USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Oxford > History of Oxford, Volume 1-2 > Part 13
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
Soon similar enterprises were begun in this state, each with some slight mechanical improvement, and it was not long before looms were run by water power for the manufacture of woolen cloths. The importation of Merino sheep from Spain by General Humphreys in 1802, gave a great impetus to the "infant industry" of woolen manufacture. He made his headquarters at "the falls of the Naugatuck" and named the village Humphreysville, building a large woolen factory, in which the business was learned by young men, some of whom afterward established mills of their own, nota- bly Samuel Wire, who located on the Little River, in the south part of the town of Oxford. On November 7, 1814, he purchased from John W. Wooster half of a factory, house, barn, dam and waterworks, the factory being mentioned in the town records as a "clothier's shop and fulling mill," from which it appears that some- thing in this line had already been established there. In 1819 his list of taxable property was-"I clothier's shop valued at $300, I dwelling house and barn and 11/2 acres of land, $400," etc.
Capt. Wire carried on the business there for about thirty years. The wool from sheep on the surrounding farms was brought to the mill to be carded and spun. Many paid for these two processes and then took the yarn home to knit into stockings and mittens, etc., or to be woven on hand looms. Much cloth was, however, manufactured at the mill, principally satinet, which was generally shipped to commission merchants in New York, but was also re- tailed to the people in the vicinity of the mill.
In 1846 the property passed into the hands of Hiram Osborn and Clark Wooster, and Capt. Wire removed to Bridgeport, and later to New Haven, where he was appointed city Sheriff, which office he held until nearly the time of his death, which occurred May 3, 1874, at the age of 86.
The mill afterward passed into the hands of James Ormsby, who manufactured woolen yarn for some years, after which the mill went to decay.
153
EARLY INDUSTRIES.
Another clothier's shop, later a woolen mill, was established in the north part of the village of Quaker Farms, where a damn was built across the Eight Mile Brook, to furnish the needed water power. Isaac Rowe, Sr., had come from Brattleboro, Vt., with Gen. Humphreys to work in the woolen mill at Humphreysville, and Feb. 6, 1824, his twin sons, Isaac, Jr., and Frederick, pur- chased the mill at Quaker Farms from the estate of Squire David Tomlinson. The property was described in the deed as "a woolen factory situated in Quaker's Farm, on ye eight mile brook, so called, about an hundred rods northerly from ye Chapel with all ye ma- chinery and implements belonging thereto, with all ye water privi- leges heretofore claimed as belonging to sd factory, also a dye shop with ye kettles and implements thereunto belonging, also a small dwelling house standing near said factory, with ye land on which sd buildings stand."
A few years later Isaac sold out to Frederick and went to Mich- igan and selected a location where he proposed to build a mill, and then started on the return trip, but the vessel on which he was crossing lake St. Clair was wrecked and he was drowned.
In 1831 Frederick Rowe sold the " woolen manufactory and dwelling house, with the water privilege and land," to Ira Sherman and Horace Candee, the specifications in the deed showing what progress had been made in the machinery used in the manufacture of woolens, as "a patent shearing machine, spinning jinny, gigg mill for napping cloth, 1 broad loom, set press papers, roll of filleting cards, clothiers' brushes, 4 shutters, 1000 seazles or more." Phil- lippa Rowe is mentioned as one of those having a right in the mill.
In 1833 Sherman and Candee sold the property to Benjamin Hawley of Cherryfield, Washington County, State of Maine, and Mary Burritt of Southbury.
DeForest & Hine were for some years the proprietors of the mill, manufacturing satinet and employing about a dozen hands. DeForest (William) was from Naugatuck, and when he left the Farms went to New Haven. The factory was closed about 1850. The mill has long since disappeared, and of the dam, which held until some time after 1860, only the ruins of the abutments remain. The writer remembers skating on the pond with the schoolboys in the winter of 1858-59, when he taught the Quaker Farms school. The conical nests of the muskrats, rising two or three feet above the surface of the pond, made convenient seats for the skaters while
154
OXFORD.
adjusting their skates, when it was true that
"The fires stream bright Along the frozen river, And the arrowy sparkles of brilliant light On the forest branches quiver."
At this Quaker Farms mill broadcloth was manufactured as early as 1824, and for many years thereafter.
