USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stamford > History of Stamford, Connecticut : from its settlement in 1641, to the present time, including Darien, which was one of its parishes until 1820 > Part 18
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What a touching picture of tragedy, unnatural, the follow- ing faet exhibits. Zachariah Hoyt and several of his neighbors were on guard near the mouth of Goodwives river; and as nothing betokened the presence of British or tory foe, they
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were enjoying a pleasant hour of merry chat and sport. Sud- denly a volley from loyal muskets, mortally wounded two of their number, when the rest hurriedly escaped. And now the concealed tory band came forward, to see whom of their old friends and neighbors they had made to bite the dust. One of them, as if momentarily grieved for the shot he had fired, could ouly ask, in soothing terms : " Cousin Zach, is this you ?" And a mournful " Yes" was the only answer of the dying man.
Among the memorabilia of our revolutionary period should be recalled the athletic frame and reekless and successful daring of " Unele Thad." Thaddeus IIoyt, who had lived a few rods south west from the place where Alfred Hoyt, Esq., now lives, was one of our most earnest whigs. His active patriotism had aroused the hatred of every tory in the neighborhood, and ex- posed him to incessant annoyance and hazard from their raids upon his property or their attacks upon his 'person. So much exposed was he in his house by night, that he often retired in the evening with his gun and blanket to a neighboring clump of cedars which afforded him safer shelter. His cattle were all marked for seizure and one by one they were stealthily carried off. Having pretty good evidence that one of his tory neigh- bors, Samuel Lockwood, was a leader in these depredations, he determined upon confronting him, on one of his predatory ineur- sions. The opportunity soon came. The neighbor had selected just such cattle as would best answer his purpose and was hur- rying off to the British lines with his prize. Suddenly, " unele Thad " arrests his progress. The tory thus unexpectedly caught, quickly levels his gun and snaps. The musket, loyal to the king, failed her duty to his subject. Not to be thus defeated, " unele Thad" strikes down the gun, grapples with the tory, himself, and holds him in his unrelenting grasp. Nor does he release his hold before, thoroughly subdued, he begs for quarter and pledges a future abandonment of his tory practices.
And the prowess of our townsmen was witnessed on the water, also, as well as on the land, The following will best il-
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lustrate our marine heroism during the war. I will let this story stand, as my predecessor in this field of research, Rev. J. W. Alvord, tells it.
" A frigate and sloop-of-war, belonging to the enemy, were lying in Oyster Bay, opposite this village, and the whale- boats from this place, commanded by Captain Jones, determin- ed on taking the sloop. On a foggy morning they rowed silently around her, and coming nearer and nearer, they were at length discovered and instantly hailed-" Who's there ?" ". A friend." " A friend to whom ?" "I'll let you know," said Jones, "the rebels have been rowing round the bay all night and you've known nothing about it. I'll report you to the Ad- miral for neglecting your watch." By this time the men in the boats were climbing up the sides of the British vessel, while Jones, who was as rough as the ocean on which he had been brought up, kept storming away at the captain for his negli- gence. The British officer trembled from head to foot, thinking that he had run foul of some violent old tory, who would cer- tainly report him to his commander. IIe assured Jones that he had kept the strictest watch-begged him to look at the order of his vessel-the training of his guns, and the priming of his muskets. A number of these muskets were by this time in the hands of the assailing party, when instantly Jones' foot stamp- ed heavily upon the deck, and in the next moment the sloop was theirs ! She carried fifteen or twenty guns, and was fully equipped for service. Another vessel was about this time cap- tured by these whaleboats as she lay in the narrows below. They attacked her in open day-one, as they approached, had its rudder carried away by a cannon shot, and swinging under the stern of the English vessel, the men entered her cabin win- dows, just as the crew were driven below, by the men in the other boats, who had obtained possession of her deck. After a short and desperate fight with broadswords and bayonets, in the cabin, the crew surrendered, and the vessel was brought to Stamford."
