History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 126

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532

USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > History of Litchfield county, Connecticut > Part 126

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EARLY SCHOOLS.

In New England the church and the school were equal objects of care, and, although our Salisbury ancestors professed as their first object a desire to be gathered into church estate, yet this estate was un- derstood by them to include the school as a con- sequence.

In 1743, and before the settlement of a minister, the town voted to procure a schoolmaster for one year, and directed a sehool to be kept, under the superintendence of a committee, three months at Weatogue, four months near Cornelius Knickerbac- or's, at Lakeville, and three months in the Hollow or Lime Rock. Robert Waln was probably the first schoolmaster in the town, but his services were con- fined to the Dutch population at. Weatogue. In De- eember, 1743, the town ordered the building of two log school-houses, one at Weatogue, and one at Lime Rock. Dr. Wilson, or Williams, was the first schoolmaster employed under the authority of the town.

In January, 1745, five school squadrons, as they were then called, were established, and the public- school money was distributed to them, in proportion to the number of scholars in each. At that time money for the support of the schools was raised by a general tax upon the inhabitants of the town, and also from the rents of the school lands.

In 1743, Thomas Newcomb, Benajah Williams, Thomas Lamb, Benjamin White, and Samuel Bellows were appointed a committee to lease the lands on the school right for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, taking security for the avails.

In 1766 the number of scholars receiving instruc- tion in the common schools was four hundred and eighty. Reading, writing, arithmetic, 'and the As- sembly's catechism constituted the full course of school instruction for many years.

In the winter of 1804 the town was highly excited by a collision between the school-visitors and the in- structors, occasioned, as the instructors claimed, by i

an unwarrantable interference with the religious opin- ions of some of them. Many of the schoolmasters were dismissed from their schools, and their school- houses closed a while. But harmony was restored again, and no evil abiding consequences resulted .*

LIBRARY.

Before the Revolutionary war successful measures were adopted to establish a public library in the town. Mr. Richard Smith, an English gentleman of respectability, was a proprietor of the Furnace, and felt a deep interest in the welfare of the town. Through his agency, and from funds raised by several public-spirited individuals a library, consisting of about two hundred volumes, was procured from Lon- don, and received the name of "Smith Library."

In January, 1803, Mr. Caleb Bingham, of Boston, a native of this town, influenced by a generous re- gard for the youth here, presented a small library of one hundred and fifty volumes to the town, for the use of the young, and appointed a board of trustees for its management, consisting of Rev. Joseph W. Crossman, Samuel Lee, Luther Holley, Asa Hutchinson, Peter Farnam, I'hineas Chapin, Timothy Chittenden, Elisha Sterling, Lot Norton, Jr., and Benajah Bingham. These trustees had power to fill vacancies in their own board. At that time, when books especially useful to youth were comparatively scarce, this donation was of peculiar value and gratefully received by the town. The library received the name of the "Bingham Li- brary for Youth." It was a small beginning, but it infused into the youthful population a new impulse, and a taste for reading, before unknown, was soon dis- coverable among the young. The books were sought for and read with avidity. The town from time to time, by grants from its treasury, has contributed to its enlargement, and generous individuals too have made to it valuable additions. Among the benefac- tors of this cherished institution have been the late Professor Averill, of Union College, and the late Dr. Caleb Ticknor, of New York, a nephew of its founder, and both natives of this town, and who, in common with many others, have acknowledged their obliga- tions to this library for much of their success and dis- tinetion in after-life. The generous and unwearied efforts of our respected friend, Mr. John Whittlescy, in aid of the "Bingham Library for Youth" will be long remembered. The present number of well- selected volumes is about five hundred.

In 1810 there were received by subscribers through the post-office in this town only eighteen newspapers weekly.

The following persons have received academical literary degrees from American colleges while inhab- itants of this town, viz., Hon. Nathaniel Chipman, James Hutchinson, Samuel Camp, Jonathan Lee (2d), Elisha Lee, Chauncey Lee, Gen. Peter B. Porter,

* For present condition of schools, soo General Illstory.

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HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

Caleb Bingham, Thomas Fitch, William L. Strong, Myron Holley, Horace Holley, Samuel Church, Thomas G. Waterman, Jonathan Lee (3d), Orville L. Holley, Isaac Bird, Lot Norton, Jr., John M. Sterling, John M. Holley, Jr., Eli Reed, Graham H. Chapin, George A. Calhoun, Chester Averill, Albert E. Church, Caleb Ticknor, Roger Averill, George B. Dutcher, Edward Hollister, Gurdon Spencer, Charles A. Lee, Edmund Reed, Churchill Coffing, Joseph Pettec, Amos B. Beach, Josiah Turner, William G. Sterling, Eliphalet Whittlesey, Jr., Charles Whittle- sey, George Bartlett, Samuel P. Church, and Jona- than Edwards Lee.

