USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
Newspapers published in 1852, 654 Review of newspaper history, - 655-658
Various catalogues,
667-672
643, 4
Progress of American whaling, - 639 Its commencement at Sagharbor, 640 The business commenced at N. London, 640
Whaling merchants in 1852, and num- ber of ships owned by each firm, 647
The Union school, 622
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
INTRODUCTION.
IN the eastern part of Connecticut is a river, named in honor of the Thames of England, which, about two miles from its mouth, forms the harbor of New London.
" Here fond remembrance stampt her much loved names ; Here boasts the soil its London and its Thames,"I
1
The mouth of the river lies directly open to Long Island Sound. It has no intricate channel, no extensive shoals or chains of islands, to obstruct the passage, but presents to view a fair, open port, inviting every passing sail, by the facility of entrance and security of anchor- age, to drop in and enjoy her accommodations. The harbor is a deep, spacious and convenient basin ; abounding in choice fish, and its margin furnished with sandy beaches, finely situated for the enjoy- ment of sea air and sea bathing.
In the lowest spring tides the harbor has twenty-five feet of water, and this depth extends several miles above New London. Ships of the line may therefore enter at all times of the tide and ascend as far as Gale-town, seven miles from the mouth of the river. To this place there is usually in the channel a depth of twenty-seven feet, and vessels drawing eight feet of water find no difficulty in reaching Nor- wich, twelve miles from the mouth.
New London harbor is the key of Long Island Sound and the only naval station of importance between Newport and New York. In its capacious bosom a large fleet may find anchorage and ride out a tempest ; nor is there any port on the coast more advantageously situated for the reception of a squadron pursued by an overmastering
1 Philip Freneau.
2
·
14
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
enemy. This was proved in the last war with Great Britain, when the United States, Macedonian and Hornet, closely pursued by a superior British force, put into the harbor and found a secure shelter. Commodore John Rodgers, who wintered here with his squadron in 1811, said it was the best ship harbor he had ever visited, except one : the exception was understood to be in Europe.
It is seldom closed by ice ; remaining open through the whole win- ter, except in seasons of intense frost, which occur at intervals, some- times of many years. Nor is it ever troubled with floating ice, for that which is made within the harbor or comes down the stream, owing to the course of currents off the mouth of the river, drifts directly out to sea.
The township of New London originally extended on the Sound from Pawkatuck River to Bride Brook, in Lyme, and on the north to the present bounds of Bozrah, Norwich and Preston. Within these limits there are now, east of the river Thames, Groton, Ledyard and Stonington, and west of the river, New London, Montville, Waterford and East Lyme. At the present day, in superficial extent, it is the smallest town in the state-less than four miles in length and only three-fourths of a mile in width. The city boundaries coincide with those of the town. The compact portion of the city is built upon an elevated semicircle, projecting from the western bank of the river, between two and three miles from the Sound.
Latitude of New London light-house, 41º 18' 55".
Longitude west of Greenwich, 72º 5' 44".1
The outward appearance of New London, down to a period consid- erably within the precincts of the present century, was homely and uninviting. The old town burnt by Arnold, could boast of very little elegance ; many of the buildings, through long acquaintance with time, were tottering on the verge of decay; and the houses that replaced them, hastily built by an impoverished people, were in gen- eral plain, clumsy and of moderate dimensions. Neatness, elegance and taste were limited to a few conspicuous exceptions. Moreover, the town had this disadvantage, that in approaching it, either by land or water, its best houses were not seen. It was therefore generally regarded by travelers as a mean and contemptible place. Within the period in which steamboats have traversed the Sound, a passen- ger, standing by the captain on deck, as the boat came up the harbor, exclaimed with energy, "If I only had the money!" "What would
1 United States Coast Survey, 1846.
1
15
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
you do?" inquired the commander. "Buy that town and burn it," he quickly replied.
Since the utterance of this dire threat great improvements have been made. The city now contains ten structures for public worship, two of them new and elegant stone churches, in the Gothic style of architecture ; a custom-house and county prison, both of granite ; several extensive manufacturing establishments, two of which employ engines of great power and several hundred men; several blocks of stately brick buildings, in one of which is a spacious hall for public exhibitions ; and many elegant private mansions. A railway, start- ing from the city and running nearly seventy miles north to the great Western road of Massachusetts, furnishes an eligible route to Boston and to Albany. A second railway, extending to New Haven along the margin of the Sound, completes the land communication with New York. And in the forefront of the town, admirably situated for the de- fense of the harbor, stands Fort Trumbull, a fine specimen of mural ar- chitecture, complete in design and finish, massive, new, and in perfect order.
