History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 34

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 34

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* Judge Woodruff.

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LITCHFIELD.

writing for the year next ensuing, and a like sum was ordered to be raised by a tax upon the parents or guardians of the children, to be gathered by the town collector. Messrs. Marsh, Buel, Hosford, and Goodrich were chosen a school committee. Two years later ten pounds were paid out of the public treasury for the same object, with the proviso that four pounds of this sum should be given for the support of a writing-school, and the balance ' for teaching of chil- dren by school-dames,' from which we are to infer that the female teachers did not give instruction in writing. The first reference made by the records rel- ative to building a school-house is contained in the doings of a town-meeting held Dec. 23, 1731,-Mr. Joseph Kilbourn, moderator,-which is as follows :

"' Voted to build a school-house in ye center of ye town, on ye Meet- ing-House Green ; and Joseph Kilbourn, Jr., Ebenezer Marsh, and John Gay were chosen a committee to carry on said work.'"

" At the same time it was voted to build the school- house twenty feet square. The school committee were authorized to hire a schoolmaster, and set up a school during the succeeding fall and winter.

" Messrs. Jacob Griswold and Benjamin Gibbs were appointed in December, 1727, to run the lines and set up monuments ' between the school-lots and Pine Island.'

"The question as to how the school-lands should be disposed of to the best advantage appears to have been very difficult to settle. On the 12th of March, 1729, it was voted to sell them for one thousand pounds, and Messrs. Marsh and Bird were designated to man- age the sale. Some one, doubtless, called in question the right of the town to make such a sale, as a week later the inhabitants, in general town-meeting con- vened, appointed Mr. Marsh their agent to apply to the General Assembly ' for liberty to make sale of the school-lands in Litelifield.' The application was un- successful, but the people soon found a way to evade the letter of the law. On the 29th of November, 1729, it was 'voted that the school right in Litchi- field should be leased out for the maintenance of a school in said Litchfield for nine hundred and ninety- nine years ensuing.' Messrs. Marsh, Buel, Hosford, and Bird, were appointed a committee to lease the lands accordingly. As if apprehensive that even this lease might ultimately expire and thus give their descendants unnecessary trouble, with a far- reaching glance into futurity, they proceeded to bind their successors 'in ye recognizance of ten thou- sand pounds lawful money, to give a new lease of said Right at the end of said term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years if there shall be occasion.'"

In pursuance of these votes the committee appointed for that purpose, on the 15th of April, 1730, leased to sundry individuals the school right for the time des- ignated ; the grantee paying twenty-seven pounds annually for eight years for the support of the school, and the ninth year paying to the selectmen four hundred and fifty pounds, to be forever kept for the

support of a school in Litchfield. To the lease was annexed the following :

" Postscript .- Before signing and sealing, the above-mentioned signers and sealers agreed, that whoever occupies and improves all the above land or lands, or any part of them, shall pay all rates or taxes that shall arise upon them or any part of them during the whole term of the lease."

In the year 1867 it was " voted to divide the money for which the school right was sold between the old so- eiety, the South Farms Society, and the Church of England in proportion to the list of cach part."

In addition to the law-school mentioned on a pre- vious page, the following educational institutions flourished here, all of which are now extinct: Litch- field Female Academy (incorporated in 1827), the Elm Park Collegiate Instutute, the Wolcott Institute, and the Gould Seminary. (For present condition of schools see Chapter VIII.)

EXECUTIONS.

It is believed that no native of Litchfield was ever convicted of murder, and that willful murder was never committed by or upon a white man within the limits of this town. In 1768 an Indian, named John Jacob, was hanged for the murder of another Indian. In November, 1785, Thomas Goss, of Barkhamsted, was executed for the murder of his wife. In these days he would have been acquitted on the ground of insanity. On the plea that his wife was a witch, he split her head open with an axe. Though at times apparently rational, he sometimes declared that he was the second Lamb of God, that he was brother of Jesus Christ, and that he was the child born of the woman mentioned in the Revelation of St. John, " before whom the dragon stood ready to devour the child;" he forbade his counsel to apply for a reprieve, declared the sheriff' could not hang him, etc. May 8, 1780, Barnet Davenport, aged twenty years, was ex- ccuted for murder and arson in Washington. Resid- ing as a laborer in the family of Caleb Mallory, he entered the sleeping-room of Mr. and Mrs. Mallory at midnight and beat them to death with a club, and their little grandchild shared the same fate. After robbing the house and setting it on fire the murderer fled, leaving two other persons asleep who perished in the flames. These persons, it is understood, were ex- ecuted in Gallows Lane, in this village. Other con- vietions for capital crimes have taken place before the courts, but these are the only individuals who have ever suffered the extreme penalty of the law in this county.

