History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 92

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 92

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).

Since Mr. Austin's retirement the church has had various pastors, among whom are mentioned the names of Jared Andrus, John W. Salter, John Hyde, Thomas L. Shipman, John W. Salter, William M. Birchard, Edward Eells, William P. Avery, T. D. P. Stone, N. S. Hunt, and Rev. Mr. Fellows. The pulpit is now vacant.

Congregational Church, Bozrahville. - This church was organized April 10, 1828. Among the pastors have been David Sanford, Erastus Ripley, Nathaniel Minor, Mr. Read, Rodolphus Lamphear, Oliver Brown, George Perkins, Stephen Hayes, D. C. Sterry, George Cryer, D. C. Sterry, J. C. Nichols, Phineas Crandall, George Cryer. The pulpit at pres- ent is supplied by Rev. Mr. Rankin, of Glosenbury, Hartford Co.

The village came into the possession of the Thames Manufacturing Company in 1825, by whose aid and influence the interests of the church was greatly pro- moted.

Congregational Church, Fitchville .- The house of worship belonging to this church was erected by the late Asa Fitch, Esq., and dedicated Aug. 4, 1852.

A church was organized Dec. 1, 1854, while the Rev. William Aitcheson was the officiating minister. It has had no settled pastor, but temporary ministers were provided by the liberality of Mr. Fitch, with an exception during the late war, when, the opera- tions of the mill having ceased, the services were in- termitted, and the church closed for three or four years.

Among the pastors who have served the church are mentioned W. W. Belden, T. D. P. Stone, and Joseph A. Saxton. At present the pulpit is vacant.

There is also a Baptist Church in Leffingwelltown, but we have been unable to secure data for its history.

Fitchville occupies the site of the old Huntington Iron-Works, established by Nehemiah Huntington and Capt. Joshua Abel in 1750. In its native condi- tion this was a wild and gloomy district, with deep valleys and precipitous ledges, the pasture-land harsh and stony, and the woodlands rugged and forbidding.

At one time the mill, the church, the village, and the mansion-house were the central treasures of a do- main extending two or three miles on all sides. The old farms of Fitch, Huntington, Abel, Gillson, Wa-

terman, Chapman, Baldwin, and others were consol- idated under one proprietor (Asa Fitch), who devoted his time, his energetic business habits and abundant resources to the improvement of his possessions, being himself the originator of his plans, the director, over- seer, and paymaster of the whole.

Bozrahville is one of the oldest manufacturing es- tablishments in the county of New London. It origi- nated with the Bozrah Manufacturing Company, which was formed in 1814 by Frederick DePeyster, Jonathan Little, and others of New York, and David L. Dodge, then a resident of Norwich. The capital came from New York, but Mr. Dodge suggested and managed the undertaking. Under his direction a stone factory was built for the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, several hundred spindles and looms set to work, and a thriving village planted in a waste place. Erastus Hyde, of Bean Hill, was also a part- ner and agent in this work.

In consequence of the great influx of European com- modities, which caused the decline of the manufactur- ing interests all over New England, the Bozrahville Company was broken up in 1824, and the property passed into the possession of the Thames Company, but the mill was kept in operation, with only the sus- pension of a few months.

In 1837 it was sold by the Thames Company to James Boorman and others of New York, and it was changed to Kent Manufacturing Company.

Leffingwelltown is a small hamlet in the southern part of the town.

The present physicians in Bozrah are Samuel G. and Nathan Johnson and Erastus M. Leffingwell. Sam- uel G. Johnson is town clerk and judge of probate.

Representatives from 1786 to 1881.

