History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 79

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 79

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"I have now presented you with a map of this town as it was when the original proprietors were fairly settled on their lots. And we can hardly fail to see that some parts of the town were then as thickly inhabited as at this day. This was the case with West Street all the distance to Litchfield line. It was so on West side from Timothy Tuttle's to the house of Wil- liam Miles, and on East Street, from Cyprian Collins' to Putnam Bailey's store.

" We will now bring into view some of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the town at the same time of which we have been speaking, 1745. It seems that at an early period the inhabitants of the north part of the town were sensible of the disadvantages they labored under from the location of the meeting-house in this place, and that they commendably labored for one of two things,-either that the second meeting- house shoukl he located farther north, or that the town should be divided into two parishes. And this was the cause of a committee being appointed by the General Assembly, in 1740, to come to this place and decide where the house should stand. And we can scarcely doubt but that it was in view of another ecclesiastical society existing at the north that the stake for the second meeting-house was placed here ; for no man in his senses could suppose that a house for worship here would give equal advantages to the north with those imparted to the south. Accordingly, we find a vote passed at a public town-meeting, on the

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HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

10th of December, 1745, expressing their willingness for the town to be divided into two ecclesiastical soci- eties, as soon as the north should stand fifteen hun- dred pounds on the grand list, and the dividing line should be through the centre of the town, running east and west. This appears to have been satisfactory at the time, and the north and south proceeded on in their original relation ; and, indeed, nothing appears on record to show that this subject ever alienated the feelings of the brethren of the church, or that it ever interrupted the community of feeling between families naturally allied. But at this early period of Mr. Heaton's ministry among the people of Goshen, dis- satisfaction arose in the minds of many in regard to him, and early in the year 1746 we find one of the most loving, modest, and polite invitations for Mr. Heaton to leave them that may be found, I think, on history. The vote stands thus : 'Voted, that we will choose a committee to treat with our reverend pastor about some reasonable and loving terms of agreement, so that the door may be opened, if he in his wisdom shall think fit, to seek for an orderly dismission from the work of the ministry in this place, or to treat with him about making some suitable alterations.'

" Mr. Heaton, it seems, was not equally pacific and loving towards his people, but retained his relation to them as a pastor seven years longer. The reasons for this dissatisfaction are nowhere publicly stated, but it may be supposed that the pressure of the times, together with their recent origin and expenditures, contributed something to this uneasiness; for we have arrived to that period when the inhabitants were vis- ited with the greatest calamity they ever were called to experience,-I mean what is termed the old French war.

"We will now look at some of the domestic trans- actions of the town from 1745 to 1754. At a town- meeting, Feb. 16, 1747, it was voted to pay Timothy Stanley thirty shillings, old tenor, for killing a wolf. April 22, 1747, the town forbids the selectmen pay- ing the Rev. Mr. Heaton any money. Jan. 4, 1748, the town raise a committee to lay out a road four rods wide from the meeting-house north to Ca- naan. Sept. 19, 1749, a committee is raised to look out a road from Deacon Gideon Thomson's (oppo- site the present house of Truman Starr, Esq.) to Frisbie's mills, in Canada, and to Cornwall. April 8, 1751, it was voted that Samuel Pettibone, Esq., be an agent to petition the General Assembly for a county in this part of their government. I would here remark that until 1751 these Western towns were all included in the county of Hartford, but this year the new county of Litchfield was created. In June, 1753, the Rev. Stephen Heaton was dis- missed from his pastoral relation to this church and people, and steps were immediately taken to pro- cure preaching. It appears that Mr. Abel Newell was their first candidate upon Mr. Heaton's removal; that he received a call to settle with them in 1754,

but did not receive ordination till 1755. The town stipulated to pay Mr. Newell fifteen hundred pounds settlement, old tenor, within three years of his ordi- nation,-five hundred pounds annually for three years. . His salary for the first year was to be equal in value to one hundred bushels of wheat, to sixty-six bushels of rye, and to two hundred and one bushels of Indian corn ; and then to rise forty pounds per annum, old tenor, in the same proportion to said grain, till the salary should amount in value to one hundred and twelve bushels of wheat, to one hundred and thirty- four bushels of rye, and to two hundred and twenty- five bushels of Indian corn, and then his salary was to remain fixed at that sum.

