History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 96

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 96

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The places of meeting were first at private houses, then at the brick machine-shop and Chapin's Hall, Pine Meadow, and then in the upper village, at the school- house now occupied by Miss Chloe Lankton, and at Academy Hall. The "Church of the Immaculate Conception," at the North village, was commenced in 1868. during the pastorate of Rev. John Fagan, and finished during the pastorate of Rev. Lawrence Walsh. It is the largest church edifice in town. There has never been a priest resident in New Hart- ford, but mass is celebrated every Sunday morning by one of the reverend fathers from Collinsville. The Roman Catholic population in town is estimated by the present pastor at one thousand souls.

SCHOOLS.

The school-house followed closely upon the meet- ing-house. In December, 1753, it was voted in town- meeting to build a school-house twenty-five feet long, sixteen feet wide, and seven and a half feet between joints, to be set within twenty rods of the meeting- house. A second vote of the same meeting provided for two school-houses,-one at the southi part of the town,-which vote was afterwards revoked. The school-house on Town Hill was not completed until 1756, and the one at the south part of the town was delayed some years longer. It stood about a half-mile southwest of Judge Wait Garrett's present residence.

Previous to this time appropriation had been made year by year for "scooling" the children in New Hartford ; at one time twenty-four pounds were voted " to hire a master." The schools were taught in dif- ferent private houses designated by a committee ap- pointed for the purpose.

Those who smile at the peculiar spelling of the old records, and the primitive manner of keeping account- books, should consider the limited advantages of the schools in those early days, and admire rather than wonder.

their copy-books ; Dillsworth's speller, Dwight's geog- raphy, the "Columbian Orator," and the " New Eng- land Primer" were the text-books. The school-houses were warmed (?) by open fireplaces, supplied with wood furnished by the parents of the children in pro- portion to the number sent. The wages of male teach- ers averaged not more than ten dollars a month, and those of female teachers from three to six dollars per month, besides board, which was furnished by the parents, like the wood, in proportion to the number of children, the teacher going from house to house, or, as it was commonly phrased, "boarded around." The female teachers also gave instruction in needle- work.

In 1770 the town was divided into five school dis- tricts,-two at South End, and one each at North End, West Hill, and Town Hill. Mr. Goodwin's let- ter of 1813, before mentioned, says, "There are niue distriet schools, and for several seasons past there has been a school where the higher branches of literature have been taught," probably referring to Mr. Wyllys' school at the Moody place. In this connection another quotation from Mr. Goodwin's letter may be in order: "There are at present but two public librar- ies, containing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty volumes each." In the annual report of the Connecticut Board of Education for 1868 is published a letter from Prof. William C. Fowler, of Durham, from which the following is a short extract :

"In reply to your favor, in which you request me to furnish some io- formation concerning the town und village libraries, which in various parts of the State were the educators of our fathers, I have to say . . . these libraries are now numberod with the things that were, but for fifty or n hundred years they were a living power in the commonwealth, ns we may still learu in the fast-fading light of tradition. Booke wero for a long time scarce in Connecticut, as elsewhere in New England, ex- cept in the libraries of some of the eminent clergymen .. . .

" These book compantes were voluntary associations of persons in the several towns who were desirons of establishing a library. A number of the intelligent men of the town would meet together, appoint s com- mittee of four or five persons and a clerk, who was often the library- keeper. Each member contributed n certaln sum, say twenty shillings, as an entrance fee, and an annual tax, sny one shilling. The books wero drawn ont by the members, or by some of their families, to bo returned in a fortnight or at some longer time. The question what books should be purchased was considered to be a very Important one. . . . 'The Universal History,' Josephus' ' History of the Jews,' Watts' works, somo of the poetical works of Miton, l'ope, Thomson, Goldsmith, the sermons of some of the ablest English divines, some of the works of President Edwards, 'The Spectator,' ' The Vicar of Wakefield,' and many others, became famillurly known to more or less readers in many towns. The good Influence of these libraries upon every class of the population, from the highest to the lowest, cannot be measured."

There are now three public libraries in town, largely composed of works of fiction, from which books may be drawn on yearly subscription or by payment of a small fee at each drawing. The Pine Meadow Li- brary Association has u collection of some six hundred volumes, the Greenwoods Company Library has four hundred and fifty volumes in constant circulation, and the Roman Catholic society also sustains a small but well-selected library.