Groton Monument overlooking the harbor is another impressive feature of the scene. Under its shadow lie the ruins of old Fort Griswold, from whose battlements a fine view is obtained of the town and the river. From the summit of the monument, the prospect to the south, of the Sound, its coasts and its islands, is absolutely peer- less and magnificent.
Here lie Connecticut and Long Island, forever looking at each other from their white shores, with loving eyes, linked as they are by the ties of a common origin, congenial character and similar institu- tions ; and guarding with watchful care that inland sea, which, won from the ocean, lies like a noble captive between them, subdued to their service and inclosed by their protecting arms.
How changed is this whole scene, landward and seaward, since the period when we may suppose the young, ambitious Winthrop, with knapsack and musket, under the guidance of some Indian chief, struggled through the wilderness from Saybrook, and pausing per- chance on the summit of Town Hill, looked down upon the wild and solitary landscape! How his heart would beat, could he now stand upon that spot in the garb of mortality, with earthly feelings still yearning in his bosom, and survey the fair town which he first began to hew out of the wilderness! The Sound which he had navigated and admired ; the harbor, whose commercial aptitude he must have discovered at a glance ; the heights on the other side of the river, since named from his own birth-place ; the Neck, where afterward,
16
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
in the infancy of the town, he built his house of rough stone and planted his orchard with English trees-all these enduring features remain the same as when they first broke upon his vision. But where he then saw only a confused mass of sterile rocks and stunted trees, or swamps and thickets, relieved only by a few Indian smokes that rose from their depths, there are now wharves, and spires, and fortresses ; trains of cars gliding over iron tracks ; hills furrowed with the cemeteries of the dead, and streets crowded with the mansions of the living.
How populous likewise have these waters become! Then, perhaps a solitary canoe appeared on the horizon, or was seen dimly gliding along the weedy shores. Now, an ever changeful scene is presented to the eye. Barges and boats, whose oars drip liquid silver ; the light-keeled smack, with its slant sheet bearing up before the wind ; sloops and schooners, which, though built for use and deep with freight, display only ease and grace in form and motion ; the stout whale-ship, familiar with the high latitudes and counting her voyage by years, bound out or in, with hope in the one case and gladness in the other, paramount upon her deck; and lines of steamers, the mediums of harmonious intercourse, making friends of strangers and neighborhood of distance, under whose canvas shades beauty reclines and childhood pursues its gambols with the comfort and security of land-are objects which, in the genial seasons, give a pleasing variety to the surface of the Sound.
17
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Winthrop's Neck
and Cove
New London
Groton. A Monument. FFort Griswold
Bream Cove
Close Cove
Fort
THAMES
08 Green Harbor
Rocks. &Quinnipeag RIVER
Poquanock R.
Light House
Lasterr Pt. Black Rock
Pine Id.
Long Rock
o Shore Rock
Goshen Pt.
Long. W. from Greenwich, 72° 5' 44".
NEW LONDON HARBOR.
2*
Alewife Cove
Trumbull
,
CHAPTER I.
Historical Sketch of the Pequots, and of their Country, previous to the Settle- ment of the English.
WHEN the English commenced their settlements upon Connecticut River, they found residing upon the sea-coast, in a south-easterly course from their plantations, a tribe of Indians, exceedingly fierce, warlike and crafty. These were the Pequots. Their immediate territory extended from Connecticut River to Wekapaug Creek, about four miles east of the Pawkatuck, and back into the country indefinitely, covering what is now New London county. On the southern coast, bordering upon Long Island Sound, they had their villages and fishing stations. Far and wide in the rear extended the hunting fields, the deer tracks, the war-paths of the tribe, and a shadowy depth of swamps and thickets, inhabited only by beasts of prey, or perchance a few rebels and outcasts, that had escaped from the tyranny of the sachem or from the fierce avenger of blood.
But the power of the Pequots was felt beyond these bounds. Other tribes had been overrun by their war parties, a tribute imposed, and a paramount dominion established. Prince, in his introduction to Mason's Pequot War, says that this tribe extended westward to Connecticut River, and over it as far as Branford, if not to Quinnipi- ack (New Haven.) Gookin, in his account of the New England Indians, states that the sachem of the Pequots held dominion over a part of Long Island ; over the Mohegans, the Quinnipiaks ;
"Yea, over all the people that dwelt upon Connecticut River, and over some of the most southerly inhabitants of the Nipmuck country."
