USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 18
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Marriages were commonly contracted at a much earlier period in life then than now. Not because the habit of the time was more romantic or less prudential, but because a
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principle more primitive and closer to the beautiful sim- plicity of nature was yet in vogue, viz .: that women are given by the Almighty, not so much to help their husbands spend a living as to help them get one. Accordingly the ministers were always very emphatic as I remember in their marriage ceremonies, on the ancient idea, that the woman was given to the man to be a help-meet for him.
The schools we must not pass by if we are to form a truth- ful picture of the homespun days. The schoolmaster did not exactly go round the district to fit out the children's minds with learning, as the shoemaker did to fit their feet with shoes, or the tailors to measure and cut for their bodies, but to come as near it as possible, he boarded round, a custom not yet gone by. The children were all clothed alike, in homespun, and the only signs of aristocracy were, that some were clean and some a degree less so; some in fine white and striped linen, some in brown tow-crash. The good fathers of some testified the opinion they had of their children by bringing fine round loads of hickory wood to warm them, while some others, I regret to say, brought scanty, scraggy, ill-looking heaps of green oak, white-birch and hemlock. Indeed about all the bickerings of quality among the children centered in the quality of the wood- pile. There was no complaint in those days of the want of ventilation, for the large open fire-place held a consid- erable fraction of a cord of wood, and the windows took in enough air to supply the combination. The seats were made of the outer slabs from the saw-mill, supported by slant legs driven into and a proper distance through auger holes, and planed smooth on the top by the rather tardy process of friction.
Passing from the school to the church, or rather I should say to the meeting-house, here again you meet the picture of a sturdy homespun worship. There is no furnace or stove, save the foot-stones that are filled from the fires of the neighboring houses. They are seated according to age; the old in front, near the pulpit, and the younger farther back, enclosed in pews, sitting back to back, impounded
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all, for deep thought and spiritual digestion; only the dea- cons, sitting close under the pulpit, by themselves, to re- ceive as their distinctive honor the more perpendicular droppings of the word. Clean round the front of the gal- lery is drawn a single row of choir, headed by the key-pipe in the centre. The pulpit is overhung by an august wooden canopy, called a sounding-board. . .. If the minister speaks in his great coat and thick gloves or mittens, if the howling blasts of winter blow in across the assembly fresh streams of ventilation that move the hair upon their heads, they are none the less content, if only he gives them good strong exercise. Under their hard, and as some would say, stolid faces, great thoughts are brewing, and these keep them warm. Free-will, fixed-fate, foreknowledge ab- solute, trinity, redemption, special grace, eternity,-give them anything high enough, and if they go away having something to think of they have had a good day. These royal men of homespun, how great a thing to them was re- ligion !
View them as we may, there is yet and always will be, something magnificent in their stern, practical fidelity to their principles. If they believe it to be more scriptural and Christian to begin their Sunday at the sunset on Sat- urday, their practise did not part company with their prin- ciples. It was sundown at sundown; not somewhere be- tween that time and the next morning. I remember being dispatched when a lad, one Saturday afternoon in the win- ter, to bring home a few bushels of apples engaged of a farmer a mile distant; how the careful, exact man looked first at the clock, then out the window at the sun, and turn- ing to me said, "I cannot measure out the apples in time for you to get home before sundown; you must come again Monday;" then how I went home venting my boyish impa- tience in words not exactly respectful, the sunlight playing still upon the eastern hills, and got for my comfort a small amount of specially silent sympathy. I have not yet as- certained whether that refusal was exactly justified by the patriarchal authorities appealed to, or not. Be that as it
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may, have what opinion of it you will. I confess to you for one, that I recall the honest, faithful days of homespun represented in it; days when men's lives went by their con- sciences, as their clocks did by the sun, with a feeling of profoundest reverence. It is more than respectable; it is sublime.
