USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 139
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Mr. Hubbard had a pleasant home in New Haven, where the latch string of hospitality is always prominently hung out, and vibrates invitingly to whoever may chance to pull it. This is presided over by an estimable and lovely wife, and is enlivened and made cheerful by four well sprouted olive branches-two boys and two girls- to all of whom the busy head of the family points with pride, as did Cornelia of notable domestic fame, when she pointed to her children and remarked " these are my jewels."
The county of Middlesex has every reason to feel proud of the name and achievements of this son of her soil, feeling that in his honorable and successful career he brings honor to the spot of earth that first witnessed his existence.
HON. ALPHEUS S. WILLIAMS.
Among the distinguished men who were natives of this town, the late Hon. Alpheus S. Williams is desery- ing of a prominent notice in this work. He was born in Saybrook, Conn., September 20th 1810; graduated from Yale College in 1831; and spent two years following in traveling in Europe. He settled Detroit, Michigan, in 1836, and began the practice of law in that city. He was judge of Probate for Wayne county from 1840 to 1844; was recorder of the city of Detroit; and from 1843 to 1747 was proprietor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser. He served in the Mexican war as lieutenant-colonel. In 1849, he was appointed postmaster of Detroit by Presi- dent Taylor. When the late war began, he was made major-general of militia, and was president of the State Military Board. He was subsequently appointed a brigadier-general, and performed much service on the Upper Potomac; had command of a division at Win- chester; was at Cedar Mountain and Manassas; after the battle of South Mountain succeeded General Banks as corps commander; commanded the Twelfth Corps at Antietam; was in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and went through the Atlanta campaign While with Sherman in the " March to the Sea," he was brevetted major-general for gallant and meritorious ser- vice. He was afterward on duty in Arkansas, and was mustered out in 1866. He was a commissioner to settle military claims for Missouri; from 1866 to 1869, he was minister resident to San Salvador; and in 1874, was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress from Michigan.
TOWN OF WESTBROOK.
BY JAMES A. PRATT.
GEOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
The central village is situated on a flat running back from the shore from three quarters of a mile to a mile, and bordering on the bay about two miles.
This flat is surrounded on three sides by moderate elevations which terminate to the northward in high hills that abound in forests of every kind of wood known to this latitude. This north section also furnishes good tilling and grass land.
The permanent population of the town at present is about 900. The town's largest population was from 1836 to 1850, when it reached 1,200. It is not easy to explain this decrease, which many New England towns have experienced. The fact that shipbuilding, which was once of consequence, both to the builder and to the timber men, has disappeared, that farming has ceased to be a profitable occupation, and that manufacturing never existed to any considerable extent, may account for it somewhat.
The principal shrinkage has been in the border dis- tricts, where farms, from which the father and grand- fathers of the present generation reaped the harvest of wealth, are now abandoned and in decay.
The unsurpassed fishing and bathing of its bay have drawn to Westbrook a new population, which, during the summer months, nearly doubles its census. The sound front is being rapidly covered with cottages, which now number about 100, erected and occupied during the summer months by families from abroad.
Many of these beautiful little houses are owned by the Stannard brothers, who are representatives of one of the oldest and wealthiest families in the country.
INDIANS.
W ESTBROOK, one of the three southernmost The Indian name of the settlement was Pochoug, a word signifying the place where a river divides, and descriptive of the location of the principal tribe at Obed's Hammock, at the confluence of Pochoug and Menun- ketesuc Rivers. The large quantities of arrow heads, have been found and are being unearthed in that vicinity, are evidence that it was some time the abode of a nu- merous and powerful tribe. towns in Middlesex county, and one of the five that comprised the original town of Saybrook, is sit- uated about five miles west of the mouth of the Connec- ticut River, with a frontage of about four and a half miles on the Long Island Sound. It is bounded on the broken pottery, shells, and other Indian remains that north by Essex and Saybrook, on the east by Old Say- brook, on the south by the Sound, and west by Clinton. Its extreme extent north from the Sound is about five miles.
A very common name for the western part of the town, in ancient annals, is Menunketeset, or Menunketesuc, in Indian dialect, Ma-na-qua-te-sett. The name is of Mohegan origin, and was applied to the West River, and the section bordering upon it, after its possession was claimed by Uncas.
