USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 62
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About 1827, perhaps earlier, he commenced the work which re- sulted in giving to Wolcottville its first church edifice and parsonage. For these he furnished the ground ; assumed the responsibility of building ; accepting such contributions of material and labor as the friends of the enterprise were able to furnish ; then completed the buildings and after a short time, during which a legal society was organized, turned over the property to the society with the one re- servation of a seat for his descendants, during a certain length of time, two or three generations. The society is still fulfilling its part of the agreement.
Mr. Taylor was known far and near in consequence of his public position as hotel keeper, and was regarded with much favor by the general public. In 1841 and 2, he was a representative to the legis- lature, and was honored at other times by elections to offices in the town, of responsibility and honor, and was regarded as a benevolent, kindly disposed, but energetic business man.
In politics he was a federalist and whig, until about 1852, when he became a democrat, and in the anti slavery times he was free and earnest in his denunciations of the abolitionists, whom he opposed with a hearty relish ; nor did it please him in the least that the church he with so much cordial good feeling had built was some times used by those who would speak against slavery. He had, it is said, several talks with John Brown, in which the excitement ran high. Brown was the cooler of the two and more than a match as to argument, but Taylor was very decided, and very emphatic in his fears as to the consequences such agitation would bring upon the country, and the last talk he had with Brown, when driven to extremity he exclaimed, " why Brown if you go on in this way you will end your days on the
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gallows," and so it was, and in so dying his name has become honored as a hero, beyond that of almost any other American citizen.
By this remark it is clear that Captain Taylor was not slow to discern and understand the mind of the American public, and that his conservative principles had their foundation in conscientiousness and fear of consequences, rather than in the want of a benevolent dis- position, but John Brown knew no such caution or fear, for with him only one question merited consideration ; what was right must be done even if one should hang for it.
Captain Uri Taylor did much for his own village and town, was much respected, and is still kindly remembered by the community generally.
ELISHA TURNER,
Was born at New London, Ct., Jan. 20, 1822, and received a common school education and attended the academies of Suffield and Colchester.
Received his business education in a dry good store at New London and went into business for himself before he was twenty-one years of age, and had considerable interest in the whale fishing some years. In consequence of poor health he sold his business at New London and removed to Waterbury in the spring of 1846, and conducted the dry goods trade two years, when with others, in 1848, he started the hook and eye business under the name of the Waterbury Hook and Eye Company, in which he was the president and financial manager, and continued as such to the removal of the company to Wolcottville in 1864, and the formation of the new company called Turner and Clark Manufacturing Company, which is now the Turner and Sey- mour Company.
Mr. Turner has represented the town in the legislature and has always been prominent in all public enterprises and responsibilities of high moral character, and is a most reliable and substantial citizen.
MAJOR ISAIAH TUTTLE,
Was born in North Haven, May 23, 1752, and came to Torrington about 1772, on the west side of the town, where he married Ruth, daughter of Capt. Amos Wilson. After the birth of three children he removed to Torringford Society, northeast corner, when it was a wilderness, and built a house, and commenced clearing the lands. It is said that before removing his family to this part of the town he
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spent some time here, preparing for his family, and that he was obliged to keep fires at night to keep the wolves at a distance, as they were inclined to be troublesome.
Previous to burning the brush on the land, he set an orchard, which he bent to the ground and covered with earth to prevent the ยท fire from burning them. The orchard is still in a bearing condition.
Major Tuttle was a hard working man and acquired quite a landed property ; owning lands in the towns of Torrington, Winchester, New Hartford and Barkhamsted. He erected the first house in that corner of the town, now owned and occupied by his granddaughter, Mrs. O. L. Hopkins. In 1803, he built a large two story house, opposite the original one, which with a portion of the land of the old homestead, was inherited by his son Leverette Tuttle, and in turn was inherited by his grandson John L. Tuttle, who now owns and occupies the homestead.
Major Tuttle was noted for his wit and hospitality ; many of his sayings are quoted still by the old people.
