USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 19
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A different version of what is doubtless the same panther story, as told the writer by Mr. Norman Riggs, as he had heard it when a boy, from old residents in the neighbor- hood where the beast was killed, is as follows: "Mr. Bar- ber lived in the South End district, on the road that runs from the school-house to Grants. In the early history of the town, one Thanksgiving day, Mr. Barber with two brothers who had come to visit him, went a hunting. A light snow had fallen.
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Not long after they started out their dogs came upon a large strange looking track which they followed, and ran up to Pine mountain, north-west from the present residence of Mr. Obadiah Smith. The men followed on, and found that their dogs had run or tracked the animal into a cave with a small dark entrance on the side of the mountain. With characteristic Yankee curiosity and per- severance, one of the men proposed to investigate as to what that cave contained; so with his gun in his hand he made his way into the cave as best he could, by crawling upon "all fours," or upon his stomach, in the darkness.
He had made his way in a little distance when he saw in the darkness ahead of him a pair of eyes that gleamed like balls of fire, and almost in the same instant the animal rushed past him, the passageway being so small that the body of the animal as he passed rubbed against the man. The dogs and the men outside forthwith treed and shot the animal, which was a large panther. This well authenti- cated adventure of Mr. Rarber, right here in Norfolk," Mr. Riggs added, "I always thought fully equal to Gen. Israel Putnam's wolf-den story." (This panther evidently in his obliging disposition resembled the raccoon that, when caught up a tree, is reported to have said: "If that's you down there, Davy Crockett, don't fire,-I'll come down.")
Roys says again: "Mr. Cornelius Brown, one of the early settlers of this town, going into the woods some distance from his house, was met by a bear who soon prepared to spring upon him. Mr. Brown attempted to climb a small staddle near him, which proved too slender to support him at a safe height from the ground. The bear could, by stretching itself, just reach his feet as he clung to the tree. The bear badly mangled his heels with his claws and teeth .. Mr. Brown hallooed for help, and after suffering much through fear and from his lacerated feet, help arrived. A man hunting in the woods with his dog heard him. The dog reached him before his master, and worried the bear, and he quit the assault before the man arrived. Mr. Brown, glad to part with bruin, was helped home. His wounds
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were healed, the scars of which were to be seen through life."
"In the early settlement of this town, before the tower- ing hemlocks were cleared off the green, west of the meet- ing-house, some of them had become dry and easily com- bustible, it being a dry season. By some means the leaves and dry matter took fire at the north end of the ledge, and the north-west wind helping it, it spread rapidly towards the meeting-house, climbing the dry hemlocks, and the flaming bark and limbs were scattered round and near the meeting-house, which was nearly or quite finished The inhabitants near the meeting-house were aroused to exer- tion, and spread the alarm as far as possible. Help came from every quarter. Water was obtained from a well at the house where Mr. Giles Pettibone, Jr., formerly lived. It was drawn about dry by Mrs. Dudley Humphrey, who did not leave the well or stop drawing the water until the danger was over. A line was formed from the well to the meeting house, of men, women and boys, each forwarding the water."
The present church had a very narrow escape from de- struction by fire on the morning of Fast day, 1870. A fire had been kindled in the wood stoves then in use, in prepa- ration for the Fast day service, and the janitor went away. The stoves stood under the front gallery, just at either side of the center doors, the pipes running through the partitions into the vestibule at the foot of the stairs, and thence under the galleries to the chimneys at the west end of the building. The woodwork above the stove-pipe took fire, and when discovered the fire was burning all along the front gallery between the ceiling and the gallery floor. Most fortunately a cross-beam about under the front of the organ fills the space entirely between the floor and the ceiling below, and so had prevented the fire from spreading back under the entire gallery, and thence up into the steeple. The front seat and the floor were torn up, and with water brought from the same old well mentioned above, the fire was extinguished.