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IIISTORY OF STAMFORD.
Among our enterprising townsmen who did good service in harassing and weakening the enemy was one of our numerous Smiths of that day. It has come down to us, well anthentica- ted, that a British officer who had been landing the loyalty of the leading tories of the town, wound up his enlogy with this comforting reflection : "and in fact we could get along well enough with you Stamford Yankees if it wasn't for that old red haired Smith."
Take this incident, illustrative of the exposure of the revolu- tionists to another sort of treatment when the tories gained some temporary advantage. The house of deacon Joseph Ma- ther was visited one night by a band of these prowling loyal- ists. They had heard that the deacon's house was used as a safe depository of the valuables of his neighbors. Finding Mrs. Mather at home, they drove her, at the point of the bayonet to the place where her silver had been buried. They take the col- lection, and then drive her back to the house and compel her to cook them a warm supper. On leaving they take the deacon with them down to the shore, to prevent him from giving an alarm.
The following are two illustrations of the dreadful wreck which a period of war sometimes makes. Among those who were engaged, July 22, 1781, in capturing the congregation in Middlesex, was Rowland Slason, an incorrigible tory. He re- sided but a short distance from the church, and those on whom he then laid violent hands, were his life-long neighbors and friends. After the war he was allowed to remain in possession of his home and property, but he could never more have ration- al enjoyment from either. He had sunk under a heavy cloud, which no earthly sun was ever to pierce. His mental faculties had given way, and he at length roved aimlessly about, a piti- able maniae.
Not less painful was the effect of the war upon the mind and the life of Stephen Weed. His first experience of British and tory treatment had been a lesson he could not forget. The
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sanctuary to which he had gone with his parents, was no de- fense against their ruthless violence. They had stealthily sur- rounded that hallowed place, and seized and carried off his friends and neighbors and even his venerated pastor. Nothing but his own agility, had saved him from the ernel doom of his friends. He was one of the five who escaped from the congre- gation. But the lesson had taught him that he had nothing more to hope from the forbearance or merey of the enemy, and he at once enlisted in the service of his country. He cheerfully offered himself to whatever peril the sacrifice might involve. In the march and on the field, by day and by night, in heat and in cold, he stood at his post and did nobly what a good soldier should do. To the end of the war, he lost no opportunity of making proof of his courage and his patriotism. But the in- cessaney and severity of his duties aggravated by his confine- ment in the execrable Provost prison of New York, were more than he could sustain. He gradually broke down and at length sunk into a state of mental derangement, from which there was to be no recovery. Yet in his insanity, he remained a soldier still. Ilis talk was of the battalion. His walk was a soldier's march. His work was that of the field, in front of or near a threatning foe. He lived in constant expectation of the invasion of a for- eign enemy. He had a elear presentiment of the time and man- ner of the approach. He long and steadily insisted that the in- vading march was to be up the Noroton valley, and unless its progress could be resisted, the whole country to the north would be mercilessly laid waste. The line of march was to be just to the west of his own residence, and he could never leave his own home and country to be thus laid waste, without exhausting all his means for their defense.
Nor was he long in planning his defense. Choosing a felicitous position commanding the intervale below, he commenced the work of fortifying. He built a stone fort enelosing a subter- ranean retreat which might answer for a magazine, and sur- rounded the whole with a ditch. One only entrance admitted
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
friend or foe to this work. After having thus completed the fort, day after day, for nine weary years, he stood sentinel or paced his appointed beat, with his watchful eye ever ready on his trusty lock, or scanning the opening vale to the south for the first glimpse of the coming foe. Here he was proud to re- ceive the notice of strangers as they visited his fort to witness his military drill. He never tired of telling over his old cam- paigns and seemed to have an accurate remembrance of what had transpired during his service in the war of his country. But he would allow no change to be made in the works on which he must rely for defense. One little addition only to his own arrangements was permitted. A huge black snake was one day found coiled up in the sun on his grand promenade in front of his works, and the idea seized him that this was to be his relief sentinel. He therefore only took note when his relief was posted, and would neither tempt the faithful sentry to leave his post nor allow any one else to disturb him. Day after day did the faithful and apparently sympathizing sentinel take his post and relieve for a while the old man, until one day he loca- ted himself on another part of the ground than that to which he had been assigned. Immediately, in the exercise of his mili- tary authority the uncompromising old disciplinarian summarily dispatched him for being thus found off his gnard.