From the Winchester Annals, the following is illustrative. " A hardy race were these South street pioneers, from Still river bridge to Major Isaiah Tuttle's, who sifted their corn meal for hasty pudding, ' through a ladder.'" The major remarked that by working bare- footed in the stubble fields, their heels became so hard and flinty that if they happened to tread on the feet of their cattle it would make them bellow.
" Apropos of the major ; the horse-tamer, who could ride any thing but chain-lightning ; was with his boys felling timber on the top of the ridge of mountains, They felled a tall tree, so that one-third of is length extended over a precipice of some twenty or thirty feet. The major ordered his eldest son to go out on the trunk and cut away the top. Uriel went out and after striking a few blows came back with a swimming head. Daniel was sent out to finish the job, but soon came back equally dizzy. After blazing away in his characteristic manner at his boys for their want of pluck the major took his axe and went out himself, and chopped away, until the top of the tree unexpectedly yielded. He was standing with a foot on each side of the chopping, and as the one on the top section yielded he lost his presence of mind, and instead of grasping the main body of the tree, threw his arms around the falling section and went down with it. The boys, hastening around the precipice, came to the landing place of the top of the tree, and found the major bruised and wounded, but on his feet, wiping away with green leaves the blood that was flowing into his eyes and mouth from a wound in his forehead. 'Father, said one of the boys, you have had a terrible fall.' 'Yes ! yes !' said the major, ' a terrible fall ! Adam's fall was nothing to this ! '"
Major Tuttle had a ten year old bull in the lot with other cattle,
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which he ordered his son and hired man to drive out of the lot, and put him elsewhere. They went and after chasing him around in the field for a long time gave it up and reported to the major that they could not get him out. He said he was very sorry he had a son and hired man who could not get a bull out of a lot ; he would try what he could do with the critter. He took with him a dish of salt, and on his way cut two large clubs. When he reached the lot, having let down the bars on his way, he gave the cows some salt, the bull seeking his share as well, and watching his opportunity the major, with a single leap, sprang to the back of his bullship, which in fright started for dear life on a run, making a hideous bellowing as he sped across the lot ; while the major, with a club in each hand, tanned his bulls hide vigorously, and by hitting him on the side of the head as was proper, guided him across the field under full sail and out into the highway.
This somewhat indicates the spirit and energy of the major, and also of his descendants. They were prompt, energetic, spirited, courageous, and the end is not yet.
GENERAL URIEL TUTTLE,
Son of Isaiah and Ruth (Wilson) Tuttle, was born in Torrington in 1774, and spent his life at the north end of Torringford street, as an energetic, industrious, successful farmer. He was a man of large in- fluence, not only in the town, but throughout the county, and con- siderably so through the northern portion of the state.
The following extract from a letter written on the death of Gene- ral Tuttle, by his neighbor, Dea. Thomas A. Miller, to the Repub- lican, is a proper tribute to the character of this good and great man :
" Of the numerous virtues, and enlarged philanthropy of General Tuttle, those only who were intimately acquainted with him can form a just appreci- ation. His eye was quick to perceive, his heart to feel, and his hand to relieve the wants of his fellow men. He was ready to enlist in any effort for the amelioration of suffering humanity. Possessed of an indomitable energy of character, he would surmount and overcome the most formidable obstacles.
He was one of the first to enlist in the temperance reform, and threw his influence into that cause at a time when nothing was gained but obloquy and. reproach. He ever remained firm and undaunted in this cause, until his death ; for only a few hours before he was stricken down by the hand of death, he was engaged in devising plans for the advancement of this reform.
His efforts and untiring zeal in the cause of emancipation are too well known to the public in this state to need a delineation. Those who stood with him in the time which tried men's souls know as no others can the value of his counsels and self-denying labors. For many years and until his death he was
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president of the Litchfield County Anti-Slavery Society, and at the time of his death, the president of the State Anti-Slavery Society.
