USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Oxford > History of Oxford, Volume 1-2 > Part 12
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Caroline, wife of Daniel Wooster, d. Oct. 1851, a. 44.
Nathaniel Wooster, d. Nov. 23, 1855, a. 91.
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OXFORD.
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THE CHRISTOPHER SMITH HOMESTEAD.
THE CHRISTOPHER SMITH FAMILY.
Christopher Smith was born in Eng- | This fireplace, with the brick oven, land in 1734 and with his two brothers occupied the whole side of the kitchen ; the oven requiring a specially pre- pared wood for the weekly heating for the baking, the ashes' being saved for lye for soap making, and for fertilizer. In the basement kitchen, was a large furnace kettle set in masonry where the soft soap was made, food for hogs was sometimes cooked and sometimes maple sugar was made in it by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple. Near this was the chimney closet, or smoke J room, where the hams, bacon and dried came to Connecticut in 1754. He mar. ried the widow Abigail (Harger) Chat- field and built a home about 1759 in what is now the southwesterly part of Oxford, then a part of the town of Derby, east of the Great Hill school house. The house was large, with the conveniences common at that period, a stone chimney with a huge fireplace which served alike for heat and cooking, kettles being hung on an iron crane which swung in and out of the fireplace.
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beef were smoked, the latter often dry- | who was the head of another old family ing on the hooks in the kitchen ceiling in company with the pie timber, strings of apples and rings of pumpkin festooned therefrom.
In the attic was a hand loom on which woolen and linen cloths were woven, the woolens being from the wool of sheep raised on the farm, and the linen from flax grown there and hetcheled, bleached and spun by members of the house- hold. From this homemade linen were made articles of bed and table wear, as well as underclothing and the finest of the men's garments. From the woolens slowly woven on this big loom in the attic were made the men's and women's outer garments, blankets and winter sheets. Linsey woolsey, a mixed cloth of linen and wool, for women's common dresses and aprons, was also woven on the old loom.
The family attended services in the old Great Hill Presbyterian church situated on top of the hill where some of the old stone cellar may be seen today near the Davis place.
Christopher Smith served in Col. Lati- mer's regiment, which went to reinforce Gen. Gates at Saratoga in August, 1777. and was assigned to Col. Poor's Con- tinental Brigade in Arnold's Division, and fought in both battles Sept. 19 and Oct. 9. In the first battle this and one other Connecticut regiment lost more than any other two regiments in the field. Upon their dismissal after the surrender of Burgoyne, Gates spoke of them as "two excellent militia regi- ments from Connecticut."
The children of Christopher and Abi- gail Smith were Lucy, Abigail, Hannah and John.
Lucy Smith, daughter of Christopher and Abigail, married Jeremiah Shelton, of White Hills. Their children were Gloriana, Eliza, Horace and Smith. Gloriana Shelton became the second wife of James Smith, son of Abraham,
of Derby. James' grandmother, Sarah French Smith, was a granddaughter of one of the first Episcopal clergyman of Derby, Rev. John Bowers, graduate of Harvard college. Gloriana Shelton Smith had one daughter, Maryett, who was organist of St. James' church, Der- by, for a number of years, and died un- married.
Abraham Smith was great great grandfather to Marietta, wife of Edgar H., son of Jobn 2nd.
Abigail Smith, daughter of Christo- pher and Abigail, married David Perkins and settled on the north corner of the farm, near a road which bore the name Perklane, from the Rockhouse Hill road to Moose Hill, which has been closed to public travel for the past thirtyfive years. Their children were Harriet, Sarah, Lucinda, Laura, and Hannah.
Hannah Smith, daughter of Christo- pher and Abigail, married William Waters. Their children were Hannah, William and Susan. Hannah Waters married Tucker, uncle to Reuben Tucker of Ansonia, in the Waters home- stead, and lived at the west corner of the Smith farm on the Rock-house Hill road, which later became the property of Ephraim, son of John Smith first, thence descending to Ephraim's daughter Cornelia, wife of Morrell Francis, who with their son and his family now reside there.