But the years wore away, and the old soldier was called to lay down his arms. Nothing but physical exhaustion could cheat him out of the service in which he gloried, and he died as he had lived, under the shadow of that great war cloud which death alone could shake off from his burdened spirit.
We have now learned from the main drift of the incidents we have collected, that Stamford was exposed all through the war, to the petty annoyance of small bands of tories. The " cow- boys," her own sons, or at least under their guidance, were everywhere on the alert to seize upon all unprotected cattle and grain with which to maintain their credit with the king and his army. They were not loyal enough to take sides openly with
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the king's soldiers, and either their fears or their hopes hindered them from espousing heartily the cause of their neighbors. And the social position of this class was such as to render their op- position all the more hurtful to the patriot cause. They were not the poorest and least influential of the community, who thus held back and so effectively opposed the struggle for our independence. Many of the most talented and wealthy were in their ranks. The arguments by which they sought to justify their course, were those to which the loyal and conservative of every age resort. At the first, the great body of the people, and to the last, a large minority could not think of breaking away from their allegiance to the crown. By every means in their power therefore excepting an absolute resort to the ranks of the king's forees, they sought to hinder and harass the king's rebellious subjects.
Incidental or purposed collision between these tories and the avowed revolutionists were very numerous. Sometimes serious damage to property, and even loss of life was the result. The following chapter will best set forth this feature of those days which " tried men's souls."
CHAPTER XIV.
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CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTS IN STAMFORD DURING THE WAR.
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This chapter will report many facts- which could not well be introduced into the preceding chapter, and yet of sufficient lo- cal importance to justify preservation in our history. In many instances the day of the month is not given in the record from which our extracts are made.
1774.
This year finds the town represented in the general assembly- David Waterbury and Thomas Young for the Spring Session, and Charles Webb and David Waterbury in the Fall.
Oct. 7 .- At a meeting warned to consider the claims of the Bostonians then suffering from the action of the port bill, John Lloyd, Samuel Hutton, Capt. Samuel Youngs, Capt. David Hoyt and Charles Weed were appointed "a committee to re- ceive subscriptions for the supply of the poor in the town of Boston."
The following is the clerks' attestation which follows the re- cord.
"The above is a true copy of record, it being a very full meet- ing-almost an unanimous vote." S. JARVIS, Town Clerk.
1775.
Abraham Davenport, assistant ; and Col. David Waterbury and Col. Charles Webb, representatives for the Spring Session, and Benjamin Weed and Thomas Young, for the Fall Session of the general assembly.
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CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD.
June 6 .- Col. Charles Webb reports his mission of 22 days to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and gives his note with six others for 500 pounds to raise funds to pay expense of the ex- pedition.
June 15 .- Col. Waterbury reports his command at Stamford ready for orders.
June .- Capt. Joseph Hoyt, with Chas. Webb, jr., for his lieutenant, and Samuel Whiting, ensign, Sam. Hutton, Benj. Weed, Sam'l Wheaton and Sam'l Webb, sergts. and 24 privates, march to New York for the defense of the city. Hinman's " war of the Rev." gives him only 23 men.
June 19 .- New York calls for Wooster's and Waterbury's troops in Stamford, to march within five miles of the city. They marched.
July .- Charles Webb, appointed colonel of seventh regiment.
