USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
Why, then, should the Railroad cross the Green? Above all, why should any citizen of Norfolk desire it?
348
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
It is a matter that I cannot explain. But I can understand why the Directors desire it. The road across the Green would cost the company somewhat less, and being nearer straight, would as a piece of engineering be more perfect. We can have a good prac- ticable road around the green with the station where it ought to be, but it will cost the Railroad more. They propose to take the route across the Green without paying anybody anything for the right of way, so that we come to the real question to be decided by you, Gentlemen, on this occasion.
It is, whether this great money corporation, armed with almost despotic power, whose object is pecuniary gain, shall be saved, what in reference to the magnitude is a trivial additional expendi- ture, at a sacrifice to this poor little town of many times the amount. That is the question. Now, gentlemen, I must trouble you with a few remarks on the value that many of us attach to the Green, and the injury that must accrue to the town if it is defaced by a railroad track, some eighteen or twenty feet deep, and more than fifty wide, running through it from end to end, amid clouds of smoke and dust, many times a day. This public Green is an heirloom,-an inheritance. It was laid out by our fathers, and they planted these grand old elms. It is central to this town. The roads all converge to it.
It is a pleasant gathering place where the people assemble to worship God, or for other purposes. The Academy looks out upon it, is approached by paths through it. It is a safe pleasant play- ground in one part; in the rest, shade and tranquility. It is such a Green as no town in this part of the State possesses, or could secure. It makes the town attractive to strangers. Professor Thatcher of Yale College, and Mr. Northrop, Superintendent of Common Schools, were here last season, and expressed themselves as greatly delighted with it. They said it was already very beau- tiful, and might be made much more so. Many natives of the place living elsewhere, deprecate the idea of its desecration; among them such men as Mr. Frederick Shepard of New York, who has taken stock in this road; Mr. Joseph Battell, also of New York; and Mr. George Phelps of Chicago.
The most enlightened people in the towns around would regard the sacrifice of our Green as an act of barbarism. The work of destruction once done it is done forever. The injury would be irremediable. Money lost may be regained; a building burned may be rebuilt; but once locate a Railroad across our Green, and it would be ruined forever. Other towns would spend large sums could they purchase such a Green. We have it by the fore- thought, the liberality and the toils of the past generations. They designed it for the town, and for coming generations, to be en- joyed and transmitted.
349
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
I now come to considerations that may have weight with those, in whose estimation those that I have already suggested are of little importance.
The Railroad it is hoped will contribute to the prosperity of the town. It will do this more particularly, it is expected, by bringing into profitable use the water power on our stream. Surely in a business respect we have been in a bad way. Most of the busi- ness enterprises started in the last twenty-five years have proved disastrous failures. A great deal of property has been sunk. Our farmers have suffered in some cases very severely. One coming from Canaan through West Norfolk up to the Centre, will see many signs of abortive undertakings; much proof that the stream has not hitherto contributed to our prosperity. First will be seen a broken roofed scythe shop, with a scythe perched on a pole. Then the chimney of an abandoned furnace with some out-buildings, all rotting down, will attract his notice. Then on Patmos Island, as it is called, a hoe-shop, not now in use. Next comes the great stone structure erected as a machine shop. This building is occu- pied, but not to its full capacity. Adjacent is the foundry, going to decay, and then a planing-shop in like condition. Arrived in the city, the traveler is greeted with the charred ruins of the great factory that once stood there. Looming up the hill, a nice bank building presents itself. Alas, that building is for sale. Now if the prayer addressed to you this day is granted, and our Green has a deep, broad ditch cut through it, the picture of ruin will be complete. These past disasters have generated in town a sort of desperation; something must be done to retrieve our affairs. And when the idea of a Railroad through town was proposed, it was greeted with the utmost enthusiasm. That would save us. That would prove the Sarsaparilla of the veritable old Dr. Towns- end; sure to remedy all our pecuniary troubles. I shared in this enthusiasm to a degree. I was in favor of bonding the town. I took ten shares of the Railroad stock. And I still expect that the town will derive essential benefit from the road. But how? Not as an investment. I never expect to get any returns for my stock. If we have anything to transport it will prove an advantage. But a railroad through the town will put no money into anybody's pocket. It will not build up factories on our streams It will not lift the mortgages now resting on some of the structures already built. It will furnish no capital with which to carry on business.