John Smith, 1st, son of Christopher and Abigail. b. July, 1776, married Anna Fanton, of White Hills, and settled in the homestead and had a family of ten, two dying in childhood. He died in 1858, aged 82. She died June 6, 1858. Children :
Nancy, b. 1799; d Oct. 5, 1858.
Christopher, b. 1802; d. May 7, 1866. Stephen, b. 1804. Laura, died in infancy.
Ephraim, b. 1806.
Lucy, b. 1808, d. aged 2 years. Grant, b. 1810.
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THE CHRISTOPHER SMITH FAMILY.
Sheldon, b. 1812.
John. b. 1815, d. June 8, 1890.
Laura, 2nd, b. in 1816; d. in 1827.
Nancy, daughter of John 1st and Anna Fanton Smith, died unmarried. She was a tailoress by trade and carried on business in what is now Seymour, then Humphreysville.
Christopher, 2d, eldest son of John'and Anna, married Lucinda Bunnell and settled on the estate. One son, George William, nicknamed Billy Chris, married at the age of seventeen years, Harriet Eliza Hitchcock, of the same age, and settled in Squantuck, where in after life he was famed as fisherman, also a wood sawyer in the sawmill there. He had a family of eight, six dying in childhood.
Lucinda, wife of Christopher, 2d, died Aug. 9, 1846, aged 45 years.
Frank H., son of Geo. W., married Lavinia Lewis, of New Jersey, and settled in Squantuck. He had an only child, Etta, who died in 1906, aged 21 years.
Fanny, daughter of Geo. W. Smith, married Isaac Tomlinson, a native of Squantuck, but spent the last years of his life in Bridgeport, where a daughter, Mrs. Ithamar N. Burke, now lives. Fred- erick, son of Isaac and Fanny Tomlin- son, married, and he and wife both died in Bridgeport, leaving a son Freddie and daughter Noretta, with their grand- mother, Fanny Smith Tomlinson.
Stephen, second son of John and Anua, married - Summers, niece of Christopher's wife, and settled in Woodbury. They had a family of three. Henry, the son, died young, un married. Cornelia married William Plumb Barto, of Woodbury, later settled in Thomas- ton, no children. Josephine married Sidney Taylor, and settled in Woodbury.
Sheldon Smith, third son of John and Anna, settled in Plymouth, by trade a shoemaker, but later worked in the Seth Thomas clock shops. He married Susan
Baldwin and had a family of three. Al- bert, who married Christina J. Christy, a Scotch woman, and had 3 children : Jennie, who married Beach and resides in Waterbury; and Hugh, who married and has a family in Brooklyn, N. Y., besides a married daughter in Waterbury. Alfred removed to Brook- lyn after giving up his business in Bris- tol, where the youngest daughter, Mrs. Arthur King, resides.
Charles, son of Sheldon and Susan Baldwin Smith, resides in the town of Westover, where he married his wife Josephine, a school teacher. They have one daughter, Mrs. Susan Billings, who lives at home with her two little girls. Ann Smith, daughter of Sheldon and Susan Baldwin Smith, married a man named Morse, no family, settled in Thomaston.
Grant Smith, son of John 1st and Auna Fanton Smith, a cooper by trade, worked for years in the Branford lock works. He married Rebekah Sperry, bad one son Elizur who married, died, and is buried, in Branford. The latter had one son, Harry W., who grew to manhood, since then his whereabouts is unknown.
Ephraim, son of John 1st and Anna Smith, married Esther, half sister of Colonel Daniel Holbrook, of Militia fame, whose estate joined the Christo- pher Smith homestead. Ephraim follow- ed farming and distilling, and raised a family of six children. His son Robert was a mason by trade, married Janette Canfield, no children, settled in Ansonia.
Sarah, daughter of Ephraim, married Beach Shelton, of White Hills, raised a family of six. Daniel, son of Beach Shelton, who married Harriet Beardsley of White Hills, where he settled, has a family of four, Raymond, Elizabeth, Ada and Gladys. One other died in infancy.
