USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > History of Litchfield county, Connecticut > Part 40
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(3) Lemira E., born June 29, 1838, and residles with her brother William II.
(4) William II., born Sept. 17, 1840. He enlisted
HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.
Aug. 9, 1862, in the Litchfield County regiment, known as the Nineteenth, served three years, and was honorably discharged with his regiment, July 12, 1865. At the present time (1881) he is a farmer on the "Old Landon Homestead," in Litchfield. He married Emma T., daughter of Ferdinand Buell, of Litchfield, Conn., and they have three children, viz., (1) Ida E., (2) Anna B., and (3) Frederick B.
(5) Charles E., born March 17, 1845, married Emma, daughter of William E. Camp, of Philadelphia, Pa. They have two children,-William Edgar, born Au- gust, 1870; Fanny, born September, 1873. He is engaged in business in Philadelphia.
PHILIP S. BEEBE.
Samuel Beebe came to Litchfield in 1721, within three years of the settlement of the town. In Kil- bourne's "History of Litchfieldl" he is recorded as one of the forty-seven "first settlers." From that time to 1867 one male member, and but one of each of six successive generations resided there.
Concerning the antecedents of Samuel Beebe, until recently nothing has been known, and the informa- tion herein contained came quite by accident in the way of the writer, and is on the excellent authority of Lucius M. Boltwood, Esq.
The second volume of the probate records of Hart- ford* contain the record of the will of John Beebe, made at sea in the year 1650, with this preamble :
"I, John Beebye, husbandman, late of Broughton in County of North- ampton, being by God's good hand, brought on a voyage toward New England to sea, and there smitten by the good hand of God, so that my expectation is for my change, yet through mercy as yet in perfect memory and understanding."
He names seven children, viz., John, Thomas, Sam- uel, Nathaniell, Rebecka, Mary, and Jeames, and di- vides his estate of seventy-three pounds equally among them, and appoints the four eldest, John, Thomas, Samuel, and Rebecka, executors, and his loving friends, William Lewis and John Cole, over- seers.
The maker of this will died on the voyage, May 18, 1650. His children settled in New London and Ston- ington, Conn., and from them probably all of the name in this country are descended.
James Beebe, the youngest son, born about 1641, married, first, in Hadley, t Mass., Mary Boltwood, Oct.
24, 1667 ; second, in Stratford, Conn., Sarah Benedict, Dec. 19, 1679. His son by his first wife was Samuel, who settled in Litchfield, born June 26, 1672, in Had- ley, Mass., whence he removed with his father before 1678. James Beebe, several years after leaving Had- ley, resided in Danbury, Conn., where he died in 1728. Samuel Beebe, with IIannah, his wife (of Danbury), removed to New Milford. They are there recorded as members of the First Church of that town. He went to Litchfield by 1721, when the town was first laid out. The records of the town were kept in Hartford at the first, and he is there noticed twice, once as assigned, with others, to the duty of building the " West Fort" of the town, for defense against the Indians, and once as making affidavit in behalf of Matthew Woodruff, who petitions the Legislature for the bounty offered for having killed an Indian. He died between 1728 and 1734.
He had seven children, all born before he removed to Litchfield,-viz., Mary, born 1699, married Enoch Buck, of New Milford, whose descendants still live in that town and Kent ; Samuel, born in 1701, settled in Sheffield, Mass. ; James, born in 1704, married Abi- gail Culver; John, born 1706, married Sarah Culver ; James and John both removed to Canaan; Sarah, born 1713; Hannah, born 1714; Ebenezer, born Jan. 8, 1716, in New Milford, and removed with his father to Litchfield, to a location near the north shore of Bantam Lake, near which place his descendants lived until 1867. He married (1) Rebecca Webster; (2) Bethia Osborn, daughter of Benjamin and Abigail (Talmage) Osborn, born in East Hampton, L. I., Oct. 17, 1722. By her he had three children, viz., Re- becca, Bezaleel, and Ebenezer. Bezaleel married, July 11, 1764, Elizabeth Marsh, daughter of John Marsh.