The State of Vermont owes something to the men of Salisbury for its present position among the States of this Union. As early as 1761, John Everts, the same gentleman who was our first representative to the General Court of this colony, procured from Gov- ernor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, the charters or grants of the towns of Middlebury, New Haven, and Salisbury, in the former State. The first proprietors of Middlebury were almost all of them inhabitants of this town ; and these proprietors held their first meet- ing at the house of Landlord Everts, in Salisbury, and elected Matthias Kelsey, Ebenezer Hanchett, and James Nichols to be the first selectmen of Middle- bury.

Some of the most energetic and resolute of the Green Mountain Boys emigrated from this town; and among these boys were Thomas Chittenden, Ethan Allen, Ira Allen, and Jonas Galusha. Thomas Chit- tenden was Governor of Vermont, with the exception of one year, from 1778 to 1797. In the early disputes between the Province or State of New York and the settlers of the New Hampshire grants, no man was more active than Ethan Allen. He defied the admo- nitions and the threats of the Governor of New York, contained in a proclamation addressed to the settlers, and says, in a manifesto signed by himself and others, on the 5th day of April, 1774, " We flatter ourselves we can muster as good a regiment of marksmen and scalpers as America can afford, and we give the gen- tlemen (of New York) an invitation to come and view the dexterity of our regiment," etc. Ira Allen was for many years the treasurer, and Jonas Galusha the Governor, of Vermont.

The history of the Western Reserve, in Ohio, is familiar with us. That tract of country was surveyed into townships hy Augustus Porter, son of our distin- guished townsman, Col. Joshua Porter, assisted by other gentlemen, among whom was our late excellent and much-lamented friend, John M. Holley, Esq. Among the original purchasers and proprietors of the towns of Canfield and Johnston, in Trumbull Co., Ohio, and some other towns in that reserve, were James Johnston, Daniel Johnston, Nathaniel Church, David Waterman, and Timothy Chittenden, of this town. Many of the earliest settlers of the town of Canfield were our inhabitants, viz., Champion Min-

ard, James Doud, Aaron Collar, William Chapman, Ziba Loveland, Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, Ensign Church, and some others.

There has been a manufacturing interest in Salis- bury from the beginning, and yet we have been, pre- eminently, an agricultural people. There have been but few places in which the agricultural facilities have been more diversified than this, although the commit- tee which first explored our territory had some doubts whether it could sustain a sufficient population to sup- port a minister.

Formerly there were not more than three well-es- tablished mercantile concerns in the town,-Holley's, at the Furnace; Moore's, at the Centre; and Chapin's, at Camp's Forge.

IRON INTERESTS.

The iron ore, the forests, and the frequent water- power found here at a very early period introduced the manufacture of iron, and we have had but few other manufactories. The first forge was erected by Thomas Lamb, in the Hollow, as it was formerly called, now called Lime Rock, before the charter of the town, and before its sale at Hartford, in 1738. Lamh's iron-works are referred to as existing in the earliest conveyances. They were probably erected as early as 1734. Soon afterwards a grist-mill and saw-mill were built just below, upon the same fall of water, by Lamb and others. The Lime Rock forge and furnace of Messrs. Canfield & Robhins now oc- cupy the sites of these ancient works. Iron ore was first taken from the Hendricks ore bed, now called the Davis ore bed, to supply Lamb's iron-works. Lamb was a proprietor of that ore bed. These works have subsequently been occupied by Thomas Starr, Martin Hoffman, Joel Harvey, Thomas Chipman, Jr., Ebenezer Hanchett, Thomas Austin, and James Johnston, and for many years were known only as Johnston's forge.

FIRST BLAST-FURNACE.

Thomas Lamb, who owned the outlet of the Fur- nace Pond, conveyed it in 1748 to Benajah Williams, Josiah Stoddard, and William Spencer. These per- sons soon after built a forge, near where the remains of the old furnace now are. Afterwards, -- Moor- house, Caleb Smith, John Dean, John Pell, Gideon Skinner, Joseph Jones, Eliphalet Owen, John Cobb, and Leonard Owen were at different periods its pro- prietors. It was called Owen's iron works. In 1762, Leonard Owen conveyed this property to John Hasel- tine, Samuel Forbes, and Ethan Allen. These gen- tlemcen erected the first blast-furnace ever built in this State, as I suppose. Charles and George Caldwell, of Hartford, purchased this property in 1763, and they conveyed it to Richard Smith, of Boston, in 1768.

