USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 57
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Having finished his inquiries in Africa, and become convinced that he could do no more to promote the objects of the American Society, as there was no American ship in the vicinity, he improved the only opportunity for leaving the coast before the rainy season set in with violence, and took passage for London, in the brig Success, on the 22d of May, 1818. It was a delightful evening when he took his final leave of Africa. The sun was just going down, and the moun- tains of Sierra Leone appeared in great majesty and beauty. As he stood on the quarter-deck, taking a last glance at unhappy Ethiopia, his bosom began to heave with the thoughts of home. "We may now," said he to his colleague, " be thankful to God, and congratu- late each other that the labors and dangers of our mission are past. The prospect is fair, that we shall once more return to our dear native land, and see the faces of our beloved parents and friends." To all human appearance it was.
The health of Mr. Mills before he left the United States was slender, having a stricture on the lungs, and a dangerous cough. In England he complained much of the humidity of the atmosphere, though on the Atlantic, and during his residence in Africa, he enjoyed excellent health. On the evening of June 5th, two weeks after he sailed from Sierra Leone, he took a heavy cold, became ill, and expressed some apprehensions of a fever. The ordinary antidotes were employed with apparent success. An irregular fever, however, lodged about him, sometimes attended with severe pains in his head. It was soon evident that he began to decline.
On Saturday the 13th, he sat up a part of the day, but was in considerable pain, and very restless.
On Lord's day the 14th he had little or no fever, and was very
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composed and much refreshed. He conversed freely on religious topics, and could not rest satisfied without it. In the afternoon and evening he was in some pain, his thoughts were confused, and a distressing hiccough came on, which filled all his fellow passengers with alarm.
On Monday the 15th, he had a restless night ; the hiccough was painful and almost incessant. On Tuesday morning the hiccough abated ; he slept, with short intervals of wakefulness, and, though his strength was gradually declining, he knew those around him, and gave correct answers to all enquiries. About noon he spoke with some freedom, and his sentiments were full of piety and trust in God. Between two and three in the afternoon his hiccough ceased. There was no convulsion ; no deep groan. He gently closed his hands on his breast, as if to engage in some act of devotion, and, while a ce- lestial smile settled upon his countenance, and every feature expressed the serenity and meekness of his soul, he ceased to breath.
Thus in the fifty-fifth year of his age, did this beloved man of God close his life of distinguished piety and usefulness, and leave Africa and the world to mourn. As the sun was going down, all on board assembled with great seriousness, when, with painful solemnity, and tender supplications to the God of heaven, his body was deposited beneath the mighty waters, there to rest until that great day when the sea shall give up the dead which are in it.
THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA
is a " Free, Sovereign, and Independent State, and is so acknowledged by the leading nations of Europe and by the United States ; and, in- cluding its aboriginal inhabitants, the African Republic now contains a population of more than half a million of the children of Africa, living under a government modeled after that of the United States. Within the limits of the republic three missionary boards of the United States have, for many years, annually, expended in their mission work more than fifty thousand dollars.
Now, a civilized people is there ; the English language is there ; the mechanic arts are there ; a growing commerce is there ; churches and Sunday schools are there ; other schools, and a college are there ; five missionary boards in this country have missions there ; connected with those as clergymen and Christian workers, over one hundred and thirty of the emigrants, or their children, sent by the Colonization Society are there; all the means and appliances necessary to the
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growth and permanency of a powerful nation are there, and the prospect for Liberia is not only hopeful, but very promising as a nation.
Such is but a brief picture of one of the societies and objects for which Samuel J. Mills put forth his peculiar energy. A summary of the American Board, and the American Bible Societies would be equally honorable and praiseworthy. It is not claimed that Mr. Mills was the prime mover in the organization of these societies, but that he, as possessing great foresight, as to the moral, religious, and civil needs of humanity, gave all his energy and faith to these enter- prises in the day when they first began to move the minds of Christians.
REV. WILLIAM H. MOORE
Was born in East Lyme, Aug. 24, 1820, and was graduated at Yale college in 1841 ; studied theology at New Haven, from 1843 to 1846 ; was licensed by the New Haven west association Aug. 13, 1845. He was ordained pastor at Torringford, Sept. 30, 1846, and dismissed Sept. 26, 1854. He edited the Examiner at Norwich, from Aug. 1854 to Sept., 1855; was pastor at Newtown from Nov. 12, 1856 to Sept. 30, 1862 ; at which time he entered the service of the Connecticut Home Missionary Society, as secretary, and still continues in that office.