An old citizen, whose memory goes back to the be- ginning of the present eentury, says there were no arith- meties introduced into the schools of New Hartford until 1812, when Harold Wyllys came from Hartford to teach a grammar school on the Moody place, now owned by the heirs of Timothy Buckley, where the town poor are kept. Slates and blackboards were un- known; the multiplication-table was orally drilled There are in New Hartford at the present time no into the children, who were taught to make figures in schools of a higher grade than district school, where

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HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

are taught the ordinary English branches. There have been efforts from time to time among the citizens to support academies and private schools, but such enterprises have never been for any length of time successful. In 1837 a number of gentlemen in the North village interested in the education of youth erected at private expense the building adjoining the Congregational church, long known as the " Acad- emy," and sustained for a number of years a most ex- cellent select school therein. The second floor of the building was used by the Congregational society for religious meetings, and was also leased for entertain- ments and town-meetings, hence the name Academy Hall. Subsequently the North End School District enlarged the building one-half, the Academy associa- tion taking the entire upper half, or hall, and the dis- trict taking the two school-rooms on the first floor. The gentlemen who composed the Academy associa- tion are nearly all dead, and the hall has come, partly by gifts of shares, partly by tacit consent, into the custody of the Congregational society.

An academy once sustained at Nepaug was years ago converted into a dwelling-house, and one built by subscription at Bakerville about 1835 is now used for a district school.

Efforts, so far unsuccessful, have been made to secure

. the establishment of a good high school, which is greatly needed in the town.

There are now nine school districts in New Hart- ford, designated as follows, with the number of pupils in attendance on each in 1880: North End (2 teach- ers), 105; Pine Meadow (2 teachers), 174; Green- woods (4 teachers), 375; West Hill, 23; Southeast, 20; Bakerville, 26; Henderson, 26; Town Hill, 27 ; Merrill or Nepaug, 32. The second school-house on Town Hill was built in 1785. The first school-house at North. End village stood about ten rods above the house now occupied by H. H. Stone. The second was the house formerly owucd by old Mrs. Simons. In 1815 this was too small to accommodate the grow- ing district. It was therefore sold, and the house now occupied by Miss Chloe Lankton* was built and used for a school-house until the rooms under Academy Hall were fitted up for the purpose.

The Greenwoods District school-house was built about 1850. A few years ago it was raised and other- wise enlarged and improved, making it the best school building in the town.

HIGHWAYS.

The home-lots for the first settlers of New Hartford were laid out on the east and west sides of a highway sixteen rods wide and three miles in length, running north from the foot of Yellow Mountain over Town Hill. Tradition relates that when Rev. Jonathan Marsh's house was raised, about 1740, he told his par-

ishioners before they had anything to eat or drink they must cut down the white birches in this high- way, so that he could see Mr. Loomis' house.t This first highway has been encroached upon from time to time, and its former generous width is constantly nar- rowing. Rev. Mr. Marsh's house stood on the line of the original highway, a little to the south and in the rear of Daniel Royce's present residence. About the year 1800 the town took action in the matter of high- way eneroachments, and gave those who had robbed the public the choice of paying for the land or remov- ing their fences ; but for some reason the money was never all collected, nor is there a probability that many fences were removed.

The necessities of the town demanded cross-high- ways, of which there were at first three, eight rods wide, running from Town Hill towards East Moun- tain. Two of these still remain,-the one running east from Town Hill Street, near the meeting-house and burial-place (which, continued, was the South country road), the other, farther north, intersecting the Steele road near the residence of Grove S. Marsh. The third came into Town Hill Street nearly opposite the resi- dence of the late Isaac P. Steele, and was of great convenience to the farmers going to and from their lands at East Mountain.