Thomas Lamb was proprietor of the water privi- lege on the mountain, since called Riga, and had con- trol of the stream flowing therefrom. Very early he

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SALISBURY.

erected a saw-mill and grist-mill on that stream, about one-half mile northwest of the Centre village, at or near the falls upon which Clark's mills now stand,-as early as 1744. This property was soon afterwards owned by Joel Harvey and Joseph Parke, and from them has been transmitted through various proprietors to the present owners.

Nathaniel Jewell, in 1753, built a grist-mill on the northern line of the town, near Sage's present works.

No business was done at the great falls of the Housatonic before the erection of the paper-mill, in 1783. That manufactory was established by the late Samuel Forbes, Esq., and Nathaniel Church, and for several years was an active and prosperous concern. Paper was then made exclusively of linen rags, and by the slow process of the hand mould. A saw-mill and fulling-mill were erected there about the same time. An extensive lumber business was prosecuted. Pine timber, in large quantities and of excellent quality, was by the spring freshets annually drifted down the river from the towns above.

About the year 1797, Charles Loveland erected an extensive manufactory of gun-barrels there. The entire works, except the saw-mill, were destroyed by fire in February, 1800, and never rebuilt. For several years thereafter no active business was done in that neighborhood.

Abner or Peter Woodin erected a forge at Mount Riga about the year 1781. Daniel Ball succeeded, and the forge was for many years known as Ball's forge. Seth King and John Kelsey commenced buikt- ing a furnace there about 1806, but were not able to complete it. The entire property in the forge and furnace came into the hands of Coffing, Ilolly & Pet- tec in the year 1810, who the same year finished the furnace, and for many years prosecuted a very exten- sive and profitable business. Pig iron, anchors, screws, and various kinds of manufactured iron were made there. This establishment, including the works at Lime Rock, was incorporated in 1828, by the name of the Salisbury Iron Company.

The furnace near the Falls bridge was built by Leman Bradley in 1812. It was burnt in 1814, and immediately rebuilt. The refining forge there was built by Canfield, Sterling & Co., in , and the neighborhood, about that time, received the name of Falls Village. The iron-works there and at Lime Rock are now the property of Messrs. Canfield & Robbins.

The iron-works at the upper or little falls of the Housatonie were built in 1833, by Eddy Ames & Kinsley, but have since that time been much ex- tended.

The ore-bed in the west part of the town, called by way of distinction the Old Ore Hill, is a tract of one hundred acres, originally granted by the General Court in October, 1731, to be laid out by Daniel Bis- sell, of Windsor. It was soon after surveyed and located

by Ezekiel Ashley and Jobn Pell. The descendants of Ashley are at this day proprietors of the ore-bed. From this mine the most abundant supplies of ore have been furnished. For many years the mineral was easily obtained and with little excavation.

The Chatfield ore-bed, so called from its original proprietor, Philip Chatfield, lies in the vicinity of the old ore-bed.

Hendrick's ore-bed, now called the Davis Hill, was at a very early period owned by Thomas Lamb, the Salisbury speculator, and ore was taken from it to supply his forge at Lime Rock. This ore-bed is sit- uated about a mile southwest of the Centre village. The Bingham ore-bed, since called the Scoville ore- bed, lies about three miles northwest of the Centre village. Still farther north is Camp's or Chapin's ore-bed. In the extreme southwest corner of the town is the Bradley ore-bed. On the Sharon side of the town line ore in considerable quantities is taken from this mine. The ore from our mines yields from forty to forty-five per cent. of iron. The ore is of the brown hematite variety.

Copperas, or sulphate of iron, has been found on Barackmatiff Hill, and at a place called Samuel Moore's mine, on Sugar Hill.

ATTORNEYS.

For many years Salisbury had the reputation of affording a successful field for gentlemen of the legal profession. This was not the result of a litigious spirit in the people, nor of any unusual propensity of the lawyers, but rather of the active and business-like enterprise of the population. The first lawyer who settled here was Jabez Swift, Esq., a native of Kent. Upon the breaking out of the war of the Revolution he joined the army in Boston, and there died. The late Adonijah Strong, Esq., was a pupil of Mr. Swift, and succeeded him in practice. Col. Strong was a man of vigorous mind ; had a large practice, but pos- sessed none of the graces of eloquence. For many years he was an efficient magistrate, and a member of the General Assembly. He died in February, 1813.

