USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 2
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The largest stream issues from Gardner's Lake, the Mashipaug of the Indians, a fine sheet of water that forms a corner bound to the three towns of Colchester, Bozrah and Montville.
About a mile before the Yantic meets the Shetucket, while flowing south, it suddenly sweeps round in an easterly direction, and coming upon a bed of rocks, plunges over a ledge twelve or fifteen feet in height, and still descending, works its way amid the heaped up rocky masses, through a narrow chasm between perpendicular cliffs to the level basin below. These are the well-known Norwich Falls, which at the time of a spring flood suddenly swell into sublimity, spanning the river with a sheet of foam, and filling the ravine with a heavy roar.
Escaping from this compression, the river turns again to the south, and in a gentle current passes onward to meet the Shetucket, and in their union they become the Thames.
The whole course of the Thames from Norwich to its entrance into Long Island Sound is about fourteen miles. It is navigable from its mouth to Gale-town village, more than half its length, for vessels drawing twenty-five feet of water. Ships of the line might at all times of the tide ascend to a distance of nine or ten miles ; but above this the channel is "impeded by bars and sand-banks, which are frequently changed in their position by the spring floods, and aggravated by the sand brought down from the Shetucket .*
The Thames in earlier days was widely known for its lavish abundance of fish. The shad, alewives, bass, mackerel, eels, oysters, and lobsters, were nowhere to be found in larger quantity or greater perfection. Stur- geon and other large fish often wandered into the stream, and have been known to leap into a passing boat.t
It was chronicled in the Boston News-Letter, just after the great freshet of February, 1729, that Norwich river was swarming with fish to such an extent that 20,000 bass had been caught within a few days just below the Landing. This might have been a larger amount than usual, but every year at the breaking up of the ice, there was a great demand, far and near, for the striped bass of Norwich river.
In a newspaper of 1771, it was noticed that 300 barrels of mackerel had been taken that season in the river between New London and Nor- wich, and that six barrels were filled from the contents of a single seine. The river has not entirely lost its character for supplies of fish, but the abundance varies with varying seasons, and incessant navigation has had its usual effect in scattering the finny tribes.
* In 1806, the Channel Company, after dredging the river, reported nine feet of water at common tide, the whole distance from Norwich to New London.
t So recently as May, 1861, a sturgeon (called in the marine vernacular, Albany beef,) was caught above Gale's Ferry, which weighed 125 lbs.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
It was long before the river attained a fixed and popular name. It was called indifferently the Pequot or Mohegan river. At what period or by whose suggestion it began to be called the Thames, is uncertain, but the name is an easy sequence to that of New London. London on the Thames seems to require that the river of New London should be the New Thames, and probably the name slid into usage without any definite beginning or sponsorship. The aboriginal name has not been recovered, but there can be little hesitation in assuming that it was the term which signified in the Indian tongue, Great River,-this being the first distinctive name applied to it by the English, and the one long in use among the Mohegans.
In its present dimensions, Norwich covers an area of twenty-six square miles. The greatest extent is from Trading Cove brook to Plain Hill, which measures seven miles ; its medium breadth is about three. In point of scenery it is one of the most picturesque towns in New England, pre- senting a pleasing variety of high and low ground, forest and field, rock and river. It displays a multiplicity of slopes and side-hills; every turn brings forth a new landscape; every height offers a fresh expanse of interesting details. It is beautiful in its contrasts and its harmonies ; beautiful beyond comparison in its circling streams, its umbrageous parks and rural avenues. In the pursuits of life, rare combinations of apparently opposing interests are here embraced in one municipal bond. Tasteful and costly dwellings, the refincments of social life, means of high mental culture, and all the aspects of elegant retirement, are found in strange proximity with crowded places of business, the bustle and haste of railroads and wharves, and the tremulous, unceasing roar and confusion of innumerable mills and machine shops.