Regarding the homespun age as represented in these pic- tures of the social and religious life, we need in order to a full understanding of the powers and the possibilities of success embodied in it, to descend into the practical struggle of common life, and see how the muscle of energy and victory is developed, under its close necessities. The sons and daughters grew up in the closest habits of in- dustry. In these olden times they supposed in their sim- plicity that thrift represented work, and looked about sel- dom for any more delicate and sharper way of getting on. The house was a factory on the farm; the farm, a grower and producer for the house. No affectation of polite living, no languishing airs of delicacy and softness indoors, had begun to make the fathers and sons impatient of hard work out of doors, and set them at some easier and more plausible way or living. Their very dress represented work, and they went out as men whom the wives and daugh- ters had dressed for work, facing all weather, cold and hot, wet and dry, wrestling with the plow on the stony-sided hills, digging out the rocks by hard lifting and a good many very practical experiments in mechanics; dressing the flax, threshing the rye, dragging home in the deep snows, the great wood-pile of the year's consumption; and then, when the day is ended, having no loose money to spend in tav- erns, taking their recreation all together, in reading, or singing, or happy talk, or silent looking in the fire, and finally in sleep, to rise again with the sun, and pray over the family Bible, for just such another good day as the last. And so they lived, working out each year a little advance of thrift, just within the line of comfort. It is, on the whole, a hard and over severe picture, and yet a picture that embodies the highest points of merit; con-
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nects the noblest results of character. Out of it, in one view, come all the successes we commemorate on this fes- tive occasion. . . . If they were sometimes drudged by their over-intense labor, still they were kept by it in a gen- erally rugged state, both of body and mind. They kept a good digestion, which is itself no small part of char- acter. . .
I have wished to bring out an impression of the unre- corded history of the times gone by. We must not think on such an occasion as this that the great men have made the history. Rather it is the history that has made the men. It is the homespun many, the simple Christian men and women of the century gone by, who bore their life struggle faithfully, in these valleys and among these hills, and who are now sleeping in the untitled graves of Chris- tian worth and piety. These are they whom we are most especially to honor. . . . Worth indeed it is; that worth which, being common, is the sub-structure and the prime condition of a happy social state, and of all the honors that dignify its history. Worth, not of men only, but quite as much of women. Let no woman imagine that she is with- out consequence, or motive to excellence, because she is not conspicuous. It is the greatness of woman that she is so much like the great powers of nature, back of the noise and clatter of the world's affairs, tempting all things with her benign influence; forgetful of herself and fame. . .. Men and women of Litchfield County, such has been the past, good and honorable. We give it over to you. The future will be what you make it. Be faithful to the sacred trust God is this day placing in your hands."
THE SHEPARD HOTEL.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
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XVII.
SEVERE WINTERS AND STORMS IN CONNECTICUT.
(FROM AN OLD HARTFORD COURANT).
"The records of hard winters in Connecticut during the past two centuries, which stand out conspicuously, will be looked back to with considerable interest. During the winter of 1872-3, there were thirty-six zero mornings, and 102 days of sleighing in Hartford. The winter of 1856-7 was very severe. The winter of 1837-8 was noted for deep snows. The winter of 1815-16 was also noted for its ter- rible snow storms. In February, 1791, a snow fall of four days duration occurred, the snow falling six feet on a level. The winter of 1761-2 was very cold, with deep snows. The winter of 1741-2 was famous throughout New England for deep snows and intense cold weather. The first deep snow fell on the 13th of November, giving good sleighing which lasted until the 20th of April, making 158 successive days of good sleighing in Connecticut. In February, 1717, oc- curred the greatest snow storm ever known in this coun- try. It commenced on the 17th and lasted until the 24th, the snow falling from ten to twelve feet on the level. This snow made a remarkable era in New England, and the people in relating an event would say it happened so many years before or after the great snow. In February, 1691, a terrible storm occurred. In February, 1662, the snow fell so deep that a great number of deer came from the woods for food and were killed by the wolves. It will be noticed that all of our great snow storms have occurred in February."
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" THE BLIZZARD OF 1888."
(FROM THE HARTFORD COURANT, MARCH 13, 1888).
"March 12, 1888, will be memorable during the present generation as the beginning of one of the most remarkable storms of this remarkable century. In its almost unprece- dented severity,-in the wide extent of country affected,- in the total demoralization of railroad and telegraphic fa- cilities, and the complete blocking of local travel and busi- ness of almost every kind, it has no rival in the record of storms since railroads and telegraphs were invented. It is certain that many persons caught in the storm in the country must have perished, for even in the cities there would have been many deaths had not friendly hands been near to give relief and shelter." To show that this storm was not local: "New Haven, March 12, 1888 .- The storm here is the most horrible ever known. The streets are im- passable for teams, and drifts are piled from ten to forty feet high on the sidewalks."
