USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 14
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 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
The third school was in the Wilson district, the house standing at the forks of the roads near Joseph, and afterwards, Gilbert Allyn's homestead. In this house, in 1771, Isaac Bool was the school master, according to records in Capt. Amos Wilson's account book ; and the records are so made as to indicate that this man's principal business was teaching school. Here, too, for many years attended a crowd of young men and women, in the winter time, to complete their course of education, and here they graduated. It was all that they could do in education, and doing it, they did well. From this district the people did not scatter so widely and generally as those of the Lyman district ; they stayed by the stuff, especially did they (the families of the Wilsons and Allyns), stay by mast swamp, where they were very efficient in preparing the way for the flourishing village that now occupies its once lordly standing. James Wolcott, one of the boys of this district, went to Middletown and learned the trade of making woolen cloths, then persuaded his uncle Frederick Wol- cott, to build the woolen mill ; and this is the secret of how that mill came to be built.1
As near as can be ascertained the fourth school district formed was in the valley between Brandy hill (from Abner Loomis's north) and the old Noppet hill, the School house standing a little way northeast of the Hotchkiss saw mill, north of the bridge over the brook. When the eastern part of Newfield became more fully settled, about 1790, the School house near the old Thrall place was abandoned and the new house built at Newfield corners ; or what was then, on the road from the Capt. Richard's place to the Fyler neighborhood.
This Newfield district was for a time the most populous section of the town, and was called the third district in 1830. The School house was the largest, probably, in the town, having two spacious fire places and chimneys. There were two doors, the east one for the girls, the west for the boys, and a " walking-stick " stood at each door. If a pupil desired to go out during school hours, and the stick stood at the door, he said nothing but went out taking the walking- stick with him, and until that stick came back, no other scholar on that side of the house could go. There was no recess, except at noon, for dinner.
Authority ? Aunt Adah Gillett.
143
EDUCATION.
The seats were slabs with sticks for legs ; and some times when these seats were not in use in the house the boys and girls made them serve the purpose of sleds for riding down hill on the snow crust.
When school was out at night, the boys were required to bring in snow and make a snow bank around each fireplace so that the fire should not roll out on the floor and set the house on fire.
The pupils were not punctual in attendance at nine o'clock or any fixed time. As soon as a few had arrived in the morning the teacher began the exercise of reading, which was a large part of the school exercises, using the Bible in a large number of cases as the reading book. The geography was used also as a reading book. Writing was a leading exercise, occupying a large portion of time. When the writing commenced, the teacher began the mending of goose quill pens, which constituted a large part of his manual labor, until the exercise closed, and the pupil who had attained to the high mechanical skill of making a pen was a hero, and was allowed special privileges, particularly when pens were wanted. Upon a direct look of a young lady across the room, he was allowed to go over that way and mend the pen and thus aid the teacher, to be sure, who could not mend pens as fast as they became poor.
Geography was studied in this school from 1800, but what was a little peculiar was the holding of night-schools, for the study of arithmetic. Spelling was an important study ; and exercises in curious words, and sentences, were frequent as a kind of elocutionary training of which the following is a specimen : " Say, hu-der, hen- pen, say, hu-der, brass-clip-per, nip-per, at-las, pe-lia, Williams, en- der, ven-der, o-ver, cu-ler, de-lom-i-lom-i-ter."
Another exercise is also given as taxing the memory as well as the ability to spell and pronounce ; a portion of which seems to have gone to Winchester, and fell into the hands of that master of stories, Mr. John Boyd.1
A -- there's your A.
B O - there's your Bo, and your A-bo.
M I - there's your Mi, and your Bo-mi, and your A-bo-mi.
N A - there's your Na, and your Mi-na, and your Bo-mi-na, and your A-bo-mi-na.
B L E - there's your Ble, and your Na-ble, and your Mi-na-ble, and your Bo-mi-na-ble, and your A-bo-mi-na-ble.
B U M- there's your Bum, and your Ble-bum, and your Na-ble bum, and your Mi-na- ble-bum, and your Bo-mi-na-ble-bum, and your A-bo-mi-na-ble-bum.
1 Annals of Winchester, 220.
I44
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
B L E -there's your Ble, and your Bum-ble, and your Ble-bum-ble, and your Na-ble-bum- ble, and your Mi-na-ble-bum-ble, and your Bo-mi-na-ble-bum-ble, and your A-bo- mi-na-ble-bum-ble.