How then will it contribute to the prosperity of the town? It will do so, so far as it induces men of capital and business ca- pacity to come and reside among us, who shall bring our water- power into profitable use. But such men are not to be drawn here by mere water privileges. They can find them elsewhere, and right by the side of Railroads; for example, Falls Village.
350
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
Men of capital and business capacity are likely also to be men of taste, with families to be educated, and a beautiful village and advantages for schools, where their children may be happy and safe, and their taste improved,-such a village in connection with water power, may draw them. We have such a village, and now have such an Academy. Drive your cars right through its heart, right in front of the Academy, cut down the town to a railroad station, and you will look in vain for your men of capital and business capacity. Spoil your Green, and you weaken very much the probability that the railroad will bring our water power into profitable use; or that it will greatly benefit the town. In this view, the railroad itself will be short sighted to insist on this line; for whatever tends to mar or hinder our prosperity, will diminish the revenue we shall yield to it as a transporting agent.
Now, your Honors, you are appointed, not to carry out the edicts of these great corporations, invested as they are by naked legisla- tion with almost unlimited power, and which they are very liable to abuse, overriding the weak resistance of local and private in- terests. You are appointed to protect local and private rights and interests against unnecessary encroachments. If there are sacri- fices to be made, you are to distribute them equitably and fairly. You are not to save a railroad some little expense and inflict a much larger injury upon an individual or a town. In our case it will be wholly uncompensated. They propose to take our Green for nothing. I appeal to you to protect us. Indeed, I believe in their secret heart we have the Directors with us. The President of the road and his co-directors I regard as men of liberal feelings and cultivated tastes. As agents of the railroad they must push its interests; but if without responsibility on their part, this lay- out should be rejected, and the little Green of Norfolk left intact, I do not think they would be very much grieved.
Thanks that we have not as yet .to deal with such men as James Fisk, Jr., and his acolytes. I leave our case in your hands. I have only to add, that, if as would seem to be the case by the tone of feeling developed in this assembly, any odium is to be attached to efforts to protect our green, in that case let it be poured without stint on my head while I live; let it rest on my memory after I am dead.
I wash my hands of all responsibility in regard to the desecra- tion of our green. If the deed is perpetrated, I shall remain silent, but shall ever consider it one of folly and barbarism."
An effort was made through articles published in the local papers to reply to the argument of Dr. Eldridge before the Commissioners, but it was a sorry failure. No
351
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
answer was possible save that of the Commissioners given February 9, 1870, which triumphantly vindicated Dr. El- dridge's position and forever settled the question of "the desecration of our green."
In their decision the Commissioners said: "The first hearing of the application for the approval of the location through this Park was held at the Norfolk Town Hall in June, 1869. After a full and impartial hearing that lay-out was disapproved.
On the 5th day of July succeeding, a new Commissioner took his seat in the Board, and soon after another application was made for a location, by the same Railroad Company, through the same park, and a second hearing was held at the same place, and the lay- out again disapproved by the Board unanimously. Again on the 14th day of January, 1870, a hearing was given to a third appli- cation for a new layout through the same park, and now a third time denied unanimously by the Commissioners. The persistency with which this line through this Park has been urged, is without parallel in the history of Railroad enterprises in the State, and seems to indicate insurmountable objections on the part of the Company to any other route through that village.
On the other hand, the unanimous decisions of the Board in dis- approval indicate their belief that another route can be found without so great damage to public and private interests, as the one asked by the Company through the Park.
The Railroad Commissioners have no power or desire to dictate to a Railroad Company where they shall locate their line, but only to say where it shall not be located.
The reasons why we cannot approve the location of the Connec- ticut Western Railroad Company through the village of Norfolk as asked, are:
First: Because the law of the State forbids a railroad crossing a highway at grade; and one of the lines asked for, came out of a cut eighteen feet deep, upon a level with several converging roads, making it a dangerous place for travellers upon the highways, and almost ensuring railroad accidents at that place.
