History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 97

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532

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TOWN-HIALL.

After the removal of the old town-house on the hill, in 1848, the voters of the town were without a home on town-meeting days. They met one-half the time at the basement of the church at Nepaug, and the other half sometimes in the school-house, sometimes at Academy Hall, at North village. The "lock-up" of the town was a tumble-down, mouldy old building, formerly used by Wilson B. Spring as a carriage-shop, which stood just west of the Connecticut Western Railroad track, on the Town Hill road, an eyesore to the public, torn down the present year (1881).

From time to time the subject of building a town- hall was agitated, but every project had opponents, as was natural in a town where there are several little villages, with the principal business and manufacturing interests in one corner, instead of at a common centre. In 1872 it was voted in town-meeting to build, buy, or hire a suitable building or rooms for a lock-up and

court-room for the trial of criminals and other cases before a justice of the peace, to be located in the North village. The site of the present building (a little above the hotel corner, on the east side of the Greenwoods turnpike) was purchased, and the sub- stantial foundation laid, when, in June, 1873, other counsels prevailed, and the selectmen were instructed to sell the building lot and foundations, with the brick and building materials already purchased. The con- sequence was that the cellar and building materials lay exposed on the main street of the village for more than two years, until, in October, 1875, a vote was barely carried to instruct the selectmen to build a town-hall at a cost not to exceed ten thousand dollars. The present building, one of the chief ornaments of the town, was immediately erected on the foundations laid three years before. The building is of brick, with granite foundations and brownstone cappings and trimmings, forty feet front by seventy feet deep, two stories and a basement, with gables and a clock-tower. The basement-floor has a court-room, two cells, and a room now rented for a tailor's work-shop. The first floor has a handsome store in front, entrance-hall, ticket-office, town clerk, and probate offices, with vault, and two offices for rent. The town-hall, fitted up with stage and dressing-rooms, occupies the entire second floor.

The building was dedicated, with a grand centennial celebration, July 4, 1876, when the town records were removed in state to their new depository. A special feature of the occasion was the singing of the "Star- Spangled Banner" by Clara Louisa Kellogg ; Judge J. B. Foster and others delivered addresses, and Capt. H. R. Jones read the Declaration of Independence.

CIVIL AND MILITARY.

The town of New Hartford was incorporated by act of the General Court, October, 1838. At the May session of the General Assembly in 1751 an act was passed removing seventeen towns in the northwesterly part of the colony from the counties of Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield, and constituting them a separate county, to be called the county of Litchfield, with the town of Litchfield as the county-seat. This was a grievous affliction to the inhabitants of New Hartford, who could not become reconciled to being set off from Hartford County, and there is something pathetic in the language of the petitions which year after year they presented to the General Assembly, praying to be released from Litchfield County. That august body continued unmoved by the oft-repeated appeals setting forth the difficulties to the town by reason of the "roughness of the way" to Litchfield, and that, " as trade was mainly in Hartford, when any person went to court, other business could be trans- acted at the same time," which was no small consider- ation in those days of poor roads and unbridged streams. Col. Aaron Austin, of New Hartford, was judge of Litchfield County Court for many years ---

* The town of New Hartford had just been heavily taxed by liberal subscriptiona to the Canal Raliwny extension when the Connecticut Western was projected, and for that reason did not subscribe to the stock of the intter road, which occasionedi much feeling for a time among those Interested in tho Connecticut Western entorprise, so much av that it was proposed to " go around" Now Hurtford, until surveyors found that in- practicable.

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HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

family history says for twenty-five years-previous to his disqualification by age in 1816. The County Court, now a thing of the past, is in some part super- seded by the District Court of Litchfield County. The judgeship of this district was held by Jared B. Foster, of New Hartford, from 1874 to 1877.

Col. Aaron Austin was for twenty-three years (1795 to 1818) one of the twelve assistants to the Governor of Connectient, a body corresponding to the present Senate. Other senators from the town have been Roger H. Mills, in 1848; Henry Jones, in 1861 ; Edward M. Chapin, in 1872. Roger H. Mills was Secretary of State in 1849, and candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the first Prohibition ticket put forward in the State. He removed to Beloit, Wis., in 1853, where he died in 1880.

The first justice of the peace in New Hartford was Capt. Isaac Kellogg, appointed by the General As- sembly, on petition of the town, in 1745.