BE E- there's your Bee, and your Ble-bee, and your Bum-ble-bee, and your Ble-bum- ble-bee, and your Na-ble-bum-ble-bee, and your Mi-na-ble-bum-ble-bee, and your Bo- mi-na-ble-bum-ble-bee, and your A-bo-mi-na-ble-bum-ble-bee.
The catches in the repetition of these syllables, was the item of attraction, in addition to the puzzle of remembering and speaking the words without mistake, or a slip of the tongue.
Miss Eunice Coe is said to have been the first teacher in this School house, she being then about twenty years of age. She was the daughter of Jonathan Coe, Jr., and was born in Torrington, but lived over the Winchester line with her father at the time of her teaching. She married in 1793, Abiel Loomis, and lived and died in Winchester.
In 1799, Harlow Fyler, then but four years of age, was sent to this house to school, one day, to make the number of scholars one hundred, the highest number ever attained.
The Middle district was in existence as early as 1784, when Amos Wilson delivered several hundred feet of boards at the School house and charged them accordingly. That house stood as near as can be ascertained at the corner near Mr. Willard Birge's dwelling, but some years after stood at Torrington hollow east side of the river, and was the building now falling to the ground, standing on the south side of the old foundery building, at that place.
A SIXTH district was organized before 1795, and included the southwest corner of the town, and had also a large school.
In 1796, these districts were newly arranged and numbered as follows :
First. LYMAN District, the northeast corner at Levi Thrall's, now Willard Birge's.
Second. BRANDY HILL, house near Mr. Gillett's.
Third. NEWFIELD, extending east to Still river nearly, and south
to Caleb Leach's, and within half a mile of Daytonville.
Fourth. Wilson's.
Fifth. Southwest.
Sixth. The Center, or Middle.
A school house was afterwards built for the Center district at Levi Thrall's, at the corner of the roads.
Four districts now compass nearly all that the six did in 1800,
145
EDUCATION.
there being in them about ninety scholars instead of five hundred and more then, including summer and winter ; for when the schools were so full in the winter, the smaller children were not allowed to go.
TORRINGFORD SIDE OF THE TOWN
In December 1761, the inhabitants in society meeting voted to raise one penny and a half on the list to hire schooling, and ap- pointed Lieut. Benjamin Bissell, Ebenezer Winchell and Nehemiah Gaylord, school committee.1 The next December, they voted to raise the same amount, "a penny half penny on the pound, to hire schooling," and in 1763, the same. The next year they voted to have " two months' schooling the winter ensuing."
In 1771, after they had built a Church, though it was not com- pleted, and had settled a minister, they gave a little more attention to education, and voted that the " north end, above the long causeway, be one district for schooling, the ensuing year, and to improve their own money," and that " all below the long crossway, be one district." They laid a tax as usual, the one-half to be used for winter school the other half for summer school. " Voted that Mr. Daniel Hudson be school committee and collector for the north district, and that Sergt. Ebenezer Winchell, Lt. John Strong and Mr. Josiah Moore be a committee for the south district."
In October 1772, they made three districts. Besides the north and south, as the year previous, they voted that " Great hollow and East street as far north as Amos Miller's be one district." " Voted that the middle district lay out two-thirds of their money in a man's school, and that the children who go to a man's school shall not go to the woman's school." In the autumn of 1774, four districts were made, and in December they voted, " that there be a school house built in the middle district, near Capt Bissell's house or horse-house ; and that Capt. Strong, Capt. Bissel!, Lt. Griswold and Sergt. Ebe- nezer Winchell be a committee to build said house."
In 1770, they voted a tax of four shillings on the pound, for school- ing, which large sum was probably owing to the depreciated currency with which the tax was to be paid, but even then it is difficult to un- derstand the change to such an extreme, and especially when in 1781, it was only one and a half penny on the pound. In 1782, the society was divided into four districts, by a " parallel line to the town, across
I Old Society records.
19
146
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
the society," the tax one penny and a half. It was frequently voted in the meetings for society business, that the children who went in the winter " should not go in the summer," and this was the practice on the west side, although there are no accounts of such votes. The changing of the districts continued every few years on the east side as on the west. There seems to have been no way to shorten dis- tances nor to enlarge the houses, nor equalize the money, nor to ar- range other items, so as to meet the wants of all. In 1786, a vote was passed that the school money should be divided to the districts equally according to the number of scholars in each district between four and sixteen years of age.