Mr. Moore is a man of great energy and perseverance in his work, and has effected very much in combining the influences and powers of the Congregational churches of Connecticut, in sustaining the or- dinances and preaching of the Gospel in the weaker churches throughont the state. He has also taken a prominent part in es- tablishing the Memorial Hall at Hartford.
REV. CHARLES NEWMAN
Was born in Egremont, Mass., April 9, 1831 ; was graduated at Williams college in 1851 ; was graduated at Andover theological seminary in 1857; was licensed by Andover association Feb. 10, 1857 ; was ordained pastor at Torringford, May 18, 1858 and dis- missed Oct. 28, 1862, and commenced labor as acting pastor at Lanesboro, Mass., in Oct., 1863.
While in Torringford two of his discourses were published ; one delivered at the funeral of Charles Roberts, in June, 1858, and the other at the funeral of Dea. Thomas A. Miller and his wife, in 1861.
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BIOGRAPHIES.
REV. FRANKLIN NOBLE
Was born at Washington, D. C., May 25, 1837; was graduated at Williams college in 1856 ; studied at Union theology seminary ; was licensed by the Presbytery of the district of Columbia, March 5, 1861 ; was ordained pastor of a Presbyterian church in Sandusky, O., April 30, 1862 and dismissed July 1, 1864 ; was pastor at Tor- ringford from June 7, 1865 to Nov. 30, 1866, and took charge of the Atlantic avenue mission, Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 1, 1866, in which the church of the Covenant was organized March 10, 1868.
NOAH NORTH,
Son of Ebenezer North, was born in January, 1733, in Farmington, and came to Torrington when about ten years of age ; married Jemi- ma Loomis March 25, 1756, and settled on a farm across the road from Solomon Loomis's house, half a mile south of the Newfield burying ground, and was among the first settlers in that part of the town.
He began an account book as he says in " 1760" and seems to have had a small store in his dwelling where he exchanged various commodities of farm and mechanical produce, and some imported articles as tea, indigo and sugar, and by which he paid for labor in many forms as the accounts show. For ten years he employed numbers of laborers in various kinds of work, such as, " cutting wood, logs and timber, rolling logs, picking brush, mowing, reaping, making hay, plowing, hoeing corn, threshing," and the like. He had a saw mill and sold considerable lumber and sawed boards of various kinds of wood for individuals. In 1770, if not before, he had a cider mill and sold thereafter many barrels of cider a year, and received pay for the use of the mill for others to make their own cider.
In 1767, his business transactions had attained to quite formidable proportions. His sales were large in wheat, rye, and other grains, butter, cheese, tallow, pork and considerable sugar, although this last commodity was sold in small quantities, mostly, one, two and three pounds. Indigo was quite an item of sale, because many families colored their own linen and tow yarn, to make streaked and checked cloth for summer clothes, and also woolen yarn in a variety of colors for stockings and mittens, and for women's dresses; most of the plain woolen cloth for men's wear being dyed at the carding mill, or fulling mill. The quantity of venison he sold is quite surprising,
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especially when it appears that he uses the word in its definite sense, meaning deer meat, for when he sells bear meat he says so. He does not appear to have been a great hunter, for he was too busy at all times of the year to spend much time in hunting.
He sold various kinds of linen and woolen cloths ; raised the flax and the wool and engaged different families to spin and weave, and paid for this work from his store. This shows how much of the labor of women (for they did the spinning and much of the weaving) went directly for the support of the family ; and in this they gloried, having an ambition to be help mates, even in toil, when occasion re- quired, and'to do something besides reading novels.
Mr. North was quite a mechanic, making plows, oxyokes and bows, and doing various kinds of carpenter work. He charges the dressing of skins ; deer skins, fawn skins and sheep skins, but does not appear to have had a full tannery.