In his deed to Saybrook, in 1666, it is written, Mo- nonkateset, and it has been spelled and pronounced every conceivable way since. The significance of the word is lost.
The soil on both sides of the rivers is a mass of shells, the remains of clam and oyster feasts before the discov- ery of America.
A remarkable feature of the vicinity is the great num- ber of broken or unfinished arrow heads to be found at Round Hill, on the east side of the river. The only ex- planation for this is, that it was the headquarters for the manufacture of these implements from the slate and quartz found on the beach near by.
This Indian settlement was probably abandoned at the annihilation of the powerful Pequot tribe, to which they belonged, in 1637.
The Hammock was subsequently occupied by Obed and his tribe, from Niantick, on the western border of Rhode Island, and within the jurisdiction of the Connec- ticut colony at that time. This small tribe were living here at the time of the arrival of the first whites, and were known as the Menunketeset Indians.
They returned to Niantick about the time of the King Philip war, in 1676.
At the last uprising of the Indians in 1675 against the English, the governor and assistants being apprised that
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WESTBROOK-SETTLEMENT.
" the small plantations of Lyme, Saybrook and Killing- worth (Clinton) being not farr from some indians whoe we understand by other indians, were in private consulta- tion at Podunk not long since all night * * * * and it is not knowed but they may be in the conspiracy with the other indians against the English," ordered Capt. Thomas Bull to " forthwith repayre to those plantations for their special defense and safety." The Menunkete- sets were undoubtedly among the suspected.
After the removal of the tribe to the eastward, Obed, the chief, appears in colonial history on several occa- sions. In 1677 he, with another chief of the Nianticks, came before the governor and council, " desireing that they may be under the imediate government of the En- glish as the Pequots are," which was granted.
In 1684, he complained to the council that the En- glish had taken possession of some of their land. This was ordered to be restored. This was the last resident tribe in town and its chief left his name attached to one of the oldest Indian settlements in the State. The half dozen other places exhibiting evidences of the Indian oc- cupation, were the stopping places of tribes who spent a portion of the year here for fishing, and returned to the north.
The territory within the bounds and limits of West- brook was a portion of the domain of the Mohegan chief, Uncas, his claim covering all the land lying be- tween Connecticut River and Guilford and 12 miles north on the river. The title to this he assumed by right of conquest from the Pequots. To his complaint to the General Court in 1665 respecting his squaws' rights at "Homowoset " (Clinton), the committee re- plied that " Uncas had alienated all of it [his claim] to Mr. Fenwick and the inhabitants of Saybrook and Guil- ford, except only six acres in Homonoset." George Fenwick quitclaimed his interest, with a small reserva- tion to the colony, and the Colonial Legislature con- firmed all previous titles by a grant in 1704.
FIRST SETTLERS.
It is difficult to determine the exact date at which the town was first inhabited by the whites, as it was only an outlying portion of Saybrook, and its early records come under that title; but there are some points in those records that are easily recognized. That it was earlier than any at present accepted date, there can be no doubt.
Robert Chapman, a resident of Saybrook, had his homestead not far from the Westbrook boundary line on the east. Mr. Chapman owned several tracts of land in this town, among them the meadow around Obed's Hammock. The Chalkers were also large proprietors in the same section, early in the fifties of 1600. The General Court, in May 1656, granted to Mr. Janies Fitch " a compitent farm conteining bet. 2 & 300 acres at Menunketeseck."
Robert Chapman had for adjoining proprietors, Rob- ert Bull, William Jackson, and Thomas Dunck; the lat- ter's house standing about one-half of a mile south of the present Congregational church.
Thirteen families from Connecticut had begun a set- tlement at Southold, on Long Island, nearly opposite and within easy access, in 1640.
The above facts, and many others that could be adduced, lead easily to the conclusion that more than 50 years before Peter Murdock, from East Hampton, Long Island, sailed up Pochoug River and took possession of his plantation, built a house and store, and set his slaves to build those enormous stone walls to enclose his pos- sessions, that are yet a curiosity, adventurous men had taken up their abode along the flat lands near the shore -or as early as 1650.
OYSTER RIVER QUARTER.