The central seat of the tribe was between the two rivers now known as the Thames and the Mystic. Their principal villages or hamlets were in the neighborhood of the latter, and were overlooked and guarded by two fortifications-one near the head of the river, on
20
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
a height still called Pequot Hill ; and the other on a ridge nearer the Sound, known as Fort Hill; both in the eastern part of the present town of Groton. These posts were fortified villages, rather than forts ; each consisting of a cluster of cabins, surrounded by a strong fence built of stakes, logs and interwoven trees.
On the west bank of the river now the Thames, were the Mohe- gans, with Uncas for their sachem ; the southern border of whose territory was about six miles from the mouth of the river. Gov. Winthrop the elder, says that Uncas dwelt "in the twist of Pequod River ;" meaning the bow-like portion of the river lying south of Trading Cove.1 The chiefs of this tribe were of the royal family of the Pequots.
South of the Mohegans, down to the river's mouth, the natives were called by some early writers Mohegans, and by others Pequots. Subsequent to the Pequot War, the remnant that was left took the name of the place where they dwelt, and were distinguished as Nam- e-augs. They were undoubtedly of the true Pequot race.
About the mouth of Pawkatuck River and eastward of it, was a tribe called the Eastern Nahanticks, over whom the Pequots claimed authority, but who were sometimes in alliance with the Narragan- setts.
Around Nahantick Bay (in Waterford and East Lyme) were the Western Nahanticks.2 They had a fort or look-out post directly at the head of Nahantick River, and another on the summit ridge of Black Point, overlooking the Sound. Their hunting lands and fish- ing grounds extended west to Connecticut River.
These are all the aborigines of New London county of whom any account has been preserved. They all belonged to the wide-spread Delaware or Algonquin race, and used the same language, but with considerable variety of intonation and emphasis. The fact is now well established, that the difference in the aboriginal dialects of New
1 Winthrop's Journal, sub ann. 1638. "Unkus, alias Okoco, the Monahegan Sachem in the twist of Pequod River, came to Boston with 37 men." Okoco is doubtless a misprint for Okace, one of the names of Uncas, or rather, a slow, reverential way of pronouncing his name. Sassacus was likewise pronounced, at times, Sassaco-us and Sassa-quo-as. Pequot also with the o long, Pekō-ot, Pequo-odt. Unkus, as in the above extract from Winthrop, or Onkos, as in Mason's account of the Pequot War, would be better orthography for the sachem's name than Uncas; but where the sound is so nearly the same, it is needless to alter the current spelling.
2 Mason says: "About midway between Pequot Harbor and Saybrook, we fell upon a people called Nayanticks, belonging to the Pequods." Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 18, p. 144.
1
21
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
.
England was not so great but that the tribes easily understood each other. With respect to the clans in the vicinity of New London, no material difference could be discerned in their physical conformation, their character or their customs. In government they formed a con- federacy, and their chief sachem at this period was the powerful Sassacus. Uncas, the Mohegan chief, was his kinsman by blood, and probably also his son-in-law ; for it is said that he had married, about ten years before the Pequot War, the daughter of Tatobam, the Pequot sachem : Tatobam was one of the names of Sassacus.
It is generally conceded by historians, that the Pequots were ori- ginally an inland tribe, dwelling north-east of the Hudson River, and belonging to that class of the aborigines termed Mohickans or Mohick- anders ; and that they reached the sea-coast by successive stages, conquering or driving away the older tribes that came in their way. It may be that the Nahanticks, on the east and west, were a people found upon the coast, subdued at first, and afterward intermingled with the conquerors. This would account for their readiness to throw off the Pequot yoke whenever an opportunity offered. But the Mohegans do not appear to have been in any way distinguished from the Pequots, except in name, and in this respect they were the older people,' retaining the original name. The designation of Pe- quots was no older than the father of Sassacus, from whom it was derived ; he being called Wo-pequoit, or Wo-pequand, and sometimes Pekoath.2
The coast of New London county was first explored by the Dutch navigators, beginning with Capt. Adrian Block in 1614. This com- mander, in a small vessel constructed upon the banks of the Hud- son-a yacht called the Restless,3 forty-four feet and a half long, and eleven and a half wide-passed through Hell-gate into the Sound, and examined the coast as far eastward as Cape Cod. He appears to have entered the principal harbors and ascended the rivers to some distance. Montauk Point he called Fisher's Hook, from the employ- ment of the natives, who gained their chief subsistence from the sea.