Anna, daughter of Beach Shelton,
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married Warren C. Hubbell. They have four, Cora Virginia, Norman, and twin a daughter Elsie and a son Sterling. girls Helen and Hazel. Abbie C. Shelton, daughter of Beach Shelton, married Charles Jennings, lives at White Hills, has one little son, Charles Shelton. Sadie, daughter of Beach Shelton, married C. C. Beard, of Shelton, where they reside. They have one child, Marion.
Miss Lucy Shelton, daughter of Beach Shelton, Is a bookkeeper iu a Shelton mill. Frederick Shelton, son of Beach Shelton, married Caroline Curtiss of Shelton, where they reside, no family.
Albert, second son of Ephraim, mar- ried Mary Hudson of Oxford, settled there, and raised a family of four. He died in 1908. Mary, his daughter, is the widow of C. B. Johnson of Oxford, where she resides, no family. Adeline is a nurse in West Haven, unmarried. Herbert, a business man of Fair Haven, married. Frederica Bishop has a son Sterling and a daughter Beatrice (Smith). Mabel married Chester Newton and has a son Warren and a daughter Mildred (Newton).
school teacher in Seymour. They had one son, Otis C., who married Emma Elizabeth Haines of Ansonia, in 1904. They have a little daughter, Emma Cornelia Frances, born in 1905. The Morrell Francis family reside in the WatersSmith homestead, RockhouseHill.
Henry Ephraim, youngest son of Ephraim Smith, married Virginia, dau- ghter of Marcus and Sarah Green Davis, and had a family of nine. Bertha Jan- Ethel Gladys, daughter of Edgar and Marietta Smith, unmarried, lives on New street, Ansonia. Laura Alanta, daughter of Edgar and Marietta Smith, married Walter Edward Haines in 1904, settled at Great Hill, Seymour, have two daughters, Viola Gladys, born at Tarry- ette died in infancy. Cora Virginia died in September, 1901, unmarried, aged 26 years. Alice F., trained nurse, lives in her own home in New Haven, with youngest sister and brothers. Sarah, married Frederic Wells and settled in Orange, have a family of | town, N. Y., in 1905, Marjorie Florence,
Frederic Ephraim, eldest son of Henry Ephraim, married Blanche Wells, lives in Shelton, have a son, Newell Allen, and a daughter Marjorie. Nancy Janette, youngest daughter of Henry C., is a school teacher in West Haven. Benja- min Harris, Yale student. Clifford is a student. Elmer, in school. resides with sisters Alice and Nancy in West Haven.
Lucy Esther, third and youngest daughter of Ephraim and Esther Hol- brook Smith, married Frank H. Downs in 1876. Settled in Oxford, Great Hill district, Holbrook road.
John 2d, youngest son of John 1st, and Anna Smith, married Sarah Lucinda Treat, daughter of Isaac and Elinor Stiles Treat of Moose Hill, sister to William and Robert Treat, all of Oxford, in 1853. She died Mar. 9, 1874. Children :
Edgar Henry, born in 1854, died in 1894.
Oscar Burritt, born in 1857, died Feb. 20, 1858.
Laura 2d, youngest daughter of John 1st and Anna Smith, born 1818, died unmarried in 1896. Was a tailoress.
Laura Cornelia, 2d, daughter of Ephraim Smith, widow of Benjamin Chatfield of Oxford, married Morrell Edgar Henry, son of John 2d, mar- Francis in 1875, until when she was a ried Marietta, daughter of Theodore
Lester and Mary Jane Smith, of Great Hill, had a family of six. E. H. Smith, born and died in the same house, like his father and grandfather. Bernice Jane Smith, eldest of the children of Edgar and Marietta Smith, married William Henry Haines of Ansonia in 1902, has a family of three boys, Milton William, born 1903, Edgar Smith, born 1905, John Russell. born 1907.
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born in 1907, and a son, Walter Carl, born in 1909. Dixon Treat Smith, eldest son of Edgar and Marietta Smith, born 1886, lives with his mother in Ansonia.
I. Reginald Smith, son of Edgar H., born 1888, is a student at the Moody
school, Mount Hermon. Lester Edgar, third and youngest son of Edgar and Marietta Smith, born 1890, is a student in the department of steam and machine design of the Pratt Institute, school of Technology, Brooklyn, N. Y., class of '10,
.. .
