USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Seymour > History of Seymour, Connecticut, with biographies and genealogies > Part 4
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At a meeting of the Parish, Jan. 29, 1816, measures were taken to complete the church, which up to this time had remained in an unfinished state. Abraham English, Josiah Nettleton, Theophilos Miles, Nathan - iel Johnson and Josiah Swift were appointed a committee to obtain subscriptions to- wards this object; and in March of the same year they were authorized to expend the money thus raised. The amount sub- scribed was $1250, contributed by sixty- three persons. The Church when finished was consecrated Sept. 2nd, 1817, by the Right Reverend John Henry Hobart, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of New York. After the consecration of the Church the Rev. Mr. Thompson again became the Rector and continued in that connection until 1819, when the Rev. Aaron Humphreys was elected.
In 1818 we find for the first time some- thing of the condition of the Parish, so far as its strength was concerned, viz: number of communicants, 45; number of families, 63; number of persons, 279; grand levy, $7,420.95. In 1819 the Parish was drawn into a law suit by its first Rector, the Rev. Dr. Mansfield. The Parish became remiss in paying its portion for his support, and to quicken its energies this suit was brought. The Dr. gained his canse and the Parish was compelled to pay up all arrearages. The death of the Dr., April 11th, 1820, aged 96 years, relieved the Par- ish from this onerous charge. In 1821 a new roof was placed on the church at a cost of $60. In 1822 the slips were first rented at public sale, the proceeds of the sale amounting to $146.40. Up to this time the salary had been raised by a tax on the grand list. In the evening of the Ist of June of this year, 1822, the steeple
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SEYMOUR AND VICINITY.
of the church was struck by lightning; to repair the injury $182.88 was raised and $182.84 expended. In 1822 tho Rev. Stephen Jewett became Rector of the Parish, and the following year made this report : num- ber of communicants, 50; baptisms, 2; mar- riages, 4; funerals, 5; families, 55. Mr. Jewett continued in the Rectorship eloven years ; and during his ministry there were baptised 127 infants and eighty adults; 51 marriages were solemnized and 88 persons were buried. In 1827 the Sunday School School was started, and "the Society's committee were appointed to superintend and regulate its affairs and procure such books as were required."
In the next year the bell was procured at a cost of $256.19. It was first used Aug. 12th, 1828, to toll the death of a son of Mr. John S. Moshier. In the summer of the same year a sum was raised by subscrip- tions for the purpose of painting the church and fencing the burying ground, amounting to $251, all of which was done at an expense of $247. In the same year Mr. Isaac Kinney presented the Parish with a stove. Before this time the church had not been warmed. The first organ was placed in the church about the year 1831. It was built by Mr. Whiting of New Haven, and in 1850 was enlarged and improved by Mr. Jardine of New York, at an expense of $505.
After the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Jewett in 1832, the Rev. Charles W. Brad- lew became Rector of the Parish and re- mained in that connection one year, when he was succeeded by the Rev. John D. Smith at Easter, 1834. Mr. Smith contin- ned in the Rectorship eleven years. In the first five years he officiated in this church every Sunday ; the next two years he divid- ed his services equally between this church and St. Peter's, Oxford. In 1841 this ar- rangement was discontinued, and Mr. Smith again confined his labors to this Par- ish. In 1841 the church underwent a com- plete repair at an expense of $150. The wood work in the interior was grained and the pulpit lowered abont three feet; it would have added much more to the con- venience of the hearers as well as the
speaker, if it had been ent down five feet more; but the small reduction in height was looked upon as a great innovation by some of the older members of the Parish.
At Easter in 1845, Rev. Mr. Smith re- signed the Rectorship of the Parish, and the Rev. John Purvis became the Rector. He remained two years and during his ministry he baptised six adults and twen- ty-six children, married three couple and attended sixteen funerals. At this time there were about one hundred communi- cants connected with the parish. In the summer of 1845 the church was painted on the outside at the cost of $120, which was defrayed by the ladies' sewing society. The next spring the ladies furnished the church with carpets, lamps and curtains for the windows. At the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Purvis the Rev. Abel Nichols officiated as a supply one year, until Easter, 1848. At the annual meeting in 1847 a re- port was made of the indebtedness of the Parish, which was $285.46. At the same time the committee were "instructed to procure from the grand list of the town the amount the several members of the Parish stand in said list and report the same to the next meeting." This action was taken with a view of taxing the members of the Parish sufficient to pay its indebtedness. Whether the prospect of a tax or dissatis- faction with the management of the affairs of the Parish or whether some other eause operated, is not recorded, but the records show that about this time a number of the members withdrew from its connection and left the burden which they had helped to create to be liquidated by the more faith- ful, though not more able, friends of the church. The report of the committee was not made as directed, and the debt was not paid. From Easter, 1848, until Sep- tember of that year the church remained vacant, when the Rev. William F. Walker assumed the charge of the Parish. He was instituted into the Rectorship (the first. and last institution in the Parish) Nov. 22nd, 1848, and continued in charge until January, 1851, when he removed to New York. He was subsequently tried by an ecclesiastical court and found guilty of
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SEYMOUR AND VICINITY.