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The following wolf-hunt is quoted from Roys :- "In 1787 a circumstance occurred which from its novelty and the rare sport it afforded may well be noticed in this place. While the congregation was assembled and devoutly en- gaged in celebrating the annual thanksgiving, the speaker having commenced his sermon, a messenger entered the house and with a firm and manly step walked partly up the middle aisle, with his eye fixed on the speaker, full of meaning and intelligence. The speaker paused, and he informed the crowded assembly that five wolves, a dog and slut with three pups, now almost full grown, were now on Haystack mountain, partly surrounded by men already col- lected, and that more men were wanted to assist in destroy- ing them. The speaker replied he thought it a duty for every man to turn out and combat these invaders. Immedi- ately a great part of the male members of the congrega- tion rose from their seats and flew to the scene of action. A line was formed round the mountain, distributing at proper distances those who were supplied with guns and ammunition, and the whole circle was directed by leaders emulous to excel. The line gradually contracted as they ascended the mountain on every side, silent and cautious, until the files were nearly closed. The ravenous invaders now appeared in rapid flight, coming towards the line. The clubs and pitchforks were raised, the guns elevated in mar- tial form, the balls whizzed, and part of the wolves were killed on the spot; the remainder rushed to the opposite section of the line, where they met their fate, except the dog-wolf, who, frightened and enraged, rushed through the line, clubs, pitchforks and guns notwithstanding. But the steady and well-aimed firearms soon stopped him, filling his body with balls, not counted until more at leisure. They were all brought down into the village in triumph, and exhibited to a numerous collection of people. Many who dispensed with their usual Thanksgiving feast around the firesides of their quiet homes were seen gratifying their sight rather than their appetites."
For many years prior and subsequent to 1815, at the
AARON KEYES
GAPT. JOHN K. SHEPARD
NATHANIEL
STEVENS
B.
FRANKLIN ENG.C.
AUSTIN A . SPAULDING
SAMUEL D. NORTHWAY
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annual town meeting, it was "voted to give a bounty of $2.00 to any person who shall kill a wild cat in the limits of this town." Later the bounty was raised to $3.00 and then to $5.00 on a wild cat, they were so destructive of sheep, and 50 cents bounty on a fox.
XIX.
THE MANUFACTURES AND MANUFACTURERS OF THE TOWN, FROM ITS. SETTLEMENT DOWN TO DATE.
In his Litchfield County Centennial address of 1851, Judge Samuel Church said:
"The pioneers here were agriculturists. They came with no knowledge or care for any other pursuit, and looked for no greater results than the enjoyment of re- ligious privileges, the increase of their estates by removing the heavy forests and adding other acres to their original purchase, and with the hope, perhaps, of sending an active boy to the college. Of manufactures they knew nothing. The grist-mill and saw-mill, the blacksmith and clothier's shops,-all as indispensable as the plow and the axe,-they provided for as among the necessaries of a farmer's life.
Thus they toiled on, till the hillsides and the valleys everywhere showed the fenced field and the comfortable dwelling.
The spinning wheel was in every house, and the loom in every neighborhood, and almost every article of clothing was the product of female domestic industry."
Probably very few of the generation now in active life really comprehend the fact that in the days of their grand- fathers and grandmothers every house, with scarcely an exception, in this as in every community, was to a degree a manufactory. That has been called by Dr. Horace Bush- nell the "Homespun Age." Nearly every article of dress for man and woman, boy and girl, was made in the home, and that not from material purchased at a store, but the ma-
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terial itself had first to be made from the wool, just as it came from the sheep's back, and from the flax, as it was grown by the farmer, and made partially ready by him for the wheel and loom. The wife, the mother, the sister, the daughter, must each one be an expert at cleansing and scouring the wool, carding, spinning, reeling, doubling, twisting and dyeing the yarn, preparing the warp and the woof, weaving the cloth, to be fulled or shrunk, and dressed at the fulling mill for the men and boys' wear,-preparing also a finer grade of yarn from which flannel was to be woven for a variety of uses, including flannel sheets for the beds of the entire household for winter. Spinning and pre- paring yarn for knitting the stockings and the mittens, either of wool or flax, for all the family. The flax, after it was made ready, must be spun into yarn and woven into linen cloth, of a great variety of kinds, for different uses.
Then the farmer must take to the tanner the cowhides and the kip skins to be tanned and dressed into the heavy leather for the men's and boys' boots, and the calf-skins, to make Sunday boots for the men and the fine shoes for women's wear; the deer and sheep-skins and skins of various wild animals which then abounded here, for leather for a variety of uses.