His house was literally a place of refuge for the panting fugitive, and his purse and team were often employed to help him forward to a place of safety. No man watched with more interest the advance of this cause, in this and other lands, or longed more ardently for its ultimate success. But his work is done. That voice so often raised in behalf of suffering humanity is hushed in death ; that heart which was wont to beat quick for the down trodden and crushed bond- man has beat its last ; those hands which were prompt to relieve the wants of the distressed, are palsied in death.
While we sympathize with the afflicted family, and while we deplore our loss, and the loss which every philanthropic cause has sustained, let us who sur- vive be incited to do with our might what our hands find to do."
REV. HERMAN L. VAILL,
Was born in Litchfield, Dec. 7, 1794; united with the Congrega- tional church there in May, 1816 ; was disabled by ill health from a collegiate course ; began the study of divinity under Rev. Joseph Harvey, D.D., of Goshen, in 1821 ; was licensed by the Litchfield South Association, Oct. 15, 1822 ; was ordained pastor at Milling- ton, April 6, 1825, and dismissed April 1, 1828 ; was pastor at East Lyme eight years, and came to Torringford and was settled pastor two years, being dismissed Sept. 29, 1839. He was afterwards settled at Seneca Falls, N. Y., three years. He was obliged thereafter to decline several invitations to settle, because of enfeebled health, and returned to Litchfield county in 1848, and preached at Milton two years, after which he preached only occasionally until his decease. His widow resides in Litchfield.
GEORGE D. WADHAMS,
Son of Seth Wadhams of Goshen, was born in Cornwall in 1800, and became clerk for R. C. Abernethy at Torrington green, some time during his minority and came to Wolcottville, about 1825, and entered the store with John Hungerford as partner, where Workman and Weeks now are, where he continued many years in the mercantile business. In 1836, this store was united with the woolen mill and Messrs. Hungerford and Wadhams became partners of the mill com- pany, and the former giving his time to the work of manufacturing, the latter gave his time to the store, and other enterprises of business but did not long continue with the woolen mill company. Mr. Wadhams was an enterprising, energetic business man and citizen, and his plans and methods of business would have brought him better
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remuneration if they could have been executed fifty years later or in a large city, for all his work was thorough and honorable but much of it on too large a scale for the limited returns he could realize in so small a community. He built the house now owned and occupied by Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, and after residing in it some years sold it to Israel Coe, and afterwards built the dwelling, now the residence of Ransom Holly. By his directions and counsels a stock company was organized and the first button shop of the place built ; which was afterwards, the papier machie shop, in which business he was still stock owner. He was engaged in several other manufacturing companies, as stock owner and officer ; in all of which he seems to have been, and is so spoken of by many, an honorable, upright, generous hearted man. Mr. Wadhams also built the granite block, an ornament to the village, in which is the Wadhams Hall, and in- asmuch as the community are enjoying and will be for many years the benefits of that hall at the expense of Mr. Wadhams it would be a matter of decided exhibition of want of gratitude if that hall should be called anything but WADHAMS HALL.
MRS. CAROLINE H. HAYDEN WAINWRIGHT,
Daughter of Cicero and Sophia (Squires) Hayden, married Rev. Jonathan A. Wainwright, M.D., of Montpelier, Vt., Sept. 8, 1858. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Horatio Potter, in Trinity church, New York city, June 27, 1858, and became assistant of the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration in that city ; resigned that position, Sept. 8, 1858, and took temporary charge of St. John's church near Fort Caswell, N. C. ; served at that military post one year, when he became rector of St. John's church, Wilmington, N. C. ; where he was ordained priest on Ascension day, May 17, 1860; held that position until Nov., 1861. From that time until Sept., 1862, he had no settled charge, but officiated on Sundays at Milton and Bantam in Litchfield. He was elected chaplain of the 19th Regt. Conn. Vols., or 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery, and resigned that office, March, 1, 1863. He became rector of St. John's church, Salisbury, Conn., March 27, 1863, which position he re- signed in 1871. He is now president of St. Paul's college in Pal- myra, Mo.