"Providence, March 12 .- A hurricane of wind and rain followed the storm of snow and sleet, and has brought business to a standstill. At Newport the breakers are the largest ever seen."
"Springfield, Mass., March 12 .- The storm is simply un- precedented. By noon business began to be suspended. The schools then closed for the day, and many children were lost in the blinding sleet and awful drifts, but no fatalities are known. The street railway company aban- doned cars along its lines and there they stand stalled. No hacks or other conveyances could be hired to leave the stables, for most of the streets were impassable. The depot is filled with trains which came in early in the day, and all attempts to start trains out were futile."
"New York, March 13 .- The mercury in New York this noon was down to zero. All railroads are utterly demoral- ized. President Depew of the New York Central says there never was such a state of affairs on the road before. No street cars are running in New York city or Brooklyn.
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Elevated roads are only partially in operation. The East river is frozen over, and thousands of people are crossing over on the ice. No ferry boats are running. Trains with two engines are being run every 15 minutes across the bridge, but the roadway of the bridge is closed. Immense drifts block up streets. The western side of Broadway has the appearance of a backwoods path. There are thirty trains stalled between Grand Central depot and Spuyten Duyvil."
From the Courant, March 16th, 1888:
"And now they tell us it wasn't much of a storm. It began down by Alexandria, Virginia; was not felt west of Pittsburg and Buffalo; did not go further north than Sara- toga, and was not felt much east of Boston. This is the Western Union's outline, and as that company's feelers are out all over the country, it ought to be accurate. It was within 300 or 350 miles of the seacoast all the time, and it only swept over about 350 miles of territory length- wise, if a bee line is taken from Alexandria to Boston. It managed to paralyze the Pennsylvania and the New York Central roads, and all the roads that centre in New York, as well as in New England. Its like was never seen before."
The following "Letter of Condolence" is of interest:
(To) Robbins Battell, 74 Wall Street, New York.
"Des Moines, Iowa, March 12, 1888.
"To New York, Pennsylvania and New England Friends:
"In this, your hour of affliction, we deem it fitting to assure you of our heartfelt sympathy. We know we cannot realize the full- ness of your suffering, for the terrible blizzards recently visited upon you have surpassed anything we have ever known in Iowa, Nebraska, or Kansas. So far as possible, however, our hearts go out to you, and when we offer you, in behalf of our happy, pros- perous people, such financial aid as may be needed, we beg you to accept it in the spirit it is offered.
Kindly preserve our little card as a reminder of the date of your latest dire calamity, remembering also that at the same date the sturdy farmers of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa are out in the beau-
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tiful sunshine, preparing the soil to receive the seed which will spring forth into a magnificent harvest, with which to supply your physical wants."
Very sincerely yours,
"CENTRAL LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY."
But some Norfolk descendant "out west" may say, "Why don't he tell us whether it stormed in Norfolk or not?"
A good old man was once reading to his wife an account of a railroad catastrophe, which said, "John Smith was struck by a locomotive at a surface crossing; the entire train passed over him, severing his head from his body, and he was literally cut into pieces." His good wife said, "Does the paper say whether he was killed or not?" The good old man read the account again and remarked, "It don't say that it killed him, but I ruther reckon it must 'uv."
Yes, gentle reader, it snowed in Norfolk, and it also blowed, as can still be proven by eye-witnesses, and there were some drifts. From a "Journal of the great snow- storm," kept by a resident of the town, and copied for Miss Cynthia Foskett's Scrap-book, some extracts follow: "Mon- day, March 12, 1888 .- Snow began to fall Sunday after- noon, but not in any great quantity until Sunday night. This morning there was nearly three feet of snow on the ground, and still falling with great rapidity. This after- noon the storm turned into a veritable blizzard, the wind blowing a gale, the air thick with the finest particles of snow I ever saw. But very few people ventured out; the cold and wind were so intense that hands, ears and noses were quickly frozen.