There are many points of observation within the limits of the town, that may be called mounts of vision. From Plain Hill on the northwest boundary the prospect is broad and noble, expanding almost to vastness and sublimity. The Old Parsonage or Meeting-House hill in the Town- plot commands a lovely valley warm with life, where the quiet abodes of man seem in perfect harmony with the works of nature. From Ox-hill, east of the Town-plot, there is a view of surpassing beauty, ample and pano -. ramic, the outlines composed of those interminable woods which are the relieving shadows of all American scenery.
The high grounds in and around Chelsea afford a still greater variety of prospect. In addition to woodland grandeur and village beauty, the eye takes in the clustered, crowded city, the neighboring villages, and a long reach of the river with its diversified banks, combining several dis- tinct landscapes in one view.
In historical interest Norwich holds a prominent position. It has an aboriginal as well as an English and American history. The first plant- ers were a body of men who displayed much of the genuine old English
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
character, and left the impress of their origin deeply stamped upon their laws and regulations. The two most noted founders of the town, Major John Mason and the Rev. James Fitch, were remarkable men, and various individuals of more than common note have, first and last, issued from this community. In Revolutionary times the inhabitants stood boldly forth in resistance to oppression, and were among the first in the country to turn their attention to certain manufactures for which the colonies had been kept dependent upon Great Britain. In later times it has become still more distinguished for the variety, quantity and value of its manufactured products. These circumstances, in connection with the diversified scenery, have given a name and character to the town, which make it more con- spicuous than many others of greater numerical importance.
In some respects Norwich has been peculiarly favored by Providence. It has never been visited by any extraordinary visitation of disease, or crushed by any sudden calamity. In common with other parts of the country it has met with financial reverses ; it has had periods of depres- sion, when improvements ceased and business of all kinds ran to a low ebb, throwing it backward in its career for a time, and obliging it to retrace the steps to prosperity. But neither war, nor treason, nor famine, nor plague, nor whirlwind, nor life-destroying floods, nor widely desolating flames, have ever imperiled its welfare. Since the Nine-miles-square was bought of the Indians, no embattled foe has been seen in the territory. The greatest of outward disasters has been an occasional loss from flood or fire ; the destruction of a church, a factory, or dwelling-house, the rup- ture of a bridge, or the submerging of a wharf.
Norwich, beside its central division, the city, consists of several distinct portions or villages, stretching like wings along the banks of the Shetucket and Yantic, with a background of hills and woods, interspersed with farms moderately fertile, surrounding the whole area. At the northwest, three and a half miles distant from the port, and bordering closely upon Bozrah and Franklin, is the village of
Yantic.
This section of the town retains its aboriginal name. At the time of the settlement, the whole district beyond Bean Hill was called Yantic, or Yantuck. Strips of meadow land at Yantuck were among the earliest grants dealt ont to the planters, and highly prized as affording native grass for their cattle. But the name was probably derived from the river, the syllable tick, or tuck, usually denoting in the Indian tongue, a stream of water.
The village is wholly of modern growth; built up since 1820, and mainly dependent upon the manufacturing interest for its business and population. Here in former times were the Backus iron-works; the
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Backus mansion, and a range of woods, meadows and rugged heights belonging to the Backus family. Beyond these were the West Farms and the Hyde tavern. Various branches of the Backus family, scattered over the Union, look back to this place for their ancestors.
Yantic is also the birth-place of the late Joseph Otis, to whom Norwich is indebted for its public library. His father wrought in these old iron- works, and his boyhood was spent in this secluded hamlet. It was here that he acquired habits of industry and perseverance, and what education he had, was obtained at the Bean Hill school.
Bean Hill, in the early days of the settlement, was the northwestern limit of the town-plot. No house-lots were originally laid out beyond the point where the river crosses the main street. The platform of the hill, wisely left open for public use, was then probably covered with forest trees. It is still shaded in part by a fine old elm, the successor of one of great size and symmetry, which, according to tradition, was verging toward decay when the settlement commenced. Under the shadow of this elm dynasty, in former times when Bean Hill was noted for its business and gaiety, tables were spread, speeches made, and sermons preached. Here neighbors gathered to hear the news, and teamsters loitered in the heat of the day.