The law concerning the business transactions in behalf of schools having been changed, the parish met in 1795, and thereafter, as a school society, and voted the usual tax, some years from six to eight mills and some times one cent on a dollar, it being more frequently seven and eight mills. Such amounts of tax, alone for schooling, at the present day would make wild confusion in the town. The present tax for schooling purposes, is about four and a half mills on the dollar, but the state appropriation and other funds returns a part of this sum to the town treasury.
There are now three districts in Torringford ; the south, center and north districts.
ACADEMIES.
There have been four academies in the town. Soon after Rev. Epaphras Goodman was settled in Torringford, he leased a large room, which had been used for other purposes, fitted it, and opened a select school, for advanced pupils, both boys and girls. Such was the en- thusiasm with which the people entered into this enterprise that Mr. Goodman was compelled to employ an assistant, Mrs. Faxon, which gave still greater ambition to the enterprise. The whole society was awakened to the effort, and erected a brick building, long known as the Torringford academy, and in this building Mr. Goodman con- tinued the school while he remained at this place. He employed students and graduates from Yale and other colleges, and inspired the whole enterprise with his indefatigable devotion to the advantages of education.
When Dr. E. D. Hudson settled in Torringford he cheerefully added his influence and energy to the institution and it became a boarding school as well as an academy for the community. There have been as high as twenty students at a time, from the cities and
147
EDUCATION.
other states, in attendance on this school. The influence of this school was not only felt on the whole community but gave so much of a spirit of love of literature and learning as has not yet disappeared from the place.
In regard to this subject and Mr. Goodman's part in it the Tor- ringford Centennial thus speaks.
" The Academy in which he taught was erected in 1823, and stood a few rods north of the Old church on the opposite side of the street. After being unoccupied several years, it was removed in 1849, and rebuilt as an academy and conference house, and stands opposite the Church. The intelligence of the people, and their appreciation of education may be shown not only by the fact that they have furnished a large number of competent teachers, men and women, of public and private schools, but also by the number of those who have obtained a liberal education, or engaged in professional pursuits. Torringford has raised, in addition to several successful business men, twelve college graduates, five lawyers, ten ministers, eight minister's wives, two editors, and twenty-five physicians ; and some of these educated men have not only been eminent in their profession, but have filled prominent civil, political, and judicial stations."
Torringford, in connection with the whole county of Litchfield, had a large number of men and women of native talent, and whether they were in professional life or engaged in the more common pur- suits of industry, they have promoted, and developed this spirit of education in establishing institutions of learning in different parts of the nation, and encouraging general intelligence.
The part which this society had in rearing and sustaining the mission school was such as, of which any community, of the time, might well boast.
THE TORRINGTON ACADEMY.
This institution was erected by the joint effort of several men, interested in the higher advantages of education, in about eighteen hundred and eighteen or nineteen, and was located at the green, near Erastus Hodges, or a little south of the Second Meeting house. The
I Nathaniel Gaylord kept what was termed a grammar school, for a number of successive winters, about 1806, and school keeping became a passion, and often over twenty went out to teach in the same season; and Torringford school teachers enjoyed a high reputation in the adjoining towns as well as at home.
148
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
Rev. Herman L. Vaill, while studying theology at Goshen, in 1821, was one of the earliest teachers in this house. The school was con- tinued with some intervals some twenty-five or thirty years, after which the building was purchased by the late Sheldon Barber and placed at the corner of the roads near his house and used for a work shop.
THE BRICK ACADEMY, a three story building in Wolcottville south of the bridge on Main street, was built as a Union meeting house and academy, and was used for both purposes quite a number of years. It has been occupied as a manufactory, a store, and a Masonic Hall.
The Academy on Church street, built about 1859, has been merged into the Union Graded school of the village.
WOLCOTTVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
In 1798, the Torringford school society voted that John Brooker and Isaac Edgarton might have the use of their own money for school- ing ; i. e., they were at an inconvenient distance from the school houses, and therefore might employ a teacher in their own neighbor- hood. John Brooker then lived in the house, still standing a little east of the papier machie shop, and Isaac Edgarton in the same neighborhood, or perhaps further south. The society was very careful that this money should be used as designed, for the year previous they voted that John Brooker, Isaac Edgarton and Zebulon Curtiss might have the use of their own money, if they lay it out in schooling their children in other schools and bring a certificate to that effect, and the same requisition was made each year. The nearest schools were the west district of Torringford and the school in Litchfield, half or three-fourths of a mile south of the present village of Wolcottville.
