USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 10
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In January, 1698, a rate of £40 was allowed for the meeting-house. Joseph Hall, John Waldo and John Backus were appointed a committee to gather the rate and agree with workmen " to build a meeting-house thirty-five feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and twelve feet between joists, with a gable on each side the roof up to top of the house." Still the work was not begun nor Mr. Whiting called to ordination as advised by the committee, but was still " desired to stay with us," and had eighty cords of wood allowed him. A new pound was ordered at the southeast quarter, at the southeast corner of Richard Hendee's house-lot. The town >officers chosen this year, were: Joshua Ripley, town-clerk ; Joseph Dingley and Joseph Hall, collectors for minister ; Thomas Huntington and Jonathan Ginnings, fence- viewers for south end of town; William More, surveyor of high- ways for south end; Samuel Lincoln, surveyor for north end ; William Backus, pound-keeper and hayward for the great field at the south end ; Benjamin Millard, hayward for fields at Crotch of River; Lieutenant Fitch and Samuel Birchard, to lay out land. It was voted, "That Lieutenant Fitch shall go no more alone to lay out land." In response to a petition preferred to the General Court by Joshna Ripley, to alter the way of raising rates, the town was allowed-October 1698-to value all their allotments at £35 each, and levy rates for minister and other town charges both on land and personal estate.
No farther action was taken this year with reference to the meeting house, but the south end party were more and more dissatisfied with the decision, and reluctant to build upon the spot adjudged by the committee. Early in 1699, the question was re-opened by a proposi- tion in town-meeting, February 6, "To have a committee come and judge whither it is best for us to divide or not, and make report to ye General Court in May-which, if it be not to divide the town,-
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PONDE-TOWN CONTROVERSY, ETC.
then to state the place where ye meeting-house shall stand for ye whole town, and having obtained ye Court's sanction to ye judgment in the case, this shall put a final issue to the controversy." This proposal called out a most earnest and determined opposition. Nineteen men from the north part of the town, led by William Hall, protested most solemnly by word and vote against this attempt "to bring us from or make void that agreement made December 20, 1697," -- but all their efforts were fruitless. Three of their number afterward "protested against their protestation ; " the vote was carried by a fair majority, and the Ponde-town people forced to submit to " manifest destiny," and the will of the strongest. The committee, if appointed, reported in favor of division, and both parties were agreed upon the following articles " respecting their equal privileges of the whole township : "
"WINDHAM, March 16, 1699. The remoteness of the settlement being such that if the said privileges be not equally divided will become a burthen and snare to the inhabitants, therefore, after so long debate and trouble of each end, we agree to divide the privileges.
I. We agree, with the consent of our reverend minister, to divide the Lord's days, that is, from this date to the 25th of December, to have the meeting half the time at the north and half at the south end for seven years, then eachı place to endeavor to keep a minister by themselves,-but if the north end can get a minister sooner, we engage to repay them the money they paid towards the minister's house.
II. It is agreed that eachi end shall build a meeting-house upon their own cost and charges, big enough to accommodate the whole congregation, and to set them where the inhabitants of each place shall see most convenient for the present and future advantage of each place. Further, the neighborhood of each place do covenant and agree that they will find as conveniont a house as possibly they can for the whole society to meet in as it falls to be their turns until the meeting-houses be up and fit for such work.
III. It is fully and firmly agreed upon, that there shall not be one privilege or advantage that respects the whole town but shall be divided between the two ends aforesaid. (1.) To instance, that all military affairs, as training days and town-meetings, shall be at either end of the town according as the religious exercises are divided."