1 This agrees with the tradition of the Mohegans. The ancient burial-place of the sachems was in their domain, on the banks of the Yantick; now in Norwich. The sachems' graves at that place were mentioned on the first settlement of the town, many years before Uncas was buried there.
2 The elder Winthrop, in his first notice of the tribe, in 1634, calls them Pequims; but the Dutch, who visited them twenty years before, noticed them as Pequatoos, and in the map drawn by these first explorers, they are laid down as Pequats. Winthrop's Journal, vol. 1; New York Hist. Coll., new series, vol. 1, p. 295.
3 O'Callaghan's New Netherlands, p. 72.
22
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Fisher's Island probably received its name on the same account, or from its being a good position for fishing, but at a later period than Block's survey.1 To Block Island he gave his own name, and it is accordingly laid down on the old Dutch maps as "Adrian's Eyland" and "Ad. Block's Eyland." This enterprising navigator so thorough- ly explored the beautiful inland basin known as Long Island Sound, laying open its bays, rivers and islands to the view of the Old World, that we can not but wish it had obtained, in honor of him, the name of Adrian's Sea. We should then have a western Adriatic, appro- priately so named, and not a servile imitation, as many of our names are, from the geography of Europe.
De Laet, an early Dutch geographer, and the first who has de- scribed with any minuteness the coast of Connecticut, compiled his account from the journals and charts of Adrian Block. His descrip- tion of the coast of New London county is as follows :2
" Within the Great Bay [Long Island Sound] there lies a crooked point, [the Latin edition says, " in the shape of a sickle,"] behind which there is a small stream or inlet, which was called by our people East River, since it extends toward the east."
No one can doubt but that Watch Hill Point and Pawkatuck River are liere indicated : the sickle form of the sandy cape and the easterly course of the river, identify them with precision.
" There is another small river toward the west where the coast bends, which our countrymen called the river of Siccanemos, after the name of the Sagimos [Sachem.] Here is a good harbor or roadstead behind a sand point about half a mile from the western shore, in two and a half fathoms water. The river comes for the most part from the north-east, and is in some places very shallow, having but nine feet of water at the confluence of a small stream, and in other places only six feet. Then there are kills or creeks with full five fathoms water, but navigation for ships extends only fifteen or eighteen miles. Salmon are found there. The people who dwell on this river, according to tlie state- ments of our people, are called Pequatoos, and are the enemies of the Wapa- noos" [Wampanoogs or Narragansetts.]
.
1 Thompson (History of Long Island, p. 248) says that Fisher's Island was originally called Vissher's Island, and was so named by Block, probably after one of his com- panions. The same assertion has been made by other historians, but it does not ap- pear on what authority. Its position is noted by the Dutch geographer De Laet, and it is laid down on the early Dutch maps, but no name is given to it.
2 De Laet wrote his work both in Dutch and Latin: the latter, not being a transla- tion of the former, but composed anew, varies from the other in some points. Trans- lations from both works, of those parts which relate to the coast of New York and New England, are given in N. Y. Hist. Coll., new series, vol. 1; from which the ex- tracts in the text are taken.
23
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
MÖR
-HI-
CANS
Rivier van Siccanemos
PEQVATS
Versche rivier
Vriesche Riviertjen
Oester Riviertjen
DUTCH MAP OF 1616.
The river here described was probably the Mystic. The variation of the soundings, the sand points, shoals and creeks, all apply to that neighborhood.1 The Mystic, also, was peculiarly the river of the Pequots, although the name Pequot River was afterward given to the Thames, that being the largest river of the Pequot territory and the one principally visited by the English and Dutch traders. The tribe, however, was most numerous in the vicinity of the Mystic and their fortresses commanded its whole extent.
In some particulars the account is not precisely accurate ; nor could we reasonably expect that the first rude survey of a coast em- barrassed as this is, with creeks, coves and islands, should exactly correspond with charts made two or three centuries later. In a part of the description, it is evident that the Mystic is confounded with the river next surveyed. When it is said, "navigation extends fifteen or eighteen miles," we can not doubt but that the geographer has misplaced a fact which, in the original surveys, referred to the Thames.
The writer proceeds :
"A small island lies to the south-west by south from this river as the coast runs [Fisher's Island ;] near the west end of it, a north-west by west moon
1 " Mistick River, or Harbor, is an arm of the sea navigable for vessels drawing six- teen feet of water, about two miles from its mouth: at that point obstructed by a bar of hard sand, about fifteen rods in width, allowing only thirteen feet depth at high water, with a channel above the bar, sixteen feet deep, up to the wharves. The nav- igation is impeded, also, in consequence of its channel being very crooked." [Asa Fish, Esq., MS.]