The town was first represented in the General As- sembly in 1776 ; the representatives were Capt. Isaac Kellogg and Capt. Matthew Gillet. The town had previously been too poor to send deputies to the Gen- eral Assembly,-all expenses of such representation being then borne by the towns,-but during the war of the Revolution, when the safety of this and sister- colonies was at stake, patriotism demanded represen- tation in council at any cost.

Previous to 1808, New Hartford belonged to Farm- ington probate district, from which it was taken at that time and annexed to Simsbury district. Col. Aaron Austin, of New Hartford, was appointed judge of Simsbury probate district in October, 1813, and continued in office until disqualified by age, May, 1816. In 1825 the towns of New Hartford and Bark- hamstead were taken from Simsbury district and con- stituted the probate district of New Hartford. Capt. Isaac Kellogg* was appointed judge, and served until 1833, when Launcelot Phelps, of Barkhamsted, suc- ceeded him. The same year, 1833, New Hartford was constituted a separate district at its own request. The list of probate judges since 1833 is as follows :

Isaac Kellogg, 1834-35; Tertius Wadsworth, 1835-38; Roger Il. Mills, 1838-42; Wait Garrett, 1842-44; Roger H. Mills, 1847-53; Jared B. Foster, 1853-57; Henry Jones. 1857-63; Orrin Goodwin, 1863-66; Fitch W. Burwell. 1866-78; Jason C. Kcach, 1878-80; Henry R. Jones took office Jannary, 18SI.

Judges Henry Jones and Orrin Goodwin died in office, and F. W. Burwell and Jason C. Keach were disqualified by age before the expiration of their official terms of service.

TOWN CLERKS.

The first proprietors' clerk was John Austin, of Hartford, chosen in 1732, who served a year, when Nathaniel Hooker was chosen, and served from 1733 to 1739. Noah Merrill, of New Hartford, was the first town clerk appointed, but died before taking the oath of office. The proprietors then appointed Mat-

thew Gillett, who served the town faithfully in that capacity for nearly forty years, from April, 1739, un- til 1778. His successors have been :

Joseph Merrill (2d), 1778-83; James Steel, 1783-86; Joseph Loomis, 1789-1805; Asa Goodwin, 1806-48; J. C. Keach, 1848-81, exclusive of 1854, when the office was held by Dr. Jerry Burwell, and 1855-58, when it was held by Normau B. Merrill.

The military history of New Hartford begins with a vote of the town in 1743 to expend twelve pounds to purchase colors (and a brand). In 1744 twelve . shillings were paid to Matthew Gillett for warning a training, and in 1745 it was voted to purchase a town stock of ammunition. In May, 1752, the General Assembly confirmed Mr. Matthew Gillett, who seems to have been a knight of the sword as well as of the pen, captain of the company or train-band in New Hartford, and ordered that he be commissioned ac- cordingly. The town records of this period, punctil- ious in giving titles, show that Israel Loomis was lieutenant and Thomas Olcott ensign of this company. Military organizations were kept up in New Hartford until the disbanding of the Lafayette Guards, not long since. Great pride was taken in the drill and appearance of these troops on parade- and training- days. A history of these military companies, from Capt. Matthew Gillet's time, would be of great interest to New Hartford readers; at some future time it may be written, but it would be too extended for these pages.

In 1739, New Hartford was designated as one of the towns in which the First Regiment of militia should be located. In 1774 the troops from New Hartford, Simsbury, Hartland, Barkhamsted, and Colebrook constituted the Eighteenth Regiment of militia, of which Abel Merrill, of New Hartford, was commis- sioned major. In 1820 the New Hartford troops be- longed to the Twenty-first Regiment of militia.

The first record pointing to active service by New Hartford troops is a reference to powder taken from the town stock by Israel Loomis at the time of the expedition against " the fort at Lake George," from which it is gathered that a detachment of men under Lieut. Loomis were at the attack on Ticonderoga in 1758. The town records also mention the death of Nathaniel Seymour at Crown Point, Oct. 20, 1760; there were probably others who served at the same time who lived to return.

A detachment of sixteen young men from New Hart- ford went in the expedition against Havana, under Gen. Lyman, in 1762, only one of whom, Benjamin Merrill, lived to return. The records at the State Department of Capt. John Patterson's (afterwards Roger Enos') company, in which these men served, are incomplete, so that only a portion of the names can be found; these are Michael Merrill,t Eliakim

* Great-grandson of the original settler of that name.

. t. Michael Merrill was the eldest son of Joseph Merrill, a pioneer of the town, who afterwards married the widow of David Chapins. Joseph Merrill gave to another son, born about this time, the name of Michael; he was a physician in New Hartford, familiarly called " Dr. Michael."