"There is nothing especially interesting in the public transactions of the town from 1755 to 1765. . There is one vote of the town in 1762 which may be humiliating to our present feelings, and yet it con- firms what I have already stated in regard to the pressure of the times in the new settlements at that period, and shows how the views and feelings of men will differ at different times in regard to the morality of things, according to the light they have on those subjects. The vote reads thus: 'Voted to choose an agent for said town, to prefer a prayer to the General Assembly at their session in May next, praying said Assembly to grant to said town liberty to raise the sum of two hundred pounds, by a lottery, for the making and mending highways in said town, under such regulations as said Assembly in their wisdom shall think proper.' Another vote, Jan. 12, 1763, will show us the price of different kinds of grain at that time: 'Voted to give the Rev. Mr. Newell, for his services in the ministry in this town the year past, for wheat, four shillings per bushel, and for rye, two shillings and nine pence per bushel, and for Indian corn, two shillings per bushel.'

" April 21, 1768, 'Voted, forty-nine to twenty-two, that a new meeting-house is needed. July 3, 1769, Voted to build a new meeting-house for public wor- ship at the place affixed by the County Court in said town. Voted, that said meeting-house be sixty-four feet in length and forty-four in breadth, and that Ensign David Norton, Lieut. Parmele, and Zacheus Griswold be a committee to carry on the business of building said meeting-house.' This third meeting- house was raised in the spring of the next year, 1770, giving twenty-six years for the existence of the second meeting-house, and sixty-two years for the third, as that was removed to make way for the present house in 1832. In the autumn of 1771, November 15th, Ensign Elisha Blinn was appointed first chorister, Fisk Beach the second, and Miles Norton the third, at a regular town-meeting.

" I would here stop to speak of certain appendages to that meeting-house, and to many others in the country at that day. They were called Sabbath-day houses, or noon-houses. The object of these houses was to furnish the owners of them, and such of their

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friends as they were disposed to invite, with a warm retreat in winter, during the interval between fore- noon and afternoon public services. And we must bear in mind that at that day a stove in a meeting- house was a thing unknown and unthought of. These houses generally consisted of two rooms, ten or twelve feet square, with a chimney in the centre between them, and a fireplace in each room. They were gen- erally built at the united expense of two or more fam- ilies. Dry fuel was kept in each house, ready for kindling a fire. On the morning of the Sabbath the owner of each room deposited in his saddle-bags the necessary refreshment for himself and family, and a bottle of beer or cider, and took an early start for the sanctuary. He first called at his Sabbath-day house, built him a fire, deposited his luncheon, warmed him- self and family, and at the hour of worship they were all ready to sally forth, and to shiver in the cold during the morning services at the house of worship. At noon they returned to their Sabbath-houses, with some invited friends, perhaps, where a warm room received them, the fire having been in operation during the morning exercises. The saddle-bags were now brought forth and their contents discharged upon a prophet's table, of which all partook a little, and each in turn drank at the bottle. This service being performed, and thanks returned, the patriarch of the family drew from his pocket the notes he had taken during the morning service, and the sermon came under renewed and distinct consideration, all enjoying the utmost freedom in their remarks. Sometimes a well-chosen chapter or paragraph was read from an author, and the service was not unfrequently con- cluded by prayer; then all returned to the sanctuary to seek a blessing there. If the cold was severe, the family might return to their house to warm them before they sought their habitation. The fire was then extinguished, the saddle-bags and the fragments were gathered up, the house locked, and all returned to their home. There were no less than four of these houses standing around the third meeting-house at once, three on the north side of the road, west of the present blacksmith's shop, and one south, by the town post, between the brick school-house and H. N. Lyman's store. The Sabbath-house that stood by the present town post was owned by Deacon Moses Ly- man and Capt. Jonathan Buel, father of the present Capt. Jonathan Buel. The one farthest cast, on the north, was owned by Deacon Ebenezer Norton and his brother, Samuel Norton. The next west of them was owned by Deacon Nathaniel Baldwin and Samuel Baldwin, and the third was owned by Nehemiah Lewis and Adna Beach.

"I am now in the history of the town, 1772, when a road was laid out directly west from the meeting- house to Elisha Thompson's house, standing near the present cider-mill of Ira Thompson."

CHAPTER XXXIII .* GOSHEN (Continued).