Yet another woolen mill, also on the Eight Mile Brook, but only a short distance from where it empties into the Housatonic, was built early in the nineteenth century. In the records is an indica- tion that some kind of a foundry had existed there at an earlier date. This was in the neighborhood then called Punkups.
James Dawson, in company with a man by the name of Lees, father of Robert Lees, began business there about 1825, and man- ufactured broadcloth and cassimeres. Dawson was born in York- shire, England, in 1800, and was therefore about 25 when he began business at Punkups. Some years later he sold out to Ira Bradley and William Guthrie of Southbury, who sold the property to James and Samuel Radcliffe of Bristol, Hartford county, July 1, 1853. The property was described as follows :
"The following parcels or tracts of land situated near the Ousa- tonic river in the region called Punkups in the town of Oxford. One tract, the Homestead of James Dawson, and contains seven- teen acres, more or less, with the buildings, viz .: two dwelling houses and outbuildings, a woolen mill, machinery and fixtures ap- pendant thereto, and is bounded Northerly by land of Sheldon Wooster, Easterly by highway, Southerly by land of Simeon Hin- man and John B. Hinman, and Westerly by land called Frederick H. Chatfield's, now Simeon Hinman's, or John B. Hinman's. Another tract lying across the highway, Easterly from and opposite to that above described, contains one acre more or less, a barn standing thereon, and is bounded Northerly by land of Polly Tom- linson, Easterly and Westerly by Highway, and Southerly by Robert Lees. A third tract lying Northerly from the last and con- tains twentytwo acres, more or less, and is bounded Northerly by land of Polly Tomlinson, Easterly by Simeon Hinman, Southerly by land of Polly Tomlinson, and Westerly, by land of Polly Tom- linson and Eight mile brook, extending so as to embrace all the interest the said James Dawson had at the time of his assignment in the land and privilege called old Forge place."
A mortgage deed given by Dawson in 1851 gives some details of the machinery in the mill which is of interest as showing of what
155
EARLY INDUSTRIES.
the plant of a woolen mill consisted in those days. The machinery specifications were as follows : "four carding machines, three broad power looms, a spinning jack, two shearing machines, a gig, a brushing machine, two frames for twisting and spooling stocking yarn, and sundry articles not herein enumerated."
Another manufacturing industry which flourished in Quaker Farms for some twenty years was the manufacture of metal screws which was carried on by H. E. Bidwell in a mill on Eight Mile Brook about a mile south of the Quaker Farms woolen mill. He came from Amherst, Mass., and bought the mill and fitted it up for making small screws which he sold to hardware dealers throughout this state and to some in Massachusetts and New York state, also "auger screws" to manufacturers of augers in Seymour and West- ville, and shear screws to manufacturers of shears in South Britain and Naugatuck. He also ran a sawmill in connection with the screw mill.
At Red City, fiftyfive years ago, David Scott manufactured daguereotype and ambrotype cases, giving employment to quite a number of young people. A little later William Tucker had a shop there in which he made wagon wheels, horserakes, etc.
There were sawmills on Little River, Eight Mile Brook, the south branch of the Kettletown Brook, and the brook on the east side of Chestnut Tree Hill which empties into the Naugatuck river at Pinesbridge.
Little River, though ordinarily a small stream, has in its brief length of a few miles furnished power for a surprising number and variety of industries. The one nearest its source was a shop for the manufacture of hay rakes, built and run some seventy years ago by Isaac Towner who lived on the main road where Charles Beck now lives. From there the stream flows through a compara- tively level valley with but little fall to be available for water power until Red City is passed. Just below where a road branches from the old turnpike and turns westward over the hill to Quaker Farms, there has been a sawmill from time immemorial. The next millsite is just below the Center, where remain the abutments of a damn and the walls on which once stood a sawmill which was long owned and run by Joel Perry.
Next below a Mr. French had a gristmill, owned later by Eli Carley, then by S. P. Sanford, and now by Llewellyn Andrew. A cidermill and distillery was also run in connection with it, in the
156
OXFORD.
fall season, but the distillery part of the business has long ago been abandoned. A little below Norman A. Bidwell hall a carding mill, which was occupied later as a tannery, first by Cyrus Fenn, and then by Anthony B. Hinman, the water power being utilized in grinding the tan bark.
The next dam and pond below furnished power for a sawmill built in 1852 by Sheldon Church, who owned nearly a square mile of land on which was sufficient timber to keep the mill supplied during the season of available waterpower without using more than the annual growth of the trees would amount to.