Much has been reported of the small amount of money in circu- lation in those days, yet it is impossible to conceive how the busi- ness transactions of more than forty families could be conducted at such a store, as exhibited in this book of Mr. North's for ten years without one-fourth of the money that one ordinary mechanic's family would use in one year at the present day, even in hard times. What patience it must have required to live in those times; patience, so long, that the thought of it, pains the imagination, as with mental backache. If, at that time, summer clothes were wanted, provision must be made the year before they were wanted. The flax seed must be sown, then they must wait for it to grow, then pull it and thrash it; spread it on the meadow to rot, take it up and store it until the winter or spring and then dress it, and deliver it to the women to be spun, then go into the woods and procure bluebeach, or other kinds of bark, boil it and make a dye; color some of the yarn and the rest bleach ; the process securing to the mother's hands as decided a color as the yarn would get, wearing off about the time the cloth would be worn out, then weave the yarn into cloth and make the garments. At the present day if we need garments, we go to the store and buy them ready made, even a whole outfit for a gentleman or lady, and go to the centennial, the same day.
ALFRED NORTH, M.D.,
Son of Phineas and Louisa (Wetmore) North, was born October 5, 1836, in Torrington. He went to Norfolk to school when twelve
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BIOGRAPHIES.
years of age, thence to Goshen, thence to East Windsor, and thence to Brown university, where he was graduated in 1857. In 1860, he entered the college of physicians and surgeons in New York city where he graduated three years afterwards, and then served two years as resident surgeon in the New York hospital, and one year in the New England hospital for disabled soldiers. He then became attend- ing surgeon in the army of the United States hospital at Frederick city Maryland, where he remained two years, or until the close of the war.
Since that time he has been engaged in Waterbury as a practicing physician ; taking a prominent place in the profession ; having quite an extensive practice, and in which he has secured an extensive, favorable reputation both as physician and surgeon.
Dr. North is descended from one of the oldest and most energetic families in Torrington and Wethersfield, and the same is true of his maternal ancestry, and hence the inheritance of his own physical and intellectual energy, application and success.
PAUL PECK,
Probably a descendant of the Deacon Peck family of Hartford, made his home beside the Naugatuck river a little below the present site of Wolcottville, very early, probably, before any settlement was made in the town of Torrington. His cabin was built on the east side of the hill, now in Valley Park, wherein he dwelt with his dogs as his companions, and the wild beasts for his neighbors, except when the Indians made him a call. With the exception of planting a little corn on the river flats, and attending perhaps to a small amount of gardening, he devoted his days to hunting.
One tradition says that Paul Peck shot the Indian on Red mountain, by which act the mountain received its name. If so Paul Peck was hunting in these regions before Torrington was first surveyed and laid into lots, for in the first survey the name Red mountain is used. Northwest of Burrville was a hunter's lodge, said to have been Paul Peck's, well known to the early inhabitants of that region, and near it has since been found a bear trap with the letters on it, P. P., which were the initials of this hunter. Another trap has been found near Orson Barber's, and one or two have been dug up near his hut below Wolcottville. Another hunter's lodge is supposed to have been established on the hill, a mile and a half south- west of Wolcottville, where the old cellar place was still to be seen
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not long ago. It is said also that Peck used to encamp with the Indians on Sucker brook in Winchester.
At one time, while he was following the tracks of three deer, on the hill north of Burrville pond, he saw another track come into the trail, and he knew it to be a panther's. After traveling to a certain position Peck hid himself and watched for his prey. Soon he saw the panther coming on the back track with a deer on his back, and at a certain point of elevation, he lay down the deer, looked in every direction as in triumph, then returned on his hunt for another deer, which he soon captured and brought to the same place and lay it with the first. When he had brought the third deer, laying it with the other two, and stepping upon them, lifting his head high in triumph, and looking abroad for intruders, Paul thought it was his turn, and raising his trusty gun he piled the panther, dead upon the three deer, making a successful day's hunt.
When the Revolution came the patriotism of his heart was stirred, equally as though he lived in a splendid mansion. On hearing of the invasion of Danbury, Ct., by the British in 1777, he hastened to that place with his often trusted gun, and arriving in season to have some part in resisting the invasion, he took his position, independently in the battle, where he remained, never retreating, doing the best service he could with his gun until he was shot by the enemy. Brave as a wild hunter, in the forests, true to his country in the time of her peril, he is remembered with much interest and kindly feeling by the people of the surrounding region.
