History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 66

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 66

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

cultivated farms was slow and protracted, though a few individuals who had property at command advanced the clearing and improvement of their lands with considerable activity. The usual mode of clearing land was to girdle the timber, and on the third year after girdling to clear off the fallen timber, sow it to rye, seed it with herd-grass and white clover. The average crop when well burned over was twenty or twenty-five bushels per acre. The land when thus partially cleared produced good pasturage, and, when moist, good crops of grass for mowing for seven or eight years, when, the remaining timber being princi- pally fallen and briers, and other bushes beginning to overspread the lands, it became necessary to clear and fallow it, which, when well performed, produced good crops of wheat and rye. New lands also produced good oats, potatoes, and turnips, but Indian corn did not usually succeed and was not a profitable crop. Though peach-trees flourished, and in favorable situa- tions soon came to maturity, apple- and other fruit- trees did not succeed, but generally appeared stinted and slow in their growth.

Various causes conspired to retard the advancement of the population of the town ; among these were the high price of land compared with its real value, and the general inclination of the proprietors to keep their lands until the prices were advanced, and the heavy expense of clearing and improving land covered with timber. It appears by an enumeration or cen- sus taken Sept. 1, 1776, about ten years from the com- mencement of the settlement of the town, that the number of its inhabitants amounted to two hundred and seven; another census was made in 1782, when the number was two hundred and seventy-two, and forty-eight families. The period between these two enumerations being that of the Revolutionary war accounts for the slow advance of population in that period.

The town was incorporated and invested with town privileges at the October session of the General As- sembly, 1779. The first town-meeting was held on the 13th of December of the same year. Though the town had not arrived to that stage of wealth and population which had generally been considered requisite to entitle new towns to a representation in the General Assembly, and to subject them to the payment of State taxes, yet the evils and calamities of the war of the Revolution fell on them, in common with their fellow-citizens through the country gen- erally.

Portions of their militia were frequently called into the field. Several of their young men served in the Continental army, and some of their valuable citizens lost their lives in the war. Those who were opposed to the Revolution in those times were called Tories ; not a single individual in the town was of that charac- ter. The civil and prudential concerns of the town were generally managed with discretion and economy.

The original ten-rod and four-rod highways, where

276

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

not wanted for travel, were exchanged for necessary roads. The expense for papers was trifling, so that the principal town expenses for a number of years were for building and supporting bridges.

The early settlers deserve much commendation for their exertions to establish and support schools. Neighborhood schools were kept up at an early period, aud in 1781 the town was organized into two school districts. All the inhabitants within two miles of the south line of the town (except Mr. John Porter, who was connected with a district in Norfolk) were to con- stitute the south district, the remainder the north district, and for several years ten pounds per year were paid out of the town treasury to each of these dis- tricts for the support of schools. As the population of the town increased other districts were formed, and at the organization of school societies in this State, in 1796, the society was divided into six districts, of the following names, viz., North, South, Southwest, Beach Hill, River, and Forge. Three additional dis- tricts have since been formed, viz., Centre, West, and North districts. The lot of one hundred acres situ- ated on the Farmington River, laid out by the pro- prietors as a school-lot, was sold or leased in 1795, the interest of which is annually applied for the support of schools.

When the township was laid out, in 1760, the pro- prietors' committee, not knowing exactly where the colony line ran, made a line which was called the northern line of the town, to which they laid the lots. About the year 1795 some of the ancient monuments made by the committee who ran the line between Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1717 were dis- covered, the line from one monument to another against the town of Colebrook was run, and it was found that between the northern lots in each tier and the State line there was unlocated land. Though it had not been previously known exactly where the State line ran, yet it was known from the first settle- ment of the town that there was unlocated land on the north side of the town, which was called undivided land. The proprietors, before the town was settled, granted to Erastus Wolcott, Esq., the undivided land on the eighth tier, estimated at sixty acres, for build- ing the first saw-mill in the town, that in the first and second tiers was also granted to him for some other consideration. At a proprietors' meeting held at Colebrook in 1795, it was voted that the undivided lands at the north end of the town he ceded over to the town, be sold, and the principal kept forever en- tire, and the interest annually arising applied for the support of common schools in the town. The sum total of the principal for which these lands sold, to- gether with the school-lot before mentioned, amounts to $1712.84, the amount of interest arising on which annually is $102.77, which, together with the amount received from the State treasury, has, on an average, amounted to $375.69 per year. The number of per- sons between the ages of four and sixteen, as returned

to the controller of the State in 1820, was 396. In 1829 the number was 363.