The next below was a turning shop, both the shop and dam having been built about 1870, for the manufacture of croquet sets. The next was the Samuel Wire (or Weir) mill, and next and last on the Little River, within the limits of the town of Oxford, is the Wooster sawmill and gristmill, owned by William and Sheldon Church, and yet later by Mark Lounsbury, by whom it was leased to Edward L. Hoadley. The gristmill was discontinued years ago, but the sawmill is still managed by Mr. Hoadley, who does a large business in timber. This made at one time eight dams with shops or mills on this stream within the Oxford town lines, there being three on the stream below the town line before it empties into the Naugatuck river.
There was also a cider distillery on the southerly slope of Rock House Hill, near what is now known as Orchard street.
The manufacture of hats was a leading industry of the town for nearly fifty years. This was carried on in shops at the center, a few rods north of the hotel, and many men were profitably em- ployed, the hats being sold to dealers in neighboring cities and to wholesalers in New York City.
About 1830, and for some time thereafter, Seth Crosby was the proprietor, said to have employed at one time about seventyfive men. Four partners succeeded him, Garry Riggs, George Fuller, Charles Ranson and Agur Cable. Henry Dunham followed, keeping a general store in addition to managing the hat business, and usually found a ready sale in New York City for all the hats the men could make, or rather what they would make, for the hatters were a very jolly, independent sort of men, and although they mostly worked "by the piece," and the more hats they made the bigger their pay, they had a sort of "chapel" arrangement and what the "chapel" ordered was, to a great extent, the law of the
157
EARLY INDUSTRIES.
shop. At one time the leader of the "chapel" told Mr. Dunham they would turn out a much greater number of hats if he would get orders for them. Mr. Dunham went to New York and obtained large orders for a certain line of hats, and on his return told the foreman of his success and that the men could make all the hats they pleased. The foreman called the men together and told them the good news, but to his surprise two or three men objected and after some debate they carried the day and the hatters decided they would make no more hats than before. The result was that Mr. Dunham had to cancel a part of his orders.
Clothing was at one time made here for the southern trade, David M. Clark having a tailor shop in the long one-story ell in the rear of his house, the first above where the present schoolhouse stands, and had quite a number of men in his employ.
The making of casks and kegs for the West India trade was a flourishing industry here for many years. The first in that line of business here of whom mention is found was John Limburner, who came here from New Haven about 1797, and carried on the business here until 1829, when he removed to Derby. Several cooperages were located along the turnpike between Oxford center and South- ford, one having been where S. E. Hubbell now lives and one at the Frazier place on the hill north of Red City. Others who were engaged in this business were Willis Smith, William Morris and Harvey Morris, who died in 1859, aged 73.
There were about the middle of last century many shoe shops in the town, where shoes were made for city and southern trade. There was one near the south end of Riggs street, several on the turnpike between the center and Southford, and one at least at Quaker Farms, the latter belonging to Horace Hinman, who was in the business there until late in the '60's.
The Oxford turnpike was chartered in 1795, and was for half a century one of the principal thoroughfares of the state, being on a through line from New Haven to Southbury, Woodbury and towns beyond, and the route of a stage line and regular freight teams as well as for farmers who carried their own produce to the city inarket or to towns in the Naugatuck valley. The toll house was established on the east bank of the Little River, about a quarter of a mile below Oxford center.
158
OXFORD.
BALANCED ROCK, FIVE MILE HILL. A RELIC OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD.
159
EARLY INDUSTRIES.
OXFORD CENTER IN 1838.
The above illustration is from J. W. Barber's "Historical Col- lections," published in 1838, in which he says:
"Oxford was incorporated as a town in October, 1798, pre- viously to which time it belonged to the town of Derby. The Rev. Jonathan Lyman appears to have been the first clergyman in the place. He was ordained in October, 1745. It is fourteen miles northwest from New Haven, and forty southwest from Hartford; bounded north by Middlebury and Waterbury, on the southwest by the Housatonic, separating it from Newtown, on the west by Southbury, on the east by Bethany, and on the south by Derby. Its length from northeast to southwest is about eight miles, and its breadth nearly five. The surface of the township is uneven, being diversified with hills and valleys. The prevailing soil is generally loam; the eastern and western parts of the town are generally fertile and productive. The central part, through which the main road passes, is considered to be the poorest land in the town. There are in the town three satinet factories, and an ex- tensive hat manufactory, owned by Messrs. Hunt & Crosby. A number of extensive manufacturing establishments are about being erected on the Naugatuck.