REV. LAVALETTE PERRIN, D.D.,
Son of Aaron and Lois (Lee) Perrin, was born May 15, 1816, at Vernon, Ct .; was graduated at Yale college in 1840; and in Yale seminary in 1843, and was ordained pastor at Goshen, Ct., Dec. 13, 1843, where he remained fourteen years, performing the duties of his office with great satisfaction to his people. Impaired health, or general prostration of vital forces, led him to ask a dismission from this parish, which the consociation granted, but to which the church never consented.
After a rest of nearly two years, during which he preached at various places as a supply, not consenting to be a candidate, he accepted the invitation of the Congregational church at New Britain, and was installed there February, 1858. Here his labors were very acceptable to the people until 1870, when his health again became
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BIOGRAPHIES.
so impaired that rest became an imperative necessity. The church were unwilling to release him, but the council granted it. He went to Europe, visiting Scotland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, England, and Ireland; a tour of some five months. During this journey he fully recovered his health, and since that time has pos- sessed better health than in any former period of his life.
In the early part of the summer he received and accepted an invitation to become the pastor of the church in Wolcottville, and was installed July 31, 1872, where he is still laboring with success, and very constant application as a pastor.
He has acted as one of the editors of the Religious Herald, at Hartford, several years, and has been a prominent agent in the recent effort to establish a Congregational Memorial Hall at Hartford, which effort has been, to a considerable extent, successful.
He has a very interesting family.
DR. JEREMIAH W. PHELPS
Was born at Norfolk, February 29, 1824, his father having died in the preceding January, leaving a daughter two years older than this son. His mother was married a second time to John P. Warner, of Norfolk, in 1840. Most of his early life was passed at Winchester Centre with his uncle, Lemuel Hurlbut, until nineteen years of age, when he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. J. H. Cockey, then of that place, but now of Rye, New York. Having attended medical lectures at Castleton, Vermont, where he graduated in 1846, he commenced the practice of medicine in Colebrook, but remained there only three years, when he removed to Wolcottville. Here he remained but a short time and removed to Chicago, Ill., from which he returned to Wolcottville in 1851.
Since that time the doctor has remained here in the active duties of his profession, with the exception of two years and a half spent in his profession in New Haven. In 1871 he went to California to' attend the United States Medical Convention, and was present at the first meeting of the California State Medical Society, of which he was made an honorary member. He is also a member of the Rocky Mountain Medical Society, which was organized during the meeting of the California Medical Convention. He is also a member of several medical societies in the Eastern states, and is a successful, and highly esteemed physician of Torrington.
72
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HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
J. O. POND, M.D.
The ancestry of Dr. Pond were among the early settlers of New England. His father Elijah Pond was the youngest of a family of nine sons and two daughters. All these, except one who was drowned when sixty -four, lived considerably over seventy years, some over ninety. Elijah Pond was the son of Ezra, 4th in descent from Daniel Pond, the first progenitor of the name, as we believe, in this country.
Daniel Pond appeared in Dedham, Norfolk Co., Mass., early in 1652. Ezra Pond, son of Robert, and grandson of Daniel Pond, was born about 1698 in Wrentham now Franklin, Mass., passed his long life there, and was for many years town clerk. He was one of the founders of the 2d church in Medway, and acquired a fine estate and a respectable standing in community. His numerous progeny settled in Wrentham, and the neighboring towns and adjacent states.
His youngest son Elijah continued a resident of Wrentham until 1785. Early in 1761, when about twenty-one years of age, he married his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Eleazer Metcalf, by whom he had a son and three daughters. The oldest daughter died in childhood ; the son Lewis, and the other two daughters, Olive and Esther, attained maturity and removed to the state of Vermont, where they married and had all of them, large families of children. The record of his first wife's death is not ascertained.
Dec. 18th, 1777, he married his second wife, Mehitabel, daughter of Dr. Silas Pratt. She was born Oct. 21, 1733, and died of dysentery at Torrington, Sept. 8th, 1815. When married she was twenty- four years old. She was a most noble, modest, affectionate and de- voted wife and mother.