The first distinct reference to the territory comprising the town of Westbrook ,in old records, or the most of it, for its western boundary had not been determined, was on the occasion of the location and distribution of the outlying lands in the old town of Saybrook in 1648. That year the old town, " for the Improvement of those lands that lye remote," divided those lands into sections called quarters; the "Oyster River Quarter " comprising the largest part of Westbrook, a small portion of Win- throp adjoining on the north, and a section of Saybrook from Oyster River west to the town line. The "Town Platt," that part of Saybrook lying between this river and the Connecticut, had previously been appropriated.
The familiar names of Lay, Post, Bushnell, and Chap- man occur among those to whom the distribution was made, and much of the same land has remained in the families to the present day There were many undis- tributed patches, which were valueless on account of loca- tion or other unfitness for use at that time, and which were from time to time occupied without expense or hindrance. Years after the first distribution, upon a piece of this refuse land, the first church was built. The first and second school houses were set on other por- tions. The first parsonage occupied a tract, and Peter Murdock, with his strong Scottish inclinations, appro- priated a small piece as near the church as the ledge of rocks upon which it stood would allow, for a family bury- ing place.
This, the present " Old Burying Ground," soon came into general use as a public burying place by the parish, and remained open to the highway until 1782, when it was fenced " at the expense of the Parish unless the means can be otherwise obtained." A question having arisen in 1812 as to the precise limits of the ground, the " Proprietors Committee of the Oyster river quarter " were called upon to locate and survey it.
This " burying ground " was used for over a century and in it repose the remains of the only two ministers who have died in the town since the organization of the first church. One, the Rev. William Worthington, died 128 years ago, and the other, the Rev. John Devotion, was his successor for nearly a half century.
The remains of Mrs. Devotion rest by his side. Those of Mrs. Temperance Worthington, the widow of Mr. Worthington, were buried in Durham, where she died in 1778.
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564
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
The second, " Lower Burying Ground," was laid out in 1835, and it began to be used that year.
The present " Westbrook Cemetery " was established in 1866 by an association called the " Westbrook Cemetery Association," and it contains many fine monuments.
In 1723 came into existence the mysterious "Pro- prietors' Committee," whose official signature is found ap- pended to titles to property.
The original proprietors to the various tracts through- out the colony, becoming jealous of what they consid- ered the unauthorized appropriation of the undivided or common fragments of land, induced the General Assem- bly that year to enact, " that whatsoever part or interest the ancient proprietors, by custom as well as deed, have in any common or undivided land in any town, which they have not by their free consent disposed of shall be allowed and taken to be their proper estate."
These "ancient proprietors," or their heirs or suc- cessors, were also authorized " to divide or dispose of " any such " common or undivided " lands, and to ap- point a committee and clerk as agents to conduct their business. This was the origin of the "proprietors com- mittee," which existed for more than a century, the last Jonathan Lay being one of the last members of it, and Jared Platt the last clerk, in 1838.
PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
The town began to be permanently settled early in the sixties of 1600 by families who purchased, or had re- ceived from previous distribution, large tracts of land, and prepared for themselves comfortable homesteads, though it is not probable that any considerable number had moved in until the complete and final subjugation of the Indians, in 1676.
The first settlers generally located in the outskirts. The Chapmans, from Saybrook, took up their residence in the eastern border. The Bushnells purchased land and located in the northeast. The Stannards, Spencers, Posts, Jones, and Wrights, occupied the extreme north and west portions. The Lays and Grinells settled near the center, and the Murdocks, coming later from East Hampton, L. I., purchased a large tract of land in the western portion, and built a house and store near the mouth of Pochoug River.
It is highly probable that the northern border districts were the most thickly settled part of the town 150 years ago, and certain it is that a store was kept at that time on "Toby Hill," in the almost limitless woods, at a point a mile from any present dwelling.
The ghostly ruins of old cellars are thickly sprinkled through that section, and are an evidence of a once quite numerous community.
One of the earliest industries of the town was "getting out shooks " for the West India trade, to be returned to the colony as casks filled with sugar, molasses, or rum. This accounts, in a degree, for the first inhabitants locat- ing in so uninviting a section, being in the midst of the material necessary for their business; but tradition adds as a reason, the jealousy of the Indians, whose settle-
ments or camps were on the rivers or near the Sound, they occupying the fairest portion of the settlement.
EARLY ROADS.