When the material was all made ready, if for any reason the good housewife was not able to be the tailoress for the entire family, a professional tailoress and seamstress was called in to help for a little. The shoemaker came also and plied his trade, "whipping the cat," it was called, mak- ing boots and shoes for the entire family. The women of those days, young and old, our grandmothers, had their pleasures, their recreations, their excitements in quiltings, apple-parings, spelling-matches, corn-huskings, singing- school and the like, thus breaking the monotony of a cease- less round of toil; and surely they were better contented with their lot because they were useful, and better satisfied with life than some women of today, who have nothing to do but-to look pretty and be entertained. Our grand- mothers, indeed, could not make a "century run" on a
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bicycle, which glorious achievement of one or two women has been heralded over the whole world, but most of them could make some "runs" on their spinning-wheels.
In the History of Goshen there is an account of a "spin- Ling match" in that town, which is of interest. "This was a trial among the ladies of Goshen to see which could excel in spinning linen on a one-handed wheel. It is supposed to have taken place about 1770. The understanding was that each might spin 24 hours, and be helped to reel yarn, etc. The struggle was extensive through the town, but not all upon the same day. It seems to have been first tried among the married, then among the unmarried ladies. The wife of Capt. Isaac Pratt seems to have excelled among the married ladies. Her husband prepared her distaffs and reeled her yarn till she made six runs. In this stage of the business the husband very prudently put his veto upon further proceedings and remained inflexible. The poor woman sat down and cried.
"Several others did well. The wife of Stephen Tuttle made five runs, several others four runs.
But Lydia Beach of East street excelled them all. Her distaffs were all prepared, her yarn reeled, and even her food put in her mouth. She spun from daylight until nine o'clock in the evening, and her yarn showed seven runs, equal to 3 1-2 days' work.
The sequel of the story is that Jesse Buell, eldest son of Captain Jonathan Buell, became enamored of the maiden and took her to himself, after which she became the mother of three sons and five daughters."
We take up now manufactures in a more public or com- mercial sense. From the earliest days of the town's his- tory a large number of manufacturing enterprises have been started here, some of them have for a time seemed to fulfill the expectations of the projctors, but a large number have ended to a greater or less degree disastrously, but possibly not a greater proportion have failed here than else- where. Statistics show that fully ninety per cent. of those also who enter mercantile life fail.
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In view of the date, given below, when the first grist-mill was built and put into operation in the town (in 1759), the following quotation from Roys of a scene at a much later date can only be understood of families living in the south, or in the north part of the town, if, indeed, it is not alto- gether imaginary. He says: "In the hard winter of 1779 or 1780, the extreme cold and great body of snow in that season made it necessary for many families to go quite a distance and out of town to get grinding. They took the following method: The father or one of his robust sons put say half a bushel of grain in a sack, tied on his snow- shoes, and thus accoutered, with his dinner in the sack's mouth, commenced his walk down to Jacob Beach's mill in the hither part of Goshen, or the one in the northeast part of the town. Follow in imagination the pedestrian-adven- turer lopeing across the fields and over fences to cut short his way, avoiding in his route the shin-bush, which would as certainly trip him up or throw him down as the modern tangle-legs, and he could not lie so quietly and doze until the encumbrance was removed. No, he must manage to unharness his snow-shoes and get rid of that encumbrance before he could hope to free himself from the snow which almost covered him, and again take an erect position. If no other hindrance happened he returned the same way with his flour. Meanwhile the good housewife would boil part of their grain as a substitute for bread,-a fine treat for the children, surrounding the blazing fire composed of large wood, urged in by the lever, or in some instances dragged in by a horse. Fine winter evenings of olden times."
Possibly the extreme cold weather and snow in that "hard winter" prevented the grist-mill from being run for a time.
Benoni Moses was one of the earliest settlers of the town, and it is probable at least that he left the town previous to its incorporation. December 2, 1755, Benoni Moses conveyed to Joshua Whitney of Canaan, for £800, "One hundred acres of common land in Norfolk, which be-
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longs to the right of Cornelius Brown, which now lies in common with the rest of the proprietors, . . . together with ye house on which I now dwell, and what improve- ments I now have. Also one-quarter part of ye saw-mill, with one-quarter part of all the utensils belonging to the same; which mill stands between my house and Leftenant Samuel Gaylord's; known by ye name of Brown's saw-mill."