Elijah Pond became possessed of the homestead and extensive lands of his father while he resided in Wrentham and before his father's death. Here, for a number of years, he was employed in a four mill and the peaceful pursuits of husbandry. While here, at the Concord and Lexington alarm, April 19th, 1775, on the eruption of the British soldiers from Boston, he commanded a company of minute men that went to Roxbury and Dorchester heights, to watch and resist their hostile incursions. After remaining in the vicinity some two weeks without collisions with the enemy, they returned.
About 1785, Capt. Pond sold his possessions in Wrentham in parcels to several individuals, and removed to Grafton on the Black- stone, in the county of Worcester, where he purchased a flouring
JAMES O. POND, M. D., 327 W. 23d St., N. Y.
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BIOGRAPHIES.
mill and lands of a gentleman by the name of Leland. His residence in Grafton was about nine years, whence in the fall of 1794, at the solicitation of his brother-in-law, Abijah Holbrook, he removed to Torrington on the Naugatuck river.
During his residence in Wrentham (Franklin) and Grafton, all his children by the second marriage were born ; first, a son that died in infancy ; second, James, born Sept. 11, 1779, died in infancy ; third, Nancy, who married Jacob Kimberly, had a large family of children, and died at St. Johnsville, New York, 1862 ; fourth, Ferdinand, born 1782, and died of measles, 1815 ; from infancy he was utterly helpless by reason of spasmodic contraction of the muscles of the entire body ; fifth, Abijah Holbrook born 1785, and died of dysentery, at New Haven, 1806 ; sixth, James Otis, born Aug. 21, 1790 ; seventh and eighth, Prescott and Preston, twins, born Sept. 22, 1792, (Prescott died at Wolcottville, Nov. 22, 1855; Preston at Twins- burg, Ohio, May 2, 1830) ; and ninth, Elijah, born June, 1794, and died at Concord, Penn., July, 1865.
Mr. Pond's residence at Torrington was in a small village on the Naugatuck or Waterbury river, affording water power for several mills and other machinery. It was formerly a rustic, pleasant little village of ten or twelve families ; but at present is very much dilapi- dated and deserted, affording an impressive contrast to the thrift and life of seventy years ago.
A district school at which the children of the village received their early education, was situated on the road leading from Torrington to Winchester, at a distance of one and a half miles. Here the child- ren of Mr. Pond received their primary instruction in the mysteries of reading, spelling and writing.
James Otis having suffered many months from pain in the head, when fourteen years of age, passed a summer at Branford on the sea side, for the benefit of his enfeebled health. Believing that a marine atmosphere was favorable to his improvement, a situation was obtained on board a vessel that plied as a packet, between New Haven and New York. He made several trips through Long Island Sound, much to his vigoration and benefit, after which he returned to Torrington, and commenced a preparatory study for college.
He received instruction at Morris's academy, at Litchfield, and from several private teachers, among them, the late Rev. Frederick Marsh of blessed memory. About 1806-7, young Pond returned to New Haven, and entered, as a clerk, the grocery store of the gentlemen
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who owned the packet, in which some year or two before, he had obtained the recovery of his health. During the period of his resi- dence in New Haven, there occurred a season of special attention to the subject of religion in the First Congregational church, under the pastoral care of Rev. Moses Stuart, afterwards professor of sacred lite- rature in the Theological seminary at Andover. James Otis had never seen a time like this, had never witnessed the movement of the Holy Spirit on the heart, developing a state of depravity and corruption, which he did not before believe could exist, and the discovery gave him exquisite distress. Whether through the assiduity, skillful labors and earnest admonitions of the pastor, during the many weeks of his anxiety, he repaired to the fountain which alone could cleanse his moral pollution, is not quite certain, but during these weeks of his anxiety and after a continuance of fifteen or eighteen months in the grocery store, he returned to Torrington. Here on every hand he found himself surrounded by profound religious insensibility and de- clension. The contrast between the religious condition here and that of New Haven, instead of inducing an apathy, the natural result of worldly intercourse, seemed in this case, to arouse to more energy of action. He held frequent conversations on the subject of religion with an intimate companion, and they together made many visits to their pastor, Rev. Alex. Gillett, for conversation and instruction, and the young man became deeply impressed, but at length relapsed into insensibility and indifference; James Otis did not lose his religious interest, but in the summer following the spring of his return from New Haven in 1808, made public profession of faith in Christ, and united with the Congregational church in Torrington.
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