In September and October, 1734, a survey was made of two country roads in New Hartford. The South road ran from Town Hill south-southeast until it in- tersected "the path leading to Litchfield," near the southeastern boundary of the town. The North road ran towards the river, and then mainly followed its course to the Simsbury boundary ; the road, " so far north from the meeting-house as there are any in- habitants," was made passable in 1742.#

The present line of highway from Town Hill to Spruce Brook was purchased of Pelatiah Allyn and Sarah (Moody) Allyn, his wife, in 1757. . It runs through what was once the Moody farm. This road was again altered, within the memory of old inhabit- ants, from the house of H. H. Stone. It formerly described a southerly curve, avoiding the steep hill above the brook. In 1738 application was made to the County Court for a convenient country road from the town of Simsbury to the two country roads in New Hartford, which the appointment of a surveyor to keep it in order in 1742 indicates was granted. In 1744 the town " voted to view to see if we can have a road at the south end of Wongsunkmaug? pond, to come

+ This stood where the present Loomis house now stands on Town Hill, fast crumbling to decay, its stone chimney rising like & lower among the ruins. The " L" portion of this house, built by the pioneer Israel Loomis, is said to be the first building ever erected on Town Hill.

# This was probably as far as the hotel corner at the North village, where settled Deacon Martyn Smith. Matthew Gillet also lived in this part of the town: his house stood west of Mrs. Howard P. Marsh's house, on a highway now discontinued.

¿ Wonksunkmunk, as the spelling varies, wss the Indian neme for West Hill pond, long known as Shepherd's pond, from Daniel Shepherd, the first settler on ite banks in 1748, when he sold bis Town Hill prop- erty and removed thither.

* Miss Lankton has been an invalid for nearly fifty years. A sketch of her life, written by Miss Harriet Atwell, of Pleasant Valley, has been widely read, and brings her correspondence and visitors from all over the country.

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NEW HARTFORD.

into the Town Hill road in that highway on the north side of Israel Loomis' lot." There is on record no re- port of this committee, but the highway "north of Israel Loomis' lot" was sold in 1756, and the one which comes into Town Hill road south of Mrs. Julie P. Smith's farm was purchased in its stead. An old resident remembers that this was formerly the only way for the "West Hill folks to come to meeting."

The year 1756 shows quite a highway record. Votes were passed to clear a road from the river to Jonathan Merrill's house (now Mr. Abram Chidsey's), also one in the Pine Meadow, and a road to Barkhamsted, the latter with the proviso, " if they can do it with poot- ing the town of, New Hartford to but a little caust." This road was made the following year from "the east side of the river, by Deacon Martyn Smith's, to the highway in Barkhamsted, near the dwelling-house of Pelatiah Allyn." In 1758 highways were opened. to Torrington and Harwinton, and also a highway to Kellogg's mill, on the Nepash, South End.

In May, 1758, the General Assembly having been advised of the great need of such action, appointed a committee to examine the country and report on a new and better road or way through Simsbury, New Hartford, Norfolk, and Canaan, on, towards Albany. In May, 1759, a new line of road from the court-house in Hartford to Col. Whitney's, in Canaan, was re- ported. The result of this report was that the com- mittee were directed "to lay out and make plain and certain the said new country road from the mansion- house. of Samuel Humphrey, in Simsbury, to Col. David Whitney's, in Canaan." In May, 1760, the survey having been made, the road was ordered cleared and made passable for traveling before Nov. 20, 1761, by the proprietors of the towns through which it ran. This rugged thoroughfare, known as the "old North country road," entered the town at the Simsbury line, crossed the river at "Satan's King- dom," ran through Pine Meadow and North End, about on the line of the present road, and at the corner near the hotel it ran westerly up the steep hill, past the resi- dence of William Cook, and crossed the Greenwoods turnpike a little west of the old toll-gate, then on over Wallen's Hill, through Winchester, Colebrook, Norfolk, and Canaan, to Albany. Until .1800 this road was the great thoroughfare of the colony in the direction of Albany. Over it passed the troops, and munitions of war of the Continental army, and the captured detachments of Burgoyne's soldiers, who encamped at New Hartford, near Charles Maxfield's new residence. The first mail from Hartford to Al- bany is said to have been carried over this road, on horseback, by Jacob Balcom, of Winchester.

The first turnpike through New Hartford ran "from the dwelling-house of Capt. Dudley Case (who kept tavern where Mrs. Olive Pike now lives) to the Massachusetts line, on the east side of the river," and was called the Farmington River turnpike. The company was incorporated May, 1780, and their first

meeting was held at "the house of Aaron Richards, innholder in New Hartford," he being a member of the corporation. The act of incorporation authorizes a toll-gate within fifty rods southward of the house of Aaron Richards,* and specifies the rates of toll, from which were exempted "persons traveling on the Lord's day, and other public. days, to attend public worship, society-, town-, and freemen's-meeting, funer- rals, people in town attending to farm business, also going to mill with horse, and militia going to attend reviews and exercises."