The Josiah Smith House, South of Zour Bridge.
The building of the house shown above was beguu by Josiah Smith about 85 years ago. He lived in the house next below, now gone. After nearly completing the house he gave his home- stead to his son, Josiah, and the new house to his son Philo. upon the occasion of his marriage to Betty Lum. Philo Completed the house and occupied it nearly fifty years. while he followed his trade as carpenter, wheelwright and bridge builder working on Bennett's bridge, Zoar bridge, the big dam at Derby, and elsewhere.
While living in the house two children were born, Betsey M., who died at the age of + ight years, and Henry J., now living in Ansonia.
Later occupants of the house were Wm. E. Curtiss, now in the blacksmith business in Ansonia, and George Bassett, who moved to Ausonia and died there several years ago.
Rev. Wm. H. Stebbins occupied the house as a parsonage while in charge of the churches at Riverside and East Village in 1863 and 1864.
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THE DR. DUTTON PLACE.
The old Doctor Dutton house, built by Doctor Hosea Dutton in the year 1800, on a little rise of ground overlooking Oxford Center, forty rods west from St. Peter's church. It was afterward occupied by his son, Doctor Thomas A. Dutton, and later was owned and occupied by Rev. Charles Smith, rector of St. Peter's church. Since 1840 it has been known as the Doctor Lounsbury place. Dr. Lounsbury died in 1895. The house has since been owned and occupied by his only daughter, Miss Emma Lounsbury.
THE LITTLE RIVER FALLS.
"THE LITTLE RIVER." BY REV. L. F. MORRIS.
Among the hills and the woodlands wild. Arises our little river. 'T'is unknown to fame.
And it has no name: It is simply "The Little River."
And yet mighty streams that surge and roll. Their way through the world a winning. And make a great show.
And noise as they go. Have just as small a beginning.
Tis so with men who make much display. And pride themselves on their station, With small men on earth
They had the same birth. The same little, common creation.
This rivulet flows in sun and shade.
O'er meads and through tangled wildwood; "Tis like a man's life. With vicissitudes rife. Since the days of his early childhood.
Here straight. there crooked. here swift, there Here troubled, there calm in places. [slow. It runs its way down
Through our sleepy town. And never its way back retraces.
And pools as quiet retreats it has, Where waters seem restful sleeping. So life here and there Has rest from all care For him who the right course is keeping.
And here its waters are shrunk and scant. And there it has broad expanses ; So the life we live
Doth want and wealth give
With unending changes and chances.
'Gainst great impediments barring its way. Its waters ever working. Are wholesome and clear.
No diseases appear In them, as in idle pools lurking.
And so to him who is e'er at work Ande'er 'gainst obstacles going.
Some great, priceless health, Some joy and some wealth, Are ever their comforts bestowing.
The troubled rifts the winds would make On its surface, this stream pursuing. The water's strong flow
Keep down as they go. So it heeds not the storms a brewing.
So the storms of life are unheeded by him Who works with zeal untiring; He keeps down its woes,
As active he goes And to better things is aspiring.
It may be this stream mid great rivers' fame Has never a place or portion.
But its waters run free With theirs to the sea And together they're lost in the ocean.
One life may be great. and one may be small. Unknown like this little river, Yet both end at last. When their time is past. In the infinite sea of their giver.
OXFORD, June 30th, 1890.
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OXFORD.
A REVERY.
(The house referred to was on the east side of the road a few rods south of the Seth Den Bridge. It was destroyed by fire many years ago.)
In fancy oft I wander to my dear New England home. The home I knew in childhood, long ago. It was sheltered in the valley and it clambered up the hill. 'Tis the dearest spot that ever I shall know.
I see the old house standing with one foot upon the hill. While the other stood upon the level ground.
The house my grandsire's sire built, and staunch and firm it stood, Its oaken beams and timbers strong and sound.
I hear the children laughing as we play about the home, I bear my mother ealling from the door,
I see my father driving up the oxen through the lane, The ox cart filled with app'es, brimming o'er.
I see the eows a-coming through the let down pasture bars, I hear the tin-tin-tinkle of their bells.
And once again I'm driving them up home at milking time, I hear the milk a-pounding in the pails.