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NEW HARTFORD.

Merrill, David Chapins, Zebulon Shepard, Joseph Watson, Nathaniel Wilcox, Gideon Smith, John Miller, Joseph Whiting Marsh .*

This expedition, which reached Havana in the month of August, was fatal to more than two-thirds of the men who composed it, chiefly by reason of sickness incident to the climate at that season. Of a regiment numbering August 10th eight hundred and two men, but thirty-four were reported fit for duty October 2d, and part of those who lived to embark for home died on the voyage or suffered shipwreck.

In May, 1774, after the issue of the Boston Port Bill, and other hostile demonstrations of Great Brit- ain, Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, in view of the general peril which threatened the colonies, issued a proclamation enjoining a day of fasting and prayer. This was soon followed by an order to all towns to double their quantity of powder, ball, and flints.

At a town-meeting of the inhabitants of New Hart- ford, held Sept. 5, 1774, it was "voted to purchase two hundred pounds of powder, and flints answer- able." Joseph Cowles, Capt. Seth Smith, Eldad Mer- rill, and Aaron Austin were appointed "a committee of correspondence to open subscription for the poor people of Boston and Charlestown," and spirited reso- lutions were passed, which were entered in the town records and published in the Connecticut Courant. These resolutions, after declaring that late acts of Parliament " were of dangerous tendency, and strike immediately at the foundation of the civil and relig- ious rights and privileges of all British colonies in North America, and directly contrary to the English constitution," also expressing sympathy with the in- habitants of Boston, " now suffering under the cruel hand of tireny and oppression," and resolving to con- tribute to their relief, and to concur with and approve all measures adopted by the Congress at Philadelphia, close with the following sentiment :

" Also it is the opinion of thia meeting that if any person shall, from any sinister views whatsoever. counteract the foregoing resolves, he shall be trented, not with open violence on his person or propperty, but with all the neglect, discsteen, and contempt which his character deserves and his conduct shall merret."

New Hartford at this trying season contributed her full share to the glorious record of Connecticut, which, out of a population of one hundred and ninety-eight thousand, furnished nearly forty thousand troops and militia for service during the war of the Revolution,- more in number than any other State exeept Massa- chusetts. Though the fifth in size of the original thirteen, she furnished more salt beef, pork, and cattle for the army than any sister-State. It was to her that Washington looked for help in the disheartening winter of 1778, when ten thousand soldiers lay naked and hungry at Valley Forge. Nor did the "Provision State" fail him then, but sent her commissary, in the

dead of winter, through unbroken forests, to the relief of the suffering army. Capt. Phineas Merrill, of New Hartford, was with Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth, com- missary of the State, in this branch of the service, and underwent many hardships while traveling with supplies from Connecticut to the army at different stations.

The following are but a few of the recorded votes of the town during the eight years' struggle :

March, 1777 .- " Voted, That we will give ten pounds lawful money to each soldier belonging to New Hartford that shall inlist into the Conti- nental Battalions."

Septemher, 1777 .- " Voted, That we will provide clothing for the sol- diers that are inlisted and gone into the Continental army that belong to New Hartford."

" Voted, That the committee appointed by the town to make provision for soldiers' families that are gone into the Continental army, agreeable to the law of this State, do make ample provision for said families, and that the town of said New Hartford pay the overplus."

Jan. 7, 1777 .- " Toted, That we do except of the articles of confedera- tion and perpetual nnion between the states of New hampshire, Massa- chusetts bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware. Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, und Georgia."

The taxes levied at this time, which called for money, were mostly paid in cloth, stockings, beef, pork, corn, and oats.

Beside those who enlisted for a term of service in the Continental army, the militia were repeatedly called out from Litchfield County to the frontier and sca- coast of Connecticut, and to Horse Neck, Peekskill, and other points on the Hudson, during the long and tedious struggle for the possession of the Highlands. Probably not an able-bodied man in town but was called out, some of them many times on this service.

Owing to scanty and incomplete records, it is im- possible to ascertain the names of all New Hartford men who served during the Revolutionary struggle. Among the State archives at Hartford is a pay-roll of eighty-two men who marched under Capt. Seth Smith at the Lexington alarm, in April, 1775, and also five mounted men under Lient. Uriah Seymour. Probably most of these saw other service.

The following are known to have served in the Continental army or State troops for a longer or shorter period :

Col. Aaron Austin, entered the service as a subaltern, and rose to the rank of llentenant-colonel.