The Town-plot, the oldest part of Norwich, originally consisted of one long, irregular street, winding around the hills, and following the course of the Yantic. It retains still the same outline, with but little variation from its first laying out. The streets, the house-lots, the garden-plots, are the same, and in many places the old first-built walls and fences remain. Near the center is an open square or plain, hedged in on the north by a range of high ground, rocky and precipitous. In the early days of the settlement, on the summit of this hill, towering over the plain, stood the venerated House of Worship, for many years the only public gathering- place for a Christian assembly in the Nine-miles-square. The neighbor- ing heights were doubtless crowned with woods, and the rocks, now so bare, decked with a luxuriant growth of moss-tufts and creepers. How beautiful the ascent to this Mount Zion !- the venerable Mr. Fitch leading the way, and his pilgrim followers, old and young, singly or in groups, scattered along the pathway and gathering at the sacred porch.
At the end of the first century from the settlement, the church, no longer necessary as a look-out post of the town, came down from the hill, and took its position at the corner of the Green, where it now stands.
This Plain, or Green, was the place where trades, merchandize, public business, military exercises, shows, sports, festivals, and the general enter- prize of the town, found a center. The County Jail stood on the north side at the foot of the hill ; the Court-Honse was in the open area ; the Post-Office not far from the meeting-house; two printing-offices, within a
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
stone's throw at the west, and taverns, schools and shops alternating with private dwellings around the border.
The Court-House in 1798 was removed to the site once occupied by the dwelling of Capt. John Mason, (the first house built in Norwich,) where it now stands, and since the transfer of the courts to Chelsea. has been used for a school-house. Trade, noise, bustle and gaiety have left the precincts ; the taverns are closed, and the peace and quiet of the Happy Valley seem to have obtained undisturbed possession of this charming plain.
Yet the germs of mental and moral power are quick with life beneath the calm green of these quiet scenes. Character draws strength and elas- ticity from the soil. From this nucleus issue forth bright spirits, one after another, who take positions east or west and radiate light through other spheres. Latent fire is at work in the heart of a society from which pro- ceed such young men as Herr Driesbach, the lion-tamer ;* Aaron S. Ste- phens, the unfortunate participator in the measures of John Brown ; Ed- ward Harland, a brigadier-general at the age of twenty-five; merchants for other cities, ministers for many pulpits, and patriot soldiers to die for the Union.
Honor to the old Town-plot. It is still worthy of its founders, the Masons, the Fitches, the Huntingtons, Hydes, Tracys, Leffingwells and Lathrops of the ancient settlement.
The Falls Village lies in a hollow bend of the Yantic, just where it rushes over the rocks through a winding channel into the cove leading to the Thames. It is wholly of manufacturing origin, and with the exception of an old mill-seat, and a dwelling-house built by Elijah Lathrop, is the growth of the last half century.
The Water-Fall at this place was formerly regarded as one of the most interesting natural curiosities in this part of the country. So much of the stream has been diverted from its original headlong course over the para- pet of rocks, for mechanical uses, that the description given of the cataract sixty years ago seems exaggerated. It is only at the spring floods, when the swollen river comes roaring through the chasm, filling the channel from side to side, that we can realize the old picturesque grandeur of the scene.
It then becomes easy for the imagination to re-people the landscape with savage combatants, and to discern amid the noise of the falling water, dis- tant echoes of the war-whoop. The perpendicular cliff that walls the chasm suggests the old tradition, and the Indian tragedy seems again acted before us. The panting Narragansetts come suddenly amid the thick
* Samuel, son of Consider Sterry, is supposed to be identical with this hero of the hippodrome,-Herr Driesbach being the name assumed when he became a circus actor.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
woods upon the edge of the precipice, and plunge, or are driven by their victorious pursuers, over the battlements upon the pointed rocks below.