The following sketch of his life is taken from Kil- bourne's " History of Litchfield :"
Col. Bezaleel Beebe was born in Litchfield, April 27, 1741, and spent his life in his native town, except when absent in the service of his country. At the age of seventeen he enlisted as a soldier in the French war and marched with Capt. Evart's company to Fort George, where he was for some time stationed. He was afterwards a member of Maj. Rogers' cele- brated corps of rangers, an account of whose exploits was published in London by their heroic commander ; and, with Rogers, he participated in the engagement which resulted in the capture of Maj. Israel Putnam. During much of the succeeding year he was stationed at Fort Miller, under Capt. Whiting. In 1760 he en- listed in a company commanded by Capt. McNeile, of Litchfield, and continued in the service for three years. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary contest he was once more summoned to the field, having been commissioned as a lieutenant in the first recruits raised for that service, April, 1775. He forth- with marched with his company to Boston, and thence, after a short detention, to Crown Point, where
* This book of records has but recently been accessible to the present generation. It contains the following appended note :
" This volume, after having disappeared for many years, was discovered by me, in the city of New York, on Friday, the 6th day of December, 1861.
CHAS. J. HOADLEY."
t The probate records of Hampshire Co., Mass., show why James was separated from the rest of the family. By William Lewis, overseer of his father's will, he was apprenticed to Thomas Stanly, of Hartford and Had- ley, who, in bis will, bequeathed five pounds "unto James Beebe, my servant, to be paid nnto him aft he hath p'formed that tyme of service wch was promised by William Lewis, Senior, that he is to be with me until he is twenty and five years old."
WILLIAM BEEBE.
Philip & Beebe
167
WINCHESTER.
he was transferred to the quartermaster's department. In November, 1776, a company of thirty-six picked men were sent, under command of Capt. Beebe, to aid in the defense of Fort Washington. Here, on November 16th, he was taken prisoner, with all of the garrison of two thousand six hundred men, after a disastrous conflict in which the British lost twelve hundred men, and the besieged about four hundred. The honorable terms on which the garrison surren- dered were disregarded, and the prisoners suffered in the prison-ships a cruelty so severe that when, on December 27th of the same year, an exchange was effected, only six of Capt. Beebe's thirty-six picked men survived the effect of starvation and disease to return home.
It was this cruelty that led Ethan Allen to make to Capt. Beebe the well-known remark, "There ought to be a hell for such scoundrels as Lowrie." Capt. Beebe was allowed the freedom of the city on parole, and was able to do much to alleviate the sufferings of his soldiers, but he was detained as a prisoner of war for nearly a year.
From this time onward-he was in actual service until the spring of 1781, at which time he applied for and received an honorable discharge, and once more returned home. He enjoyed in an eminent degree the confidence and respect of his superiors in office, as well as of the soldiers under him.
While chief commander of the coast-guard of this State, he performed the duties and received the pay of a brigadier-general. A commanding figure and a peenliar dignity of character and manner, united to an innate kindness of heart and a courage equal to any emergency, contributed to render him an efficient and popular officer.
He was elected a member of the Legislature for the first time in the autumn of 1781, and several times afterwards, and was much employed by the Court of Probate in settling the estates of persons deceased. He departed this life May 24, 1824, aged eighty-three.
Col. Beebe had six children, viz., Saralı, died un- married; Elizabeth, married Joshua Garrett; Re- becca, married Reuben Rockwell, of Colebrook ; Ebenezer, married Catherine Fair Knox, of New York, was major United States army ; James, married Abi MeEwen and settled in Winchester; William, born March 24, 1782, resided at the homestead in Litchfield, where he died Nov. 18, 1861.
During a long life, spent wholly in Litchfield, he was identified with all its public affairs. He served it in both houses of the Legislature and in many offices of trust. By probity of character, strength of will, and earnestness of convictions, he filled a large place in the community and in the church, of which he was a consistent and useful member, and gained in an unusual degree the confidence and esteem of his associates. He bore worthily the unblemished name of his ancestors, and bequeathed it as their chief in- heritance to his descendants.