ASSIGNED TO SERVICE FOR DEBT.

Formerly, by a law of this State, if debtors had no other means to pay their debts they were assigned in service for that purpose. And it is said to have been common for poor foreigners, who could not pay their passage money, to stipulate with the captain of the ship that he might assign them to raise the money. l'ersons so assigned were called redemptioners, and

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several were so held in service in this town. Among them was Matthew Lyon, a native of Ireland, who was assigned to Ilugh Hannah, of Litchfield, for a pair of stags valued at twelve pounds. Lyon was afterwards a member of Congress from Vermont and from Kentucky. He was convicted under the famous alien and sedition law, and fined. The fine was sub- sequently remitted by Congress to him or his heirs.

BANTAM FALLS

is a pleasant village about four miles west of Litch- field, a station on the Shepaug Railroad, situated on the Bantam River, which here falls one hundred and twenty-five feet in a distance of less than three- quarters of a mile, an excellent site for manufactur- ing, as, in addition to the great descent of the river, it has the advantage of Bantam Lake for a reservoir. This picturesque lake has a superficial area of about one thousand acres, the outflow being controlled per- feetly by a dam fourteen feet in width, about half a mile from the lake. There are several manufacturing establishments now in operation,-a cotton-mill, a very complete grist- and flouring-mill, a successful carriage-factory, also several dams and unoccupied mill-sites. There are also two thriving stores, one of which is owned by the postmaster and used as a post- office. It is connected by telephone with Litchfield, and the railroad telegraph passes through the village. With the unfailing water-power, which has stood the test of the severe droughts and frost of past years, the inhabitants of Bantam anticipate a future of great prosperity.

The west side of Bantam Lake has attracted much notice from visitors by reason of the picturesque views from the road, which passes along closely hugging the water. One of Brooklyn's world-famous divines, who is also a great traveler, declares that in all his travels he has seen nothing more lovely than this drive.

The cotton-mill referred to above was built in 1876 -77 by Dorsey Neville & George E. Jones. Its pro- duction has been doubled since business commenced. The carriage-factory is the property of Flynn & Doyle. The flouring-mill belongs to E. McNeill, the gate at the outlet of the lake being owned and con- trolled by G. E. Jones.

NORTHFIELD

is a hamlet located in the southeastern part of the town. It was incorporated as a parish in 1794.

THE NORTHFIELD KNIFE COMPANY

was organized and incorporated in January, 1858, as a joint stock corporation, the original stock of ten thousand dollars being taken by some forty workmen, only a small portion of the capital being paid in at the start. The company then leased the buildings and water-power of the Northfield Manufacturing Company (organized several years previous for the manufacture of carriages and a variety of other goods,

and which venture proved unrenumerative), and in their factory, then nearly new, commenced the man- ufacture of pocket-cutlery. John S. Barnes, a native of Sheffield, England, was elected president of the corporation, and held that office for about four years. Then Samuel Mason, the former secretary, also from Sheffield, was chosen president, continuing in that office for about three years, when (in January, 1865) the management of the business was placed in the hands of F. H. Catlin, of Northfield, he heing elected president of the corporation, and which management and office he has had since that time and still retains.

In 1865 this company purchased the entire property of the Northfield Manufacturing Company, including a good water-power, with a fall of over fifty feet, which they have since greatly improved by the build- ing of large reservoirs on the two streams whose waters they control. They have also erected additional fac- tory buildings, numerous dwellings, and a fine store, and provided the village with an increased mail ser- vice. Their cutlery has always ranked high for quality, and has achieved an enviable reputation. It received high awards at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, is well and favorably known in nearly every State and Territory of the Union, and has been sold for export to several foreign countries. The different styles of pocket-knives kept in stock by this company number about four hundred, while their exhibit at Philadelphia comprised about eight hundred, and that at Paris about nine hundred styles. The annual business is about one hundred thousand dollars, em- ploying about seventy-five operatives, nearly all of whom are skilled Sheffield workmen, many of whom, together with their families, the company has brought over from England.