AMONG those noble men and women who first planted themselves at Boston and its vicinity in 1630, were found some who five years later were lured away from the Massachusetts colony by what they heard of the rich meadow-lands lying on the banks of the Connecticut River. In the three towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor they made their home. In two years they numbered three hundred souls, and just at this point they were compelled to fight the sons of the forest.

Five of their men at work had been murdered by the Pequots, and history hardly shows up more heroic men than the ninety men, old and young, from that little colony of three hundred, who sprang to arms, attacked those treacherous Pequots, and almost anni- hilated them. Doubtless there were some among these ninety heroes whose grandchildren one hundred years later helped to change the dense forest that covered these hills into a fruitful field.

But we turn now to those who the following year, 1638, settled in New Haven. They were mostly families, possessing considerable wealth, from London and its vicinity. They were decided in their religious character, and well fitted to found a truly Christian colony. They were followed the next year by another colony of similar culture, who planted themselves in Guilford and its vicinity. To us it seems a novel bargain that they made with the Indians in 1639, giving them thirteen coats for the land of the seven towns of New Haven, Branford, Wallingford, East Haven, Woodbridge, Cheshire, and North Haven. These towns of Wallingford and Guilford, then set- tled, were the towns from whence, ninety-nine years later, came most of the fathers of Goshen.

These colonies of Connecticut possessed a most liberal charter, granted them by Charles II .; and while almost all the surrounding colonies gave up their charters, our fathers, inflexible as a rock, never yielded up theirs to the hand of any tyrant. Thus our commonwealth grew in wealth and population, governing themselves almost as freely as now, their General Assembly meetings for two sessions each year in Hartford and New Haven; and the men gathered there in our early history would no doubt compare favorably with those of our own time.

In the year 1737 our native town, like most of those around it, was an unbroken wilderness. It was not, so far as we can learn, the permanent home of the red man, although in some seasons of the year his hunting-ground. Goshen, with the six towns lying north and west of it, were called " Western Lands," be- longing to the Connecticut colony.

In October, 1737, the Assembly ordered that these

* This chapter was contributed by Deacon Edward Norton, being con- deneed from an address delivered by him at Gushou, July 4, 1876.

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seven townships be laid out and sold at auction, the town of Salisbury to be divided into twenty-five rights, and the towns of Goshen, Norfolk, Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, and Sharon to be divided into fifty- three rights each. Each town must reserve one right for the first settled minister, one for the permanent future support of the ministry, and one for the schools ; and no permission was given to encroach upon the three hundred acres in each town granted to Yale College.

Eleven years before-viz., in 1726-three gentlemen of Wallingford, Durham, and Haddam, all magis- trates, had received for some service rendered, or possibly as a gift, three hundred acres of land lying in the wilderness now called Goshen. In 1731 they surveyed it, but did not occupy it themselves. A few years later, certainly as early as 1737, it was oc- cupied, and there must have been two dwellings erected upon it by Benjamin Frisbie and Ebenezer Hill. This was called ever afterward the "Esquire's Farm." The time for the selling of the township of " A," or Goshen, as it was soon after called, was fixed by the Assembly to be the first Tuesday in December, 1737.

Purchasers appeared during that winter and the following spring and summer; and we find in our first record that one Thomas Marvin was paid for warning the first meeting of the purchasers the large sum of seven pounds ten shillings. In what way he warned it we do not know; but perhaps he traveled about the State, and notified them all to assemble in Litchfield on Sept. 27, 1738.

And now let us look in upon the fathers of Goshen assembled at the house of Capt. John Buel in Litch- field on that September day. It was a meeting fraught with interest not only to them, but to the thousands of their descendants who have since been born and reared here, and whose remains repose in the ceme- teries of Goshen, or are scattered among the cities of the dead in our broad land. What would we not give to-day could we in reality look upon those men of the past! We should gaze upon a group of thirty men or more, fourteen of whom had wended their way hither from Wallingford, three from Guilford, three from Simsbury, and one from each of the towns of West Hartford, Windsor, Stonington, Lyme, and New Haven, while six of the number were already located in Litchfield. There seem to have been sixteen ab- sentees, whose interests were intrusted to a committee appointed for the purpose, as well as to take care of the three public rights. After a brief preliminary meeting, they adjourned to the next morning at "8 of ye clock." That was the morning of Sept. 28, 1738, and, according to the record,-

"Ye ed meeting was opened according to adjournment above sd, and it was then voted by said purchasers in sd meeting, that we will proceed to lay out Two Divisions of Land in sd township of Goshen, viz. : Two fifty- acre Lots to Each Right or Whol share, each Lot to be equal to fifty acres of ye Best Land, and Hee that Draws ye last Choice in ye First Dranght, shall have ye First Choice in ye second division, and so on Bnc-

cessively back, according to ye Dranghit of Choice, until it comes to Him who made ye first Choice, or had ye First Dranght."