In resuming the history of the town as such, it may be observed that nothing worthy of special note trans- pired for several years. The town gradually advanced in wealth and population until at the session of the General Assembly, 1794, a resolve was passed requir- ing the town of Colebrook to transmit to said Assem- bly at their next session a list of their polls and rata- ble estate. The object of this order was to ascertain whether the town had arrived to that stage of advance- ment in wealth and population that it would be rea- sonable to call on them for State taxes. The people did not wish any longer to enjoy this exemption, as in consequence they had no representation in the Legis- lature, and were subject to laws they had no voice in enacting. They, therefore, chose representatives to the Assembly, and were first represented in that body in the October session, 1795.

The number of inhabitants in 1800 was 1004; of families, 192. In 1810 the population was 1243; in 1820, 1276; and in 1830, 1333.

CIVIL AUTHORITY IN THE TOWN OF COLEBROOK FROM ITS INCORPORATION IN 1779 TO 1830.

Elijalı Rockwell, 1782-1817; Samuel Mills, 1796 to bis death in 1814; Reuben Rockwell, 1809-35; Nathan Bass, 1815-20; Seth Marshall, 1816-35; Grove Pinney, 1823-25; Lancelot Phelps, 1818-32; Samuel Whitford, 1823; William S. Holabird, 1821-24.

SELECTMEN FROM DECEMBER, 1779.

1779 .- Samuel Mills, David Pinney, John Porter.

1780-81 .- Samuel Rockwell, David Pinney, Samuel Mills.

1782 .- Samuel Mills, Samuel Rockwell, David Pinney, John Porter, Ed- mund Howell.

1783 .- Samuel Mills, Samuel Rockwell, Jolin Porter, John Rockwell, Edmund Howell.

1784 .- Samuel Mills, John Porter, Edmund Howell.

1785 .- Samuel Rockwell, Samuel Mills, Jobn Porter, Edmund Howell, David Pinney.

1786 .- Samuel Rockwell, Samuel Mills, John Porter, Daniel Eno, Edmund Howell.

1787 .- Josephı Bidwell, Daniel Eno, Isanc Kneeland.

1788 .- Samuel Mills, Daniel Eno, Elijah Rockwell, Jobn Porter, Isaac Kneeland.

1789 .- Edmund Howell, Daniel Eno, Avah Phelps.

1790 .- Sanivel Mills, Samuel Rockwell, Elijah Rockwell.

1791 .- Samnel Mills, Elijah Rockwell, Avab Phelps.

1792 .- Samuel Mills, Samuel Blakeslee, Avah Phelps, Elijah Rockwell, Ephraim Bidwell.

1793 .- David Pinney, Stephen Skinner, Samuel Blakeslee.

1794 .- David Pinney, Edmund Howell, Reuben Rockwell.

1795 .- Samuel Mills, Reuben Rockwell, Grove Pinney.

1796 .- Samuel Mills, Reuben Rockwell, Grove Pinney. 1797 .- David Pinney, Stephen Skinner, Reuben Rockwell. 1798 .- Reuben Rockwell, Nathan Bass, Asa Bishop. 1799,-Nathan Bass, Reuben Rockwell, Moses Wright, Jr. 1800-1 .- Grove Pinney, Avalı Phelps, Eleazar Bidwell. 1802 .- Eleazar Bidwell, Abraham Pinney, Jacob Chamberlain.

1803 .- Reuben Rockwell, Frederic Brown, Samuel Blakeslee. 1804 .- Reuben Rockwell, Frederic Brown, Asa Bishop. 1805 .- Asa Bishop, Nathan Bass, Moses Wright, Jr. 1806 .- Nathan Bass, Moses Wright, Jr., Joshua Osburn. 1807 .- Asaph Pinney, John Whiting, Samuel Whitford. 1808 .- Reuben Rockwell, Seth Marshall, Roger Stillman 1809 .- Roger Stillman, Seth Marshall, Ammi R. Robbins. 1810 .- Seth Marshall, Selah Trent, John Tyler.

1811 .- Reuben Rockwell, Roswell Marshall, Selah Trent. 1812 .- John Tyler, Selah Trent, Samuel Cowles. 1813 .- John Tyler, Selah Trent, Samuel Cowles.

277

COLEBROOK.

1814 .- Samuel Cowles, Robert Stillman, Rufus Holmes. 1815 .- Rufne Holmes, Elijah Grant, Daviel Stillman. 1816 .- Elijah Grant, Daniel Stillman, Grove Pinney. 1817 .- Grove Pinney, Samnel Whitford, Renben Rockwell. 1818 .- Grove Pinney, Timothy Babcock, Sheron Rock well. 1819 .- Grove Pinney, Theron Rockwell, Samuel Whitford. 1820 .- Grove Pinney, Theron Rockwell, Samuel Whitford. 1821 .- Grove Pinney, Theron Rockwell, Henry Bass. 1822 .- Theron Rockwell, HIenry Bass, Thomas Concklin.