immoralities for which he was de-| the work but four legal voters were pres- graded from the ministry, by Right Rev. ent, viz: Harpin Riggs, S. D. Russell and Thomas W. Holbrook, Vestrymen, and B. W. Smith, Parish Clerk, three of which were in favor of the enterprise and one op- posed it; but after the decision was made all acted iu perfect harmony throughout. The last service was held in the old chhrch on the 5th of July, 1857. The expense of the work amounted to $6,000. The ex- pense of furnishing the church with car- pets, cushions, &c., and completing the steeple above the bell deck was defrayed by the ladies of the Parish, and amounted to over $800. Bishop Warnwright, at the General Con- vention of 1853. When he removed he took with him the Parish register, which has not yet, and probably never will be re- turned, as the last heard of it, it was be- ing used for a scrap book. The loss of the register deprives the Parish of much valna- ble information in regard to the number of communicants, baptisms, marriages and deaths in the Parish for a long term of years. After his degradation from the minis- try Walker lived a tragical life and died from the effect of an overdose of medicine prescribed for the relief of a nervous affec- tion, in the early part of 1876.
At the Easter of 1851 the Rev. Charles G. Acly became Rector and remained two years. For several years previous to this a debt had been constantly increasing until it amounted to $350 at the Easter of 1853, which Mr. Acly succeeded in canceling be- fore he left the Parish. The ladies' society contributed $170 of the amount paid. The Parish was now. entirely free from debt. In June, 1853, the Rev. O. Evans Shannon became Rector of the Parish. At a meet- ing at Easter, 1856, the name of the Parish was changed from Union to Trinity. At this time the church needed considerable repairs ; the timbers in the steeple were much decayed and it was considered un- safe by those who carefully examined it, the roof leaked badly, and the enlarge- ment and repair of the church began to be seriously talked about. At Easter, 1857, a committee was appointed consisting of Thomas W. Holbrook, B. W. Smith and Sheldon Church, to see what could be done in regard to repairs, and to report at an adjourned meeting. Their report was made in the following June, that about $2,100 had been subscribed to defray the expense of the contemplated repairs, and it was resolved to begin the work. The plans of the alterations had been previous- ly made by Mr. Austin of New Haven. A building committee was appointed, con- sisting of B. W. Smith, S. D. Russell and Sheldon Church, the two former only acted.
The church was consecrated by Right Rev. Bishop Williams, on the 11th of May, 1858. The building was almost entirely new, with the exception of the frame. The number of slips were increased from forty- two to seventy, and in doing the work a debt of $3,000 was contracted. To com- plete the church was no easy task with the limited amount of money at the disposal of the committee, and how the funds were furnished is known only to those who had the matter in charge. The collection of subscriptions or the loaning of money was inade almost impossible by the financial crisis which commenced early in Septem- ber after the work was begun, and caused financial ruin throughout the country. The committee received but little aid or encouragement from men connected with the Parish beyond its officers, and certainly they neither received or expected any from any other source; but on the contrary they were ridiculed in every possible manner, and it was prophesied that the undertaking would prove as disastrons as the "South Sea Bubble," that the church would never be completed, or if it was it never would be paid for. The workmen were advised to get their pay as they did their work or they never would get it; but to their credit they heeded not the advice. The lumber merchant was told more than once that he never would get pay for the lumber furnished for the building, and a leading merchant in the village refused to furnish the committee with ten pounds of nails, on
At the meeting which resolved to begin the credit of the Parish. Acting under
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SEYMOUR AND VICINITY.