He married Clarissa Sanford, daughter of Joseph Sanford, of Litchfield. Their children are :
1. Eliza, married Dr. John W. Russell, and imme- diately after their marriage removed to Mount Ver- non, Ohio, where Dr. Russell still (1881) resides.
2. Rebecca, married Alexander Howard, and lived in Mount Vernon until a short time before her death, in 1865, at Davenport, Iowa.
3. Philip Schuyler, born March 13, 1812, remained on the homestead in Litchfield until 1866. He mar- ried, first, Catherine E. Hall, of Newark, N. J., Oct. 10, 1838. She died Nov. 29, 1843, leaving one child, IIarriet, who married Rev. Henry S. Kelsey. She died Aug. 4, 1865.
Philip S. married, second, Lucy Beebe Robbins, of Canaan, his third cousin. She died April 27, 1876, at Vineland, N. J. Their children are :
1. Sarah Holley, born Nov. 10, 1848 ; married Moses Lyman, Jr., of Goshen, and lives at Waverly, N. Y.
2. William, born Sept. 4, 1851, graduated at Yale College in 1873; married Elizabeth Febiger, of Wil- mington, Del., June 22, 1880, and lives in New Haven.
The other children of William Beebe are : Harriet, died in 1837, unmarried ; Olive, married Sheldon W. Peck, resides in Beloit, Wis .; Clara, married Joshua II. Darling, of Warsaw, Wyoming Co., N. Y.
CHAPTER XV.
WINCHESTER.
Geographical-Topographical-Last of Proprietors of Winchester-Allot- ment of Lands-Survey, etc .- Indian Ilstory-First Conveyance of Land-First Roads-The Pioneers-Their Locations-Incidents of Pioneer Life-Initial Events-Reminiscences of Mrs. Swift-The First Forge-The Ploneer Grist-MIll-The First Saw-MINI-The Revolution -Names of Soldiers, etc .- Amessment Roll of 1783.
THE town of Winchester lies in the northeast cor- ner of the county, and is bounded as follows : tn the north by Colebrook, on the east by Barkhamsted, on the south by Torrington, and on the west by Goshen and Norfolk. It is situated in the " Evergreen district of the State," and is hilly and mountainous, The soil is a coarse gravelly lonm and well adapted to grazing. The territory embrneed within the limits of this town was granted by the Colonial Legislature in January, 1686, to the towns of Hartford and Windsor, and subsequently, Feb. 11, 1732, by a dissolution of the partnership between the two towns, it came under the sole proprietorship of Hartford.
THE PROPRIETORS OF WINCHESTER.
By a law of the General Assembly it was enacted that the owners of cach township should have a cor- porate existence under the title of "Proprietors," vested with authority "to survey and allot to each " individual his pro rata share according to the lists of
168
HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.
1720 of the land in the township to which he was assigned."
The first meeting of the proprietors of this town was held May 14, 1744, and was organized by choos- ing William Pitkin as moderator, and Thomas Sey- mour as clerk and register of deeds.
The following is a list of the names of the original proprietors, " with the several sums annexed to their names by which the respective rights and shares of said proprietors of the township of Winchester afore- said are to be apportioned and holden, or divided to and amongst them, their heirs and assigns, accord- ing as the same is sett and apportioned in the deed of partition made of that part of those lands called the Western Lands, which was sett out to and among the inhabitants of Hartford," viz. :
£
8. d.
William Pitkin, Esq , heirs. 251
0 0
Mr. Richard Lord's heirs.
161
0 0
Rev. Mr. Thomas Buckingham. 100
0 0
William Whiting, Jr ...
21
0 0
Peter Pratt.
41
0 0
Nathaniel Jones
10
0
Daniel Smith.
23
0
0
Samuel Burnhanı
24
0
Thomas Hopkins.
97
0
0
Jacob Merrill's heirs.
0 0
Aaron Cook's heirs.
171
0
0
Jolin Pratt, Jr.
55
10
0
John Ensign.