1786, Capt. Isaac Huntington; 1787, Nehemiah Waterman, Jr., Capt. Isaac Huntington; 1788, Nehemialı Waterman ; 1789, Nehemiah Waterman, John McCall ; 1790, John McCall, Nehemiah Waterman ; 1791, Elijah Huntington, Nehemiah Waterman ; 1792, Nehemiah Waterman, William Throop; 1793, William Throop ; 1794, Zerub- babel Wightman, Nehemiah Waterman, Jr .; 1795, Nehemiah Water- man, Jr., Elias West; 1796, Elias West, Nehemiah Waterman, Jr .; 1797, Nehemiah Waterman, Asa Woodworth; 1798, Elias West, Asa Woodworth; 1799-1801, Asa Woodworth; 1802, Joshua Stark ; 1803, Elias West, Roswell Fox; 1804, Elias West; 1805, Roswell Fox, Zerubbabel Wightman; 1806, Elias West, Jesse Abel ; 1807, Asa Fitch, Elihu Ilyde; 1808, Asa Fitch; 1809, Elias West, John Hough ; 1810, John Hough; 1811, Elias West ; 1812, Dyer McCall ; 1813, Dyer McCall, Asa Fitch ; 1814, John Hough ; 1815, Asa Fitch, Gardner Avery; 1816, Joshua Stark ; 1817, Gardner Avery ; 1818, William Whiting; 1819, Perez Chesebrough; 1820, Gardner Avery ; 1821, Ezra Lathrop; 1822, William Whiting; 1823, Elijah Abel ; 1824, Samuel Gager; 1825, James Lamb; 1826, Samuel Gager; 1827, Gardner Avery; 1828, William Kelly ; 1829, William Whiting; 1830, William Kelly; 1831, Gordon Gifford; 1832-33, Gardner Avery ; 1834, William Kelly ; 1835, -; 1836, David A. Fox ; 1837, Daniel Her- rick ; 1838, Jehiel Johnson ; 1839, Samuel A. Gager ; 1840-41, Albert G. Avery ; 1842, David A. Fox; 1843, Joshua Maples ; 1844, David HI. Waterman; 1845, William Hough; 1846, Patrick H. L. Chiese- brough; 1847, Christopher B. Rogers; 1848, Andrew Leffingwell ; 1849, George Lathrop; 1850, Stephen Fitch ; 1851, Giles Herskell; 1852, Albert Waterman; 1853, Daniel Herrick ; 1854, Albert G. Avery ; 1855, Jedodial S. Hough ; 1856, Samuel Johnson ; 1857, Aaron Cook ; 1858, Ulysses S. Gardner; 1859, Auron Cook; 1860, W. F. Bailey; 1861, J. B. Baldwin; 1862, Lathrop Stark; 1863, C. B. Baldwin;

377

BOZRAH.

1864, C. Gardner; 1865, N. C. Cook; 1866, J B. Leffingwell; 1867, G. S. Smith; 1868, Simeon Abel; 1869, W. W. Smith; 1870, S. C. Parker; 1871, Wm. Smith; 1872, Jas. Bishop; 1873, D. W. Hough ; 1874, J. W. Money ; 1875, Isaac Johnson; 1876, C. A. Gager; 1877, C. M. Pendleton ; 1878, C. A. Johnson; 1879-80, E. J. Miner; 1881, Geo. O. Stead.

CHAPTER XXX.

BOZRAII -- (Continued).

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

The Fitch Family .- Rev. James Fitch was born at Bocking, in the county of Essex, England, Dec. 24, 1632, educated there in part, and at sixteen years of age came to America, and for the following seven years studied for the ministry under Revs. Messrs. Hooker and Stone.

From the " History of Norwich" we quote the fol- lowing :

" It appears that the father of the family had died, and that the mother with several sons emigrated to this country in 1638. The exact number of the brothers that came over has not been definitely ascer- tained. Thomas, Joseph, and James can be clearly traced. But there was a contemporary Samuel Fitch, schoolmaster at Hartford, who married in 1650 the widow of the first William Whiting, and subse- quently removed to Milford, who may have been another brother.1

" Thomas Fitch settled in Norwalk, where, in the valuation of estates in 1665, he was the highest upon the list.2 He is also the first person mentioned in the patent of that town, granted in 1685, and from him in a line of three generations, each bearing the same name, Governor Thomas Fitch, who occupied the chair of state in Connecticut from 1754 to 1766, was descended.