Tuesday, 13th. Snow still falling steadily. When I reached the office there was no office, not a foot of the building being in sight,-only an immense bank of snow, the top of the chimney being covered by at least two feet. Snow continued to fall during the entire day. The wind is subsiding.
Wednesday, 14. At exactly ten o'clock the snow ceased falling. This makes an unbroken record of falling snow
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from Sunday afternoon, March 11, to Wednesday morn- ing, March 14. It is hard to tell the exact depth of the snow on a level; various estimates place the depth from four to six feet. The drifts are 12, 15 and 18 feet high by measurement. The snow is up even with the roof of the church sheds. The Post-mistress is blockaded in the Post- office, and has not been to her boarding place for two days. There are no trains and no telegraphic communication. The railroad track is an unbroken mass of drifts. The wind has been north-west from the beginning of the storm.
Thursday, 15. The railroad has been opened from Win- sted to Hartford. Some of the largest drifts have been photographed by the local photographer. It was agreed to turn out in force tomorrow and assist the railroad com- pany.
Friday, 16. The weather is warm and pleasant. By nine o'clock fifty men were at work trying to find the lost Rail- road track, and this force was soon swelled to sixty-two. Miss Anna Battell ordered a dinner from Mr. Stevens, the hotel keeper, for the entire party of sixty-two, which was served in the old Spaulding farm-house at one o'clock, in camp-fashion. A large number joined the force in the afternoon; three engines fastened together and well braced in front with timbers came up from Winsted in the after- noon, followed by a gang of laborers. The entire force now numbered one hundred and fifty, and with the help of the engines the work proceeded rapidly. At 4.30 o'clock the road was clear from Winsted to Norfolk At seven o'clock a fourth engine arrived and brought last Monday's mail.
Saturday, 17. The engines with the regular force of laborers and some volunteers started, and at 9.30 reached Canaan. We received a telegraphic despatch from Mr. Bat- tell, in New York. The first despatch received in Norfolk from New York since last Monday. The first passenger train arrived at noon and brought the first New York mail. Thursday afternoon a Hartford paper reached Winsted, and was read to Norfolk people by telephone; one man re- ceiving the news at this end, and shouting it out as it came.
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Sunday, 18. Beyond Twin Lakes the drifts are reported to be twenty feet in height and more. Work will be con- tinued today.
Monday, March 19. Several hundred laborers worked on the track yesterday, and by tonight Millerton will proba- bly be reached. The road has been closed now exactly one week.
Finis."
The severe winter of 1856 and 7 is mentioned in the fore- going. Then the State elections were held annually on the first Monday in April. The election in the spring of 1857 was one of unusual interest in Norfolk, as the candi- dates for election to the State Senate in the old Seventeenth Senatorial District were both prominent citizens of the town, Mr. Nathaniel B. Stevens being the candidate of the Democratic party, and Mr. Samuel D. Northway that of the recently formed Republican party, and naturally each was anxious to get out his full vote in his own town. The snow in the roads in all the out parts of the town over which teams had driven all winter was at that time just melting, and was then as high as the top of the fences a large part of the way; and where the large drifts were it was ten feet deep and up, thus making all roads simply im- passable until they were shovelled out. The turnpike, (from Winsted to Canaan), had been opened up before elec- tion day, but the only team off from that line of road that came to the election was one that Mr. Northway started at sunrise with a light-footed horse, to bring Dea. Noah Miner and Daniel Cady, who were too old and lame to walk from their home in the south part of the town. Dea. Miner staid and visited with friends a day or two, and in the course of the week made his way home on foot, stopping over night with friends on the way.
The following letter concerning Norfolk winters and other matters, is of interest. It was addressed to Mrs. Mary Oakley Beach, a well known native and resident of this town, recently deceased, by Mr. Kneeland J. Munson, a son of Mr. Joshua Munson, who was a life long resident and an extensive and successful farmer, his farm being
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on Canaan Mountain a mile or more south of "Canaan Mountain Pond," as it was called in his day; now, Lake Wangum. Mr. Kneeland Munson was president of the old Norfolk Bank for several years, and was well known in this town.