In 1808, the school society voted that Mrs. Sally Sanford and Porter Bissell be annexed to the district in Litchfield. Mrs. Sanford then lived near the Coe Furniture store on Litchfield street.
In 1810, the society voted that " all living west of Eliphalet Eno's and belonging to the west district have the use of their own money," showing that no district had yet been formed in what is now the village.
In 1812, they stated that the "families of Eliphalet Eno, Heze- kiah Eno, Jonathan Ives, Widow Ives, Shelburn Ives, Trumbull Ives, and John Cook and sons, are to be annexed to the village dis- trict," but the district was not formed until the next year, when
149
EDUCATION.
they voted the village to be a district, and Uri Taylor was ap- pointed the committee and collector, and this was probably the first officer of any kind Wolcottville ever had.
There are no votes for taxes in the village district, which look like paying for a school house, and the house having been built in 1814 or 1815, it is quite probable that it was built by volunteer subscrip- tions and work, and that Uri Taylor took a large part of this stock, as he did in the First Meeting house and parsonage. This house stood on the site of the present Register office on Main street. Miss Fannie C. Austin, now Mrs. Laurin Wetmore, taught school in this house, in 1817 or 18, it being before it was enlarged. As the village increased and more room was needed, this house was length- ened, to nearly double its original size. Some time after, a brick School house was built on Litchfield street, which is still standing a little above the rail road, and is used as a dwelling; another was built on what is now George street, which is also used now as a dwelling ; and another was built on Church street, west side of the rail road. The one on George street was two stories and the second story was occupied some time as a higher department, or grammar school.
In 1859, Dea. L. Wetmore gave a valuable and appropriate lot on Church street opposite his own residence, as a site for a school building, and on this a two story house was erected soon after, and was called the Academy, but was used as the higher department of the several schools of the village. Lucius Clark was principal of the school on George street when the new building was erected. He removed his department into the new building and taught there a term or two. The following persons succeeded him as principal of the academy and having the oversight of the other schools in the village : A. E. Barlow, A. B., now, and for many years past, professor in Amherst college ; C. B. McClenn, E. A. Paddock, Miss Hotch- kiss, H. M. Morrill A.B., D. M. Means, A.B., and Charles L. Fellows. About 1863 and 4, there was a strong desire in the com- munity to consolidate the schools, but certain parties who seemed opposed to all real improvements, opposed the plan with great energy. The contest went on for several years, those persons hav- ing large money interests in the manufacturies were most of them in favor of the Union graded school. At the time and soon after the revival of enterprise in the brass mill in 1863, a number of families came in from Waterbury where they already had a free, graded school, and their efforts, with those who favored the plan in Wolcott-
150
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
ville, were successful and the consolidation was effected. Then the academy building was rearranged and large additions to it built and the present commodious edifice secured. The enterprise of public school education in this village, has had but faint support as a whole, until very recently, and now the most that has been attained is a building, partially fitted, but sparingly furnished with apparatus for the work of common school education.
It might be a question worthy of entertainment whether a school of such efficiency and grade of studies as would retain in it, boys and girls from twelve to sixteen years of age, instead of their being sent abroad to obtain a knowledge of those branches, almost universally believed to belong to proper common school education should be maintained here. It was a great work to reorganize and enter upon a graded system of teaching as was done under the supervision of Henry M. Morrill, late judge of the court of the city of Waterbury. He taught four years, studying law with Esq. H. S. Barbour, and secured much efficiency in the schools, but the work was only com- menced. Some considerable advancement has been made since the beginning, but the spirit that opposed the building of the house, has opposed for years, the paying for it until very recently a tax was laid to meet the demands, and that same spirit will oppose the furnishing of books and apparatus for the school, as is the ordinary method of such schools, and that same spirit does send small children by the dozen to sit in their seats the whole day without a book or slate or scrap of paper with which to work, unless private benevolence fur- nishes them.
The following persons have been teachers in this school during the school year ending July 1, 1877 :
Mr. Charles L. Fellows, principal, of Wol- cottville.
Miss Mary Miller, of Winsted.
