for Avon and Canton, the Farmington River has formed a good portion of its eastern boundary. There was rail connection with the outside world till recently, by train from Collinsville on the Northampton branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford road, Collinsville being just over the northeast line. The years have passed with little change in population. In 1810 the census showed 1,467, or a hundred more than Bristol; in 1920 there were 1,109 souls; the highest point since 1810 was 1,319 in 1870.
In 1925 the State Commission on Forests and Wild Life began to function in combination with the State Board of Fisheries and Game and the State Park and Forest Commission. At that time there was a total of 11,603 acres of state forests; today there are about 40,000. One of the preserves obtained by purchase is the
"THE OLD LEATHER MAN"
Took in the western edge of Hartford County in his annual trips. Was for forty years a mystery, having no known habitation, speaking to no one except to grunt thanks for food, when his words had a French accent. Found dead in the woods, March 24, 1889
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676 acres on the line between Burlington and New Hartford, lying between the Nepaug River and Phelps Brook. Half of this territory is a carefully kept preserve where a force of men work the year around breeding brook trout to be distributed in various streams. This plant, which was opened in 1922, represents an investment of approximately $70,000.
In the Whigville section of the town is a reservoir system for New Britain's extra water supply, now being enlarged.
HARTLAND
A second town the land of which was granted to Hartford and Windsor men in order that Governor Andros might not lay claim to it was a jog into Litchfield County, at the Massachusetts border, known as Hartland because it was specifically assigned for Hartford men. It does not appear that Hartford men wished to live there; its value at the time of the grant was purely specu- lative. In 1928 it has become a favorite resort for sportsmen. It has three post offices-at East, West and North Hartland, and only stage connection with the outside world. It is like a bit of the Adirondacks. It gained incorporation in 1761. There are 22,300 acres of rough land for a population of less than a thou- sand. The east and west branches of the Farmington River flow through it, from Morris and Nichols ponds in Massachusetts, re- spectively. A state reservation Tunxis Forest, of over 1,200 acres, is in the northwestern portion and Hartland Pond of eighty acres lies near the Colebrook or western border.
John Kendall of Granby was the first to take his chances with the remnants of the Tunxis tribe who already had begun their westward march. Thomas Giddings of Lyme located here in 1754, and was followed by Joshua Giddings of that settlement, whose grandson, Joshua R. Giddings, was to become the famous abolitionist of Pennsylvania. Rev. Samuel Giddings who in 1817 organized the first church in St. Louis and was its pastor for many years was another grandson.
Vice President Charles Gates Dawes is great-grandson of Rev. Aaron Gates of East Hartland. The line of descent is traced from Simon Beman of Springfield, a shoemaker, through Samuel
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Beman of Windsor and of Simsbury, Thomas Beman, also of Simsbury, Capt. Daniel Beman of East Hartland who fought in the Revolution, and Rev. Aaron Gates. The minister's son went West and his daughter, Mary Beman Gates, was the mother of General Dawes. The minister went on to join his son, became eminent as a divine and assisted in establishing Amherst College. The son, father of General Dawes, taught a singing school in Marietta, Ohio, became an editor and then a banker and eventu- ally a well-known railroad financier.
With Thomas Beman of Simsbury came Daniel Ensign of Hartford, followed by Caleb and Timothy Olmsted of East Hart- ford. Timothy was one of the most esteemed writers of church music of his times.
Back in the dense woods hunters come across ruins of old mills. There was Fuller's fulling mill in North Hollow, Thomas Sugden's tannery in East Hartland and Deodate Ensign's in West Hart- land. Successful print works were set up by John Ward near the southern line,-closed in 1857 but renewed by Michael Ward 1874 as a paper-making concern.
It was fifteen years after incorporation before the town was represented in the Legislature; then it sent two members, Phineas Kingsbury and John Wilder. Colonel Holmes was representative for thirty-six sessions.
The church was organized in 1768 and Rev. Sterling Graves was installed. East and west parishes were created by the Legis- lature and in 1780 a church was built in the latter, of which Rev. Nathaniel Gaylord of Windsor, valedictorian of his class at Yale, was pastor from 1781 to 1841. The meeting-house built in 1764 was replaced in 1801; in 1875 this was remodeled without sacri- ficing the original simplicity and dignity. The 1775 church of the West Society stood till 1844 when a new one was built and Stephen Goodrich gave a bell. The Methodists built in 1833. A town hall was built at the Hollow, the geographical center, in 1860, on land given by Jonathan A. Miller.
A number of Hartland's sons have made places for themselves in the world. Rev. Seth B. Pratt was a precocious student at Yale. After practicing law at East Windsor Hill, he studied for the ministry. At the time of his death in Boston, at the age of seventy-seven, he had been secretary of the American Board of
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Commissioners for Foreign Missions for many years. Horace and Eli T. Wilder, sons of Col. Eli Wilder, became judges in Ohio. Lester Taylor also was a judge in Ohio and state senator. Rev. Samuel Edwards Woodbridge, son of Rev. Samuel Woodbridge, who came from Hartford, kept a private school here, later a school on Long Island for neglected children and finally one for boys at Perth Amboy. He died in 1865.
Sport and game clubs are expending more and more money in providing camps. A club composed of Hartford men is building a large log dam, 300 feet long, on a 6,000-acre tract recently bought. The dam will considerably enlarge Hartland Pond and the improvements will include a new road around the pond.
LIX EAST HARTFORD
TROUBLESOME PURCHASES FROM THE PODUNKS-"PRIEST" WILLIAMS' INTOLERANCE-INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE IN EARLY DAYS-MANY COLONIAL LEADERS-WAR MEMORIALS-AGRICULTURE AND PECU- LIARITY OF LOCATION IMPORTANT FACTORS IN MODERN DEVELOP- MENT.
East Hartford's early history was so closely interwoven with Hartford's that much of it already has been given. Yet there was notable diversity in handling. It would seem that the dwell- ers on the west bank of the Connecticut were so absorbed in their Constitution-making and church-building that they paid little heed to the somewhat inaccessible east side until the fertility of the meadow land running back to the river's original bank attracted them. They bought of Chief Tantinomo of the Po- dunks only three miles into the country, and then fenced off for the aborigines the northern part of the meadows and in general allowed them to fish and hunt at will throughout the territory, whereas on the west side the reservations were fixed a good dis- tance inland and few Sequins thereafter were seen around the settlement. This indifference to the east side and its effect upon the somewhat despised Podunks begot troubles which have been reviewed.
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