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these circumstances it is presumed that it would be an affectation for the committee to say that they were not considerably em- barrassed; and yet, when the church was re-opened every bill of expense for the re- pairs had been paid with the exception of $30 for painting and about the same amount due to one of the joiners. In 1864 the debt contracted in rebuilding the church was reduced to less than four hundred dollars.
It has been said that the committee re- ceived but Itttle encouragement from the men connected with the Parish, but the same can not be said of the ladies, for they rendered most valuable aid, not only by the $500 which they contributed, but by the cheerful encouragement which was be- stowed on every proper occasion. It will be doing no injustice to other ladies to mention in this connection the name of Mrs. M. P. Shannon, the wife of the Rector.
Rev. Mr. Shannon resigned the charge of the Parish the first of June, 1-66. During his ministry here there were 185 baptisms performed, 105 persons were confirmed at nine visits of the Bishop; 166 were buried and 202 were joined in holy matrimony. On the 18th of May, 1564, the steeple of the church was again struck by lightning. but the damage done was but a few dollars. On the first of April, 1866, the Parish bought a house of Mrs. Lucy M. Beach for a Rec- tory, at a cost of 82,500. From the resig- nation of the Rev. Mr. Shannon to January, 1867, the Rectorship remained vacant. Regular services however were maintained by temporary supply. In the month of July, 1866, the church was painted on the outside at an expense of $290.53, of which sum $267.73 was paid by the ladies of the Parish.
The Rev. George Seabury entered upon the Rectorship of the Parish on the second Sunday in January, 1867. In the fall of the year 1867 the church was closed for two months; when the interior wood work was grained and the walls colored, at the cost of $800, over $600 of which was paid by the ladies of the Parish. The church was re-opened on the last Sunday in Octo- ber. Before the re-opening of the church au altar had been placed in the chaucel at the cost of 117.64, which was paid by the ladies of the Parish; and soou after a credence was placed at the left of the altar at the cost of $15.40, the gift of a female member of the Parish. At Christ- mas of this year a prayer desk and lect- urn were placed in the chancel at the cost of #70.50, which was raised by subscrip-
tions, and soon after prayer books for the altar and prayer desk at the cost of $29. In December, 1570, a cabinet organ was purchased for the Sunday School at the cost of $130, raised by subscriptions. In the summer of 1:71 a new stone font was placed in the church. The cost of the same was $177.15, raised by the ladies of the Parish, the proceeds of a festival.
In 1872 hangings for the pulpit and lec- turn were provided for by subscriptions at the cost of $26.50. In March, 1:73, the Rectory property purchased in 1866 for 82,500, was sold for the same sum and the proceeds nsed to liquidate the debt incurred through the original purchase. About the same time subscriptions to the amount of about $1000 were secured to cancel the floating debt of the parish, (including the balance, $400, of the debt incurred in 1857 for rebuilding the church), this substantial- ly freeing the Parish from debt.
The Rev. George Seabury resigned the Rectorship of the Parish on the 21st of April, 1875, after an encumbency of over eight years. During his Rectorship 132 persons were baptised, 74 persons received the rite of Confirmation, 169 persons were admitted to the Holy Communion, 46 mar- riages were solemnized, and the bodies of 128 were committed to the ground, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
The present statistics of the Parish are nearly as follows: families, 135: baptised members of the church, 410; communicants, 157. The loss of the Parish register in 1851 rendes it impossible to state the statistics of the Parish with correctness previons to that time. On the 27th day of June, 1=75, the steeple of the church was the third time struck by lightning; the damage done amounted to about $50.
Of the sixty-three persons who contribu- ted to defray the expense of finishing the church in 1-16, not one is now living. Mr. Isaac Kinney who died recently at the age of eighty-five was the last survivor. Of the slip holders in 1840, only two are slip holders at the present time, viz: Dr. S. C. Johnson and B. W. Smith, and only five of the whole number are now living. The subscription lists containing the names of the contributors and the amount contribn- ted by each for church purposes, bave in almost every instance been carefully pre- served, and if now published, would probab- ly prove more interesting to the public than to the living subscribers. During the first twenty-five years from the organiza- tion of the Parish eight clergymen were employed for a specified length of time, and in the next fifty-three years, nine, four of whom had charge of the Parish over forty-three years. On the 25th of Septem- ber, 1875, the Rev. Edwin J. K. Lessel be- came Rector of the Parish. B. W. S.
THE INDIANS.