John Wright removed from Goshen to the Bellow's place, below Rufus Holmes', in 1769. He was the father of John, Charles, Freedom, and Luey, the wife of Elijah Roekwell, Esq.

The following is a list of the inhabitants who re- sided in Colebrook previous and at the commence- ment of the Revolutionary war, and the time they re- moved into the town :

1765 .- Benjamin Horton and wife: died here.

1766 .- Joseph Rockwell, Joseph Seymour, Nathan Bass. 1767 .- Samuel Rockwell, Gideon Horton.

1768 .- Francis Griswold, Aaron Griswold.

1769 .- Samuel Mills, Moses Wright, Hezekiah Simons, William Simone, David Rockwell.

1770 .- David Viets, Samuel Phillipe, John Porter, Jacob Ogden, Ebene- zer Shepard.

1771 .- Joseph Bidwell, Eleazar Bidwell, Daniel Hall, David Goodhne, Joseph Langworthy, Joseph Tainter, Daniel and David Hos- kine, William Denison, John and James Mead, John Seymour, Dr. Asa Hillyer and James Hillyer.

1772 .- Henry White, David Pinney, Thomas Feax.

1773 .- Pelatiab Mills, Andrew Buckingham, Stephen Russell. 1774 .- Aaron Simone.

Benjamin Horton, the first inhabitant, removed into the town in December, 1765, and built a house on the north side of the road, about forty rods east of J. E. Hoyt's (now owned by Joseph Twinge*). Joseph Rockwell, the second settler, moved into the town Jan. 16, 1766, and built a house about ten rods south- east of Rufus Holmes' (Horace White's) present dwelling. With him came his sons, John and Elijah Rockwell, who were both over twenty-one years of age, and were considered as among the earliest settlers, although at that time unmarried. The two houses above mentioned were the only ones on the road from New Hartford to Norfolk. Joseph Seymour, the third, came in February or March, 1766. Ife lived on the bank of Sandy Brook, about ten rods below the house of Gen. Phelps. Nathan Bass, the fourthi, removed into the town in April or May in the same year. He lived on or near where his son, Nathan Bass, Esq., lived (now Eugene Marvin). He died at New York in 1776, while in the army of the Revolution. Samuel Rockwell was the fifth, and moved into the town in February, 1767. The house he first built and ocenpied is the back part of the house where his son Reuben lived, and is the only house remaining which was occupied by the first settlers (now occupied by the family of the late Reuben Rockwell, and the oldest house in the town). Of the above, Benjamin Horton was from Springfield, Joseph and Samuel Rockwell and Nathan Bass were from East Windsor,

Joseph Seymour from Windsor. After these were Gideon Horton, who lived some thirty rods northeast of J. E. Hoyt's (Joseph Twinge). Dr. Asa Hillyer and James, his brother, lived on the same ground now oc- cupied by the brick house built by Alpha Sage (now owned by John S. Wheeler). Asa stayed there but a short time, but his brother, James Hillyer, remained until 1773 or 1774. Aaron Griswold lived near the house where Lueius Holmes now lives (Eugene Bar- ber). Francis Griswold lived on the north side of the road, about half-way from L. Holmes' to the road that leads to Erastus Seymour's (cross-road). Samuel Mills lived near or on the same ground where the house lately occupied by Arthur Howell stood (now occupied by Edwin Simons). Moses Wright lived in a log house near where his son Alvin now lives (Jor- dan Smith). Hezekiah Simons lived forty rods north of Abel Bunnell's house (Elder Thomas Benedict) ; William Simons where A. Bunnell now lives (owned by Benediet). David Rockwell lived about thirty rods south of A. Bunnell, where Bildad Seymour afterwards lived (Mr. Mahanna). Samuel Phillips first lived on the Farmington River, where Henry White since lived (family of Reuben White), eighty rods southeast of Samuel Whitford's. David Viets lived about one hundred rods west of Nathaniel Coble's, in the north part of the town, on the road leading from the Baptist meeting-house to Beach Hill (Lewis Loveland). John Porter lived on the Norfolk road, in a log house, a little east of Remas Coy's (Harvey Coy). Eleazar Bidwell's was the seventeenth family that removed into the town, and lived on the ground now occupied by the Baptist meeting-house in the north part of the town. Joseph Bidwell lived near the North Baptist meeting-house, on the ground now occupied as a parsonage. Jacob Ogden lived on the place now occupied by Clark Roberts (Mr. Lawton). In 1770, Richard Smith, from England, who had previous to this time bought and carried on the old furnace in Salisbury,-which was the only one in the State,-built a forge in this town, now known as the "Old Forge place" (Roberts- ville), which he carried on until the commencement of the Revolutionary war, when he, favoring the cause of Great Britain, returned to England, and never came back. He left this forge and the furnace at Salisbury without any agent to take care of them. The furnace was through the war carried on by the State of Connecticut, and was used extensively for casting cannon and ball for the defense of the country. Mr. Jacob Ogden, from New Jersey, was employed by Smith as agent to carry on this forge from 1770 till he left the country, after which Mr. Ogden carried it on on his own account, and received the whole avails during the war. At the close of the war Mr. Jared Zane, an agent of Smith's, took posses- sion of it, and soon after sold it to Joseph and Elisha Buell. The workmen who lived at this place were William Dennison, John and James Mend, John