The present officers of the company are F. H. Cat- lin president and treasurer, and J. Howard Catlin secretary.

MILTON

is a hamlet located in the northwestern part of the town, and was incorporated as a parish in 1795.

BIOGRAPIIICAL NOTES.# .

Samuel Adams, a native of Milford and long a resi- dent of Stratford, came to this village to reside a few years previous to his death, which took place here Nov. 12, 1788, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He had been a prominent lawyer and judge of the Fair- field County Court. His widow, Mrs. Mary Adams, died in this town, Aug. 29, 1803, in the one hundred and sixth year of her age. "She retained," says the Monitor, "her memory, reason, and activity remark- ably until about two years before her death. After she was an hundred years old she rode on horseback thirty miles in one day." She was a daughter of Mr.

* Condensed from " Kilbourne's History of Litchfield."

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LITCHFIELD.

Zachariah Fairchild, and was born in Stratford, May 7, 1698 ; thus having lived in three centuries.

John Allen, a native of Great Barrington, Mass., was admitted to the Litchfield bar in 1786, and con- tinued to reside here as a praetieing lawyer until his death, in the year 1812. He was a representative at seven sessions ; clerk of the House in 1796; member of Congress from 1797 to 1799; and member of the State Council from 1800 to 1806. He not only pos- sessed great powers of mind, but was remarkable for his imposing presenee, having been nearly seven feet in height, and with a proportionably heavy frame.

John W. Allen, son of the preceding, was born in Litehfield, but left his native town soon after the death of his father. Having studied law, he settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he became eminent in his profession.

Rev. Horace Agard, son of Mr. Noah Agard, was born in Litchfield, received a license to preach from the Methodist Conference, and for some time labored successfully in his native town. He was subsequently presiding elder of the Susquehanna and Berkshire districts. He died Jan. 8, 1850.

Epaphroditus Champion Bacon was born in Liteli- field in 1811; graduated at Yale College in 1833, and settled in his native town as a lawyer. In 1839 he was a delegate to and secretary of the National Con- vention which met at Harrisburg and nominated Gen. Harrison for the Presidency of the United States. Mr. Bacon was elected a representative from this town in 1840, and again in 1841. While traveling in Europe, he died at Seville, Spain, Jan. 11, 1845, aged thirty-four years.

Lieut. Frederick A. Bacon, son of Asa Bacon, Esq., was born in Litchfield in 1813; entered the navy in his youth, and was attached to the United States schooner "Sea Gull," of the exploring expedition, which foundcred off Cape Horn, May 1, 1839, and all on board perished. He was twenty-six years of age.

Gen. Francis Bacon, youngest son of Asa Bacon, Esq., was born in Litchfield in January, 1820; gradu- ated at Yale College in 1829; studied law with the Hon. O. S. Seymour, and settled as n lawyer in his native town. With the exception of two or three years he continued to reside here until his denth. In 1847 and 1848 he was first clerk of the House; and in 1849 he was elected to the senate of this Stato. lle was also major-general of all the militia of Con- necticut. Hle died in this town, Sept. 16, 1849.

Isaac Baldwin graduated nt Yale College in 1735, settled in Litchfield in 1742, and died here Jan. 15, 1805, aged ninety-five years. He was a representative at ten sessions, clerk of the Probate Court twenty-nine years, town clerk thirty-one years, and clerk of the Court of Common P'leas forty-two years.

Rev. Ashbel Baldwin, son of Isaac Baldwin, Esq., was born in Litchfield, March 7, 1757, and graduated at Yale College in 1776. He was ordained alencon at

Middletown, by Bishop Seabury, Aug. 3, 1785, being the first Episcopal ordination in the United States. In September following he was ordained priest by the same bishop. From 1785 to 1793 he was rector of St. Michael's Church in this town, and was afterwards for about thirty years rector of Christ Church, Strat- ford. He was secretary of the diocese of Connecticut, and member of the general convention. Mr. Bald- win died in Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 8, 1846, in his eighty-ninth year. From his register it appears that he had preached and performed service about ten thousand times; baptized three thousand and ten persons; married six hundred couple; and buried about three thousand persons !