LAUREN WETMORE,
Son of Ebenezer L. and Elizabeth (Miller) Wetmore, married Fanny C. Austin in 1827. He has been an active, energetic busi-
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ness man, and an enterprising, progressive citizen, encouraging every moral, philanthropic, and elevating enterprise. He joined the first temperance society organized in Litchfield county, when he was about twenty-three years of age, and is still forcibly and heartily proclaiming total abstinence and no license principles through the village paper, the Wolcottville Register. 1
He united with the church and worked in it with success and acceptability to the people. Joined the abolitionists about 1837, and worked in this cause amid difficulties and at considerable cost. As the conflict increased and the cause of human freedom seemed more and more imperilled, he lost confidence in the church, believing it to be a pro-slavery organization, and left it, very much to the regret of many of his friends, but doubtless very much to his own comfort of moral rectitude. He has resided in his native town all his life except eighteen years spent in mercantile business in the city of New York, and is in full vigor of intellect and his natural strength but little abated though now in his seventy-fifth year. He remembers well the eclipse of the sun in June, 1806, though he could not at that time comprehend the fearful apprehensions of the good fathers concerning such events. Of the district school when he attended it, he says.
" It was small in summer and large in winter ; sixty or more, in the latter case, of boys and girls, many of them sixteen and eighteen years of age, only a few of whom formed a grammar class and remained after school hours to re- ceive instruction, as it was judged that the regular hours of the sehool should not be dissipated by the intrusion of the almost needless study of grammar. Morse's descriptive geography, with a very stinted allowance of maps, met with more general reception than grammar and a few more applied themselves to this branch of learning. Dabol's arithmetic was the only mathematical series known in the school. In reading, the American Preceptor and Columbian Orator comprised the series unless some of the smaller readers were given the New Testament as the intermediate between the spelling book and the Precep- tor. Dilworth's and afterwards Webster's spelling books were the standards, but few persons having heard of or seen any others. Of the fine arts, writing was the chief, drawing being a punishable offence, as it was never indulged in except for mischief. To excel in writing was an honor not easily won, and in this I remember Gerry Grant as the most distinguished. Of all those who used to crowd into the old school house only one or two are left, the others are gone beyond the shadows, whither all must soon follow."
Besides giving adherence to all moral reforms, Mr. Wetmore is a strong, ac- tive supporter of educational interests, and has devoted much time and money, and is doing the same still, in behalf of the high school of Wolcottville. For
I See Register Dec. 1875.
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this institution he gave the lot on which it is located, and is continually exerting his influence for an efficient, thorough and advantageous system of public in- struction.
CAPT. NOAH WILSON,
Son of Dea. John Wilson, of Windsor, was born in 1715, and married in Windsor, Ann, daughter of William Cook, one of the original proprietors of Torrington lands. Noah received from his father about fifty acres of land and his wife about as much more from her father, from the first division and probably more afterwards. He and his wife joined the Torrington church in the spring of 1742, or about two years after Deacon John Cook, and was probably the first settler between deacon Cook's and the pine timber, now Wolcottville. His brother Amos probably lived with him ten or more years before marriage. Amos bought the mill privileges, but soon after Noah took one-fourth of the property, Amos retaining the same amount and others the rest. Noah seems to have attended more to his farm and farm work, and buying land, and his sons bought land, almost everywhere in the town but specially in Mast swamp, and his daughter Ann bought land and sold land in various parts of Mast swamp, with her husband, Joseph Taylor.
Noah Wilson was not a speculator in lands ; he bought to keep, and it would not have hurt his feelings much if he had owned half of the town. Not that he would wish others driven away, but he liked land, and liked to clear it, and see it improved, and let Amos do the work of the merchant.
He was probably the first military captain in the town, but resigned and his brother Amos was elected to fill his place before the Revolu- tion.
Noah Wilson was a true blue puritan in principles and character ; steady on the same track ; so much so that it almost takes one's breath to think of it. True to the pilgrims' idea of the Bible, so that any one in the town knew just what principles he held in religion, and what he would do when those principles should be put to the test as well as he himself knew. He was so sedate, so regular in all his doings, so strict in religious principles, that the youngsters called him " His Majesty."