" Joseph Fitch can be traced as a landholder, or as a temporary inhabitant, at Norwalk, Hartford, and Northampton ; but he ultimately settled at Windsor, upon a valuable farm near the boundary line of the present towns of East Hartford and East Windsor. John Fitch, whose name is honorably connected with the invention of steam navigation, was a descendant of Joseph, and born Jan. 21, 1743, near the place where his ancestor settled, on the Windsor part of the farm.

"Of Mr. James Fitch, our immediate subject, we have a statement of his birth, emigration at the age of sixteen, and seven years of theological instruction at Hartford, and this is all that is known of him pre- vious to his ordination at Saybrook in 1646. At this ceremony Mr. Hooker, of Hartford, was present, but the imposition of hands was by two of the brethren appointed by the church to that office. The same

form was also used at the same place at the ordina- tion of the Rev. Thomas Buckingham in 1670.3 Mr. Hooker had himself been ordained in the same man- ner at Cambridge. This was a Congregational ordi- nation in the strictest sense of the term.

" The element of independence thus wrought into the original structure of Mr. Fitch's church was brought with it to Norwich, and has never died out. Though not subsequently asserting its rights in the special form of ordination, the Congregational prin- ciple struck its roots deep, and has ever since main- tained its ground, giving something of a distinctive character to the church in its whole course.4

"When a part of Mr. Fitch's church decided, in 1660, to remove to Norwich, it was a subject of some contention between the two parties whether he should stay with those who were to remain or go with those who should remove. He was greatly beloved by all, and each side claimed him. After solemn prayer and long deliberation Mr. Fitch decided that it was his duty to keep with the majority, and this brought him to Norwich. Soon after his removal thither the people of Hartford invited him to become their min- ister, thinking probably that the hardships of a new settlement and the prospect of extensive usefulness in a wider and more elevated sphere might induce him to leave his flock. The only reply he sent to their invitation was this : 'With whom, then, shall I leave these few poor sheep in the wilderness ?'

"The oldest election sermon in Connecticut of which any record has been discovered was preached by Mr. Fitch in 1674, from this text: 'For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.15

"Other products of his pen yet extant are a ser- mon on the death of Anne, wife of Major Mason, 1672, and a small volume printed at Boston in 1683, with an introduction by Rev. Increase Mather, and comprising three distinct tracts, viz. :

" A Treatise on the reformation of those evils which have been the procuring cause of the late judgments upon New England.

" The Norwich Covenant, which was solemnly re- newed March 22, 1675.

" A brief Discourse proving that the First Day of the week is the Christian Sabbatlı.

" The multiplied labors of Mr. Fitch in behalf of the Indians, to civilize, Christianize, and render them comfortable, have been heretofore noticed. His cor- respondence with the Governor and assistants was

1 " In Westcott's Life of John Fitch it is said that five brothers emi- grated, but the authority seems only traditionary.

2 " IIall's History of Norwalk.

3 " Trumbull's Conu., i. 299.

4 " Rev. II. P. Arms, the successor of Mr. Fitch, the sixth incumbent of the pastoral office in the old town of Norwich, in reference to the or- dination of Mr. Fitch, observes,-

"' We retain the same principles and hold that all ecclesiastical au- thority is vested in the individual churches, and that while, as a matter of Christian courtesy, wo ask the aid of a Council in ordaining or de- posing ministers, we accede to that Council no authority beyond what the church delegates to it for the occasion.'-Norwich Jubilec, p. 252. 5 " Conn. Col. Rec., ii. 222.

378

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

voluminous. Among the documents of the State, let- ters concerning the wayward natives are yet extant bearing his signature.

" As a pastor, Mr. Fitch was zealous and indefati- gable. In addition to his other labors, he trained several young men for the ministry, as he himself had been trained by Mr. Hooker. Revs. Samuel Whiting, of Windham, Taylor, of Westfield, and Adams, of New London, received a part at least of their theo- logical instruction from him. Before colleges and academies were established in the land a course of study in the family of some experienced divine was the customary method of preparing young men for the ministry.