Second. Because gratitude to our noble defenders will not allow us to let a railroad run over, or seriously injure a memorial monu- ment dedicated to their memory, at the same time striking down in its passage trees of a century's growth, necessary to the com- fort and enjoyment of the public, and for which money is no equivalent,-unless we feel compelled to it by such controlling necessity as does not here exist.
Third. The last line asked for was equally objectionable ;- the same deep cut, destroying more trees, crossing the highway acutely
352
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
near the converging roads, and running parallel with the eastern highway which surrounds the Park, making it just as dangerous for travel in carriages upon the highway as the others.
Fourth. The objections of the Board to establishing a precedent for running a railroad line through any Public Park. These ob- jections, which we consider well founded in law and equity, to- gether with the fact established by the report of the experienced engineer, that there is a practicable line outside the Park, to which there is no serious objections, have caused us to disapprove for the third time the location asked for by this Corporation."
And so the question was decided finally, to the great joy and satisfaction of Dr. Eldridge and the few who stood with him through the contest against the Railroad Com- pany, and "204 out of 256 legal voters of the town." It was not long before the majority saw their mistake, and a few went to Dr. Eldridge, acknowledged their mistake and thanked him for what he had done in saving the park for all time.
A feasible lay-out around the green, a few rods to the east, was at once accepted, and the road went on to com- pletion. A "railroad celebration" was held in the park in September, 1871, upon the day that the engines first met, before the completion and opening of the road, when a general jubilee with speechmaking was indulged in, as shown in the following brief report which has been pre- served. One of the local papers said: "The citizens of Norfolk appreciated the services of Mr. E. T. Butler, and at a railroad celebration held in their park September 12, 1871, he was presented with a superb gold watch and chain. On the outside of the watch-case was engraved the monogram "E. T. B." and a train of cars, while the inside ·of the case bore the following inscription: 'Presented to E. T. Butler, Esq., by the citizens of Norfolk, in recogni- tion of his services in the originating and completion of the C. W. Railroad.' "
Looking back almost thirty years, the query arises, did the re- porter fail to record it, or did we all really forget at this celebra- tion to thank Dr. Eldridge that the park was spared, and so we had that beautiful place in which to hold our celebration ?
353
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
It may be permitted to add briefly that at this railroad celebration a procession was formed in front of the Norfolk House; with a company of horsemen and the Lakeville Brass Band they marched to the Park amid firing of can- non, the ringing of the church bell and the whistle of the locomotive. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Eldridge. John K. Shepard, as chairman, made the opening speech of welcome. All partook of the bountiful repast prepared by the ladies of the town. After refreshments Dr. Eldridge was introduced, and in his remarks paid a high compliment to Hon. William H. Barnum as the man to drive through to completion such a gigantic enterprise as the building of a railroad over the mountains of Norfolk. He said: "One of the benefits of the road to the citizens of this town would be to teach them to be punctual; that when they wished to take the cars they must remember that 2 o'clock meant 2 o'clock, and not 2.30." He gave due praise to Mr. Butler and others for their persistent labors in pushing the build- ing of the road to completion.
Mr. E. T. Butler then gave a concise history of the start- ing the project for a railroad through this town, the diffi- culties met in locating and building it, and said that to Mr. George H. Brown more than to any other man was Norfolk indebted for the road.
Mr. Brown was next introduced, and spoke of the diffi- culties of getting the road started and awakening the in- terest of the people on the line of the road.
Mr. Henry J. Holt then extended to Mr. Butler the thanks of the citizens of Norfolk for his great efforts in starting the project, locating and building the railroad, and in behalf of the citizens of the town presented him with a fine gold watch and chain, as has been already mentioned, and this watch Mr. Butler still carries with laudable pride and pleasure.
354
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
XXIII.
THE WHIPPING POST AND STOCKS - FIRST POST OFFICE - TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATIONS -SILK CULTURE - OUR INDIAN STORY - NORFOLK BANKS -PRICES CURRENT, 1778.