38 10 O
William Roberts, Jr., heirs ...
29
0 0
Joseph Easton ...
40
10 0
Timothy Phelps' heirs.
71
0
0
Joseph Keeney
4-1
John Porter.
33
C
William Cole ....
52
0 0
Capt. Thomas Seymour ..
20G
0
Joseph Well's heirs
20
10
0
Samuel Church's heirs.
31
0
0
Henry und John Arnold
93
0 0
Wilterton Merrill ..
134
0 0
Thomas Barr ..
91
0 0
Col William Whiting
0
0
Capt. Joseph Wadsworth
10
0
Mr. John Wbiting.
125 0
John Pellett
21
0 U
William Williams.
105 10
John Cole ...
40
0
0
Thomas Wells ..
79
10 0
Jonathan Barrett. 19
0
0
Thomas Pellett.
46
0 0
Joseph Keeney, Jr
19 0 0
Isaac Kellogg ..
18
0 0
Richard Olmsted.
73
0
John Shepard ..
10
0
Jonathan Olcott
41
0
0
Ensigu Nathaniel Goodwin.
124
10 0
James Easign ...
121
10
O
Edward Dodd's heirs. =
0
Thomas Jadd's heirs.
G1
10 0
Ebenezer Webster.
38
10 0
Thomas Day's heirs.
38
0 0
James Bidwell's heirs.
18
0
0
John Skinner.
138
0 0
Joseph Root
I
0 0
Thomas Meekjo's heirs.
0 0
Joseph: Sedgwick.
0
0
Jonathan Burnhaal
0 0
Richard Goodman.
77
0 0
Caleb Watson
21
0 0
Lemmel Deming's heirs.
15
0 0
Obadiah Spencer.
16)
0 0
51
0 0
Aaron Cook's heirs.
51
10 0
John Kellogg's heirs.
54
0 0
Thomas Buroham, Jr., heirs.
29
0 0
James Porter ....
27
0 0
Richard Gilmao.
58
0 0
Caleb Beoton
41
10 0
John Camp's heirs. 0
2
0
Rev. Mr. Benjamin Colton. 100
0
0
Thomas Burr, Jr.
51
10 0
Joseph Gilbert 53
0
0
Samuel Hubbard 25
0
0
Thomas llosmer. 193
0
0
Thomas Whaples.
26 10 0
Ephraim Tucker 32
0 0
John Ilazletine .. 21
0
0
£
8.
d.
Richard Seymour.
01
10
William Day
23
0
0
John Goodwin 52
10 0
0
William Pratt
31 38
0 0
0
Mr. John Haynes' heirs ..
121
0
0
John Benjamin, Jr.
18
0
Thomas Burnham's heirs 51
44
10
0
Jonathan Ashley.
52
0
John Bantry.
109 0 =
Caleb B. and Thomas Buace's heirs.
115
0 0
Joseph Cook.
77
0 =
David Forbes
75 0
0
James Williams, Jr.
43
0
John Burnham, Jr
30
Samuel Burr ..
45
Joseph Farnsworth
25
0
0
John Easton's heirs.
90
0
0
Charles Kelsey.
38
0
0
Samuel Spencer.
60
10
0
Joseph Butler
0
John Abby.
27 0
0
Phebe Russell ..
8
0
Ozias Goodwin.
78
0
Ichabod Wadsworth
62
00 0
Timothy Porter
0
John Kilborn
51 0
0
James Poisson
18 0
0
Jonathan Tayler.
27 10 0
Thomas Day, Jr., heirs
18 0 0
"The next meeting of the proprietors was held at Hartford, Oet. 8, 1750, which appointed a committee 'to proceed to and view the lands and make report to the next meeting, and to warn the Indians not to set fire on any of the lands upon peril of suffering the penalties of the law in case they so do.'