This important question being thus harmoniously settled, Windham was enabled, at length, to initiate measures for church organiza- tion, and, in May, presented the subjoined petition to the General Assembly :-
" May it please your honors to consider that, whereas, we, the inhabitants of the town of Windham, having been long in an unsettled way and destitute of the ordinances of Christ, but God having been pleased so far now to favor his people here as to give us hopes of a good settlement in these affairs of greatest concernment, and also God having so disposed of the hearts of his people in that they are desiring and longing after the enjoyment of God in all his holy ordinances ; we, therefore, whose names are under-written, in behalf of said town of Windham, do humbly request that this honored Court would be pleased so far to favor us and the interests of Christ among us as to grant us liberty to embody into church estate and to ordain the Rev. Samuel Whit- ing, with the advice and help of the neighboring churches, that so we may enjoy God in all his holy ordinances that are according to his own institutions, which is the greatest happiness belonging to a people on this side Heaven. We, therefore, request that your Honors would look friendly upon us and
11
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
help us with your consent, counsel and prayers, that we (may abide) under the shadow of your wings. In so doing, you shall firmly oblige us to be wishing and seeking your welfare and prosperity according to the littleness of the ability of your honors' humble servants,
JOSHUA RIPLEY. . THOMAS BINGHAM. THOMAS HUNTINGTON."
1699.
The Governor, Council and Representatives at once declared their approval of the desire of the people of Windham, and their readiness " to give them all good countenance and encouragement in that work, provided they proceed therein with the advice of the neighbor churches." The agreement between the inhabitants of the north and south ends of the town was also ratified and confirmed by them, and all were enjoined "to conforme thereunto, and to promote the fulfilling thereof in all its parts, both with their persons and estates."
Notwithstanding this gracious permission and encouragement, and the amicable settlement of the great controversy, more than a year passed before church organization was effected. Sabbath services alternated between the north and south villages. The sacrament was administered occasionally by the Norwich minister, but, on October 22, 1699, the Rev. James Noyes, of Stonington, officiated, baptizing-
" David, ye son of Jonathan Ginnings, John, ye son of John Backus, Sarah, ye daughter of John Abby, Abigail, ye daughter of Joseph Hebbard."
January 30, 1700, the front part of William Backus's home-lot, at the southeast quarter, was purchased by Mr. Whiting and Ensign Crane, and made over by them to the town for a " meeting house plat or common." This was the neucleus of Windham Green, on which the first Windham meeting-house was soon after erected, but as this work was managed by a committee few details are preserved. The church was organized in what was known as the Dingley House, a mile north of the Green. Mr. Whiting was ordained December 4, 1700, nearly eight years after his assumption of pastoral duties. No record of the services has been found. The church was formed six days afterward-December 10. Its original members were :-
Samuel Whiting. Joseph Huntington.
Robert Hebbard.
Thomas Bingham. Jeremiah Ripley.
Mary Hebbard. Hannah Abbe.
Joseph Carey. Joshua Ripley. Thomas Huntington. John Backus.
Jonathan Crane.
Joseph Hebbard.
Rebecca Huntington.
Samuel Abbe. John Abbe.
The names of two males and ten females are now illegible. John Abbe and Robert Hebbard, with their wives, were dismissed from the church in Wenham, Massachusetts, "to join with others in gathering and erecting a church at Windham." The others had probably been
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ADDITION OF TERRITORY, ETC.
connected with the church at Norwich. The form of the original covenant has not been preserved. Thomas Bingham, Joseph Carey and Nathaniel Wales were chosen as deacons of the church. The thousand-acre right reserved by the Legatees for the minister was soon afterwards made over to Mr. Whiting, "for his faithful labors eight years in the work of the ministry."
XII.
ADDITION OF TERRITORY. SCOTLAND SETTLEMENT. TOWN DIVISION.
THE territory of Windham, broad and ample at first, had now received some valuable additions. The tract of land "between Windham and Norwich bounds, called the Mamosqueage lands "- reserved by Joshua for the benefit of his children,-was contested by Owaneco, and only after a long and troublesome controversy secured by Joshua's son, Abimileck, who sold it to John Clark and Thomas Buckingham. This tract, embracing about ten thousand acres, lying west of Nipmuck Path, was purchased, in 1698, by Crane and Hunt- ington, in behalf of the proprietors of Windham, and made over, in 1700, to the Rev. Samuel Whiting and Jonathan Crane, who assumed the whole charge of it, laying it out in shares and selling it to settlers. Their right was challenged by Lieutenant Daniel Mason, who had received a deed of the land from Owaneco, and, in spite of the decision adjudging it to Abimileck-" at the public day of training in Windham, May 13, 1701, when many people were present," Mason openly proclaimed his right to the lands at Mamosqueage, and warned all people from cumbering the same. In the following September, the General Court ratified and confirmed their purchase to Messrs. Whit- ing and Crane, and granted them a patent, which effectually precluded all further demonstrations from Lieutenant Mason.