Doubtless the first use of the water-power in this town was to run the saw-mill, which Cornelius Brown built, not later than 1750, a little above the grist-mill site,-about the north side of the bridge, as at present.
The matter of next importance was the building of a grist-mill, that the early settlers might have their rye, buck- wheat or wheat ground into flour and their Indian corn into meal. In 1756, when there were but a few families settled in the town, the proprietors appointed a committee "to lay out so much common land as they shall judge needful for the use of a mill, and also what land they shall think fit for to build a grist-mill on."
In 1757 the grist-mill site, as it was called, was "granted to Joshua Whitney, in case he should build and maintain a good and sufficient grist-mill, and be ready for business by September 1st of that year. Whitney commenced to build but was not able to finish at the specified time. His time was by vote extended. Later he sold the privilege to Abel Phelps, and by vote of the proprietors the 'same grant was confirmed to Phelps, if said Phelps shall finish said mill and give suitable attendance, as said Whitney was to give, and have the same done by ye first day of July, 1759.'
The grist-mill having been provided, the next question in this line which seems to have interested the public mind was building an iron works. This subject had indeed been agitated earlier, as we find that at a proprietors' meeting in May, 1757, there was "appointed a committee of three to look into the affair of a place for iron works in Norfolk."
The various votes of the proprietors, granting land as encouragement to the persons who would build an iron works, manufacture iron and maintain the business for fifteen years, are given in another chapter.
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At a proprietors' meeting May 7, 1760, it was "voted that we do accept the report of Benajah Douglas and George Palmer this day made respecting building iron works, and establish their doings respecting leasing ye said works to Samuel Forbes."
January 18, 1763, they "Voted, To give all our right to a certain piece of land lying near the mouth of the Great Pond toward the northeast part of the township of Norfolk , to him or them who will build a good iron works in said Norfolk and have fit to make iron by January 15, 1765."
September 19, 1766, "Voted, That whereas, Capt. Daniel Lawrence, Jr., Thomas Day and Samuel Ransom did all and each of them become bound to the proprietors of Nor- folk in the penal sum of £500, lawful money, that they would build a good iron works in said Norfolk somewhere near the Great Pond, so called, in Norfolk, and to have them fit to make iron by January 15, 1765, now we vote and agree that we will not ask nor sue said Lawrence and others upon said bond for the space of five years after said date." This is the last entry in the proprietors' records regarding iron works.
In his Centennial Address at Litchfield in 1851, Judge Church said: "The manufacture of bloomed iron in the region of the ore commenced before the organization of the County. Thomas Lamb erected a forge at Lime Rock, in Salisbury, as early as 1734,-probably the first in the Colony. This experiment was soon extensively followed in Salisbury, Canaan, Cornwall and Kent, and there were forges erected also in Norfolk, Colebrook and Litchfield. The ore was often transported from the ore beds to the forge in leathern sacks, upon horses. Bar iron became here a sort of circulating medium, and promissory notes were more frequently made payable in iron than in money. The first furnace in the Colony was built at Lakeville, in Salis- bury, in 1762, by John Hazelton and Ethan Allen of Salis- bury and Samuel Forbes of Canaan. This property fell into the hands of Richard Smith, an English gentleman, a little before the war of the Revolution.
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Upon this event he returned to England, and the state took possession of the furnace, and it was employed, under the agency of Col. Joshua Porter, in the manufacture of cannon, shells and shot, for the use of the army and navy of the country, and sometimes under the supervision of Governeur Morris and John Jay, agents of the Continental Congress; and after the war, the navy of the United States received, to a considerable extent, the guns for its heaviest ships from the same establishment."
It is evident that at least Mr. Thomas Day, mentioned above, was engaged in building and operating an iron works here in town, but not in the vicinity of the Great Pond. Just the date of the completion of the works and of the beginning of the manufacture of iron does not appear, but it was probably before 1770.
