History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 137

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317

USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 137

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Elder G. W. Appleton was their next pastor. He remained about four years. In 1821 the brethren in Lempster sent Ezra Miner to the church, requesting his ordination. A Council was accordingly called, and he was solemnly set apart to the work of the ministry. After the resignation of Elder Appleton they were destitute of a pastor for nearly a year.

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

Eighteen were set off to form the Chesterfield Church in Montville, and their numbers were reduced to less than two hundred.

About this time Nathan Wildman came among them, and his labors were richly blessed. In 1824 they called him to ordination, and prosperity again shone upon them. In the year 1831, William A. Smith was licensed to preach the gospel.

Elder Frederick Wightman succeeded to the pas- torate in 1832. He was succeeded in 1838 by Elder Wm. Palmer. On account of a division of the town, the name of the church was changed. In the winter of 1841-42, after the resignation of Elder Palmer, Elder Amos D. Watrons held a series of meetings, in which large accessions were received. The spring following twenty were dismissed to form the Lyme Church, and the next winter fifty-five were set off, forming the Second Church in East Lyme.

Elder F. Wightman accepted a call again to become their pastor, and was soon permitted to see the fruits of his labors. They now (June, 1842) removed to a new house of worship. Here they had previously listened to the experience of young converts who offered themselves for baptism. Their pastor being compelled by sickness to resign, Elder Chester Tilden was called to the charge, who labored with them a little more than two years.

Rev. P. G. Wightman commenced his ministry among them in the spring of 1846.

Among the pastors since that time are mentioned Revs. - Judd, George H. Lester, Percival Matthew- son, and John W. Holman, present pastor.

Second Baptist Church .- This church was organ- ized Dec. 29, 1842, with fifty-eight members from the First Baptist Church in this town and the First Church in Waterford. A church edifice was erected and opened for service in September, 1843. The first pastor was Elder James Hepburn. He was succeeded by Elder Frederick Wightman, R. Hedden, George Mixture, Curtis Keeney, John J. Bronson, Rev. Mr. Phillips, Rev. Mr. Temple, Rev. Mr. Wilson, present pastor, Aug. 8, 1881.

Methodist Episcopal Church, Niantic.1-This church was organized by Rev. Isaac Sherman during the winter of 1842. There had been a class formed here in 1810, but many of the members of that class had removed to other places; in 1842 there were a few persons living in the vicinity who had formerly belonged to that class, and in the spring of 1843, Rev. Azariah B. Wheeler was appointed to this charge. The church building was commenced. In June the corner-stone was laid, and Rev. Ralph W. Allen, of New London, preached a sermon on the occasion, and October 5th the church was dedicated. Rev. Ralph W. Allen preached the dedicatory sermon. In 1844- 45, Rev. Henry Torbush was preacher in charge; 1846-47, Rev. Roger Albiston; 1848-49, Rev. Marvin

Leffingwell. In 1850, Rev. Isaac Sherman was ap- pointed, and stayed a few weeks, and the church was supplied by local preachers through the year. In 1851, Rev. John F. Blanchard was preacher in charge. In 1852, Rev. John F. Blanchard was reappointed, but died early in the year, and the church was supplied by local preachers through the remainder of the year, -Rev. John Standish, of Norwich, and Jesse B. Denison, of New London. In 1853, Rev. Peter S. Mather, preacher in charge; 1854, Rev. Henry Wes- ton Smith ; 1855-56, Josiah T. Burton ; 1857, Rev. John W. Case. During this year they commenced to build a church parsonage. In 1858, Rev. George Dwight Boynton; 1859-60, Rev. Lawrence Pierce; 1861-62, Rev. Frederick C. Newell; 1863-65, Rev. Jabez Pack ; 1866-67, Rev. Lewis E. Dunham.

The first half of the year 1868, Niantic was sup- plied by local preachers; and after September, De Witt C. House was licensed, and stationed here during 1869 and 1870.

From 1871-73, Dwight A. Jordon was preacher in charge, and during his pastorate a new church was built on the main street in the village, and was dedi- cated Sept. 25, 1873. Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, now of New York, preached the dedicatory sermon. In 1874, Rev. Anthony Palmer ; 1875, Rev. Alfred A. Pres- brey ; 1876-78, Rev. J. T. Burton ; 1879-81, Rev. Charles H. Ewen.

During the winter of 1880 the church parsonage was sold and a new church parsonage built; the old church was taken down, and used in building the new parsonage, located on the main street, much nearer the new church, and much larger and more convenient. The church is very largely indebted to the generosity of Capt. Edward Luce in the erection of the house, also in the gift of the land on which it stands.