William B. Baldwin, son of Capt. Horaee and grandson of Isaac Baldwin, Esq., was boru in Liteh- field, Jan. 7, 1803, and for more than twenty years was one of the editors and proprietors of the New Haven daily and weekly Register.

Amos Barnes, son of Mr. Enos Barnes, was born in Litchfield. He was an officer in actual service in the last war with Great Britain.

Lyman Beecher, D.D., was born in New Haven, Oct. 12, 1775 ; graduated at Yale College in 1797, and was ordained pastor of a church in East Hampton, L. 1., in December, 1798, with a salary of three hun- dred dollars per year. In 1810, at the age of thirty- five years, he was installed pastor of the First Church in Litchfield, and remained here in that capacity for a period of sixteen years. This was, as he himself states, by far the most active and laborious part of his life. In addition to his ordinary pastoral services, he was probably more conspicuously identified with the establishment of the great benevolent associations of the day than any other country pastor in New England. Returning full of zeal from the first meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1812, he called together, in this village, several clergymen and laymen from vari- ous parts of the county, who organized the Litchfield County Foreign Mission Society, the first auxiliary of the American board. He was activo in all the reforms of that period. He was three times married.

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, June 24, 1813; graduated nt Amherst College in 1834; was licensed to preach in April, 1838; and was settled as pastor of a church in Lawrenceburg, Ind., in the full of the same year. From August, 1839, to October, 18.47, he was pastor of a church in Indianapolis, Ind. ; and since the last named date he has been pastor of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Jolin Bird, son of De. Seth Bird, was born in Litch- field, Nov. 22, 1768 ; graduated ut Yale College in 1786; practiced law for a few years in his native town ; re- moved to Troy, N. Y., in 1794, and died there in the yenr 1806, aged thirty-eight years. He had been a member of the Legislature of New York, and a mem- ber of Congress from that State. Ex-President Van Buren, in speaking of him, said,-

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IIISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

"John Bird I did not know personally, but have always taken much interest in his character and career. IIe must, according to all accounts, have been one of the very ablest men in the State, though a very eccen- tric one. There have been but few men among us who have left behind them so many racy anecdotes illustrative of their peculiarities."

His first wife was a daughter of Col. Joshua Porter, of Salisbury ; his second wife was Sally Buel, daughter of Mr. David Buel, of Troy, formerly of this town. He left several children.

Gen. John Ward Birge was born in Litchfield, Jan. 7, 1803, and in his youth went to reside with an uncle in Cazenovia, N. Y. He received his medical degree at Geneva College, and was a successful practitioner in Utica, where, as a surgeon and oculist, he had a high reputation.

George Beckwith Bissell, son of Mr. John Bissell, was born in Litchfield, Sept. 12, 1823; entered the United States navy in his youth. In August, 1846, he was attached to the United States brig "Truxton" when she was wrecked on the coast of Mexico, and with others was seized and held as a prisoner of war. On his release he made a visit to his native town ; but soon rejoined the navy, and for eighteen months was attached to the scientific department at Washington. He joined the frigate "Cumberland" in New York, as sailing-master, on the 3Ist of August, and died at the naval hospital in Brooklyn, Sept. 10, 1848, aged twenty-five years.

Lyman Bissell, son of Mr. Hiram Bissell, was born in Litchfield, Oct. 19, 1812; was captain in the United States army, and paymaster of the New England reg- iment in the war with Mexico.

Jolın P. Brace was born in Litchfield, Feb. 10, 1793 ; graduated at Williams College in 1812; and was for some years principal of the Litchfield Female Acad- emy, and subsequently of the Hartford Female Semi- nary. For a long time he was one of the editors of the Hartford Courant.

Charles Loring Brace, the celebrated traveler, is a son of John P. Brace, Esq., and was born in Litchfield, June 19, 1826. Having graduated at Yale College in 1846 and pursued a course of theological studies, he spent several years traveling in Europe, as a part of the fruits of which he has given to the public three or four very interesting volumes,-viz., "Hungary in 1851," "Home Life in Germany," "The Norse Folk," etc. In May, 1851, during the Hungarian struggle for independence, Mr. Brace was seized as a spy by the Austrian authorities and imprisoned at Gross War- dein ; but after a lapse of thirty days he was released through the intervention of Mr. McCurdy, then Ameri- can minister to Austria.