Sept. 19 .- Committee of safety for the town, appointed agree- ably to recommendation of the continental congress, Col. Da- venport, Esq., Benj. Weed, Esq., Amos Weed, Charles Weed, Israel Weed, Nathan Lounsbury, Thaddeus Bell, Stephen Bi- shop, Deodate Davenport, Charles Smith and James Young. Witness : Sam. Jarvis, clerk.
Oet .- Daniel Gray is authorized to transport a sloop load of rye and corn to Machias and Falmouth, under 500€ bond.
Dec. 11 .- Committee of safety re-appointed ; Ab. Davenport, Esq., David Waterbury, jr., Esq., David Webb, Jona. Waring, jr., Lieut. Sam'I Hutton, Benj. Weed, Esq., John Hoyt, jr., Charles Weed, Abraham Weed, Nathan Lounsbury, Samuel Richards, Capt. Amos Weed, Chas. Smith, Isaae Lockwood, Jas. Young, Deodate Davenport, Jona. Bates, Hezekiah Daven- port, Abraham Bates, Jos. Webb, jr., and Thaddeus Bell.
1776.
Abraham Davenport, assistant; and Benjamin Weed and Col. D. Waterbury, representatives at Spring Session, and Benjamin Weed and John Davenport at the Fall,
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
Jan. 22 .- Gen. Lee in Stamford with 1200 continental troops.
Feb .- Jos. Hull and Philip Redfield who were here in Ward's regiment, were detailed as privateers in Captain Selleck's sloop to serve for six weeks.
March 1 .- Captain Ebenezer Slason, made major ; Henry Sla- son, captain ; Ebenezer Scofield, 1st lieutenant ; Daniel Water- bury, 2nd lieutenant, and David Purdy, ensign.
April 3 .- Trial of Munson Jarvis and David Picket.
Joshua Stone, a spy, captured here, and imprisoned, and fined 20 €.
June .- David Waterbury, jr., appointed brigadier general ; Sylvanus Brown, captain ; Joseph Webb, Ist lieutenant ; Thad- deus Weed, 2nd lient, and Gideon Waterbury, ensigu.
June 22 .- Gen. Lec at Stamford, with 1200 men, hoping to take them into New York. The committee of safety of New York are afraid and stop the foree this side. Gen. Waterbury goes to the lines to see what can be done, while Lee, disabled with the gout, remains at Stamford.
Oct .- Captain Niles of the famous "Spy ", to eruise hetween Nantucket and Stamford.
Sept. 16 .- Corp. Chas. Steward, from Stamford, is confined in Halifax.
Nov. 8 .- Robert Parke, stationed here to recruit for the army.
Nov. 14 .- Disaffected citizens sent. to Lebanon, Ct., as dan - gerous to the state.
Nov. 20 .- A party of loyalists from a British tender landed, and shot and carried off two fat cattle.
1777.
Abraham Davenport, assistant ; John Davenport and John Hoyt, jr., representatives in Spring Session, and Capt. Sylvanus Knapp and Capt. Isaac Lockwood in the Fall.
Feb. 14 .- Benj. Betts taken from his bed and carried to Long Island and forced into the British service. He subsequently
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CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD.
escaped, and being suspected of toryism, was arrested, imprison- ed and fined, and requested to give bonds for future loyalty.
Feb. 24 .- Samuel Crissy and Nathan Munday come home, and on signing a declaration of allegiance are permitted to re- main.
Feb. 28 .- Wm. Fitch, a tory convict, is allowed to return to Stamford and back to Canterbury in 20 days.
March .- Doolittle & Co., to forward to Stamford, 600 lbs. powder, 30 six-pound shot, and 30 three pound-shot. In May the Gov. orders the New Haven mill to send the same amount of pow- der. In June, the Salisbury furnace, to send 100 round shot to suit the Stamford cannon.
Saturday before May 23 .- A number of British ships, vessels and flat bottomed boats appeared off the harbor.