* The names in parenthesis denote presont occupants.

278

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

Seymour (who was drowned by the breaking of a flume), Thomas Keax, and probably some others. Ebenezer Shepard lived where Erastus Seymour now lives (George Dolittle). Daniel Hall lived in a log house a little north of the old burying-ground. David Goodhue lived on the ground where Linus Bidwell lately lived, west of Osborn Stillman's (heirs of O. Stillman). Joseph Langworthy lived on the road leading from the saw-mill near Charles Phelps' to Norfolk, on the east side of the pond, on land now owned by C. Phelps, where Thomas Miner afterwards lived (Horace Phelps). Joseph Tainter first lived on the old road leading over the hill from Arthur How- ell's to Andrew Bailey's, and twenty rods south of where he afterwards lived. David and Daniel Hos- kins lived in the west part of the town, near the house of Nathan Allen. David Pinney lived about fifty rods southeast of Ira Whiting's (premises now owned by E. S. Preston) ; Aaron Simons where Samuel Simons now lives (H. D. Smith). Pelatiah Mills lived where Samuel Mills, Esq., afterwards lived (Wesley Root), about one hundred rods north of Samuel E. Mills. Andrew Buckingham lived oppo- site Rufus Holmes', in the house owned and after- wards occupied by John Rockwell ; Elijah Rockwell, Esq., where his son Theron now lives.

The first person buried in the old burying-ground, and, it is believed, the first that was buried in the town, was Lydia Mason Wright, wife of Mr. John Wright, who lived in the north part of Winchester, where Samuel Rowley now lives (Rowley family ).

Removals .- Gideon Norton removed to near Rut- land, Vt. (he was the son of Benjamin Francis), and Aaron Griswold and Nathaniel Burn, in 1784, to Johns- town, N. Y .; Jacob Ogden to Hartford (died in New Haven) ; Daniel Hall to Black River in 1800; Wil- liam Denison to Goshen; Pelatiah Mills to Johns- town, N. Y., in 1784; Stephen Russel to Neversink about 1800.

The quantity of land in the town of Colebrook is not very accurately known. It was estimated in the original patent to contain eighteen thousand one hun- dred and ninety-nine acres. Its leng'h from north to south on the west tier, taking for a data the width of the lots as originally laid, is five miles one hundred rods, on the east tier four miles two hundred and sixty rods, and the average would be five miles and ten rods. Provided the tiers will hold out two hundred and forty rods in width, the town would be six miles and seventy rods east and west. The west line of the town, and the tier lines, of course, which run parallel with that line, when the town was laid out in 1760, was called to run north nineteen degrees east. The east line, adjoining Hartland, runs south twenty degrees west, which would make the south line of the town shorter than the north line. The east tier is said to fall short in width most at the south end. The northern line, to which the lots were laid, was not the colony line. It appears that the committee who laid

out the town did not know where the colony line- which was run in 1717 by commissioners from the two colonies-ran. They made a line which ran east ten degrees fifteen minutes south, which was called the northern line of the town, to which the lots were laid. Calling the town five miles by six, it would contain thirty square miles, which, at six hundred and forty acres per square mile, would make nineteen thousand two hundred acres ; but, as the lots do not run square but are diamonding, unless they were overlaid in width on the tier line, they would fall considerably short of the quantity of land as contained in the original survey.

There are in the town the following roads, originally turnpike roads: Waterbury River road, six miles ; Greenwoods, or Hartford, road, two miles; Hartland turnpike, six miles; Farmington River road, four miles ; Still River road, three miles; Sandy Brook, five miles, making in all twenty-six miles.