The town records show that in 1771-72, by a me- morial to the General Assembly, the town vigorously opposed the report of a committee who had been ap- pointed to view the land on the east side of the river with reference to a highway between New Hartford and Colebrook, and the probabilities are that this turnpike was the final outcome of the matter agitated at that time.

The Talcott Mountain Turnpike Company was in- corporated in 1798, the road to run "from the west line of the city of Hartford to the house of Eldad Shepherd, in New Hartford." This was the hotel at North End, purchased of Seth Smith's heirs about this time. The most ancient part of this hotel, as it now stands, was built by Deacon Martyn Smith, who lived here at an early period in the history of the town. In 1799 the Greenwoods turnpike, a continuation of the same route, was opened from Eldad Shepherd's house, in New Hartford, to Sheffield, Mass., by a new route which followed, as far as practicable, the courses of the streams and avoided the high hills. Starting from the hotel, it diverged from the present road near the scythe-shop, and passed through the swamp near the old Jopp house, some rods to the east of the pres- ent thoroughfare.

In May, 1801, the Torrington Turnpike Company was incorporated, and the first meeting was held at the house of Moses Kellogg, innholder of New IIart- ford, in July .of that year. This road passed through the villages of Bakerville and New Hartford Centre, now Nepaug, and followed, for the most part, the line of the old Torrington country road. It was generally called by New Hartford residents the Litchfield road, because used in going to and from the county-seat. Moses Kellogg, and afterwards his son, Col. Norman Kellogg, were for many years keepers of the tavern at the south part of the town, and the building so long kept by them as a public-house is still in good repair, and occupied by their descendants as a dwelling.

About a mile west of Bakerville, on the Torrington road, Levi Watson, son of Cyprian Watson, a pioneer settler of the town, kept tavern in the old colonial days. Two of his sons did hrave service in the Revo- lutionary struggle, and one of his descendants relates that during the years of the war his house was often

* Now known as the Miles Richards place, on the corner of llarkham sted and Ilichanin' roads.

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HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

so filled with officers and soldiers traveling to and fro on duty that it was impossible to give them other accommodations than the floors, where they were glad to stretch their wearied limbs for a night's repose.

The highway from the North village to South End, known as the "Steele road," was opened about 1808. The "New road," from the forks of the West Hill and Town Hill roads to the stone grist-mill at Stub Hol- low, was laid out by county commissioners in 1830, costing the town a tax of five cents on a dollar. In 1848 the road was opened from the highway, past the Greenwoods Company's saw-mill and grist-mill, and in 1850 that running from Marquis Richards' place to Pine Meadow, known as " Black Bridge road." In 1853 it was voted to build a road through "Satan's Kingdom," one-half to be at the expense of individ- uals. In 1870 the road was opened from the bridge at the lower end of North village to the Steele road, coming out near the residence of E. R. Carter, and in 1871 the road over the hill, past the house of Henry M. Gates. In 1871 a sidewalk was made between North village and Pine Meadow.

In 1878 a new road was made to Barkhamsted town line, west of the river, the old one being dangerous by proximity to the Connecticut Western Railway track.

Keeping the highways in order has always been a great expense to New Hartford on account of the roughness of the country. In 1806 scrapers were first purchased by the town for use on the highways, and in October, 1843, keeping the roads in repair was first let out to the lowest bidder for five years. Previous to that time the town was divided into districts, and surveyors appointed for each district, who were re- sponsible for the actual labor performed, or its equiv- alent in money, of each citizen's road-tax.