Gen. Wooster is here with several regiments. The stores of medicines then here under charge of Dr. Turner, were ordered to be sent to Danbury.
July 7 .- Capt. Reuben Scofield and Capt. Edward Rogers, ordered to march their companies to Greenwich and Capt. Bradley to march to Stamford.
Sept. 3 .- A bushel of salt ordered to be sent to Stamford for the army.
Oct. 11 .- " To the general assembly of the State of Connee- ticut now sitting at Hartford, by adjournment, the memorial of us the subscribers, select men of the town of Stamford-show- eth, that the said town is overcharged in the number of soldiers as their quota filling up the Continental army, at least ten men, upon computation of the number of whites in said town accord- ing to the return of the number in the year 1774-that since that time more than 100 men have gone off to the enemy from sd town besides the number killed in battle and who have died in captivity and by sickness brought into the town from the army and otherwise which have greatly diminished their num- bers and rendered it extremely difficult if not impracticable to
29
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IHISTORY OF STAMFORD.
supply their quota as now stated-and the more as they are a frontier town."
AB. DAVENP. - ISAAC LOCKWOOD,
SYLVANUS KNAPP,
Senator and Representatives
Nov. 14 .- Gen. Ass. voted that the Committee of inspection of Lebanon, be and they are here by directed and, authorized to take care and custody of the prisoners sent here under guard from Stamford, as being persons dangerous to the state, and to dispose of and govern them in the best manner they can as their prudence shall direct, until further orders from the Gen. Ass. or the Governor and his Com. as aforesaid.
Dec. 1-Committee to care for families whose husbands had gone into the continental service; Jas. Young, Jona. Waring, jr., Chas. Knapp, Chas. Weed, Amos Weed, Thaddeus Bell, Jona. Bates and Thos. June.
At the same time, Jos. Ambler, Ab. Weed, Thad. Hoyt, and Samuel Richards, were appointed to supply the commissary with such clothing, &c., as the law required.
1778.
Abraham Davenport, assistant ; Maj. John Davenport and Col. Chas. Webb representatives in Spring and Capt. Daniel Bonton and Capt. Isaac Lockwood in the Fall.
The year opens under the defense of an encamped artillery company, consisting of 24 men, to hold the post until June 1779.
Jan. 12 .- Articles of Confederation read and assented to, and corresponding instructions forwarded to Capts. Lockwood and Knapp, representatives in grand assembly.
Feb. 6 .- An artillery company under Lieutenant John Bear stationed here.
Twenty-four men levied on Stamford for coast defense.
March 20 .- Vote that all the fines due from delinquents who
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CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD.
refused when drafted last winter to join the troops at the Saw- pitts under Capt Jesse Bell or any other officer commanding any of Stamford drafted men, to be, by said officers, equally distributed among those non commissioned officers and soldiers who joined and faithfully did their duty at the Sawpitts last winter.
March .- Ebenezer Holly, taken in arms against the U. S. is imprisoned in Hartford jail.
John Morehouse, who had enlisted into the serviee in Silli- man's brigade at 16 years of age was enticed out of Stamford, taken to New York and put on the sloop of the notorious re. negade, Stephen Hoyt. He escapes into Rhode Island and re- ported himself to Gen. Washington.
Joshua Stone, who had been imprisoned in New York by the British, escaped to Stamford, is arrested by our committee of safety, imprisoned and fined 20€. He is released on enlisting for three years and paying 30.€.
1779.
Abraham Davenport, assistant ; Col. Chas. Webb and Capt. Daniel Bouton representatives in both sessions.
Mar. 26 .- Gen. Putnam rides into the village from his peril- ous feat at Ilorseneck to rally help to drive back the British.
May .- Samuel Webb exchanged.
June 17 .- Noah Welles taken prisoner at Horseneck and sent to New York.