The traveling highways in the town contain prob- ably about 420 acres of land. The amount of the assessment-list for 1829 was $17,100; a tax of five cents, the usual highway tax, amounts to $855. The tax for defraying town charges lias for several years been six cents on the dollar, amounting to $1026. From this sum ought probably to be deducted, for abate- ments, etc., $100, leaving $926, which, together with the annual State tax of one cent on the dollar,-which after the abatements amounts to $150,-will make $1076, which will make the sum total of town, State, and highway taxes $1931, besides society and school expenses. The number of cows contained in the as- sessment-list of 1829 is 981. Of these probably 50 were not milking cows, leaving 931 milch-cows. The number of sheep was 3007; of horses, 160; oxen, 221 ; and 440 young cattle.

CHURCH CONTROVERSY. .

The town was not organized as an ecclesiastical society until 1786, at which time a tract of one mile square, taken from Winchester, on which were sev- eral inhabitants, was annexed to the society. Pre- vious to this period all society business was trans- acted in town-meetings. In September, 1780, the town voted to apply to the County Court for a com- mittee to set a stake for a meeting-house. Capt. Uriah Holmes, of Hartland, Col. Seth Smith, of New Hart- ford, and Giles Pettibone, Esq., of Norfork, composed the committee. This committee, after viewing the town, fixed on a place near the dwelling-house lately owned by the Rev. Chauncey Lee, now owned and oc- cupied by Mr. Allen Seymour, which was established by the court according to law. But when the ques- tion of building was brought forward, the people be- longing to the southern part of the town began to manifest a considerable degree of dissatisfaction with respect to the location, and a desire for another com- mittee and another trial; and as, after the plan, as before stated, was legally established, it became neces-

279

COLEBROOK.

sary to apply to the General Assembly to get the deings of the court set aside and a new committee ap- pointed, the southern people were about to press their petition to the Assembly for effecting this object, when the northern people, to give them satisfaction and maintain the peace of the society, agreed to join in the application for another committee, which was accordingly voted in town-meeting. This committee were Daniel Humphrey, of Simsbury, Hezekiah Fitch, of Salisbury, and John Watson, of Canaan. This committee, after viewing the town and attending to the representations of the people, set their stake near the place where Calvin Sager's dwelling-house now stands. Perceiving that the Mill Brook, so called, was the Rubicon or parting-point which neither party were willing to pass, it seemed to be their object to set their stake as near as practicable to the line of de- markation. The southern people were dissatisfied for two reasons: first, because it was set north of the brook; second, because the ground was very unsuita- ble for a meeting-house, several declaring they had much rather go thirty rods farther north to the place where the first stake was set than build on a place so unfavorable. The northern people, though not pleased with the ground, yet, as they had again obtained one point considered important in having the stake set north of the brook, made no objection to the place, and a committee was appointed and preparations made for building the house. As a considerable part of the lands still belonged to non-resident proprietors, and as the value of lands would be considerably in- creased by building a meeting-house, it was considered just and reasonable that the owners of lands should be taxed to a greater amount than would fall to their share by a tax raised on the list, in the usual mode of taxing for other objects. Application was accordingly made to the Legislature for a land-tax, to be applied towards building the house, a privilege which had been usually granted to new towns, and the grant of sixpence on the ono obtained.

The committee proceeded to prepare the foundation and frame the house, when an opposition on the part of the southern people was manifested, a meeting called, and, after much altercation and mutual crimi- nation, it was voted to postpone for the present raising the house. The timber was piled, and secured from injury. The prospects at this time were gloomy ; every appearance seemed to indicate a people ruined by con- tention, the termination of which seemed more remote than ever. While these difficulties were prevailing, sectarian teachers made inroads into the town and gained proselytes, especially in the northern part, and from this unhappy controversy may be dated the rise of the Baptist society in the northern part of the town. Things remained in this situation for a consid- able time, when, the excitement having in some meas- ure subsided, and the evils resulting from the present state of the society become more and more realized, some person, perhaps some one inclined to speculating

and hazardous enterprises, suggested a plan which soon became a subject of general conversation, and, as the people were heartily tired of the controversy, they were prepared to listen to any expedient which ap- peared calculated to terminate their difficulties. The plan was this, and proposed in terms like the follow- ing :

" We are none of us pleased with the place now established,-there are handsome and convenient sites not far distant, both north and south,-and we and our posterity shall forever regret a result so unwise as to build the house on a place so unsuitable and improper when good places are so near; therefore let us affix on two places, one north and the other south of the brook, the line of separation, and cast a fair lot to decide on which of the two placee the house shall be built, and then forever decide the controversy."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 66

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