Under such circumstances, it may easily be seen how afflictive it was to him when his son Abijah became a Methodist, and one of the first Methodists in the state, probably about 1776 or 7. But the devoted Christian life of Abijah and his noted good wife, somewhat
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modified the old gentlemen's opinions of the Methodists, and their doctrines.
He closed his earthly career March 9th, 1796, aged 81 years. Such is an outline of the life of one of many of the early settlers and the strict followers of the doctrines of the Bible as taught and re- ceived by the New England people during the first century and a half after its settlement. Whatever notions may be entertained as to the errors of interpretation given to Bible statements in those days, or any errors of practical life, there is certainly great pleasure arising from the consideration of such fidelity, integrity, and nobleness of character as was produced in those times. In this respect the present age does not surpass that of a hundred years ago.
AMOS WILSON,
Son of Dea. John and Mary Marshall Wilson, was born in Windsor in 1726, and came to Torrington a young man and united with the Torrington church in 1752, worked here ten or more years before his marriage to Zerviah, daughter of William Grant, in 1762. He settled on a farm given him by his father, one mile west of the then pine swamp, where he resided until his death. He was a man of great industry, and could " turn his hand " to almost any kind of work or business enterprises of that day, as is evident from his account book still preserved.
Before his marriage he and his elder brother Noah entered into the enterprise of building the saw mill, known ever after as Wilson's mill, and wherein he and his brother did a great amount of hard, heavy work, both night and day during many years. How many days and years of cold and wet and heat, they endured, about that saw mill and in the woods " getting out logs," and afterwards in the grist mill also, cannot now be numbered nor imagined, but they were very many and the endurances very great. And thus the land was cleared for a beautiful village and for generations who might follow. The work was hard, unceasing, and brought small remuneration.
Amos Wilson kept articles for sale as a merchant, probably, in his dwelling house, such as tea, sugar, indigo, silks, buttons, cloths and such things as were not raised in the town as well as the native productions of the soil.
He was a man of considerable influence in the ecclesiastical society and in the church, at the time the second meeting house was built. He furnished material for that house nearly two years before it was opened for service, and
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did much to secure its final completion. All through the church difficulties he sustained the side that finally built the new house and maintained steady public worship. He was thorough and straightforward in religious as well as business life. When Mindwell Grant did not live with her husband, and the church people were much exercised about it, Amos Wilson did not try to satisfy him- self with a great amount of talk, but preferred charges against her, and believed in doing something, and he made the church do something, and thereby the matter was peaceably settled. When Dea. Abel Hinsdale became a member of the Masonic order, Amos Wilson stopped going to church, and refused fellowship with such a deacon, and a church that would keep such an one ; but when the deacon on oath before a justice of the peace declared that there was nothing in the Masonic oath, that was contrary to the character of a true Christian, so far as he could judge, Mr. Wilson was satisfied, and that matter ended peacefully, and in edification to all.
The following is the only paper of the kind given during the Revo- lution, that has been found :
"JONATHAN TRUMBULL, EsQ., Captain General and Commander-in-Chief of the English colony of Connecticut, in New England, in America.
To Amos Wilson, Greeting :
You being by the General Assembly of this Colony, appointed to be captain of a company now ordered to be raised in this colony, and to join the conti- nental army, reposing especial trust and confidence in your fidelity, courage and good conduct, I do, by virtue of the laws of this colony, me thereunto enabling, appoint and empower you, the said Amos Wilson, to be captain of said com- pany ; you are therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of a captain in leading, ordering and exercising said company in arms, both inferior officers and soldiers, in the service aforesaid, and to keep them in good order and discipline, hereby commanding them to obey you as their captain, and yourself to observe and follow such orders and instructions as you shall from time to time receive from me, or the commander-in-chief of said colony, for the time being, or other your superior officer, according to the rules and discipline of war, ordained and established by the continental congress, pursu- ant to the trust hereby reposed in you.
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