Chelsea Plain in its whole extent from the range of hills by which it is circumscribed on the east, to the brink of No-man's Acre, is without rocks, and resembles an alluvial formation, or the bed of a lake. Gravel and rounded stones, differing in their character from the gneiss and hornblende of the neighboring heights, are found a few feet below the surface. The form of the land in its descent toward the river, the clefts in the banks, and various peculiar configurations, suggest the idea of some violent force exerted in past ages, such as the rush of retiring waters and the fitful sweep of an eddy .*
This Plain is a very beautiful part of Norwich. Here is the Free Academy, a magnificent building planted in the midst of ample space, with a romantic woodland for its background,-the broad and open Park, -the Uncas Monument, overshadowed with almost sepulchral gloom,- a small but tasteful church,-the Yantic Cemetery, already rich in its memorials of departed worth, and continually amassing sacred treasures,- many elegant private mansions, gracefully varied in age, style and posi- tion, and everywhere groups and columns of towering, interlacing trees.
It is on this plain that we may with some degree of probability fix the seat of an Indian sachem and a village of wigwams prior to the English settlements. The Yantic cove below, we may assume, was their canoe- place, for like other savages they would naturally congregate at the foot of a waterfall. Near at hand is the ravine by which they ascended to the plain, where stood their matted tents and corn-fields. Waweekus Hill, the rock-browed head of Norwich, looking down the river and commanding the entrance to the streams on either side, was their watch-post and place of refuge. This we may infer from its ancient name of Fort Hill. They have, moreover, left arrow-heads and stone pestles embedded in the soil, and their royal burying-ground on the brink of the upland, to attest their residence and identify their aboriginal character.
The City, or central part of Norwich, encompasses the meeting-place of the Yantic, the Shetucket, and the Thames, spreading over both sides of each of these three rivers. It is an assemblage of side-hills and hill- tops, with rivers gliding at their feet. The upper streets are declivities, and the buildings lie in tiers one above another. In ascending the river by night, the houses on the hill seem suspended in the air. The lower streets have either been won from the water, or blasted out of the rock. The bold projections along the border line have been moulded into foun- dations for wharves, offices, and freight-houses. Central Wharf, a stupen- dous platform covered with shops, factories, and machinery of various kinds,
* The elevation of the Plain above the level of Shetueket and Main streets, at their intersection, according to an old measurement of surveyors, was 78 feet.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
and affording facilities for an extensive trade in coal and lumber, has been wholly created, and a railway laid along the semicircular border of the promontory forms a connecting link between the railroads to Amherst and to Worcester, which run from hence northwest and northeast, leaving Norwich between them at their point of junction.
In this part of Norwich since 1835 the advance in the style of build- ings, both public and private, has been surprisingly rapid,-almost like the changes of imagery in an enchanter's mirror. Churches, banks,-and among the most recent, the noble bank building in Shetucket street, stand- ing upon the brink of a ledge of rock, with the narrow, dark river far down in its rear,-mercantile blocks, armories and machine-shops, school- houses of grand proportion and finished detail, the Waureegan Hotel, the Otis Library, Breed Hall, one after another, have taken their places in the scene. Elegant mansions, in all the various styles of cottage, city, country and castellated architecture, erected at a cost varying from five to forty thousand dollars, and collecting around them groves and gardens of exquisite beauty, rise along the streets and extend over the hills. So great are the transformations, that absentees of fifteen or twenty years, on returning are embarrassed in endeavoring to trace ont their former haunts. Taste and enterprise, led on by prosperity, are in continual operation, creating the new, remodeling the old, transforming the rude into the ele- gant, the barren cliff to a verdant terrace, and gullies of sand and gravel to gardens of fruitfulness and bloom.
West Chelsea was formerly noted for ship building. Not only common trading vessels, but ships of considerable size, were constructed here under disadvantages which energy and perseverance only could have con- quered, the narrowness of the river making it necessary to launch them side-ways or diagonally.
Oak-spring hill, Baptist hill and Mount Pleasant are names by which this high district has been locally known at different periods. Here, under the shade of venerable trees, far above the level of the river, above the line of numberless chimneys and tree-tops, springs of pure water that have never been known to fail, rise to the surface of the earth. For many years one of these perpetual fountains has supplied a portion of the city with water.