Col. Seth Smith, appointed by the General Assembly Hontenant-colo- nel of one of the battalions raised for the defense of the State, or sen-coast and frontier, In 1777 ; also again commissioned for the same service In 1778. Col. Smith also marched with troops to Peekskill at the call of Gen. Washington in 1777.

Capt. Abram l'ettibone, served on frontier and in New York.

Capt. Phlucas Merrill, conductor of commissary tenma noder Col. Wadsworth.

Lieut. Charles Goodwin.

C'apt. Elijah Flower, entered as a private; was Imprisoned al Halifax ; promoted for good service.

Cyrenius Austin, died in servico.

John Garrett, Levi Watson, Isaac Watson, Thomas Watson, Cyprise Merrill, Jesse Steel, Joseph Gilbert, Theodore Gilbert, Aaron Stephens, Ellaha Roberta, Ezra Andrus, Cyprian Merrill, Aaron Merrill, John Taylor, Daniel Marsh, Jesse Steel, William Cook, Ashbel Marsh, Caleb | Watson.

* The last-named young man was eldest son of Kov. Jonathan Marsh. Hla connection with this expedition is gathered from maunacript famlly history.

408

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

WAR OF 1812.

During the last war with England, in response to a call for troops for the defense of the State, a company was organized in New Hartford and Barkhamsted, of about equal numbers from each town. They left New Hartford in July, 1813, under orders for New London, where they served until September, 1814. The Sun- day before their departure the company, dressed in uniform, attended church on Town Hill, where Rev. Mr. Jerome delivered to them an appropriate address.

The records of this company are lost, and the fol- lowing facts concerning it were furnished by Judge Wait Garrett, of New Hartford, the sole survivor, now in failing health and memory. The captain of the company was Moses Hayden, of Barkhamsted. The names of New Hartford men, as far as can be ascer- tained, were :

Lieut. George McNary, Ensign - Merrill, Riverins Douglass, Ira Sey- mour, Jesse Markham, Samuel Markham, Schuyler Holcomb, Jesse Steel, Segur Steel, Hezekiah Woodruff, Asa Woodruff, Martin Good- win.

Maj. John Meigs, of New Hartford, also saw service during this war and the war of the Revolution, though not a resident of New Hartford until 1794.

THIE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

On Saturday, April 5, 1861, news of the bombard- ment of Sumter flew over the electric wires, and loyal hearts were stirred to action, as were the Revolu- tionary fathers at the tidings of Bunker Hill. New Hartford rose to the emergency. The first of her sons to respond to the call for seventy-five thousand volunteers for three months enrolled themselves, with recruits from Winchester and other adjoining towns, as Company B, Second Connecticut Infantry. The officers were Abram G. Kellogg, captain; Charles W. Morse, first lieutenant ; Charles Warren, second lieu- tenant; all of New Hartford. The company left for New Haven April 21st, where they were encamped and drilled until May 27th, when they left for Wash- ington and the scene of action. They were at Fairfax Court-house and Bull Run, but lost no member by death.

April 29th a special town-meeting was held to make provision for the families of soldiers who had or should enlist for the support of the government.

In July, 1861, in response to a second call for men to defend the government, Company C, Eighth Con- necticut Infantry, was organized, composed almost wholly of New Hartford men. The officers who first commanded it were Charles W. Nash, captain, Samuel Glasson, first lieutenant, Robert Burnside, second lieutenant. This company, during their three years' service, were in twelve hard-fought battles. At the battle of Antietam they went into action with nearly fifty men, and came out with less than twenty, thirty having been killed, disabled, or taken prisoners.

Aug. 2, 1862. after Litchfield County had deter- mined to raise an entire regiment in response to Lincoln's call for " three hundred thousand more,"

the town of New Hartford, at a special meeting, offered a bounty of one hundred and twenty-five dol- lars " to all who may volunteer from this town to crush the existing wicked rebellion." New Hartford's offer- ing to the "Mountain County Regiment" (the Nine- teenth Infantry, afterwards Second Heavy Artillery) was a squad of thirty men, who were consolidated with recruits from Canaan and Colebrook to form Com- pany F, of which Edward W. Jones, of New Hartford, was appointed captain, and afterwards promoted major of the regiment, and breveted lieutenant-colonel for bravery in action. This regiment also saw hard and bloody fighting; they were in thirteen engagements, and lost heavily in killed and wounded. Beside these companies, there were New Hartford men in almost every regiment from the State,-some thirty being distributed among the different companies of the Thir- teenth Infantry,-in all, two hundred and sixty-seven.