Millerton, N. Y., November 16, 1894. Mrs. Mary Oakley Beach:
"Your letter of the 15th received. I hardly understand it, par- ticularly about the sheep business. In the fall of 1826 my father bought about 150 shoats (young hogs) and turned them into what was called Norfolk woods, east of his place, to grow fat on beach nuts. On the 30th of December commenced a snow-storm which lasted four days, snowing steadily and heavily for the whole time, leaving over four feet of solid snow on the ground. When the storm abated, my father, with what help he could get, spent several days wallowing in the snow, trying to find the hogs. They finally succeeded in finding and getting home about 100; the other 50 were left to their fate. The snow was expected to make a great flood when it went off, but it lay on all winter and went off gradually by the sun the last of March and April, without any flood at all. In the fore part of April, 1827, two or three of these hogs found their way out to a collier's hut, and he gave my father notice of it. They then made another rally and search, and found quite a number, perhaps 20 or 25, but they were as wild animals. Some of them jumped out of a high pen after they got them home, and made their escape. For several years there was quite a crop of wild hogs in that region, until they became so troublesome that they had to be hunted down and destroyed."
Respectfully yours,
K. J. MUNSON."
From a thoroughly reliable source the writer has been informed, that at a certain point on the east side of Chest- nut hill, or Gaylord hill as it has been sometimes called, where the snow drives over from the north-west and drifts in at the foot of a ledge, many years ago at the end of a snowy winter a man cut a notch at the surface of the drift in the top of a tree that was mostly buried by the snow. When the snow was all gone he cut down this tree, and by actual measurement found that the snow at that point was seventy feet deep.
On the first Monday of May, 1840 or '41, Mr. Hiram
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Wheeler with another young man started from his home in North Norfolk to attend training down town, that being training day. Seven or eight inches of snow had fallen the night previous. They crossed a pasture into which Mr. Anson Gaylord had turned a flock of sheep, and dis- covered that the sheep had taken shelter from the wind upon the south side of a stone wall, and that the snow had drifted to the top of the wall and completely buried many of the sheep, from which imprisonment the young men liberated them.
THE GREAT ICE STORM.
People who were living in Norfolk and vicinity at the time, will not soon forget the ice-storm of February 20 to 22, 1898. The effects of that storm are still plainly seen in the broken shade-trees, fruit-trees, and forests, in this entire region; many tall young forest trees which were then bent to the ground by their load have never raised their heads since, and never will.
The local papers said, "An ice-storm, the severest in the memory of the oldest inhabitants, visited Northwestern Connecticut, entailing thousands of dollars loss. Trees that are old landmarks, and others, are spoiled for years to come, and a great deal of the storm's damage is irrep- arable."
"Twigs an eighth of an inch in diameter had an overcoat of ice an inch and a quarter thick."
"An ice coated twig weighing one and a half pounds, minus the ice weighed two ounces."
"The big elms and fruit trees suffered most. One of the big elms split in the middle, one half falling on to the town hall."
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XVIII.
KILLING A PANTHER IN NORFOLK - TREED BY A BEAR - FIRES IN AND NEAR THE MEETING-HOUSE - A THANKSGIVING-DAY WOLF-HUNT.
Roys, in his chapter of "Incidents," gives the following: "In early times a Mr. Barber, father of Capt. Timothy Bar- ber, formerly an inhabitant of Norfolk, came from Sims- bury with two of his sons, well armed, to traverse a part of the town, and coming to a place since called Pine moun- tain, they stacked their guns and strolled around and ascended the hill in hope of getting a distant view of the surrounding country. Mr. Barber stepped into a hole in the side of the hill and something shot by him and sprang up a tree near him. He did not at first know what it was, but sent his youngest son to get their guns. He did not find them. Still watching the animal, he sent his oldest son, who soon returned with the guns. While waiting he perceived that the creature grew very uneasy; twisting his tail and changing his position, perhaps with the inten- tion of springing upon them. Mr. Barber placed his sons each side of him, each having their guns well charged. They fired and brought down a large panther, in a condi- tion to examine him with safety. Its claws and fangs looked frightfully, and they rejoiced that they had escaped them, and rid the world of a frightful monster."
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