I walk beneath the maple trees that cast such grateful shade. Their branches intertwined across the street,
I hear the sap a-dripping from the hollowed elder spout, I taste the maple sugar pure and sweet.
And oh I smell the fragrance of the lilacs in the yard, Their purple clusters bending with the dew.
The flow'ring almond blossoms clustered by the orchard fence, Their fragrance borne on every breeze that blew.
I hear the river rushing and a-roaring in the spring. When the icy chains of winter break away. I hear it softly murmuring its ripples o'er the stones. In summer, where we children loved to play.
And there's the tangled grapevine where the luscious bunches grew The ripest just above our childish reach.
The blackberries. the huckleberries, and the sweetest strawberries too. The orchard with the apple, quince and peach.
I wander through the pasture, through the lane up to the oak, Whose branches cast a shade far and wide.
And there's my father's trout pond and the bridge that crossed the stream. Where the speckled finny fellows used to hide.
I clamber o'er the bars into my father's chestnut grove Where the purest, coolest spring I ever knew. Came bubbling from the mossy rocks just underneath the oak. I smell the fragrant mint that round it grew.
I hear my mother singing to soothe our childish woes "Are there tidings," "Highland Laddie." and the rest. What hallowed memories cluster all about that dear old home. The spot, of all on earth, I love the best.
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Oh many, many years have passed, but ne'er forgot will be The place where. as a child. I loved to roam. No spot on earth can ever be one half so dear to me As my childhood's dear old happy Oxford home.
HELEN BASSETT JOHNSTONE.
San Francisco, California.
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OXFORD.
TAXPAYERS OF OXFORD IN 1802.
An old and faded manuscript, attested by H. Dutton, "Town Clerk, &c.," as a true copy of the taxable lists of the town of Ox- ford for 1802, containing 83 names, furnishes the list given below. The rate was two mills on the dollar. The highest on the list was David Tomlinson, Esq., who paid a tax of $6.49. The next in amount of taxes were Capt. Hawkins, John Towner, David Mc- Cune, E. Fairchild, Aurelius and Joseph Hyde, Elijah Durand, Wait Garrett and Truman Bassett. Joel Perry was the collector.
Ephraim Andrews. John Bellamy.
Wait Garrett.
Joel Perry.
Salmon Griffin.
Peter Perry.
Joel Buckingham.
Peleg Griffin.
Roger Perkins.
Isaac Bunnel.
Capt. Z. Hawkins,
David Perkins.
Wm. Bunnel,
Isaac Hawkins.
James Pangman.
Luke Bunnel.
Capt. Asahel Hyde.
Capt. Nath'l Pangman.
Truman Bunnel.
Joseph Hyde.
David Smith, 3d. Good Hill.
Cother Beardsley.
Daniel Hyde.
David Smith, 4th, Punkups.
Jared Beardsley.
Aurelius Hyde.
John Smith.
Lemuel Beardsley.
Joseph Hubbel.
Wm. Smith.
Clark Beardsley.
Hiram Johnson.
Isaac Smith.
Truman Bassett.
Jeremiah Johnson.
David Tomlinson, Esq.
Moses Cande.
Abner Johnson.
Zalmon Tomlinson.
Cyrus Cande.
Eleazer Lewis.
Caleb Tomlinson.
Daniel Cande. Levi Cande.
Wm. Lewis.
Josiah Tucker.
Isaac Chatfield.
Twichel & Merwin.
Benajah Chatfield.
Ethel Lounsbury. David McCune.
John Towner. Rachel Towner.
Susanna Cornish.
David Mallory.
Elijah Durand.
Isaiah Mallory.
Simeon Towner.
Nehemiah Durand.
Naboth Osborn.
Philo Thomas
Joseph Durand.
Samnel Osborn.
Francis Tomkins.
Geo. Cables, heirs of Isaac Cable.
Sarah Osborn. Elizabeth Osborn.
Elijah Treat. James Wheeler.
Stephen Curtiss.
Gideon Perry.
James Wheeler, 2d.
Ebenezer Fairchild.
James Wheeler, 3d.
Lois Fairchild.
James Perry. James Perry, Jr.