Mrs. Sarah Coe Fellows, of Wolcottville.
Miss Gertrude Fenn, of Terryville.
Miss Bell A. Waterman, of Torringford.
Miss Sarah B. Norton, of Goshen.
Miss Sarah C. Calhoun, of Wolcottville.
Miss Linda Woodford, of Avon. Miss Hattie Griswold, of Auburn, Indiana.
SCHOOL FUNDS.
Besides the usual state funds, common with other towns, Torring- ton has had a small local fund amounting to several hundred dollars.
The school plot, appropriated in 1752, by the proprietors, in the third division containing two hundred and twenty acres, was sold, or leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, in 1772, to Matthew Grant, for &93,145. This money, as near as can be ascertained, was
151
EDUCATION.
merged into the bequest of Daniel Grant under the one name of that fund.
THE DANIEL GRANT FUND.
This was a bequest by Daniel Grant of Torrington in his last will, of certain lands, to be sold, or devoted to the support of schools in the town. These lands were in the town of New Hartford and were supposed at the time to be worth one thousand dollars, but the precise amount realized has not been ascertained.
COLLEGE GRADUATES.
Jonathan Miller,
of Torringford, Yale, 1781.
Stanley Griswold,
Yale,
1786.
Joseph Miller,
Williams,
1799.
Charles I. Battell,
66
Yale, 1808.
Harvey Loomis,
66
Williams,
1809.
Orange Lyman,
Williams,
1809.
Samuel J. Mills Jr.,
Williams,
1809.
Rufus Woodward,
Yale,
1816.
John B. Lyman,
Williams,
1825.
Lucius Curtiss,
66
Williams,
1835.
Hudson Burr,
Yale,
Warren H. Roberts,
Kenyon, O.,
1856.
Timothy P. Gillett,
of Torrington, Williams,
1804.
James Beach,
66
Williams, about
1804.
William F. Hodges,
66
Yale,
18II.
Abel Knapp Hinsdale,
Yale,
1833.
Willard Hodges,
Yale,
1845.
Alfred North,
Brown University,
1857
Elisha Smith Abernethy,
66 Yale,
1825.
Rev. Edward Hungerford, Wolcottville, Yale,
1851.
Rev. John H. Barbour,
Trinity,
1873.
Wm. Stone Hubbell,
Yale,
1858.
John T. Miller,
Yale, 1853. 18 54.
CHAPTER XIII.
PROFESSIONS AND SOCIETIES.
PHYSICIANS IN TORRINGTON.
R. THADDEUS AUSTIN, son of Andrew Austin of Tor- ringford, was born in 1783 ; studied medicine under Dr. Samuel Woodward; practiced in Fayetteville, N. C., and died Sept. 12th, 1812, aged 29 years. He was much respected by the profession.
DR. ERASTUS BANCROFT. (See Biography.)
DR. OLIVER BANCROFT, son of Lt. Ephraim and Esther (Glea- son) Bancroft, was born July 22, 1757, in Windsor, and removed with his parents to Torrington, when two or three years of age. He became a physician and settled in Newtown, Ct., where he continued to practice in his profession until advanced in years. He was less than medium height, energetic and quick of action; and is said to have been much respected and loved as a physician and a citizen. He died at Newtown.
DR. REUBEN BANCROFT, son of Ephraim and Jemima (Loomis) Bancroft of Torringford, was born Aug. 3, 1794 ; studied medicine under Dr. Elijah Lyman, and settled in Oxford, Chenango co., N. Y.
DR. CHARLES R. BISSELL, son of Roderick and Fanny (Gaylord), Bissell of Torrington was born May 18, 1831 ; studied with his brother at Bethlehem and began practice in Berkshire county, Mass. He removed to Colorado, Rocky mountains, where he was judge of the court some years ; was one year auditor of the state; removed to Central City, Colorado.
DR. ELIPHAZ BISSELL, son of Eliphaz and Elizabeth (Birge), Bissell of Torringford, was born in 1779 ; studied medicine under Dr. Samuel Woodward ; settled and practiced as a physician in Ver- non, Oneida co., N. Y. ; died by drowning in 1829, aged fifty years. He had the reputation of being a talented man.
Dr. GAYLORD G. BISSELL, son of Roderick and Fanny (Gaylord) Bissell of Torringford, was born Feb. 13, 1824 ; studied medicine
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.