160
OXFORD.
"The above engraving is a southeastern view of the central part of Oxford. The building with a Gothic tower is the Episcopal Church; part of the Congregational Church is seen on the extreme right. The elevation seen in the background is called 'Governor's Hill,' so named, it is said, from its being principally owned, many years since, by a Mr. Bunnel, who was considered by his neighbors as a lordly kind of a personage, and had considerable to do with the law, being engaged in many law-suits for the support of his real or imaginary rights. From the important and consequential airs he assumed among his neighbors, he probably received the designa- tion of 'Governor.'
"Quaker Farms is a pleasant part of Oxford. It contains an Episcopal Church, which is about two miles from the center of the town. About one mile and a half south from the center is the 'Park,' formerly a place for deer. About eighty or ninety years since, a Mr. Wooster owned and enclosed about one hundred acres of land for the purpose of keeping deer. It is said that he had the exclusive privilege by law of restraining any person from hunting deer in the limits of 'the Park.' Upon the outside of part of the enclosure there was a kind of a precipice, from which the deer, when pursued, would sometimes leap into the enclosure, much to the mortification and disappointment of unprivileged hunters.
"About one mile south of the central part of the town is a remarkable mineral spring; called "the Pool" from the circumstance of the waters being efficacious, and much used for the cure of the salt rheum and other complaints. Once in a month a yellowish scum will collect upon the surface of the water, which in a few days will run off, and leave the pool perfectly clear. In the coldest weather this spring never freezes; in the driest season it is as full as at other times."
HISTORY
OF
OXFORD.
0 C+ 1
PART FIRST.
CHURCH RECORDS, BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS. ETC.
11 BY W. C. SHARPE.
AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF SEYMOUR, Etc.
ceoiding to act of Congress, in the year ts85. by W. C. Shape. in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
RECORD PRINT, SEYMOUR. CONN.
1885.
161
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF OXFORD. Read at the Centennial Celebration, July 4th, 1876. BY N. J. WILCOXSON.
Oxford was for the most part embraced in the survey and lay out of the ancient town of Milford. A section in the northerly part was originally of the ancient town of Woodbury, and the north- easterly section, to no great extent, however, was taken from the town of Waterbury-Waterbury Old Society, as then styled. The territory consisted of two purchases-the Western, called Quaker Farms purchase, the Eastern, the North purchase. The two pur- chases were separated by the stream bisecting the town named Little River. Oxford, as a separate community, as is shown per record, began with the incorporation of the Ecclesiastical Society of Oxford, the Society now known as the Congregational Society. This was done by Act of General Assembly of the Colony of Con- necticut, holden at Hartford, May, 1740, and must have been done very soon after the territory comprising the town was generally settled. The petitioners for a parish incorporation were Timothy Noster. John Twitchell, John Towner, and others, dwelling in the north and northwest part of the township of Derby; John, Jonas and Joseph Wood, Thos. and Joseph Osborn, dwelling in the South- west part of Waterbury Woods, in the old Society of Waterbury; Isaac Kowles, Joseph Towner, Eliphalet Bristol, John Tifts and Aaron Bristol, dwelling in the southeast part of the township of Woodbury, in Woodbury Woods, so called, in the parish of South- bury. The names of these petitioners are nearly extinct. Two, of the name of Towner, Joseph and Albert B., descendants of John Towner; Orlando C. Osborn, great-great-grandson to Capt. Joseph Osborn, and Thomas S. Osborn, great-great-grandson to Deacon Thomas Osborn. Thomas and Joseph Osborn were brothers.
162
OXFOR1).
Besides these no other names of the petitioners can be found within the present limit of the town. Geo. A. Twitchell, and Lucius S. Osborn, great-grandson to Deacon Thomas Osborn, reside at Bea- con Falls. I do not know of any other descendant anywhere in this vicinity. We may look upon this circumstance and be hereby admonished of the work of time-in the removal and supply of population.
The members of the parish, (or Society of Oxford, as they termed themselves,) for the first time met and organized on the 30th of June, 1741. On the 6th day of October, 1741, in meeting lawfully warned, it was voted, "by a two-thirds part of the inhabi- tants by law qualified to vote and present in meeting, to build a meeting house, and to meet the assembly in their next session at New Haven, to pray for a commission to appoint, order and fix the place whereon their meeting house shall be erected and built."