BRIDGES

have also been a great item of expense to New Hart- ford. The first mention of any bridge in the town records is a vote passed in 1756 to build a bridge across the Nepash near Samuel Douglass' (sontheast part of town). There is on file at the State Library a memorial from citizens of New Hartford, dated May, 1763, presented by Capt. Isaac Kellogg, praying for a lottery to assist them in building a bridge across the " Great River," in said town. This memorial sets forth that this river is a swift stream, about twelve rods wide, with a very rocky bottom, that it is at times impossi- ble to cross this river at the place where the new road has recently been laid out at the expense of the colony, and that, as the traveling yearly increases on said road, persons have been from time to time drowned in at- tempting to cross for want of a bridge. The memo- rial also states that the petitioners are a poor people, very unable to pay their public taxes, that they have recently borne half the expense of erecting a bridge across the river at Suffrage, in Simsbury, and pray for a lottery to raise one hundred and twenty pounds to

build the desired bridge. This was negatived by the Assembly, but another petition praying for a land-tax for the same purpose was granted, and the bridge was built, the first across the Farmington in the town. This bridge, and another built by the aid of a lottery in 1778, were probably carried away by freshets, and for a time there was a ferry at the "Kingdom" crossing. In 1784 the town applied to the General Assembly for aid in building a third bridge, and in 1796 it was sub- stantially built with stone piers, but not until the matter had been considered of opening a road to Suf- frage, on the west side of the river, and an effort made to turn over to the Talcott Mountain Turnpike Com- pany the building of the bridge. In 1799 this bridge was repaired. An old citizen, Mr. Ashbel Marsh, re- members that his father carted timbers for a new bridge built in 1803-4, and the town voted in 1812 to repair tbe hard-worn structure and give it a new top and cover of plank. In 1832 another was built, and in 1856 the present one, which, repaired in 1880, has thus far withstood the destructive elements. The first bridge across the Farmington at the North village was built in 1786, the second in 1799, the third in 1810, and the fourth in 1823. A double-track bridge was built in 1850, to which a footwalk was added in 1871. The present riveted iron bridge, with a track twenty feet wide, and a footwalk six feet in width, was put up in 1878, at a cost to the town of ten thou- sand dollars. The Farmington was bridged at a third place when the highway was opened from Pine Meadow to the Marquis Richards place, in 1850. The first bridge did service until 1873, when the one was built which is yet in substantial order.

In 1783 five bridges were built in the town, four across the Nepash, which are not located in the records, and one across Spruce Brook near its outlet (between North village and Pine Meadow). This is the first mention of a bridge at this place. In 1802 two bridges were built across the Nepash, "one on the turnpike at the southeast part of the town, near a grist-mill formerly owned by Zebulon Merrill, the other on the turnpike in the east part of the town, near Uriah Edgecomb's."

In the spring freshet of 1866 much damage was done to the bridges in town, the one between North Village and Pine Meadow being carried away.

The flood of December, 1878, unequaled on the Farmington for forty years, carried before it the Canal railroad-bridge, piers, abutments, and spans, the tem- porary structure and trestle at North village, where work had commenced preparatory to building the new iron bridge, and the bridge over the East Branch, besides other lesser damages. It was only by the con- tinued exertions of a large force of workmen, who were on guard one whole night, that the Greenwoods Company's dam was kept from giving way, the road along the side of the pond being four feet under water, and the top of the abutments nearly reached by the flood.

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NEW HARTFORD.

RAILROADS.

In 1870 the Collinsville branch of the Canal Rail- road was extended as far as Pine Meadow, a tempo- rary depot being fitted up near the entrance to the dugway, at the upper end of that village. In 1877 the road was again extended as far as the Greenwoods Company's mills, and commodious brick passenger- and freight-depots built on the east side of the river a little below the factory village. The Farmington was first crossed on a trestle-work, which gave place to a handsome iron bridge, carried away by the flood of 1878. A temporary trestle was again put up, and used until the present fine iron bridge was completed in 1879. The old station-house in Pine Meadow has been moved away, and a brick depot built at the south end of Church Street. The Connecticut Western Railway, which passes through the villages of New Hartford and Pine Meadow, was built in 1871, and the first engine passed over the road December 21st of that year .* The upper depot is located near the foot of Cemetery Hill, where the track crosses the Town Hill road, with freight-depots, coal-sheds, and water-tank farther south. The lower depot is oppo- site the residence of C. W. Gilman, in Pine Meadow. The track of this road runs on an elevated embank- ment above the highway between the two villages, entering the upper on a substantial wooden trestle some thirty feet in height. The Connecticut West- ern Railway has an iron bridge across the Farmington at "Satan's Kingdom" crossing, and the appearance of the gorge has been materially changed by tunnel- ing for the road-beds of the two lines (Canal and Con- necticut Western), one on each side of the stream.

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 96

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