Civil History .- The town of East Lyme was in- corporated at the May session of the Legislature in 1839, and the first town-meeting was held at the " Baptist meeting-house," June 10th, same year, when the following officers were chosen :

Clerk, Z. D. Beckwith ; Selectmen, Daniel Stewart, Ezra Moore, Jr., Calvin S. Manwaring, Edward Moore, Jr., and Clement Smith ; Treasurer, John L. Smith ; Constables, Roland Rogers, Jr., Ezra Purtlor, and Isaac Burch; Grand Jurors, Z. D. Beckwith, B. E. Champlin, and Nehemiah Caulkins; Tithingmen, Lemuel G. Crocker and Job Tubbs ; Hay-warden, Eli- sha Smith ; Sealer, Charles M. Spencer ; Key-keepers, Titus Beckwith, Thomas Faber, Calvin S. Manwaring, and Mather Rogers; Town Agent, John L. Smith. Joel Loomis was moderator of the above meeting.

REPRESENTATIVES FROM 1839-1882.

1840, Daniel Watrous; 1841-42, no record; 1843, E. Moore, Jr .; 1844, J. Tubbs; 1815, no record; 1846, E. Moore, Jr .; 1847, F. B. Loomis; 1848, William II. H. Comstock; 1849, J. D. Otis; 1850, George M. Denison ; 1851-52, Ezra Moore, Jr .; 1853, George M. Denison ; 1854, F. W. Bolles ; 1855, J. L. Beckwith ; 1856, J. B. Manwaring; 1857, S. F. Perkins; 1858, S. L. Manwaring; 1859, William HI. II. Com-

1 Hy Philo Gates.

AVERY SMITH.

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stock ; 1860, O. C. Gorton; 1861, E. Iloward; 1862, E. Moore, Jr .; 1863, J. M. Chapman ; 1864, F. B. Way ; 1865, E. Luce ; 1866-67, E. W. Beckwith ; 1868, F. B. Way ; 1869, E. L. Beckwith ; 1870, M. W. Comstock ; 1871, George Hentley; 1872, Ezra Moore; 1873, J. W. Luce; 1874, F. B. Way; 1875, L. M. Bacon; 1876, J. A. Way ; 1877, Edward Luce; 1878, C. P. Sturtevant; 1879, Charles Babcock ; 1880, John Way ; 1881, Asa E. S. Bush.

CHAPTER LXVI.

EAST LYME-(Continued). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Avery Smith1 was the son of Daniel and Hannah Smith, born in the town of Waterford, June 20, A.D. 1794, and in 1824 was married to Emeline H. Mor- gan, of East Haddam, with whom he continued to live until the time of his death, leaving her a widow. The writer of this notice was not acquainted with him until 1829, when he was thirty-five years of age. He was then connected in business with a younger brother, Roswell ; Roswell running a small farm, and himself running a vessel in the coasting trade. In 1831 he went to New Orleans, and ran a packet from there, through Lakes Pontchartrain and Bourne, to Mobile for several years. In the mean time they pur- chased a farm at the head of Niantic Bay, with a road running through it, and about 1838 he retired mostly from the water and went to farming, but occasionally going on the water for a short time. In the mean time they had purchased another farm adjoining, which nearly surrounded a large natural pond or lake, and about 1841 conceived the idea of putting up ice, and it succeeded so well that by 1846 they had a house of the capacity of about six thousand tons. From their lands, which extended across the head of Niantic Bay, was a beautiful view not only of the bay but across Long Island Sound. In 1841 a party ap- peared and wanted to erect a dwelling-house at the head of the bay, and the 5th of October of that year the house was raised. That was the commencement of the beautiful village of Niantic. Soon after another party appeared for a building-lot. The road through said lands being somewhat crooked, the deeds must be so made as to bring their fronts on one line ; and soon after a party appeared for a lot perhaps fifty rods farther west. Avery Smith, seeming to foresee that the place was beginning to be of some note, de- cided that this also should face the same line, and in the same manner the lots on the other side of the street were also sold, all facing the same line, the result of which was a street about three-fourths of a mile long, as straight as can be found in any country village.