We next find them drawing by lot their numbers from 1 up to 53. It was a drawing in which there were no blanks, for No. 53, as well as No. 1, drew him- self a farm of about four hundred and eighty-three acres. The town, nine miles in length by four and a half in breadth, would give them fifty-three such farms.

But, unlike the first persons who came to Litchfield in 1715, who first purchased that town of the Indians for the sum of fifteen pounds, and afterwards, in 1718, lrad to pay the colony only the trifling sum of one and three-quarter farthings per acre, or about seven- teen and one-half shillings each for a farm of four hundred and eighty-three acres, these fathers of Goshen had to pay into the treasury of His Most Gracious Majesty's colony of Connecticut the sum of one hundred and thirty to one hundred and eighty pounds each. It is evident that few, if any, of them were able to pay down for their land, and bonds with security were required of each.

We cannot surely know the value of the pound sterling then. If we assume a pound to be the same then that it was in the salary stipulated to be paid the first minister two years later,-viz., twenty-eight shillings, to be accounted one ounce of silver Troy weight, making a pound about eighty-three cents,- then our fathers paid about twenty-six cents per acre for the lands of Goshen.

But we can in imagination see them that Septem- ber morning, after their lots were all drawn, making their way through the wildwood to Goshen. They would naturally pause a few moments at the two houses already standing, near where Mr. Watts Brooks now lives, where Mr. Hill and Mr. Frisbie had located themselves. Another house stood on East Street, built by Mr. Samuel Hinman, and we do not know how many of them found a temporary home at these three houses during the time of selecting their future homes. Now we lose sight of them until they next meet in Litchfield, three months later, Dec. 1, 1738, at which time they again resort to lot, and in the same manner as before draw for choice, and lo- cate third and fourth divisions of land. This dividing up of their four-hundred-and-eighty-acre rights into ten divisions, to be drawn at five drawings, gave them more opportunity to know the quality of the lands in the town.

Again they are hidden from our view .until they meet in Litchfield, Sept. 26, 1739, and at this meeting they, like Abraham of old, provide a place where they may bury their dead. It is thought there had been a death in the family of Mr. Hill in 1737; but in our little colony, now organized, in Goshen there had been three deaths in the July previous to this meeting, in 1739. They were all children of Mr. Christopher Grimes, whose home was one-quarter of a mile south of Mr. William Norton's house. Abra-

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ham Grimes, thirteen years of age, headed a proces- sion oh, how long !- a procession which has been marching on ever since to the graveyards of Goshen. He was followed by a brother, who died five days after, and a sister three weeks afterward.

The first child born in Goshen bore the novel name of " Billiores Hill." The date of his appearance is not known, but it was before 1739.

At the same meeting, in October, 1739, they ap- pointed Capt. Benajah Williams as their agent to pre- sent a memorial to the General Assembly. This memorial does not appear on any old record in our town, but the following is copied from the manuscript records of the colony at Hartford, and gives us light in regard to the progress made in our settlement at this date :

" To the Honorable General Court of Hia Majesty's Colony of Connecti- cut, Sitting in New Haven iD &d Colony, the memorial of ye Propri- etors of ye Township of Goshen, humbly cheweth

" Thet your Havor's Memorialists, Purchasers of ad Township, in pur- euance of ye orders and Direction of this Assembly, have been endeavor- ing to settle and improve ye Lands in ad Township, and accordingly. fourty of ye Proprietors nre now Living in ed Township, and ye Rest nre preparing to do likewise, but for waut of the authority and privileges and favore usually granted to new places, are not able to proceed in promoting the General goud of ye place as we desire. Therefore, in confidence of the favor of Honorable Assembly towards ns in these matters, we hum- bly Request that you would be pleased to grant to us the following pur- tlculars, viz. :

" That we may be invested with, and have and enjoy, the priviledges and authority of a Town. as is usually granted to other Towne in the Government.