The Quinnipiac Indians, who mostly lived around New Haven Harbor, claimed the land to the north and northwest as far as the Naugatuck, but it was the Paugussetts who mostly occupied the valleys of the Housatonic and the Naugatuck. They were not numerous for a section so well adapted to yield liberal supplies to the hunter and the fisherman, for years before the merciless Mohawks from New York, of the warlike Iroquois race, had raided over this section, and the Connecticut Indians, who were of the peaceful Algonquin stock, had been greatly lessened in numbers.
The chief seat of the Paugussett Indians was at the mouth of the Nauga- tuck. On the triangular shaped tract of land which terminates at the june- tion of the two rivers, was their headquarters, and on the east bank of the Housatonic, about a mile above the confluence of the Housatonic and the Naugatuck, was their fortress, to which they retreated in times of danger. The last sachem at this place, Conquepotanah, died in 1731.
From the time of the first deeds from Indians to white men, in this vicinity, in 1662 and 1664, (see pp. 5 to 7), the Indians continued to dispose of their lands to the whites for probably about all they were worth at that time. The Indians were evidently satisfied with their renumeration and seem to have made no reprisals. Among those who sold the lands, and who were evidently sachems and chiefs, were Ansantaway, also written Ansantwan and Ansantawae, and his two sons Ockenuck, (Okenance, Akenanco and Ocke- nungo,) and Tountonemo, (Toutaemo) ; also Conquepotana, (Conchupatany, Conquepatana or Konkapotanauh, and Huntawah (Ahuntaway or Ahan- taway). Cheshconeeg, who lived near Squantuck in 1693, is also identified with Chusqunnoog, who was in 1716 one of the grantors of a tract of land north of the Waterbury and Woodbury bounds, extending from the Nauga- tuck to the Shepang.
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HISTORY OF SEYMOUR.
Referring to these sales of the lands, Dr. Anderson says : " It would be interesting to consider somewhat carefully the nature of this primitive pro- prietorship, for it has decided bearings upon the great modern question of the origin of property, and the significance of that 'institution' in the history of civilization. It was said by Sir Edmund Andross that Indian deeds were "no better than the scratch of a bear's paw ;' and there are those at the present day who, for different reasons from those which shaped the opinion of Andross, would deny that the aboriginal ownership of the soil was of any ac- count whatever. Because their system was a kind of communism, their rights amount to nothing in the eyes of these modern thinkers. The early settlers, however, either from a sense of justice or out of regard to expediency, made it a rule to extinguish the titles of the natives by actual purchase. And when we consider the value of money at that day, the 'unimproved ' condi- tion of the lands, and the fact that in almost all cases the grantors reserved either large sections as hunting grounds, or else the right to hunt everywhere as before the sale, we can hardly say that the Indians were unfairly dealt with. The Indian usually reserved, or at least supposed that he was reserving, the right to hunt and fish everywhere, as before the lands were sold. In most of the towns, he remained harmless and unmolested in the neighborhood of the settlements, from generation to generation. The relations of the aborigi- nal inhabitants to the whites are well illustrated in the statement of an aged citizen of Farmington, who died within the present century, and who was born about 1730, ' that within his recollection the Indian children in the dis - trict school were not much fewer than those of the whites. In their snow- balling parties the former used to take one side and the latter another, when they would be so equally balanced in numbers and prowess, as to render the battle a very tough one and the result doubtful.' But, however good the in- tentions of the white man may have been, the transformation of the wilder- ness into a fruitful field must go steadily on, and the Red Man must in- evitably fall back, seeking new hunting grounds. For example, the Paugussets of the seacoast removed inland, as we have seen, and made their principal seat at the lower end of the Naugatuck Valley, which thus became practically a new settlement."
Joseph Mauwehu was the son of Gideon Mauwehu, a Pequot Indian, who lived for a time in or near Derby, and afterward removed to Scatacook and was chief of the Indians who collected there. Joseph was brought in his boyhood to Derby Neck to live with a Mr. Durand till he arrived at man- hood, then was married to Sarah, of the Farmington Indians and settled in the south part of Derby near Turkey Hill, but afterward removed to Nauko- tunk, now Seymour. Joseph lived at first near the Falls, afterwards in a frame house built for him on the site where Dr. Thomas Stoddard now lives. De Forest, in his History of the Indians of Connecticut, gives the following account of Joseph Mauwehu :
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THE INDIANS.