In 1848 his brother Roswell died, leaving a widow and nine children, mostly young, Avery Smith buy- ing out Roswell's interest in the real estate, and as-

suming the care of the family, apparently as much as though they had been his own, the sons as they grew up working with him in harmony ; but the widow of Roswell and all the children but two died before him, and his wife having no children, in his will he made them his principal legatees. In 1839 the town of East Lyme was incorporated, taking this part of Waterford into the new town. When the N. H. and N. L. R. R. was laid out he labored hard to have it laid through said lands, and the result was it ran through the same land nearly or quite a mile, a part of the way near the edge of the bank by the bay and across what is called " Rope Ferry Bar," and in front of the village, and a depot established, of which he had the charge for sev- eral years. Eventually he had lands surveyed and streets laid out, all at right angles, on which building- lots were laid out, and they are now considerably built upon ; and upon what was his land now stand two church edifices, one Congregationalist and one Meth- odist Episcopal, and up to the time of his death he took a strong interest in the building up of the village, and no person should have a lot unless they would put up a respectable building. When I first became acquainted with him he was a member of the Congre- gational Church, and he made it a point to be present at their place of worship, and a liberal contributor to their funds; and near the close of his life, in speak- ing of death, he said to me, "One thing I know: I love the church." He died Feb. 20, 1871.

In politics he was what may be termed an Old-Line Whig and Republican.

CHAPTER LXVII.

MONTVILLE.2

THE town of Montville is located on the west side of the river Thames, between the towns of Norwich and Waterford, and its business centre about half- way between the cities of New London and Norwich. It has a front on the river a distance of five and a half miles. Its present area is about forty square miles, and contains about twenty-five thousand acres.

It is but a little more than two centuries since the territory which now is included in the limits of this town was a savage wilderness, entirely possessed by a race which for more than a century have been steadily but surely fading from existence.

It was formerly a part of the township of New London, and early called the North Parish of New London. Its early history is indissolubly connected with that of most of the other towns in the county.

This tract of land, together with that now contained within the limits of adjoining towns, was at the earliest notice of its history in the possession of the Pequots, of which tribe the Mohegans were a fragment, and

1 By F. W. Bolles.

2 By Henry A. Baker.

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

occupied by them as their planting and hunting- grounds.

Within the boundaries of this town was the central seat of the famous tribe of Indians called the Mohe- gans, whose history has been closely identified with that of the whole State. Uncas, the grand sachem of the tribe, being a friend to the English, received at their hands protection from his enemies, and often, when in extreme peril from the hostile advancements made upon him by other tribes, the English rendered him timely assistance. Uncas was always generous to those who befriended him and his warriors, and easily persuaded to confer liberal gifts of his land as a remuneration for friendship.

Some of the race, though reduced to a mere frag- ment, still eling like ghosts around their ancient habi- tation,-not in their native barbarous condition, but clothed and refined by civilization; not as wards under the guardianship of the State, but as actual owners of the soil on which they live, with the privilege of citizens. Their advance in civilization and morals has been identical with that of the growth and pros- perity of the town, the Indian having exchanged his rude and native custom for civilization and Chris- tianity.

Had they remained unmolested and nnvisited by Europeans till the present day, they would now have been as rude, as poor, as warlike, as disdainful of labor, and in every way as uncivilized as when the white man first explored the river Thames or sailed along its virgin shores. The country would still have been covered with forests and unimproved fields, the streams unoccupied except for fishing and game ; tracks of wild beasts would be found where now ex- tends the hard roadway trodden by thousands of human feet; the ferocious bear would be seen coming out of the hollow trees where now crowds of youth are emerging from the halls of learning.

If one was to stand upon some of the highest ridges which overlook the town and survey the rippling rivulets coursing and meandering through the valleys, made subservient to man's interests in turning the wheel, the spindle, the loom, and the various kinds of machinery of modern invention, and then glance the eye over the hills and glens which meet it on every side, where now the hum of industry is heard and the voice of the white man and the civilized Indian awake their echoes, where farms and schools, in- dustry and thrift attest the presence of the more in- telligent and elevated race, he would be amazed and wonder at the change that has come over this region of country in the last two centuries.

These hills and these valleys were then the abode of the untutored Indian, these forests filled with wild beasts and animals of various kinds, some of them beasts of prey, and others suitable for food for the hunter. A continuous forest, with but here and there an open space for planting fields, overspread the whole of this territory, adorning these hills with its

verdure, darkening these valleys with its thick foliage, and bending gracefully over the margins of the silvery stream. Paths led meandering through these forests, marked only by the footprints of the red man and the wild beasts, leading sometimes along the margin of some rippling stream, or on through some open plain and up the declivity of some woody hill, then down through the rocky glen,-not paths of iron, such as those over which the iron horse now flies, nor were they the graded highways for the swift horse and polished carriage, but paths along which the wild beasts and the wild man alike traveled in single file.