The earliest travelled road from Connecticut River, through Westbrook, to Guilford and New Haven, turned off the present Main street east of the Congregational church, to the southward, and running nearly parallel with the shore for three-quarters of a mile, turned abruptly to the beach; thence running back of the beach, it crossed the mouth of the rivers at the "riding way," and passed through Pine Orchard. The road probably originated with the Saybrook land owners at Menunke- tesuc Point.
As early as 1663, there was a north route that crossed Pochoug River at its head, near the grist mill, and run- ning in as crooked a line as possible, much of the way in the present road, crossed Menunketesuc River at what is called in ancient records the " riding or wading place," about one quarter of a mile above the present bridge. The location of a public highway, thus early, was governed by the convenience of fording rivers, and these were the first above the bar at the mouth.
In 1680, the present road, with some variations, was laid out by commissioners appointed by the General Court to be " fower or five rods wide," and a bridge built over Menunketesuc River, " that may be a sufficient passage for hors and man at all times." This bridge was the first to span either river, and was built of timber.
Complaint having been made in 1692 of the " difficul- ties and obstructions in the country roade between Say- brook and Kenilworth," [Clinton] a committee was ap. pointed to "survey and straiten said road, as far as they could, between Saybrook mill, vis. Lieut. Jones' mill and above Samuel Buell's house in Kenilworth." This com- mittee established the road in nearly its present line, and abandoned the former bridge crossing for the pres- ent one.
The present bridge, in the center of the village, over Pochoug River, was not built until some years after, the direct route from Saybrook west being by the way of the fording place at the mill and Menunketesuc bridge.
INCORPORATION.
After having been inhabited by whites for nearly two centuries and incorporated as a parish 116 years, West- brook, by an act of the General Assembly passed at its May session 1840, became a full fledged town, with all the corporate rights and privileges pertaining thereto.
The first town meeting was called by Dr. Ebenezer Cone, and was held in the Congregational church.
Joseph Spencer, Jedediah Post, and Alexander Clark were chosen the first board of selectmen, and Ezra Stan- nard, town clerk.
Alexander Clark, who resided on the "Compitent farm conteining bet. 2 & 300 acres at Menunketeseck," presented by the General Court to Mr. James Fitch, in 1656, was elected the first representative in the General. Assembly.
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WESTBROOK-CIVIL OFFICERS-SHIPBUILDING-SLAVES.
CIVIL LIST.
Representatives .- The representatives to the State Leg- islature have been: Alexander Clark, 1841; Ezra Stan- nard, 1844, 1845, 1848; Alfred Chittenden, 1846, 1847, 1853; Horace Burr, 1849; Jared Platts, 1850, 1851; Wil- aim H. Lay 2d, 1852; Jared F. Kirtland, 1854; P. M. Kirtland, 1855, 1856; Linus E. Chapman, 1857, 1858; F. W. Spencer, 1859, 1861, 1864, 1866, 1871; Henry M. Stannard, 1860; Ezra Stannard, 1862; John Post, 1863; Horace Bushnell, 1865; George C. Moore, 1867, 1868; F. L. Kirtland, 1869: J. A. Pratt, 1870, 1872; H. F. Wil- cox, 1873, 1874; Joseph G. Smith, 1875, 1876; George Kirtland, 1877, 1878; Richard H. Stannard, 1879, 1880; Benjamin F. Wright, 1881; John A. Post, 1883; Oliver H. Norris, 1884.
Town Clerks .- The following is a list of the town clerks of Westbrook from 1840 to the present time: Ezra Stannard, 1840-42; Jared Platts, 1842-48; Augustus Bushnell, 1848-53, 1855-64; Reuben Stannard 1853-55; George C. Moore, 1864-84.
Westbrook Probate District .- The probate district of Westbrook was organized in 1854. The successive judges have been: H. M. Stannard, 1854-56; Augustus Bushnell, 1856, 1857; H. M. Stannard, 1858-74; George C. Moore, 1874-84.
SHIPBUILDING.
Shipbuilding was an important industry of the town for more than a century, the two rivers, the Pochoug and Menunketesuc, with the forests of white oak and chest- nut that abounded in the northern section, fitting it admirably for that purpose.
Brigs, schooners, and sloops, to be used in the West India or coasting trade, were built at various yards on Pochoug River, from a point in the midst of the timber a half mile above the town bridge to near its mouth, and at one yard on Menunketesuc River. Almost any place was extemporized for a ship yard, numbers being built by the side of the highways and on the sound beach.