" Here a few followers gathered round him, and during forty or fifty years he played the part of a petty sachem. From his manner of pronouncing the word ' choose,' he was nick-named Chuce ; and he is still well remembered in the village by the name of Old Chuce. He built his wigwam among a few oak trees near the falls, and supported himself, after the fashion of his race, by fishing and hunting and by the produce of a little patch of ground. When he took up his residence here, there were only two or three white families in the vicinity, but others followed, and gradually built up a village, which for many years was known by the name of Chuce-town. The sachem lived on the most amicable terms with his civilized neighbors, and I have heard him spoken of with feelings of evident kindness and sympathy by those who re- membered him. Anecdotes are preserved of him which show that he was somewhat addicted to the use of ardent spirits, and considered rum or whisky essentially superior as a beverage to cold water. He used to come when he was thirsty to a fine spring bursting from a hollow rock at the foot of a hill, and there used to sit on the bank by the side of the spring, and drink the sweet water as it gushed from the rock, and praise it, and say that if there was only another spring, just such a spring, of rum, flowing by the side of it, he would ask for nothing more, but would be perfectly happy."
The spring referred to was a few rods east of where Davis' Block now stands, and the place is still marked by a well, the place having been gradually covered with earth to the depth of ten or twelve feet. There used to be a little lakelet south of the spring, three or four rods in length, abound- ing with small fish. This was drained about 1845, and afterward filled in.
Among the traditions of this period is one of a white man named Durand and an Indian who were hunting near the river about a mile below the bridge. Durand, seeing something moving in the bushes, which he sup- posed to be a deer, aimed at the place and fired. Hastening to the spot he found he had shot an Indian, who, in his last agonies, asked for water, which Durand brought for him from the river. The case was submitted to arbitra- tion, and during the discussion one of the Indian witnesses remarked, refer- ring to the Indian's bright leggings, that he never before knew of a deer wearing red stockings. The Indians were, however, satisfied that the homi- cide was accidental, and ever afterward treated the white hunter in the most friendly manner.
Mauwehu moved back to the falls for a while before he moved to Scatacook. Ile had eight children, two sons and six daughters. His oldest son, Joseph, enlisted as a soldier and went to Boston when hostilities commenced. After his term of service closed on his way home he was poisoned and died, prob- ably by the opposers of the war. Three of his children died in childhood. Elihu, his youngest son, was an unusually intelligent Indian.
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HISTORY OF SEYMOUR.
The tribe of which Mauwehu was a member, claimed the land as far north as Mattatuck or Waterbury. When the Indian census was taken by the colony in 1774, there were four of Chuse's band in Waterbury, where the first settlers were not particular to higgle with the Indians concerning the owner- ship of the land, but paid both the Farmington Tunxis and the Derby Paugnssetts for it. They were paid in hard cash, not with the baubles some- times used to cheat the Indians of their lands. The first deed was dated 1674, but the same land was bounded more definitely and again purchased in 1685, and the third time the Derby Indians were paid 25 shillings for "a small piece of land north of the Derby bounds, west of Naugatuck river and sonth of Toantick brook."
Of Eunice, a daughter of Mauwehu, and her children, De Forest said in 1850: " Old Eunice, as she was commonly called, died a number of years since. Iler two children, Jim and Ruby, I have often seen coming into my native village, to sell parti-colored baskets and buy provisions and rum. Ruby was short and thick, and her face was coarse and stupid. Jim's huge form was bloated with liquor ; his voice was coarse and hollow ; and his steps, even when he was not intoxicated, were unsteady from the evil effects of ardent spirits. At present, I believe, they are all in their graves!"
"Knowing little of European modes of life, and judging of the colonists greatly by themselves, they supposed that the latter would cultivate but a lit- tle land, and support themselves for the rest by trading, fishing and hunting. Little did they think that in the course of years the white population would increase from scores to hundreds, and from hundreds to thousands; that the deep forests would be cut down; that the wild animals would disappear; that the fish would grow few in the rivers; and that a poor remnant .... would eventually leave the graves of their forefathers, and wander away into another land. Could they have anticipated that a change so wonderful, and in their history so unprecedented, would of necessity follow the coming of the white man, they would have preferred the wampum tributes of the Pequots and the scalping parties of the Five Nations to the vicinity of a people so kind, so peaceable and yet so destructive." (De Forest, pp. 164, 165.)
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