"2, that a tax of fourty shillings a year upon each right, for four years next coming, may be Levyed and collected of each proprieter for ye support of a minister la 8ª Place, aod

"3dly, in aa much as ye time of payment for ye ed Rights le nbout come, and hy Reason of ye Rumours and Reporte of a war, many of naare De- feated of a method we proposed to raise money to Pay for ed Rights, wo humbly request ye favor of this Court in Leogthening ye time of payment for ed Rights upon interest, either on ye presont or other security, as your Ilonors chnli Judge Just, or otherwise Graut such other relief and en- couragement to na in forwarding ye settlement and advancement of ye lo- terest of ed pince.

"and we ns in Duty bound shall ever pray,

" HENAIJAIL WILLIAMS, " Agent for ed Proprietors. . " NEW HAVEN, Oct. 16, 1739."

We next come to the period of the first town-meet- ing of Goshen, which was lawfully warned and held in Goshen, Dec. 6, 1739. From the record of this meeting, the fathers of Goshen seemed to have made great progress during the short space of one year. They appointed five selectmen, two constables, three grand jurors, three listers, three surveyors of highways, one collector of taxes, who was also treasurer ( Moses Lyman, who had come from Northampton during the year), one town clerk (Mr. Pettibone, a lawyer), three horse branders, whose duty it was to mark all ani- mals, so that owners could know them in the absence of fences, there being on record sixty-six different marks in Goshen, three fence-viewers, one leather- sealer, three men a committee to exchange land to accommodate for highways ; two men were given per- mission to build town pounds, and the selectmen were "instructed to ascertain the places of holding the meetings for publick worship of God."

One month later, Jan. 11, 1740, at another meeting, they voted to "hire a minister to preach the gospel in sd town, and that sª minister come among ns as a pro- bationer." They added some names to the lists of officers appointed in December, and also appointed " Otbniel Gillett as a grave-digger," and made a red oak-tree, which stood not far from the house of John H. Wadhams, to be a "sign-post for the year en- suing."

The winter passed, to some the first, the second to others, spent in Goshen, and they met April 21, 1740, and extended a call to Rev. Stephen Heaton to settle here as a minister, offering him one hundred and ten pounds as a salary, besides fifty pounds in labor, to be worked out at five to six shillings a day. At the pre- sent value of silver per ounce, this salary and labor together made about one hundred and thirty-three dollars. They also sent a committee to the Assembly with a petition that they would send a committee to fix the location of a meeting-house.

In November of that year Mr. Heaton was ordained at the house of Capt. John Beach, on East Street, the spot now marked by a tree transplanted there in 1876.

Thus was our town fairly started on its career in two short years, and just at this point we are again indebted to our colonial manuseript records for the following paper, without which we might never have known the difficulties our fathers encountered :

PETITION FOR RELIEF.

"To the Hon. General Assembly of his Majesty" English Colony of Conu. In New England In America, now convoned and sitting In Hartford in ed Colony (May, 1741).

" The Humide Memorial of David Whitney, of Cannan, Agent for sd Town, Samuel Fettibone, of Goshen, Agent for ed Town, Timothy Hotel, uf Kent, Agent of ed Town, and George Halloway, of Cornwal, agent of ud Town, In behalf of themselves and the rest of the purchasers who hare settled, oud are actually Inhabiting md Towns. Humldy Sheweth that the Memoriallets purchased there In the several above named Towne of the Governor and Company of this Colony, or of those who purchased the same, so that either as first purchasers or at second hand, we are become Indebted in many considerable sume to the Governor and Company, and the times of payment are expired or very near. That the avitling of new Towns Is ever attenuled with very many nud great difficultles ; but it has happened lu respect to the memorialists that their settlement has been attended with Greater Difficulties and dintreas than there ever was known an Instance of In this colony, for, may It please your Honours, the unpar- alleled Extremity and severity of the Last winter has not only totally exhausted all the little stock of provisions nud necessary supporta of Life which we hnd purchased and procured from other sources, at great palus and cost, but has occasloned us to expend our money which we had set apart and depended upon to pay our purchases and for the mupport of our family' and Creatures, nud after all our Lawful endeavors, Divine P'ror !- donce hias mo far frowned upon ya that a very great part of our Stock of catilo, sheep, and swino are dead, and the very truth is, that many of the enttled Inbabliante amongst us, when we lay ouselves In our beds, have nothing to depend upon but the care and Goodness of a merelful and om- nipoteut Belug for our next day's provisions and support.

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 79

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