"Lebanon, as we have said, was an offshoot of Norwich. In 1663, Maj. Mason had a legislative grant of five hundred acres of land, with his choice of location in the unappropriated territory of the colony. It was taken up 'at a place called by the In- dians Pomakuck, near Norwich.'

"The registry is found on the records of the New London County Court :

"' Wee whose names aro under writen, according to the order from the Generall Court, wee have laid out five hundred ackers of upland and meadow for Major Mason at pomacook.

"' THOMAS TRACY. "'FRANCIS GRISWOLD. .

" ' from Norwig, 1665, the Gth [month left blank ].

"' Acknowledged by Uncas, sachem of Mohegan, in Court at New Lon- don, Nov. 14, 1665.'

" Pomakuck, or Pomakook, was a tract of land upon Deep River Brook, near the borders of Lebanon and Franklin, the latter being then a part of Nor- wich. In October, 1666, a grant was made to Mr. Fitch of one hundred and twenty acres adjoining Maj. Mason's land at Pomakook.1 To this grant Owaneco, the son and successor of Uncas, at a sub- sequent period, in acknowledgment of favors received from Mr. Fitch, added a tract five miles in length and one in breadth. This munificent gift was famil- iarly called The Mile, or Mr. Fitch's Mile.2

" Afterwards the same chief, who claimed all the un- settled lands in this quarter, sold to four proprietors -viz., Capt. Samuel Mason and Capt. John Stanton, of Stonington, Capt. Benjamin Brewster and Mr. John Birchard, of Norwich-a tract five miles square, 'at a place called by the Indians Poque-chan-neeg, adjoining to The Mile, so called, of the Rev. Mr. Fitch.' This deed bears date Sept. 6, 1692, and was probably executed at Norwich, the witnesses being Richard Bushnell and Thomas Adgate.3

" These various grants, with certain strips and gores purchased at a later date, make up the town of Leb-

anon. Maj. Mason was undoubtedly the first English proprietor, but not a resident.

" The distribution into lots, the occupation and ac- tual settlement of the town, began in 1695.4 The number of grants and allotments bearing date in No- vember of that year is about fifty. In the earliest roll of inhabitants, made soon after 1700, are the names of four sons of the Rev. Mr. Fitch,-Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Joseph, Eleazer.

" According to tradition, the township was named by Mr. Fitch before a house had been built or a tree felled by a white man upon the tract. Within the bounds of The Mile was an extensive cedar forest, which, by the principle of association, assisted also by the height of the land, suggesting to the mind of its accomplished owner the cedars of Lebanon, led him to bestow the name of Lebanon upon the whole tract.

" The town and its patron have reason to be satis- fied with each other. Quiet, beautiful, dignified Leb- anon, with its broad street like a continued park, and its fertile farms, the birthplace and resting-place of the two Trumbulls, and of Williams, equally true- hearted and patriotic, let pilgrimages be made to its bounds, and wreaths, often renewed, laid upon the graves of the fathers and patriots that rest in its bosom !5

"To this new and interesting plantation Mr. Fitch, in the year 1701, retired to die. A brief summer passed in its quiet, secluded shades led him gently forward to the tomb. His three youngest sons, Na- thaniel, Joseph, and Elcazer, carly settlers of Leba- non, repose near him, with headstones to point out their graves.

"Mr. Fitch was twice married, and had fourteen children, whose births are all recorded at Norwich, though the first six were born in Saybrook, and are also recorded there, with the death of the first wife. All the children except Elizabeth are referred to as among the living in the will of their father, Febru- ary, 1696, and it is not improbable that twelve fol- lowed his remains to the grave. His first wife was Abigail, daughter of the Rev. Henry Whitefield, whom he married in October, 1648. She died at Say- brook, Sept. 9, 1659, and in October, 1664, he was united to Priscilla Mason, who survived him. The date of her death has not been ascertained. Her sig- nature (Priscilla Fitch) is attached, with the names of other Mason heirs, to a quit-claim deed to rights in Mohegan lands derived from their ancestor, Maj. Mason, March 20, 1710, probably N. S. 1711.