" The next meeting, held in January, 1751, voted, 'That whenever twenty proprietors should signify their wish to proceed to the settlement of the town- ship, the clerk should call another meeting.' The next meeting, held in October, 1753, appointed a com- mittee to form a plan for dividing and settling the town- ship, but without result. More than two years later, Jan. 22, 1756, another committee was raised to view the lands, survey and renew the hounds and corners thereof, and to report to the next meeting a plan of laying out and settling the same. The plan reported and adopted at the next meeting, November, 1757, was to lay out two aeres on the pound to each of the proprietors in two divisions, and that Col. Samuel Talcott, Capt. Thomas Seymour, William Pitkin, Jr., and Mr. John Robins, Jr., be a committee, before the next meeting, to adjust and make up the interests of cach of the pro- prietors, for the more speedy settling and laying out of said two divisions ; and in January, 1758, a committee was appointed 'to make and draw a lot for the proprie- tors, for their precedence and succession in laying out the two divisions in manner and form following, viz. : By making so many uniform papers as there are to be allotments, and on each of said papers write the name of the proprietor to have his share or allotment governed or laid out by said draft, and in a just and proper man- ner cause said papers to be drafted out of some cov- ered instrument, as Providenee shall direct, the lots No. 1, 2, 3, ete., in order as they come out, and make a return thereof to the proprietors under their hands ;' and any proprietor owning by purchase or otherwise, to have all his rights added together in one allot- ment.
0 0
0
Jonathan Bull
0 0 10 0
John Butler
29
10
0 0 10
0 =
Stephen Andrus ..
35
0
35
44
CC
24 28
Thomas Dickinson's heirs.
Richard Burnham, Jr. 56 0 0
John Williams' heirs 46
Jacob Webster's heirs.
169
WINCHESTER.
" The committee was intructed to divide the town- ship into six, tiers, running northerly and southerly, parallel with the eastern line of the township; the first five to be one mile and six rods wide (including a reservation for a six-rod highway northerly and southerly, where it will best accommodate), and the sixth, or westernmost tier, so broad as to take up the rest of the land. They were then to begin at the southwest corner of the township and lay out the lot first drawn by lines at right angles to the tier lines, and so proceed northward, in course, as the lots were drawn (cach lot containing one acre to the pound of the proprictor's interest), not less than three and a half miles, unless the next lot will extend more than three and threc-quarters miles northward; and then begin at the south end of the next tier east, and then to procced northward, as in the first tier; and then to proceed with the third tier east in the same manner.
"In laying out the second division the committee were to begin at the northeast corner of the town- ship, and lay out the first lot to the same proprietor who had the first allotment in the first division ; and then to proceed southerly, laying out lots to the pro- prietors of the corresponding lots in the first division, in successive tiers, of the same extent southward as those in the first division were to extend northward.
" In the first division the committee werc instructed to locate the rights of Caleb Beach, Landlord Mott and his son Mott, and of Ebenezer and Joseph P'res- ton, so as to take into their allotments the lands and buildings then occupied and improved by them. They were also to reserve in the second division two mill lots of six acres each,-one on the Still River, embrac- ing the Gilbert Clock Company's works, and the other 'The Old Forge Privilege,' on the lake outlet, now owned by the Winsted Manufacturing Com- pany.
"On the fourth Monday of May, 1758, the com- mittee reported their action, and exhibited a plan of their survey and allotments of the two divisions to a meeting of the proprietors, which was accepted and ordered to be recorded.
" The third and final division of lands in the town- ship was ordered in November, 1763, and the com- mittee reported their laying out of the same Decem- ber 1st following, which report was accepted and or- dered to be recorded. The undivided land in the northwest, or Danbury quarter, was laid out in three half-mile tiers, and one tier of one hundred rods, running northerly from the first division lands to Colebrook line, parallel with the west line of the town and reaching easterly to the third or western- most tier of the second division, and allotments of one acre to the pound were made on a new drawing of lots beginning at the southerly end of the western- most tier and proceeding northerly to Colebrook line ; then beginning at the north end of the second tier and proceeding to the south end; then proceeding northerly on the third tier, and returning southerly
on the one-hundred rod tier to its southerly end. The remaining allotments were made on the west, south, and east shores of Long Lake, so as to appro- priate all the undivided lands of the township, except a section about a mile square at the southeast corner of the township afterwards taken on execution by parties who had made the 'Old North Road' by order of the General Assembly, and known as the ' Henshaw Tract.'