Joseph Canfield, Esq., commenced his professional studies with Col. Strong, and finished them at the Litchfield law-school. Ile commenced his practice at Furnace Village, about the year 1789. Mr. Can- field was a gentleman of graceful manners and good talents; he died in September, 1803, having been several times a member of the Assembly.

Gen. Elisha Sterling was a graduate of Yale Col- lege, and a member of the law-school at Litchfieldl. He commenced his professional life in this town in 1791, and he prosecuted his profession with great in- dustry and success until the year 1830, when he re- tired to his farm at Furnace Village, where he died, Dec. 3, 1836. Gen. Sterling was a well-read lawyer, and possessed a discriminating mind. Twice he rep- resented the Seventeenth Senatorial District in the I senate of this State, and for several years represented

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HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

this town in the General Assembly. He was many years a magistrate, nine years a judge of probate for the district of Sharon, and for a considerable period State's attorney for this county. The name of no other citizen appears more frequently upon our town and society records than his.

Hon. Martin Strong was the eldest son of Col. Adonijah Strong. He commenced the practice of law here in 1801. Several years before his death he exchanged the legal profession for agricultural pur- suits. Judge Strong was for many years one of our most active magistrates, and an associate judge of the County Court. He had been a member of both branches of our Legislature. The following also commenced business in this town, and subsequently removed to other places : Chauncey Lee, Myron Hol- ley, Hon. Ansel Sterling, Ezra Jewell, John M. Ster- ling, Edward Rockwell, Churchill Coffing, and Norton J. Buell.

PHYSICIANS.

The first physician was Dr. Solomon Williams, who emigrated from Lebanon. He died in the year 1757, and in the same year was succeeded by Dr. Joshua Porter, from the same place. Dr. Porter graduated at Yale College in 1754. His place of residence was at Furnace Village, on the farm originally occupied by Cornelius Knickerbacor. For half a century his professional practice was very extensive, and he was estecmed as one of the most skillful physicians of his day. But his profession did not engross his whole attention. He was much in public life, both civil and military. For twenty years he was a selectman, a justice of the peace thirty-five years, and associate judge of the County Court thirteen years, chief justice of the same court sixteen years, judge of probate for the district of Sharon thirty-seven years. In the year 1764 he was first elected a member of the As- sembly, and was a member of that body fifty-one stated sessions.

Col. Porter was not attached to the Continental army in the Revolutionary war, but was an efficient militia officer. As a colonel of mititia, he was in service with his regiment at Peekskill, and again at Saratoga, at the capture of Burgoyne. This venerable and much-esteemed gentiman died on the 2d day of April, 1825, aged ninety-five years.

Dr. Lemuel Wheeler commenced practice here about the year 1765. He too was a public man, and several times a member of the General Assembly.

Dr. Samuel Cowdray settled near Chapinville; subsequently he was attached to the navy of the United States. He was a surgeon on board of the unfortunate frigate " Philadelphia," when that vessel was captured by the Barbary pirates, and he was a long time detained as a slave in Tripoli, and until reclaimed by his government.

Other physicians have been Drs. Jonathan Fitch, Darius Stoddard, John Johnston, William Wheeler, Samuel Lee, William Walton, the elder, William

Walton (2d), John P. Walton, Samuel Rockwell, Joshua Porter, Jr., James R. Dodge, Abiram Peet, Benajah Ticknor, now of the United States navy, Perry Pratt, John J. Catlin, Caleb Tickor, and Moses A. Lee.

EPIDEMIC.

The geographical features of the town truly indi- cate a healthful climate. For the last twenty years the annual average number of deaths has been from thirty to thirty-five, or about one and a half per cent. of our population. Yet, in common with most other healthful localities, we have been occasionally visited with fatal pestilence. About the year 1784 a fever of uncommon mortality raged in the north part of the town, and in the vicinity of the ponds, called then the pond fever, and supposed to have been produced by the unusual accumulation of water in the ponds. Many names, before frequent and prominent upon our civil and ecclesiastical records, ceased thereafter to be any more seen. Again, in the years 1812 and 1813, a fever, called, from its general prevalence, The Epi- demic, swept over this and some neighboring towns with fearful mortality, uncontrolled by medical skill. During the first of these years there were about eighty deaths, and in the latter nearly seventy, and chiefly from that disease. Indeed, all other maladies seem to have fled before it, and to have given place, that it might rage and conquer alone. It was the pneumonia typhoides of the books, or a typhoid pleurisy.