Abraham Bradley, son of Abraham Bradley, Esq., was born in Litehfield, Feb. 21, 1767, studied law, and became a judge in Luzerne Co., Pa. From 1799 to 1829 he was first assistant postmaster-general of the United States.

Dr. Phineas Bradley, brother of the preceding, was born in Litchfield, July 17, 1769; married Hannah Jones, of this town, and settled here as a physician

and druggist. When the office of second assistant postmaster-general was created by Congress, Dr. Brad- ley was appointed and retained the position for about twenty-five years. He was a gentleman of wealth, and distinguished for his hospitality and benevolence. He died at his beautiful seat, "Clover Hill," two miles north of the national capital, in the spring of 1845, aged seventy-six.

William A. Bradley, son of the preceding, was born in Litchfield, July 25, 1794, and settled in Washing- ton, D. C.

David Buel, Jr., was born in Litchfield, Oct. 22, 1784; graduated at Williams College in 1805; settled as a lawyer in Troy, where he still resides. In 1821 he was a delegate to the constitutional convention of his adopted State; for some years held the office of first judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Rens- selaer County, and in 1842 he was elected a regent of the State University. From 1829 to 1847, Judge Buel was a trustee of Williams College.

Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D., son of Ensign Bush- nell, Esq., was born in Litchfield in 1802; graduated at Yale College in 1827, and was a tutor in that insti- tution from 1829 to 1831. For the last twenty-seven years he has been pastor of the North Congregational Church in Hartford.

Julius Catlin, son of Mr. Grove Catlin, was born in Harwinton in 1799. When he was about one year old his parents removed to this village, and this con- tinned to be his home for the succeeding twenty years, though at the age of fifteen he commenced his clerkship in Hartford. He became a successful mer- chant in that city, where he still resides. Many years ago he was a director of the Connecticut branch of the United States Bank, and was one of the commit- tee appointed to wind up the affairs of that institu- tion, when the parent bank had been crushed by the veto of Gen. Jackson. In 1846 he was appointed commissary-general of the State, and subsequently he beld the office of auditor of public accounts. The President of the United States, in 1847, commissioned Col. Catlin as a member of the board of visitors to the National Military Academy at West Point. In the autumn of 1856, Col. Catlin and ex-Governor Dutton were chosen Presidential electors for the State at large. At the annual election in April, 1858, he was chosen Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut, and was re-elected.

Putnam Catlin, son of Mr. Eli Catlin, was born in Litchfield, studied law with Gen. Tracy, and was ad- mitted to the bar in this town in 1786. He settled in Montrose, Pa., and there held the office of judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was the father of George Catlin, the celebrated artist and historian of the American Indians, who was himself educated in Litchfield.

John Allen Collier, son of Capt. Thomas Collier, editor of the Monitor, was born in Litchfield, Nov. 13, 1787 ; settled as a lawyer in Binghamton, Broome Co.,

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N. Y. He was a member of Congress, comptroller of the State, commissioner to revise and codify the laws, senatorial elector for President and Vice-President of the United States, and delegate to and chairman of the Whig National Convention of 1848.

Gen. James Collier, brother of the preceding, was born in Litchfield, May 30, 1789; settled in the State of New York, and was quartermaster and acting ad- jutant at the battle of Queenstown, and participated in that fight. In 1819 he removed to Steubenville, Ohio. He was a prominent citizen.

Julius Deming, an eminent merchant of Litchfield, was born in Lyme, April 15, 1755, aud about the year 1781 commenced business in this village. A gentle- man of remarkable energy and enterprise, he soon visited London, and made arrangements to import his goods direct from that city, which, probably, was not true of any other country merchant in Connecticut. He was universally recognized by the citizens as the most thorough and successful business man who has ever spent his life here. Prompt in his engagements, scrupulously upright in his dealings, and discreet and liberal in his benefactions, few men in any commu- nity ever enjoyed more implicitly the confidence of all. Mr. Deming had little taste for public life. He was three times elected a member of the House of Representatives, and for several years was one of the magistrates of this county. From 1801 to 1814 he served in the office of county treasurer. His position and influence were such that, had he been an aspirant for political honors, there were few offices within the gift of the people of this State which he might not have filled. He died in this town, Jan. 23, 1838, aged eighty-three years.

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 34

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