" The Fitch family soon became numerous and the

1 " Conn. Col. Ilec., ii. 49.

2 " L. Hebard, Esq., of Lebanon, estimates the Mile to have been a mile in width, liberal measure, and about seven miles in length, instead of five. It was bounded north by Shetucket River, and east by Norwich. 3 " Acknowledged before Samuel Mason, at Norwich, Jan. 5, 1698-99. Recorded at Lebanon, Book 1, Article 1. Indorsed, confirmed by Gen. Ass., May, 1705.

4 " The name Lebanon was current in the neighborhood of Norwich before it was given to the town. Grants at Lebanon, referring to certain parts of what is now Franklin, were recorded In 1687. The farms of John Johnson and Thomas Baldwin were described as ' near to Lebanon,' and Johnson lind ten aeres in Lebanon Valley. Little Lebanon and Lebanon Hill were terms used at that period in reference to places in Franklin.

5 " In 1850 there was no lawyer and no tavern in Lebanon. The popu- lation ha'l somewhat decreased, and was then only 1901.

Mm Fitch

DOUGLAS FITCH.

379

BOZRAH.

name widely spread, owing to the preponderance of sons in the early branches. Mr. Fitch had himself nine sons, and his oldest son, James, the same number. Joseph had seven sons, and Nathaniel fifteen chil- dren, of whom eleven were sons. Eleazer, the youngest of the original family, was the only one who left no posterity.

"It is a little singular that not one of the sons of Mr. Fitch established his permanent home in Nor- wich. James went to Canterbury. Samuel settled on a farm in Preston as early as 1687.1 Daniel be- came an inhabitant of the North Parish of New Lon- don, in the immediate neighborhood of Norwich, but not within its bounds. John went to Windham. Jabez pursued his ministerial calling at Ipswich and Portsmouth, and the four others took up farms in Lebanon.

"Capt. Daniel Fitch, above named, of the North Parish (now Montville), was born at Norwich in the fifth year after the settlement, and died June 3, 1711. His inventory shows that he owned three farms, one at Trading. Cove, one at Dry Brook, and one lying on both sides of Connecticut path,-that is, the road to Hartford, through Colchester. The homestead farm at Trading Cove was a town grant to his father, and has never been either bought or sold, but has descended by inheritance to the present day (1865).

" As a general rule, the early Fitches were men of capacity and prosperous in their worldly concerns. It was formerly a current saying among the farmers of the neighborhood that the Fitches always settled by a stream of water, which was equivalent to saying that they were thriving men possessed of valuable farms.

" The five daughters of the Rev. James Fitch were connected in marriage as follows :

" Abigail, with Capt. John Mason (2).

" Elizabeth, with Rev. Edward Taylor, of Westfield, Mass.

"Hannah, with Thomas Meeks, or Mix.

" Dorothy, with Nathaniel Bissell.

" Anna, the only daughter of the second marriage, became the wife of Joseph Bradford.

"Two of these daughters, viz., Abigail and Han- nah, remained at Norwich. Thomas Meeks married Hannah Fitch, June 30, 1677. They settled on the east of the Shetucket, but within the bounds of the Nine-miles-square.

"By means also of intermarriages with other families of the town, Norwich still retains a large interest in the family of her first revered minister. Not only his influence, memory, and example, but the vital current that quickened his frame flows in the veins of many of her children."

COL. ASA FITCH, of Bozrah, Conn., is a lineal de- scendant of Rev. James Fitch, 'and was born in

Bozrah, Feb. 14, 1755, and died Aug. 19, 1844. His business through a long and useful life was that of a farmer and manufacturer of iron at Fitchville, Conn., where his son, Asa, made so many valuable improve- ments. On the 8th of February, 1781, he married Susan Fitch, a lineal descendant of Samuel Fitch, who died in 1725. She was born in Bozrah, Jan. 4, 1757. Their children were Nehemiah H .; Lois F., married Capt. George Lee; Clarissa (1); Asa, born May 6, 1787 ; Susan, married Capt. George Lee for his second wife ; Stephen, born Ang. 21, 1790; Fanny, married Sherwood Raymond; Douglass, born Feb. 18, 1796; William, born Oct. 27, 1800; Clarissa (2), born June 5, 1802, married Maj. John W. Haughton, Oct. 14, 1824, and has one son, Samuel Wells.