"Reservations of six-rod highways were made run- ning northerly and southerly, ' where they would best accommodate,' in all the tiers, and located reservations four rods wide were made easterly and westerly, at irregular intervals, across the tiers ; but the reserva- tions in the aggregate fell far short of the require- ments of the town.
"So far as the general plan and mechanical exe- cution of this survey is concerned it seems excellent. The tier lines-except a blunder in their bearings in the first division-were accurately laid out and well de- fined. The lines of marked trees between the lots and on the tier lines are still readily found and traced , wherever the primitive forest remains. The centre bounds, with stones containing the initials of the original owners, are generally still to be found in sec- tions outside of the villages. But the system of triple division of owners' rights operated very unfairly on the small proprietors, and this injustice was aggra- vated by the width of the tiers on which the rights were laid. This operation may be illustrated by examples.
"Joseph Root had a proprietary right of one pound on the list of 1720. It entitled him to three acres of land. One of these was set to him unless he had sold his right to some larger proprietor in a strip of land in the first division one mile long and half a rod wide; another acre in the second division, of the same dimensions, and the third acre in a strip half a mile long and one rod wide. John Camp's heirs had a two pound interest, which in like manner was allotted to them in two detached strips of one rod wide and a mile long, and a third of two rods wide and half a mile long. In this way all the small proprietors found their allotments made in three detached drib- lets instead of in one salable plot, and only eighteen out of one hundred and six proprietors had allotments in parcels of one hundred aeres or more.
"The reservations for northerly and southerly high- ways could be located within each tier where the road would best accommodate, but the located reser- vations for casterly and westerly highways could not be used unless the nature of the ground was adapted to a traveled road. As a consequence of this, so hilly and precipitous is the territory of the town, that scarcely one of its reservations has been opened for public travel, and not one in its whole extent. The result is that probably no town in the State has afforded as little encouragement to its settlers in the matter of highways.
170
HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.
"In another respect there was a meanness in the allotment of the land which it is to be hoped is un- paralleled. It had been the uniform custom of town- ship proprietors to make a liberal reservation of lands to aid the settlers in the support of the gospel and of common schools. Our stepfathers gave not a rood of land for support of schools at home or abroad, and as to religious endowments, they allotted three hundred acres each to two of their own resident clergymen, who, not being subject to taxation, could not regularly come in for their shares of the ill-gotten spoil .*
INDIANS-THOROUGHFARES.
" The Green Woods section of Litchfield County, though abounding with game, seems not to have been a permanent abiding place of the Indian, save along the Tunxis or Farmington River on the east, and the Honsatonie on the western border. The Scaticoke In- dians dwelt along the Housatonic, their chief residence in Kent. The Weatogues, of Simsbury, crowded out from the Tunxis valley by the white settlers, took refuge on the meadows of the Housatonic in Canaan.
"On the east a small tribe, or fragment of a tribe, probably crowded out of Farmington, took up their abode in New Hartford, near the gorge where the Farmington River breaks through a mountain ridge, which spot was designated by the early settlers as 'the Kingdom,' and eventually by the specifie name of 'Satan's Kingdom.'
, " A portion of this tribe moved up the Farmington to the foot of Ragged Mountain in Barkhamsted. Modern wiseacres assert that their council-fire was the mythical 'Barkhamsted Light-house,' of which so much has been said and so little known. The head man, or the last man of this tribe, named Chaugum, lived and reigned to near the close of the last een- tury. His descendants in the female line, a race of bleached-out, basket-making, root-gathering vaga- bonds, with high cheek-bones and bow-and-arrow eyes, have continued to dwell on the Ragged Moun- tain domain and kept up the council-fires until a very recent period. A daughter of Chaugum married a runaway servant of Secretary Wyllys, of Hartford. They settled in the Danbury quarter of Winchester, and their descendants are the only known representa- tives of the aboriginal race in this town.
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