In September, 1863, the selectmen of the town were authorized to pay a bounty of three hundred dollars to men drafted into the army, and the following was passed by the citizens :

" Resolved, That we, the citizens of New Hartford, will spend our money, and our lives if necessary, for the support of our government."

When the call came in August, 1864, for five hun- dred thousand men, when the patriots who were wil- ling to risk their lives were already in the field, and volunteers were few and hard to find, yet the quota of the town was fifty-two, and must be raised, the authorities voted "a bounty of four hundred dollars to every volunteer or man drafted under said call."

At the close of the war, in 1865, came the return of the volunteers to their homes, to take up again the peaceful avocations left at the country's call. But not all returned : New Hartford's list of " killed in action or died in service" was forty-two; and who shall number those who came to their homes wounded or diseased, to find an early grave, or to carry through life the scars of the conflict ?

MANUFACTURING AND BUSINESS INTERESTS.

In 1733 the proprietors of New Hartford seques- tred for the benefit of the town two water-privileges, one for a grist-mill, the other for a saw-mill. The grist-mill privilege was at what is now known as "Stub Hollow,"* on or near the site of the present stone grist-mill, which was built by Lot Seymour about 1825. The saw-mill privilege was on Spruce Brook, on the southern slope of Cemetery Hill; but this was found to interfere with property already chosen by a proprietor, and was relinquished, with an injunction upon the inhabitants of the town that they should provide a suitable place for a saw-mill.

The first water privileges (except grist-mill above mentioned) improved were at "Satan's Kingdom" and Nepaug. There were both grist- and saw-mills at the

* First so called by the workmen who cleared the ground for Royal I. Watson's house in 1822, from the stumps of the trees left in the clearing.

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NEW HARTFORD.

"Kingdom" very soon after the settlement of the town. The date of building the dam is not known, but in 1751 Thomas Walling purchased of Jonathan Merrill both mills, with property adjoining; and the list of 1753 taxes Thomas Walling with a saw-mill valned at twenty pounds, and a grist-mill valued at fifteen pounds. The gorge at the "Kingdom" is about three- eighths of a mile in length, and the banks at the highest points are one hundred and twenty feet above the water, and in some places perpendicular or over- hanging. The river flowing through this gorge, before it was obstructed by the two railroads which have narrowed its channel, was some twelve rods wide. The dam was near the Connecticut Western Railway bridge, and the mills were on the west bank of the river. Capt. Dudley Case, who came from Simsbury in 1784 and kept tavern on Mrs. Olive Pike's place, was the next proprietor of these mills. In 1753, Pe- latiah Richards, and later Col. William Goodwin and his sen, Caleb C. Goodwin, had a fulling-mill near Case's grist-mill, and a shop near by where they dressed the cloth spun and woven by the housewives of New Hartford.

Until 1832 the "Kingdom" bridge is mentioned in the town records as " the bridge near Case's mills," when the designation is changed to " near Salmon Merrill's." About this time Col. Salmon Merrill purchased the grist- and saw-mills, with property adjoining, and carried them on until the great flood in the winter of 1839-40 swept away the grist-mill, which was never rebuilt. The clothing-mill was carried away by the same freshet. In addition to the mills, Col. Merrill also had a turning-shop and bed- post-factory near the bank of the river. The saw- mill, with an occasional change of hands, continned in operation until it was carried away by flood, about the year 1869, after which the dam was demolished. The property at this time was owned by D. B. Smith, of Pine Meadow, who sold the right of way to the Canal Railroad, which destroyed the water-privilege.

In 1847, Messrs. Darius Camp and Caius C. Man- chester built a puddling-furnace, for making cast iron into wrought iron, just above Wilcox's tavern, about three-quarters of a mile north of the "Kingdom" bridge, with a dam of but slight elevation on the river above the works. Tenement-houses were put up for the employees of the company, forming a little village, which has since borne the name of " Puddletown." The Connecticut Western Railroad track is Jaid in what was once the street through this settlement. The expense of transporting iron from Salisbury was so great that the business was not successful, and in 1852 C. C. Manchester, who had become sole pro- prietor, made an assignment for the benefit of credi- tors, and the property passed into the hands of IIer- man Chapin, who conducted the business until 1863, when the furnace was burned. The business was never revived, as the improvement of the water-privi- lege had caused extensive litigation between the

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 97

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