The meadows west of the Willimantic River were also annexed to Windham. This broad stretch of interval land was not included either in the grant to Windham or Lebanon-but lay for some years vacant and unappropriated. Both Windham and Lebanon residents purchased land in this section, and, as settlers took possession, the question arose as to which town they belonged, and, upon application to the General Court, a committee was sent, who reported that it would be for the advantage of the inhabitants to belong to Windham. It is said that
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
both towns were satisfied with the decision. Lebanon congratulated itself upon release from burdensome bridge-making and mending; Windham rejoiced in the prospect of abundance of shad and salmon. A great part of her hay was also procured from these extensive mea- dows. The boundary line between the towns was satisfactorily and permanently settled by a committee from each town, September 23, 1701,-" fully empowered to agree and get the General Court's sanction to this, our agreement."
In March, 1700, a division of hundred-acre lots was ordered, “each man to choose according to the figure he draws, and have liberty to take up as many acres in number as the figure, provided always that none of this land shall be taken up within a mile of ye meeting-house, or on the east side of Merrick's Brook, or northwest of Nachaug River." Every man had liberty to take land adjoining his own land or meadow-"Goodman Hebard to have the first choice of the hundred acres on condition he quits the claim he made of land between the lines and now takes up satisfied for that claim." Those who wilfully neglected to make their choice were to lose the same after May 1st. It was also agreed that " all lands not put into the rate-list should be valued at six shillings, eight-pence an acre."
This addition and division of land facilitated settlement in the out- lying parts of the town. The settlement of the southeast section, known as Scotland, began about 1700-its first settler, Isaac Magoon, giving it the name of his native country. Mr. Magoon was admitted an inhabitant of Windham in 1698, and chose to establish himself east of Merrick's Brook, in a remote and uninhabited part of the town. An early Norwich land-owner is believed to have given his name to this brook. In 1700, Mr. Magoon purchased of Mr. Whiting several hundred acres in the southern extremity of Clark and Bucking- ham's tract. The first rude hut built by him in this locality is said to have been destroyed by fire, and a second built for him by the aid of his Windham neighbors. Sixty acres, on both sides Merrick's Brook, through which passed "the road to the Quinebaug Plantation "-after- wards Plainfield-was also bought by him of Joshua Ripley, and was probably made his homestead. This road to the Quinebaug Plantations also led on to Providence and became the great thoroughfare of travel between that township, Windham, Norwich and Hartford. The facili- ties this afforded, good land and a pleasant location, soon attracted other settlers to Merrick's Brook. In 1701, Magoon sold farms to Samuel Palmner, John Orinsbee, and Daniel and Nathaniel Fuller, all of Rehoboth. In 1702, Josiah Kingsley, John Waldo, Nathaniel Rudd, Josiah Palmer and Ralph Wheelock purchased land of Crane and Whiting, and removed to this new settlement. Waldo's land, in the
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ADDITION OF TERRITORY, ETC.
south of this tract, is still held by his descendants. Many Mohegans frequented this part of the town, clinging to it by virtue of Owaneco's claim to it as Mamosqueage. A hut, on the high hills near Waldo's, was long the residence of the Mooch family-kindred of Uncas and the royal line of the Mohegans.