In the palmy days of the business, vessels were in pro- cess of construction continually, as many as a half dozen being on the stocks at once.
Fifty or sixty years ago, the activities of the village were almost wholly devoted to the trades necessary to this branch of industry. Usually, the builders were the own- ers; often the officers and crew.
No more substantial or seaworthy craft were ever built than these homely vessels, built of the native timber, by carpenters whose trade was a profession, though it earned but "one hard dollar a day and grog, between He died in January 1825, aged 82, and his wife sur- vived him about a year. sun and sun," and good for a half century of service. At Ball's yard, on Menunketesuc River, during the last Toby's name will live in the hill, on the side of which his cabin stood, and in the spring of crystal water near by, long after the cotemporaneous lords of the manor have ceased to be mentioned, war with England, a number of privateers were built that did good service. At one time during the same war, an unfinished vessel on the stocks in Hayden's yard, on Po- choug River, near its mouth, was sunk, lest it should be burned by the cruisers of the enemy. The upper part of Mr. Hayden's dwelling was also taken down, that it and infirm, to the generation of some now living, and might not reveal the location of the yard ..
When the revolution in shipbuilding that drew this branch of business to large centers came, about 30 years ago, Westbrook, in common with many other small towns on the coast, lost its most valuable business, and to-day the carpenter, the caulker, and the rigger are among the lost arts.
With such a location to incite and such surroundings to develop a love for the sea it was natural that the town should produce a hardy and skillful race of sailors. In the prosperous days of the sail ship, before steam had monopolized the carrying trade, the town was repre- sented in every branch of the sea service, and in all parts of the world. Its seamen were among the most efficient, and its commanders the most successful. Families, and generations of families successively, notably the Spen- cers, the Stannards, the Kelseys, and Posts have been master seamen of from the smallest coasting vessel to the largest merchant ship.
SLAVERY.
Negro slavery, as was the common practice throughout the State, was a recognized institution among the worthy fathers in the parish. It is interesting to note that the earliest death record, in 1724, commences with: " Cesar negro man servant to Capt. Samuel Chapman."
The Lays, Chapmans, Murdocks, Spencers, Posts, in short every one whose means would allow, depended upon his " negro servant " to perform whatever was laborious or menial. The slave's social position was much the same as among every people in every age; and if tradition is not at fault, his perversity was as great, yet that the sober minded folks did not wholly doubt the possibility of his final salvation, is evidenced by the fact that Toby and his wife Jude, a worthy couple, were received in the church, and permitted to sit on the broad stairs to the gallery and listen to the ponderous sermons of Mr. Devotion and his successor, on election, free will, and kindred topics.
Toby had a number of children, all born in slavery and out of wedlock. The descendants of some of these became highly respectable people. He was the prop- erty of the Spencers, his last transfer being from Caleb Spencer to his sons-in the language of the will " I give my negro man Toby to be equally divided between my three sons Joseph, Caleb and John." This was not a desirable heritage as it entailed the burthen of his sup- port in old age.
" Jenny " and " Phillis," the property of the Jona. than Lays, were two other slaves that came down, aged are remembered for their native peculiarities.
566
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
MILLS.
The first mill in town, a grist mill, was built by Samuel Jones, one of the first settlers, and was located at the head of Pochoug River.
The same privilege has been in use until within a few years. The mill was erected at some time between 1680 and 1690, and is familiarly mentioned in the Colonial records of 1692 as "Saybrook Mill or Lieut. Jones' Mill." The north route to Clinton crossed the river at the " fording place," just below its dam.
It is probable that Lieutenant Jones received his title to the mill site, and also to the extensive tract of land north of it, which he owned and lived upon, and perhaps some farther assistance in setting up the mill, as it was customary to grant, from the Colonial Assembly, as a condition that he should at all times be ready to serve the people of the town in the capacity of a miller.
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Some little time after the building of this mill, a wind- mill was set up by the Grinells, on the west side of the highway, about 50 rods south of the present Congrega- tional church. Not working well in that location, it was taken down and moved to the top of the hill just back of the church, where it stood until nearly 1800. The mill stones now grace a stone fence on the exact spot where they did service for nearly a century.
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