Mrs. Haughton is now (October, 1881) the only surviving member of this large and interesting family. Col. and Mrs. Fitch were members of the Congrega- tional Church. In politics he was a Democrat. He held the various offices of the town, and was a man respected for his upright character and purity of motives. Mrs. Fitch died April 22, 1814, and he mar- ried for his second wife Mary House. He was familiarly known as Col. Asa Fitch.

ASA FITCH, son of Col. Asa Fitch, was born in Bozrah, Conn.,'May 6, 1787, and died Oct. 31, 1865. Few persons had a more eventful life than Asa Fitch. As a youth he was pallid and slender, often pros- trated by sickness, and subject to distressing attacks of asthma, a difficulty that clung to him through life. Sustained by his mental energy, he tried in succession study at an academy in Lebanon, a clerkship in Nor- wich, and a mechanical trade, but broke down after each experiment. At the age of eighteen, in the hope of invigorating his constitution by a sea-voyage, he embarked as a passenger in the brig "Walter," Capt. Brown, of New Haven, bound on a fishing and trading voyage to Green Island, Newfoundland, and Europe.

He landed from this vessel at Lisbon, just before the news reached that city of the battle of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson,-that is, in October, 1805. Finding the climate of Southern Europe fav- orable to his health, he went from Lisbon to Alicant, and at first obtained employment in the office of the American consul. He remained nearly ten years at Alicant, occupied in mercantile affairs, coming home on a short visit in 1809 to establish some commercial relations, and gradually acquiring the reputation of a substantial merchant.

In 1814 he removed to Marseilles, and there estab- lished a commission and banking-house that soon be- came known and recognized as a link in the chain of commerce between France and the United States. It was patronized by the French government at the outset. While at Alicant Mr. Fitch had accommo- dated several of the royal exiles in certain monetary affairs, and now that they had returned to power they displayed a commendable appreciation of his courtesy.

1 " Mr. Samuel Fitch died in 1725. He was the ancestor on the maternal side of Asa Fitch, Esq , of Fitchville.

380

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

He was welcomed to the best society in France, and often entertained at his table in Marseilles nobles, statesmen, and literary men of the first reputation in the country.

Being joined by his brother, Douglas Fitch, and his nephew, William D. Lee, the house took the firm- name of Fitch Brothers & Co. Vessels from most of the large ports in the United States were consigned to this house. They were also agents of the United States navy, furnishing supplies and making pay- ments to the government vessels in the Mediterranean. They executed orders from America for the purchase of French goods, and had correspondents in the United States to receive consignments of French produce from the merchants and manufacturers in France. In this round of business important inter- ests were involved.

In 1828, Mr. Fitch left Marseilles and returned to America, in order to take charge of the affairs of the house on this side of the Atlantic. On the voyage le came near dying through the entire prostration caused by continued sea-sickness, and never after- wards could be induced to cross the ocean. In New York his office, with the sign of Fitch & Co., was in Exchange Street. Here he embarked in a large real estate investment, purchasing several lots on Broad- way, New, and Exchange Streets, upon which he subsequently erected stores, the rents of which were like a bank of wealth to the proprietor.

Withdrawing gradually from personal attention to the details of business, Mr. Fitch at length retired to his native place, and for more than twenty-five years was assiduously occupied in the laborious improve- ment of a naturally rough and forbidding country district. By the side of the old iron-works where his father and his elder brother had wrought, he built a mansion-house, a cotton-mill, a grist-mill, a church, a village, and purchased farm after farm, until his domain could be measured by miles, expending in these various plans and operations six or seven hun- dred thousand dollars.

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.

History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 92

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