Here nature was in its rudest dress,-hill and vale, forest-tree and cragged rock, the murmuring stream and mirrored lake. Every attempt at improvement by the untutored occupants had only marred their native beauty. The homes, the rude cabin here built, the paths here opened, the soil here disturbed, all at- tempts at change made only begun and ended in forest homes and blinded paths. The utmost of all that Indian art and industry could do scarcely detracted any of nature's gracefulness.

Nor had the waters of the beautiful Thames yet felt the keel of civilized commerce or bore upon its rippling surface the paper shell of Harvard and Yale. The rude bark or hollow canoe had been the only means of transport over the bosom of this "great river." Nor had the sharp crack of the hunter's rifle nor the booming of modern artillery ever yet dis- turbed these solitudes, though instead the twang of the stringed bow and the whizzing flint-headed arrow had often brought to the ground the eagle or the fish-hawk as they stood perched upon the tall mast-like forest- tree on the " mountain," or cut short the fleet-footed deer in his race over the open field, or the prowling wolf in his search for prey.

In time our forefathers ventured to settle upon the soil, solicited and encouraged by the sachem of the Mohegans, they then owning and occupying the ter- ritory and holding complete sway over this unculti- vated domain. Uneas, the chief sachem, was, from probably selfish interest, a friend to the Englishman, and had sworn to protect him if he would settle upon his grounds. Protection being offered and guaranteed the white man came and built his house, though as rude maybe as his untutored neighbors, and made it his permanent abode. He set up the altars of his faith. He learned the wilderness to become subser- vient to his necessities. He made of the forest-tree his comfortable home. He utilized the water in the streams by erecting saw-mills and grist-mills. The native soil he made to answer his call, and loaded his table with her fruits. It is not strange that a place possessed of such natural advantages, when once known to the Englishman, should have been highly prized by him, or that when obtained should be quickly settled, or since its settlement it should have grown and prospered so extensively. It has never known any serious decline, either in numbers

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MONTVILLE.

or property, and though at times laboring under dis- advantages from various sources, it has generally been upon the advance. The spirit of enterprise, it is true, has shifted from one part of the town to another, and from one source of industry to another, but has never left its precincts or ceased to advance as a whole.

Many individuals whose names are inscribed upon the roll of fame and honor have emanated from this community. The records, both of church and State, contain many an honored name whose possessor had his or her origin on this soil. The names of Hill- house, Raymond, Chester, Otis, Jewett, and many others are such as the historian has delighted to honor. In the year 1646, John Winthrop, Jr., and several others from Boston, Mass., commenced to lay out and settle a plantation in the Pequot country, which was afterwards called New London. Win- throp, before laying out the plantation, called all the neighboring Indians together in order to ascertain the legitimate bounds occupied by the Pequot tribe, that no encroachment might be made on the rights of the Mohegans. Uncas at the time made no claim to any land east of the Thames (Pequot) River, nor on the west side any farther south than Cochiknack, or Saw-mill Brook and the cove into which it flowed. This brook (now Oxoboxo) was therefore established as the northern boundary of the New London plan- tation by an agreement with Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans.

The first grants of land within the Mohegan reser- vation were made by Uncas in 1658 to Richard Haughton and James Rogers, and consisted of val- uable farms on the river at places called Massapeag and Pemechany. The former place was located at the head and north side of the cove afterwards called Haughton's Cove, and the latter was situated farther up the river, at a place called the "Point," near Massapeag Station. The then existing laws of the colony prohibited any individual from contracting with the Indians for their lands ; yet many, from the spirit of avarice, or from the desire to obtain desirable places for permanent settlement on partially cleared and cultivated land, sought by various means to get possession of the land. The result was that many Indian grants were made. Some were gifts of friend- ship, or in requital for favors bestowed. Some were obtained by fair and honest trade, while others were openly fraudulent, or from administering to the vicious thirsts of the Indians.

The early history of that portion of the town lying north of Oxoboxo Brook and west of the " famously known" line running north and south runs through a maze of perplexity and confusion. Many of the finest tracts in the section, which had been early ob- tained of the natives, or by grants of the town of New London for speculation or settlement, passed from one possessor to another with great rapidity. A combi- nation of influences served to facilitate the transfer of claims.

The first actual settler on the Indian lands within the present limits of this town was Samuel Rogers, the eldest son of James Rogers, then living at New London. Samuel Rogers, as near as the records can show, settled here in 1670. He had for several years been on intimate terms with Uncas, who had anx- iously solicited him to settle in his neighborhood. Uncas gave him a valuable tract of land on the north side of Saw-mill (Oxoboxo) Brook, a portion of which land is now in the possession of his descend- ants, promising Rogers, in case of any emergency, he would hasten with all his warriors to his assistance.