The increase of population stimulated public improvements. Ben- jamin Millard was allowed, in 1700, "to set up the trade and employ- ment of tanning." Lieutenant Crane received permission from the Court, at Hartford, " to keep a public victualing-house, for the enter- tainment of strangers and travelers and the retailing of strong drink," and Sergeant Hide, at the Ponde, had liberty to keep an ordinary and " retale his mathagiline so far as ye towne have power." To ensure the legal regulation of this and other matters, it was voted, "That the constables should have law books," and the colony laws were inserted among the town records. Liberty to build a sawmill on Goodman Hebard's brook, and the privilege of the stream for damming or "ponding" was granted to several petitioners-or, "if that would not answer, take any other stream." Arrangements for grinding corn not proving satisfactory, Deacon Cary, Ripley and Crane were chosen to agree with the present miller, and decided, " that he should grind for the inhabitants every Monday and Tuesday, they finding him work," and if they brought more than he could grind in the specified time he to keep on grinding till all was finished. In December, 1702, the town, for the first time, made provision for a school, directing the selectmen to agree with school-master or mistress-" scollars to pay what the rate falls short."
The meeting-house slowly attained completion. October 20, "1702, in order to do some further work about the meeting-house, "Messrs. Fitch, Crane, Ripley, Josiah Palmer and John Backus were appointed a committee to " give directions for ye doing of ye work as to ye form and manner thereof." It was agreed " to clabboard in the inside meet- ing-house from sill to girths, round," the committee to agree with workmen "to work about clabboarding, and in making a pulpit, and about the seats, so far as the money will go." A rate of £12 was ordered, but did not go "so far as" the seats; £10, in provision pay, were also levied in December, and that proving insufficient, in January the town was obliged to sell a hundred acres of land " to make and finish seats in meeting-house," while Mr. Whiting had the "liberty of making a pew for Mrs. Whiting and his family in as con- venient a place and for bigness as the comitty shall judge meet." These arrangements being completed, in April, 1703-more than fourteen years after the founding of Windham settlement,-its first meeting-house was opened for regular occupation. Deacons Bingham
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
and Cary, Lieutenants Fitch and Crane, Joshua Ripley, Abraham Mitchell and Josiah Palmer were appointed-April 19-to regulate the important affair of its seating. "Rules to be observed were : (1.) age ; (2.) usefulness ; (3.) estate-by which is understood present list and distribution of work about meeting-house ; (4.) first planters. Deacon Bingham was placed in the right hand seat below the pulpit, and his wife in the pue answerable thereto ; Deacon Cary in the left-hand seat, and his wife in the pue adjoining ; Joshua Ripley and Lieutenants Fitch and Crane in the fore-most pue ; Abraham Mitchell at the head of the first, and Josiah Palmer of the second, seat, with their wives against them-and the remainder of the congregation in due order." Goodwife Jennings was allowed £26, in provision pay, for sweeping the meeting-house the first year. The green around it was now enlarged and appropriated-the town having voted, December 23, 1702, "That the land east from Goodman Broughton's, south from Thomas Huntington's, north of the road by Goodman Broughton's, extending to three or four acres of land onto Stony Plaine, should lay common to perpetuity."
The completion of the meeting-house was soon followed by a divi- sion of the township. A division into north and south-end societies had been previously effected. The surveyor of Hartford County was employed to run the bounds assigned by Uncas ; cast up the quantity of land, and so to divide, according to agreement-" Jeremiah Ripley to go along with the artist to divide the land." A line running a little east of north from a certain pine tree on the south to the north bound of the town, divided Joshua's Tract into equal east and west divisions, each half containing twenty-four of the original forty-eight allotments, the dividing-line altering no man's propriety of land. Cedar swamps were left free "to all proprietors to get cedar as they see cause, so as not to carry it out of the town to other towns." This equitable division was allowed by the inhabitants of both ends of the town, and ratified and confirmed by the General Court, October, 1701. In the following December, Deacon Cary, Joshua Ripley, and Lieutenant Fitch were chosen by the south-end people " to agree with inhabitants of north end with respect to our orderly parting as two societies, and to give or take discharge as the case doth require with respect to our meeting on the Sabbath and other days." Whatever agreement was made was neither satisfactory nor permanent. The territory of Wind- ham, with its recent addition on the south and southwest, was too large and unwieldy, and its inhabitants too scattered to be easily managed by one local government, and the northern inhabitants became them- selves satisfied that their interests would be promoted by an entire separation. In May, 1702, Mr. Joshua Hall represented to the General
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ADDITION OF TERRITORY, ETC.