Mr. Ebenezer Riggs (as I understand, great-grandfather to our fellow-townsman of that name,) was appointed agent to the Gen- eral Assembly, to manage the obtaining of such committee. Who that committee was or were, when, where and why they decided on setting their stake for a site for the house to be built, does not appear on Society or Parish records.
Society or parish meetings were held at private houses, passing round from one to another of the members until the 31st day of March, 1743. The meeting next after that was held at the meeting house on the 21st of June, 1743. Next of importance to the build- ing of the meeting house was a step taken towards the settlement of a gospel minister. Mr. Joseph Adams was called to such settle- ment with a proffer of a settlement of $500, and a yearly salary of $150 old tenor. The call was not accepted. At another parish meeting held on the first Monday of June, 1745, it was voted to give the worthy Mr. Jonathan Lyman a call to preach on probation. A committee consisting of Capt. Timothy Russell, Capt. John Lum and Ensign John Chatfield, were appointed to hire Mr. Jonathan Lyman upon probation, for the space of four Sabbaths. At the end of the set four weeks, at a meeting held on the first Monday of July, 1745, it was voted to give the worthy Mr. Jonathan Lyman a call to settle over the parish in the work of the gospel ministry.
A settlement of $500, in the old tenor, was voted to be paid in four years, (£125 yearly,) and a salary of £125 yearly till the settlement was paid. The salary then to advance to $150 yearly.
163
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Subsequently it was voted to add fio yearly to the salary for five years.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
Mr. Lyman was ordained to the work of the ministry over the parish on the fourth Wednesday of October, 1745, and continued as such minister 18 years, when, as he was riding in the westerly part of the town, on a visit to a sick person, he fell from his horse, and, as supposed, instantly died. No special mention is made of his ministry. That he was continued so long is testimony in favor of his success. Our fellow-townsman, Hon. Benj. Nichols, is great- grandson to him.
164
OXFORD.
Next to Mr. Lyman as minister of the parish, the Rev. David Bronson, of Milford, was called to the work of the ministry. The call is dated Monday, March 3d, 1764. Proffered is a settlement of £200, and a salary of £60, to be increased to $70 after four years. Deacon Ebenezer Riggs, Mr. John Twitchell, Mr. Thomas Clark, Capt. Russell, Capt. Hawkins, Lieut. Wheeler, Joseph Osborn, were the committee for treating with the worthy Mr. David Bron- son regarding his settlement. The 25th day of April, 1764, was appointed for the ordination. Mr. Bronson lived and served the parish as gospel minister till the year 1806, a period of forty years, when he died full of years. The next settled minister of the parish was the Rev. Nathaniel Freeman. His continuance was from June, 1809, to September, 1814. The Society was without a settled minister from September, 1814, to the settlement of Rev. Abraham Brown, June 2d, 1830. During these 16 years of vacancy, the people were variously supplied with preaching, principally by the Rev. Ephraim G. Swift, a man of much personal worth and highly respected. Mr. Brown was dismissed October 16, 1838. A call for a settlement over the parish as pastor was extended to Rev. Stephen Topliff, on the 21st day of April, 1841, on a salary of $500 annually so long as he continued with the church and society as minister. Mr. Topliff accepted the call and was installed the following Sep- tember, and remained for twenty years. He was a man esteemed for his integrity, for his faithfulness in the discharge of his pro- fessional duty, his kindness as neighbor, and the wisdom of his actions as a citizen.
·
It is doubtless within the memory of most of you composing this gathering, that after Mr. Topliff the pulpit was supplied by Rev. Mr. Barton one year. Mr. Strong was installed and continued two and a half years. Rev. Mr. Chamberlain was hired from year to year two and a half years, and since that the church and society have been supplied seven years by Rev. John Churchill of Wood- bury. It may be remarked of Mr. Churchill, that faithful to his calling as a preacher he deservedly ranks with the ablest, as a friend the kindest, as a neighbor unselfishly loving, and as a citizen discreet, just and true.
Not long before the close of the year 1792, the people began to talk of building a new meeting house, and on the third day of January, 1793, in meeting legally warned, voted so to build on the meeting house acre, near the old one, a house 56 feet by 40.
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.