As to the location of the iron works of Mr. Day, it is given with much precision in some papers of Dr. Eldridge's, which were written, at his request, as referred to elsewhere, by Dea. James Mars, who says :- "East of where the woolen factory of Earl P. Pease stood, the factory that was burnt, against Mr. Corbally's blacksmith shop, on the south side of the river, was'a forge where they made iron from ore that was brought from Salisbury. Mr. Thomas Day and brother had the forge. The father was an old man and lived on the lot west of the present Methodist meeting-house. His son lived near the bridge on the turnpike road. Some of Mr. Day's descendants are living here, Mr. Henry J. Holt and Miss Harriet Holt."
The following from the Norfolk land records may throw a little light upon this question of the iron works:
July 11, 1768, Captain Abraham Camp, for a considera- tion of £19, deeded to Samuel Pettibone, "The one-half of the land which I, the said Camp, bought of Brotherton Sea- ward, where the iron works stand. The whole of said land as undivided is bounded northerly, beginning at a stake and stones on the highway that goes from Giles Pettibone's to the meeting-house; thence southerly in line of said highway ten rods, crossing Haystack brook to a heap of stones about
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fifteen feet south of said brook; thence westerly in the line of Justus Gaylord's land and part of the land belonging to those that own the grist-mill, about twenty rods; thence southerly about fifteen rods to a stake and stones, a corner of Thomas Curtiss' land; thence about twenty rods in the line of said Curtiss' land to a heap of stones; thence north- erly to the river, crossing the river in the line of Giles Petti- bone's land to the first bounds, be it more or less, with one- eighth part of the iron works and cole-house thereon stand- ing; with the utensils thereof, with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, unto the said Samuel Pettibone."
Mention is made in the chapter concerning the Revolu- tionary war of an immense chain that was at one time stretched across the Hudson river from shore to shore, in- tended (but failed) to prevent the British from sending their ships up the river. The writer has been told that a part of that immense chain, the links of which were not less than one foot in length, made of bar-iron, were made at the iron works here in Norfolk, and that at the forge at Lake Wan- gum, on Canaan Mountain, the Hanchetts made another section of that chain.
A word more regarding the location of the old Forge or 'Iron Works.' Mr. Joseph W. Cone, a native and life-long resident of the town, remembers the old building, and says it stood exactly on the site of the "Shear Shop" of these modern days.
Of the methods used here in making iron from the ore, it is said that it was sometimes called "the sinking process," producing a form of malleable iron direct from the ore, without passing through the stage of fused pig iron. The "Catalan Forge," as it was called, is described as a "variety of 'bloomery,' being a typical development of the earliest crude apparatus for extracting iron from its ores. In prin- ciple these forges may be considered as a more or less en- larged blacksmith's, or ordinary rivetting forge, in the bed of which are placed together the ore to be reduced and the fuel, which was hardwood charcoal; the stone bottom cov-
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ered over with a 'brasque' of charcoal powder rammed down; the blast being applied partly by the direct action of the carbon, partly by the carbon oxide generated. The iron ore is gradually reduced to a spongy mass of metal, which by stirring is gradually agglutinated into a ball, which is removed and worked into bars or blooms. The Catalan Forges of the south of Europe are usually of such dimensions as hold from three to ten hundredweight of ore."
Iron was doubtless the first article manufactured for sale in this town, except possibly lumber and flour. Dea. Mars says: "The dam for an oil mill was just where the grist-mill dam now is, the mill being a little below." There was another oil-mill, perhaps at a little later date, down on Blackberry river, that stood very near the dam of the long stone Hoe, or Axle shop. These mills were for the extrac- tion of the oil from Flax-seed, and for a time doubtless did quite a business. One of the large stones used at the mill last mentioned for grinding the flax-seed is permanently preserved in a prominent place, being the round horse-block between the church and the chapel, where it has already done duty for fifty years, and seems to be good, if required, for centuries to come.
Having mentioned the oil-mill just above the grist-mill site, Dea. Mars says: "We approach the bridge east. West, and near the bridge, on the south side of the road, was a fulling mill, where they fulled cloth for men's wear. A few rods east was a shop where the cloth was dressed. Mr. Stephen Paine worked it. On the other side of the road was a saw-mill and a grist-mill."
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