Several persons are living (1900) who well remember the whipping-post and stocks in Norfolk, those indispensable pillars of New England law and order; and not of New England only, for the state of Delaware to this day has not abolished and yet occasionally uses the whipping-post. They stood in this town near where the guide-post now stands, opposite the old Shepard Hotel, at the N. W. corner of the park.
In the absence of any discovered record or description of the institution as it existed and was used here in Norfolk, I take the liberty of copying from Boyd's description of the one in Winchester,-both having doubtless been built upon scientific principles, at nearly the same time, and upon the most approved plan. He says :
"The whipping-post and stocks stood on the green near the meet- ing-house. The post did extra duty as a sign post, on which pub- lic notices were fastened, and to which, when occasion required, the petty thief was tied to receive from the constable his five or ten lashes 'well laid on to his naked back.'
The stocks were an upper and lower plank, say six feet long, eight inches wide and two inches thick; the lower one lying edge- wise near the ground, mortised at one end into the post and firmly fastened to the ground at the other. The upper plank was attached to the post at one end by a heavy hinge, so that its lower edge came in contact with the upper edge of the other, and they were held together by a hasp and padlock at their outer ends. At the line of junction of the two planks were four holes, half in the upper and half in the lower plank, about three inches in diameter, ranged at suitable distances for receiving the ankles of two cul- prits."
355
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
As proof that this institution was sometimes useful as a means of reformation as well as punishment, I will quote still further from Mr. Boyd:
"A well authenticated tradition is handed down of one Meacham, a hired laborer of Squire Hurlbut, of very moderate intellect, who after a faithful service and inoffensive life of several years, took it into his head to run away, and to carry with him a variety of articles purloined from his employer's premises. He was pursued, brought back, tried on a grand juror's complaint, found guilty and sentenced to be publicly whipped at the post.
The sentence was duly executed on Saturday. On Sunday fol- lowing, though not a church member, he attended public service, occupying a prominent seat. At the close of service he arose, and the minister read to the audience his penitential confession, asking pardon of the church and the community, and that he might be restored to public confidence. The minister then exhorted the people to accept his confession, and to extend to him their sym- pathy and encouragement in aid of his reformation. He is said to have continued to live with his old employer for several years a blameless and exemplary life."
Query :- Do our modern penal and reformatory institutions show any better results than the above? Regarding the whipping post in Norfolk, Mr. E. Lyman Gaylord, a native of Norfolk, now living in Rocky Hill in this state, writes: "I well remember the old whip- ping post, and precisely where it stood, and the last person that was whipped there; an incorrigible from the north part of the town, by the name of J-, for the crime of theft. He had made much trouble and had often been sent to jail, which did no good. He was finally taken to the whipping post and well dressed down, which completely cured him."
POST-RIDERS AND POST-OFFICE.
The early postal privileges, privations we should now consider them, in this county are of interest. Until the year 1793 the nearest post-office was Hartford, and not even a post-rider came into this county until 1766, when, as appears in Kilbourn's History of Litchfield, "William Stanton was a post-rider between Hartford and Litchfield. It is supposed he did not go as often as once a week."
The first post-rider through Norfolk was in 1789, when Jehiel Saxton, a post-rider between New Haven and Len- nox, passed through this town, doubtless at stated inter-
356
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
vals, it is said; what the intervals were is not stated. In 1790, Kilbourn says, 'a primitive letter carrier commenced his long and lonely ride over the hills between Litchfield court house and New York, leaving each place once a fort- night. That was a proud day for Litchfield.
A post-office was established in Litchfield March 20, 1793, and Benjamin Tallmadge appointed postmaster. In the Litchfield Monitor, March 28, 1794, Ebenezer Burr of Nor- folk advertised himself as a "post-rider from Litchfield, through Goshen, Norfolk and Canaan to Salisbury, and solicits patronage as such; but requests all who need his services as county surveyor to call upon Mondays and Tuesdays, as he shall be away the rest of the week."