On this tract Samuel Rogers built his house of hewn logs, surrounded it with a strong wall, and mounted a big gun in front. Uneas would often visit Rogers at his retired abode in the midst of the wil- derness, it being a distance of about four miles from the Indian settlement on the bank of the Thames. Here they would together smoke the pipe and "take a social glass." Here Rogers reared a family of six children,-three sons and three daughters,-being the first white children born within the present bounds of Montville.

On one occasion, when prepared for the experi- ment (tradition says), Rogers fired a signal of alarm, -which was two reports in succession,-which sig- nal had been agreed upon between himself and his tawny friend in case either should be disturbed by an enemy, and in half an hour's time grim bands of warriors were seen on the hill' overlooking the " block-house," who soon came rushing down, with the sachem at their head, to the rescue of their white friend. Rogers had prepared a feast for their enter- tainment, having killed an ox and roasted it for the occasion, which was ate and relished by all. It is probable that the Indians relished the trick nearly as much as the banquet, they seeming always delighted with contrivance and stratagem.

Samuel Rogers' house stood abont three-fourths of a mile south of the present Congregational meeting- house, on a plain of land near a small pond in a natural ravine. The well which furnished the water for the Rogers family was filled up a few years since by the owner of the land, for the better cultivation of the land. Oyster-shells can at this day be seen in the soil near where the house stood. The site was on the farm now owned by Albert A. Rogers, Esq. A short distance east of where the house stood is the burying- ground of the Rogers family and near relatives. Nearly one hundred graves cover the spot.

Samuel Rogers afterwards became a large land- holder in the reservation. He had grants of land not only from Uncas, but from his sons Owaneco and Josiah, in recompense for services rendered to them and their tribe. Gifts of land were also bestowed upon his son, Jonathan Rogers, and his daughter Sarah, wife of James Harris, who also settled here.

A deed of date 1698, by Owaneco, conveyed to Jonathan Rogers, a cripple, son of Samuel, a tract of

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. .

land "in consideration of his lameness and the con- tinued kindness of his parents shown to Owaneco and his children." This land was "bounded on other lands of Samuel Rogers, and on the Hartford path, and the brook that cometh out of the pond called Obsopogsaut" (Oxoboxo).

In 1698, Samuel Rogers, Sr., gave to his "loving daughter, Mary Gilbert, wife of Samuel Gilbert, of Hartford," a tract of land consisting of "two parcels west or southwest of certain planting-fields, usually called or known by the name of 'Moheag,' in the township of New London, and northerly of my dwell- ing-house, containing one hundred and fifty acres, bounded on the four corners by trees marked MG, the northerly side being one hundred and seventy-two rods, the southerly side one hundred and seventy-two rods, the westerly side one hundred and fifty rods, and the easterly side one hundred and ten rods. Also one other piece containing ten acres, and lying west- ward of my dwelling-house, and about south west from a certain house which Samuel Gilbert built upon the aforesaid tract of land, and is distant about sixty or eighty poles, it being meadow and swamp land."

The General Court sitting at Hartford, in October, 1698, granted to their honored Governor, Fitz John Winthrop, and Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, who had preached the election sermon, conjointly, a tract of four hundred acres of land, "to be taken up where it may not prejudice any former grant to any township or particular person." This land was surveyed and laid out by John Prentis, surveyor, 20th of February, 1698-99. It is thus bounded and described : "The north bounds is a line running from a pine-tree by the side of a pond above Samuel Rogers' farm, com- monly called Twenty-mile Pond (Gardiner's Lake), standing on the east side of said pond, due east two hundred and forty rods to a great white oak marked NE, which oak is on the top of a long, fair, plain hill, and in fair sight of a hollow, where there is a small swamp on the east of it; from thence in a line which runs due south to a young chestnut-tree on the east side of the little pond (Oxoboxo), which tree stands within a rod of said pond, under a clift of rocks, and is marked for a southeast corner; and from thence in a line which runs due west two hundred and forty rods to a large, fair, spreading white oak upon the brow of a hill with a plain on the top of it, which oak (since called Governor's tree) is within ten rods of a fresh meadow with high rocks, which tree is marked for the southwest corner; and from thence in a line running north by the west side of a small island in the aforesaid Great Pond, and on north to the afore- mentioned pine-tree, marked for the northwest corner, containing four hundred acres, more or less."

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 137

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1317

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317