1
24
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
causes low water. We next find on the main, a small stream to which our people gave the name of the Little Fresh River, where some trade is carried on with the natives, who are called Morhicans."
Here we have the first glimpse of our own fair stream, with the name given it, probably by Capt. Block himself, in 1614. The ad- junct Little was necessary to distinguish it from the Connecticut, which had been previously named by the Dutch, Fresh River. De Laet's Latin edition, which was written later than the other, does not name the Little Fresh River, but notices what is evidently the same stream, under another name :
" From thence the coast turns a little to the south, and a small river is seen, which our people named Frisius, where a trade is carried on with the Morhi- cans."
From all this it appears that the rivers on the coast of New Lon- don county, discovered and partially explored by the Dutch, were :
1. East River, or the Pawkatuck.
2. Siccanemos, or the river of the Sachem, now Mystic.
3. Little Fresh River, or the Frisius, now Thames. 1
Roger Williams, in a letter to Governor Winthrop, of Massachu- setts, written in 1636, sketches a rude chart of the following geo- graphical points on the Pequot coast passing from Connecticut River eastward by land:2
1. River Qunnihticut.
2. A fort of Nayantaquit men, confederate with the Pequts. [Head of Ni- antick Bay.]
3. Mohiganic River. [The Thames.]
4. Weinshauks, where Sassacous the chief sachem is. [Probably the royal fortress in Groton.]
5. Mistick Fort and River, where is Mamoho, another chief sachem. [The fort afterward taken by Capt. Mason.]
6. Nayantaquit, [Fort and River.]
1 In these Dutch accounts there are in fact four streams, instead of three, obscurely indicated; but this must be ascribed to the confusion produced by comparing different journals, since there is no such fourth stream between Connecticut River and Narra- ganset, except the Niantick, and on the charts made by these discoverers of the coast Niantick River and Bay are wholly omitted, which is presumptive proof that they were not explored. See N. Y. Hist. Coll., vol. 1, pp. 295, 307; also the Dutch map of 1616, in O'Callaghan. The original of this map was obtained in Holland, 1841, by J. Romeyn Broadhead.
2 Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d series, vol. 1, p. 161.
Groton
3
New London
Thames R.
Poquanock R.
Mistic R.
Mystic
Stonington
catuck R.
Bay Niantic
3
++ Goshen Reef
Noank
Mason's Id.
8
Watch Hill Pt.
30
Fisher's Id.
Plum Id.
Gr. Gull Little Gull
COAST OF NEW LONDON COUNTY.
25
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Black Pt.
++ Bartlet's Reef
Wampasset Pt.
26
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
The Dutch having explored the coast of the Sound, and estab- lished a trade with the natives, claimed the country as an appanage of their province of New Netherland. For a number of years, the traders from New Amsterdam (now New York) almost exclusively resorted to this coast and engrossed the trade. It was their inten- tion also to form settlements in these parts, and particularly on Connecticut River. In 1632, they bought of the natives a spot at the mouth of the river which they named Kievit's Hook,1 (Saybrook,) and on the 8th of June, 1633, obtained an Indian grant of another parcel of land on the river, near where Hartford is situated. Here they erected a trading-post, and called it the House of Good Hope. They made preparations also to take possession of Kievit's Hook, but in both cases the English crowded in and retained possession. The latter asserted a priority of right, and had, in fact, extended their patents over the whole country east of the Hudson.
In the range of the year 1635, four English plantations were com- menced upon Connecticut River; three of them by congregations that removed, each with its minister, from the Bay settlements. The people from Watertown settled at Wethersfield,2 those from Dor- chester at Windsor, and those from Newtown (alias Cambridge) at Hartford. The fourth settlement was made at Saybrook, by John Winthrop, Jun., who had received a commission from Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook and others, patentees of Connecticut, to be governor of the river and the parts adjacent for one year. An ad- vance party of twenty men, dispatched by him, sailed from Boston Nov. 3, and arriving at the mouth of the river, took possession of Saybrook Point. This party was just in time to prevent the occu- pation of the spot by the Dutch. A sloop from New Netherland arrived a few days afterward, with men and stores, to effect a settle- ment; but the English had mounted two pieces of cannon and would not permit them to land.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.