This hill was in former times covered with a stately forest, and until a recent period all the roads and pathways on this side of the river led through woods and thickets. Streets and houses are now extending over the heights, and the waste lands are rapidly passing into gardens and cul- tivated fields.
Below West Chelsea, on the river, is a place formerly known as a re- treat for fishing boats, with here and there a farm house in sight upon the bank, and called Bushnell's Cove. A distillery was an old occupant of
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
the Point, and a house near by was at one time kept as a tavern. Since the year 1850, an entire change has been effected in this locality, and the present appearance is no more like the former than if a new creation had taken place. Mitchell's iron works, Wetmore's ship-yard, and the com- mercial enterprise of J. M. Huntington & Co., have transformed this secluded station into a thriving village, which lies within the city bounds, but is distinguished by the appropriate name of
Thamesville.
A vast amount of labor has here been expended in leveling, grading and building. The high banks have been broken up and gradually de- posited at the river side, changing the marshes and shallows into acres of solid ground. By perseverance and capital, overcoming obstacles, ample space and facilities for business have been obtained, and the village now exhibits several handsome dwelling houses, a steam engine and machine factory, a well prepared ship-yard, convenient wharfage and a quay, with all the necessary appurtenances of workshops, warehouses and tenements.
On the east side of the river, below the mouth of the Shetucket, is the wild and romantic district of Laurel Hill, one of the youngest of the Norwich group of villages. So late as 1850, this bank of the river re- mained chiefly in its natural condition, abrupt, rocky and uncultivated, with a single farm-house in an extent of two or three miles.
It has had no magic touch from the wand of manufacture, no mines or marble quarries lurk beneath the surface; it stands apart from the clash of mills and machinery, but under the management of taste and enterprise, pleasant homes and fertile gardens have risen along the rugged slopes, bursting out one after another, like the old laurel blossoms, for which the place was noted, at the call of June. The first dwelling house was erected in 1852. It numbers at the present time, (1865,) 45 honses ; has 70 scholars for the public schools, and sends 50 voters to the polls.
East Chelsea was originally the least desirable of all the suburbs of the city. The river swept over it at every freshet, and receding, left it cov- ered with the stones and rubbish that came down imbedded in the ice- blocks, or torn up by the impetuosity of the current. Hence, probably, it obtained the descriptive name of Swallow-all. Franklin street was a rugged lane winding into the woods between Stony Brook and Burial Ground hill. The brook itself, alternately a quiet stream and a roaring torrent, having received its petty branches and its tributary pond, flowed into the Shetucket, crossing Main street in the line of Franklin Square.
The brook and the massive stones that covered it, are now far beneath the surface of the street, the soil having accumulated above to the depth of several feet. Churches, handsome houses, mercantile blocks, a railroad depot, and various forms of business, occupy the once neglected surface.
Franklin street, elevated, widened, lengthened, and lined with buildings
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
on either side, has become a busy thoroughfare and the seat of several large manufacturing establishments ; among them are the gigantic works of the Norwich Arms Company, which, during the pressure of the war, had the workmen at command, and the machinery in operation, capable of turning out 400 finished muskets per day .*
Greeneville, on the Shetucket, was indebted, in its origin, to the foresight and well-directed enterprise of William C. Gilman and William P. Greene. The former made the first purchase ; the latter followed out and completed the grand design, and is imperishably connected with its name.
It was founded upon manufacturing privileges. Dams, canals and fac- tories were here coeval with dwelling houses and families. A first speci- men of each sate down together in 1829, and these rapidly grew into a community. A school was established in 1832, a Congregational church organized January 1st, 1833, and a house for worship completed in 1835.
Greeneville affords a striking illustration of the success with which, under the influence of wise regulations and liberal patronage, an assem- blage of various nations and pursuits may be wrought into a prosperous and well-ordered community. This village has now several large facto- ries, with the great Shetucket Cotton Mill and the mammoth Chelsea paper-mill at their head; three churches, an excellent system of graded schools, and a population of 3,000 or more, gathered from five different nations,-ranking them in the order of numbers,-Irish, American, Scotch, English and German. So far they have worked well together, and give promise of soon becoming a homogeneous community.
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