A post-office was established in Norfolk in 1804, during the administration of President Jefferson, Michael F. Mills, Esq., being appointed postmaster. The office was kept first at the house of Esq. Mills, who then lived in the Ariel Lawrence tavern, on the corner opposite the Dr. Welch house. A small table drawer, or bureau drawer, was all the room needed for the outgoing and incoming mail of that day. The "Connecticut Courant" and the "Litchfield Monitor" were the only newspapers taken in the town, and but few copies of them. These facts were told the writer in July, 1900, by Mrs. Sarah Mills-Shepard, daughter of the first postmaster of the town.
Mr. Joseph Jones was postmaster for a number of years, holding that office in about 1815, and quite possibly some years earlier. He lived and kept the post-office at his house, adjoining the present parsonage, being at the same time Town Clerk. The question of the location of the post- office was one that interested the residents of the town for many years, and was something of a bone of contention between the rival villages, on the Green, and in "the City," each location maintaining that "our" part of the town was entitled to the post-office; and so it went back and forth, down the hill and up the hill, many times. It was kept in the Shepard Hotel for several years, then went down the hill to the store of Lawrence and Swift, and later Law-
357
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
rence and Stevens; then up to the Shepard Hotel again, and for a time, about 1852, in the store built by William Lawrence, Myron H. Mills being then the postmaster. After the old Battell store was abandoned as a store, the post- office was at different times kept in that building, by Giles P. Thompson and Aaron Gilbert, when they respectively were Norfolk's U. S. officials.
About 1855, under the administration of President Pierce, Mr. Aaron Gilbert being the postmaster, the ques- tion of location was by him disposed of in a way that proved quite satisfactory, on the national plan of compro- mise between the North and the South, when he erected between the two rival sections of the 'State of Norfolk,' sometimes then so called, an octagonal building that ac- commodated his own business as a tailor, with room for the post-office, the building being located nearly opposite the present Village Hall. Here the ark of the post-office rested in peace during the Buchanan administration, and until some months after the inauguration of President Lincoln, March, 1861, when the office was moved again into the old store, Giles P. Thompson having been appointed post- master, and here it rested some eight years.
The Green woods turnpike was opened and a line of stages run upon it from Hartford to Albany, beginning not later than the year 1800, and that probably became a post route quite early in the century.
In the winter of 1812 and '13 a stage commenced running weekly from New Haven, passing through this town on its way to Albany, but first carried the mail once a week in 1816, increasing to two or three times a week about 1820.
In 1821, in connection with a daily steamboat from New York to New Haven, a four-horse stage line commenced running daily from New Haven across this state, passing through this town on its way to Albany, sometimes requir- ing extra stages to accommodate the passengers from New York city and vicinity en route to Albany to attend the winter sessions of the Legislature there. The idea that a great route of travel between New York city and Albany
358
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
once passed through this town will be new to some,-seem preposterous to others.
Let us see. This was many years before the day of rail- roads. Men living in New York city and vicinity, elected to the Legislature of that state, must reach Albany soon after January 1st, at which time the Hudson river would almost invariably be closed, making necessary a drive of 150 miles, or a little more. Long Island Sound remained open, and the steamboat to New Haven would land them within about 100 miles of Albany, saving them about one full day's drive overland, which, with the mercury say at about zero, was a consideration, and sent the law-makers and others of the Empire State en route to Albany by way of Norfolk as the shorter overland route.
The contrast between the post-office facilities and the facilities for travel between the early days mentioned above and this year, 1900, seems marvellous. The writer recalls that in about 1846, soon after trains commenced running as far north as Canaan, upon the Housatonic rail- road, he heard a prominent Norfolk man relating the cir- cumstances of a very wonderfully rapid trip he had just made to New York, stating that he ate his breakfast at home in Norfolk, drove to Canaan and took the car for Bridgeport; there took another train that landed him in New York so that he ate his supper in New York. This seemed very rapid travelling then, to one accustomed to a day's drive to Hudson or Hartford, and then another day's travel by water to reach New York. At the present time a Norfolk man can have breakfast leisurely with his family at home, take a train at about eight o'clock, reach New York at eleven-thirty, have four hours in that city, take his train at three-thirty, and reach Norfolk in time to hear the chimes and the clock strike seven, all between sunrise and sunset.
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.