Samuel Moore was the first land-surveyor in the town, and was the eldest son of the first emigrant here of that name,-Sergt. Samuel Moore. He was a distinguished mathematician of his time, and was the author of a valuable and extensively-circulated treatise upon surveying, which I believe was the first American work on that branch of mathematical science. He died in the year 1810, aged seventy-three years.

PROMINENT CITIZENS .*

" It is a just occasion of pride in any community that it has sent forth from its numbers to other re- gions men of eminence and usefulness ; and perhaps this town has furnished other sections of our con- federacy its full proportion of distinguished men. Hon. Thomas Chittenden, though a native of Guil- ford, was for many years a resident here, and repre- ' sented this town many times in the General Assembly. He emigrated to Vermont before the war of the Rev- olution, and was Governor of that State for many years. His son, Hon. Martin Chittenden, also Gov- ernor of Vermont, and a member of Congress from that State, was born here.

"Col. Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, resided in this town some years before his emigration to Ver- mont, and was one of the original proprietors of the old furnace.

* This list is taken from Judge Church's address. For additional names see Governor A. H. Holley's address elsewhere in this work.

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SALISBURY.

"Hon. Jonas Galusha was one of our citizens. He was the son of Jacob Galnsha, who removed from Nor- wich to this town in 1771, and settled on the north side of the north pond. Jonas Galusha, for several years, was a very popular Governor of Vermont.

" Hon. Nathaniel Chipman, late chief justice of the State of Vermont, and a distinguished member of the senate of the United States, was born and educated here. He was the son of Samuel Chipman.

" Hon. Daniel Chipman, youngest brother of Judge Chipman, for many years one of the most prominent members of the Vermont bar, was also a native of this town.

"Hon. Ambrose Spencer, late chief justice of the State of New York, was born here on the 13th of De- cember, 1765. He was the son of Philip Spencer, Esq., whose place of residence was near the western ex- tremity of the town. The character of Judge Spencer is extensively known as one of the most accomplished members of the judiciary department of the State of New York.

"Gen. Peter B. Porter was the youngest son of Col. Joshua Porter. Soon after he completed his colle- giate and professional studies, he, together with his elder brother, Hon. Augustus Porter, emigrated to the county of Ontario, in the State of New York. Gen. Porter was a member of Congress, and very early laid before that body the great national importance of the Erie Canal. In the late war, 1812, with England, he took a conspicuous part, as commander of the New York volunteers, upon the northern frontier. He was actively engaged against the enemy at the cele- brated sortie from Fort Erie and other important oc- casions. During a part of the administration of John Q. Adams as President of the United States, Gen. Porter was Secretary of War.

" Hon. Augustus Porter, second son of Col. Porter, was equally useful and respected in civil life.

" Hon. Josiah S. Johnston, late of Louisiana, and a much valued member of the senate of the United States, was the son of Dr. John Johnston, of this town. He removed, when a child, with his father to Kentucky. He fell a victim to a fatal explosion of n steamboat on the Mississippi River.

" Among the members of Congress from other States who were born or reared in this town appear the names of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, of Ohio, and Hon. Graham HI. Chapin, Charles Johnston, and Theron R. Strong, of New York.

" Rev. Horace Holley, D.D., a distinguished scholar and eloquent divine, president of the Transylvania University, was the son of the late Luther Holley.

"Rev. Isaac Bird, a devoted missionary in Asia, a descendant of Joseph Bird, Esq., one of the earliest settlers and first magistrates, was born and educated here.

"Myron Holley and Orville L. Holley, Esqs., sons of the late Luther Holley, distinguished as scholars and gentlemen, and by various responsible employ-

ments in public life, were nurtured and educated, if not born, here.

" Chester Averill, late Professor of Chemistry in Union College, who died in 1836, just as he began to give certain promise of extensive usefulness and high literary distinction. He was the son of Mr. Nathan- iel P. Averill, of this town.

" As no colony tax was assessed and collected of the people of this town before the year 1756, so we were not, until that time, entitled to a representation in the Colony Legislature. Previously, however, the town, on special occasions, appointed and paid special agents to the General Court.

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 126

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1532

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532