Aug. 3 .- Rev. Dr. Mather and four sons captured at the par- sonage and earried off to New York by eight tories, of whom five were the doctor's parishioners.
Sept. 5 .- Major Tallmadge with 130 light dragoons, crosses from Shipan point over to Loyd's Neck and at ten in the even- ing, attacked 500 tory refugees then entrenched, and before morning had returned, he landed again in Stamford with nearly the entire garrison, without losing a man.
Oct .- Capt. Jona. Waring with 50 or 60 men and Captain
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
Sam'I Lockwood of Greenwich, plunder the Greenwich tories of 20,000£, as appears from an appeal for restitution from John Mackay.
Dec .- Town grant liberty for a hospital under Dr. Coggswell, at Capt. Reuben Scofield's and elsewhere.
1780.
Jan .- Two Matross companies are reported at Stamford, num- bering 26 and 67 men.
Of the 530 men to be raised in the county this year, Stamford was to furnish 57.
April 14 .- Col. Chas. Webb, petitions the assembly to secure an exchange for his son Charles, then a captive in the Sugar House, New York, both of his feet having been frozen. He was exchanged for Wm. Addington, then in Hartford jail.
June 26 .- Lieut Reuben Weed, Capt. Sam'l Hoyt, Lieut. Sam'l Hutton, Capt. Isaac Lockwood, Mr. John Bell, captain Chas. Smith, Mr. Tim. Reed, Mr. Silas Davenport, Capt. Reu ben Scofield and Lieut. Jona. Whiting, are appointed to pro- cure each a recruit for three years or during the war, for the continental army. Voted, a tax of threepence a pound to pay these recruits. Voted that David Bates and Enos Fountain be reimbursed for "two great coats and one pair of overhauls" which had been stolen from the goods which Thaddeus Hoyt was transporting for the army in 1778.
Nov. 13 .- Lieut. Seth Weed and Mr. Silas Davenport ap- pointed to procure the provisions needed from Stamford for the continental army and state troops.
Nov. 27 .- Charles Webb, Joshua Ambler, Isaac Lockwood, Charles Smith, Gershom Scofield, Reuben Scofield and Jesse Bell, appointed to hire fifteen able bodied, effective recruits, as soon as may be done.
Nov. 30 .- British land at " Rhoton" Islands, and march to Middlesex, capturing 35 cattle and five horses. This irruption leads to the appointment of a committee.
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CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD.
1781.
For this year, Major John Davenport reports in the service from Stamford as follows : In Capt. Chas. Smith's company, 5 ; in Capt. Fitch's, 7; in Isaac Lockwood's, 53; in Lient. Jona. Whiting's artillery, 16; in captain Nathaniel Slason's, 15; in Ebenezer Jones' (naval), 30. Whole number killed 12 ; drown- ed, 6 ; taken prisoners, 60, seven of whom are dead and seven wounded.
The state gives credit to Stamford for 147 men in the service.
Jan. 8 .- A tax is laid of one penny on a pound, to be be paid in flour, wheat at 24 shillings a bushel, rye at 16 shillings and Indian meal at four shillings.
March 1 .- Smith Weed's account for provision for David Waterbury's command, embracing 182,623 1-2 rations, 120,173 lbs. of wheat flour and 39,005 lbs. rye flour.
April 1 .- Samuel Webb appointed brigade major, and served to March 1, 1782.
May 18 .- Select men Charles Weed and David Waterbury, complain that great numbers of the good subjects of the state in Stamford, have been plundered and driven into the woods and disabled from paying taxes. They ask a commission with power to recruit or abate the tax assessed upon them. The ex- emption asked was granted.
May 30 .- Capt. Daniel Bouton and company march to Cam- po Bay, Norwalk, to repel the enemy. He is shot in the shoulder and lost his left arm. In the following January he petitions the legislature for pecuniary help and is allowed 65 pounds. This case is endorsed and the plea is urged by several citizens.
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