Josiah Perry.
Moses Wheeler.
Polly Fairchild.
Eleazer Lewis, Jr.
Nathan Tomlinson.
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OXFORD.
OXFORD IN 1819.
The following sketch of Oxford as it was in 1819 is from the Gazetteer of Connecticut published in that year:
"Oxford is a post township, situated in the northwestern section of the couty, 14 miles northwesterly from New Haven, and 40 southwesterly from Hartford; bounded on the north by Middlebury and Waterbury, on the east by Woodbridge and Derby, on the south by Derby, and on the southwest by the Ousatonic river, which separates it from Newtown, in Fairfield county, and on the west by Southbury. Its mean length from northeast to southwest is about 8 miles, and its mean breadth nearly 5 miles, comprising about 38 square miles.
The surface is uneven, being diversified with hill and dale. The prevailing soil is a gravelly loam; but in the western section of the town it is a calcareous loam, and is generally fertile and productive. There is a large proportion of forests, the timber of which is princi- pally oak, walnut and chestnut. Considerable quantities of wood and timber are annually got to market, principally to New Haven; but some of which is sent to New York. The leading agricultural productions consist of wheat, rye, and some other grains, grass. butter and cheese; small meats, fowls, esculent roots and culinery vegetables are sent to New Haven market.
"The town is well watered; the Ousatonic washes its south- western border, and the Naugatuck runs through its northeastern section, in addition to which there are numerous small streams. Upon the Ousatonic there are several shad fisheries. The Wood- bury turnpike, leading to New Haven, passes through this town; and also the Southbury turnpike leading to the same place, from up the Ousatonic river.
"Of the mechanical employments and establishments in the town, the most important are, 1 Woolen Factory, 3 or 4 Limekilns, I large Hat Factory, 2 Fulling Mills and Clothiers' works, 3 Carding
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EARLY INDUSTRIES.
Machines for customers, 3 Grain Mills and 6 Tanneries. There are 3 Mercaniile Stores and 1 Public Inn.
"The population of the town, in 1810, was 1,445; and there are about 200 Electors or Freemen, about 220 Dwelling Houses, and I Company of Militia.
"The amount of taxable property, including polls, as rated in the making up of lists in 1816, was $35,020.
"The town contains i located Ecclesiastical Congregational So- ciety and 13 School Districts; besides the located, there are 2 Epis- copal Societies, and a Society of Methodists. There is a primary or common School maintained in each of the School Districts, for a suitable portion of the year. There is I Social Library, I Clergy- man, I Physician and I Attorney in the town.
THE EARLY MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
The spinning wheel and the hand looms on which were woven both woolen and linen fabrics for clothing and household use, were supplemented by carding mills where waterpower was utilized in carding the wool, which was then returned to the homes to be spun and woven or knit into stockings, mittens, etc. The flax was hatch- elled on sharp, slim spikes set in a piece of oak plank, over which the flax was drawn to free it from the integument with which nature had covered it.
Until 1788 all spinning and weaving of woolen and cotton in this country was by hand. Some progress has been made in Eng- land in spinning by other than hand power, but that country exer- cised jealous watchfulness over the industries and statutes were enacted there prohibiting the exportation of "any machine, engine, tool, press, utensil or implement whatever," or models or plans of any appliance for the manufacture of cotton, Wool or silk, under a penalty of forfeiture of such device, a fine of £200, and imprison- ment for twelve months. But notwithstanding the vigilance of the Inother country, Yankee ingenuity triumphed in this as well as in other directions, and models of machinery for the purposes referred to were smuggled into this country. The legislature of Massachu- setts offered special inducements to inventors of machinery for the manufacture of textiles. Somewhere about 1788 what was called a cottonmill was put up at Beverly, Mass., which is said to have been the first factory in America, and yet the spinning mechanism
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consisted only of four jennies operated by horsepower, and the jen- nies were little more than the union of a number of spindles in the the same machine after the manner of the one thread wheel by hand. A beginning had, however, been made, and within a year a spinning frame was constructed in Providence, R. I., and Moses Brown and his brothers "did a small business at manufacturing on lathes and jennies driven by men."
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