Court, "the great difficulties, inconveniences and hazards that the inhabitants of the north part of Windham were exposed to by reason of their being settled so remote from the south part of said town, and the deep and dangerous river lying between," and requested " that they may be two townships." This request was granted, on consideration "That the north part of the town do pay their arrears of rates to the town and minister, as also, that they pay their minister's rate to the present minister at the south end of the town until they have an able, orthodox ministrie of the gospel called and settled among themselves ; as also, if their bounds already granted will allow of two townships."
These terms occasioned further delay and discussion. The Ponde- town people were poorer than their southern neighbors and could with difficulty raise the required arrearages. An amicable compromise was, however, effected. The southern settlers were weary of the long Sabbath-day journeys and much preferred to worship in their own new, convenient meeting-house, and gladly consented to forego past rates on condition of release from their engagement to attend divine worship at the north end. In December, 1702, Shubael Dimmock, Joseph Hall and John Arnold-north-end committee-discharged the inhabit- ants of the south end from coming to the north end on Sabbath and other public days, and were themselves discharged by the south-end committee from paying anything further towards the maintenance of the minister.
Another point raised was less easily settled-the precise requirements involved in having " an able and orthodox minister of the gospel called and settled." The north-end inhabitants could hardly afford as yet a competent settlement and salary, and might only be able to hire some young, unlicensed candidate-but would that fulfill the General Court's condition ? Only the Court itself could answer this important question, whereupon Mr. Joshua Ripley appeared before it, October, 1702, and gravely desired the interpretation of those words in the grant that had so perplexed the people of Windham. The Assembly returned answer :-
" That by an able and orthodox minister called and settled, they understand a person competently well-skilled in arts and languages, well-studied and well-principled in divinity, approving himself by his exercises in preaching the gospel to the judgment of those that are approved pastors and teachers of approved churches, to be a person capable of dividing the word of truth aright, to convince gainsayers, and that his conversation is such that he is a person called and qualified according to gospel rule, to be pastor of a church and in an orderly way settled in that office and work."
This list of requirements did not discourage the north inhabitants from their resolution to be a town and have a minister of their own and in May, 1703, a final separation was effected, and the west-or as then called-north part of Windham was formally erected into
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
the township of Mansfield, comprising twenty-four thousand-acre allot- ments and forty-one square miles. A part of its original territory is now included in the town of Chaplin. A patent was granted by the General Court to Shubael Dimmock, Joseph Hall, Samuel Storrs, William Hall, Kinelm Winslow, Robert Fenton, Nathaniel Bassett, John Arnold, John Davis, Benjamin Armstrong, Samuel Storrs, Jun., Joseph Homes, Mary Dunham, Susanna Wade, Peter Crane, Samuel Fuller, Allyn Nichols, Joshua Allen, John Royce, Samuel Linkon, Samuel Bliss, John Gorum, Isaac Chapman and sundry other persons, the proprietors thereof. The inhabitants of Mansfield were still allowed to attend divine service in Windham and pay for the maintenance of the minister " for such time only as they shall be without an orthodox minister of the gospel to preach the word of God unto them." A patent was also granted to the inhabitants of the "standing-part of the town," confirming to them "the south or southeast part of the late town of Windham" and the land purchased from Clark and Bucking- ham. "Joshua's Tract " was thus equally divided into two townships, though in the division of inhabitants Windham had much the larger share.
XIII.
GROWTH. IMPROVEMENTS. SECOND MEETING-HOUSE.
H AVING reduced its bounds to more convenient dimensions, Windham was better enabled to carry out internal improvements. In 1704, highway surveyors were appointed for different parts of the town-Joseph Dingley, from the north end of the town to the meeting- house ; Daniel Sabin for the south end; and John Kingsley for the Scotland farms. Daniel Ross, who had purchased an allotment in the latter quarter in 1703, was further allowed eight acres adjoining Kings- ley's, paying three shillings an acre in money. The town agreed "to have but one ordinary-Lieutenant Crane to keep it." Lieutenant Fitch was chosen town-clerk, and retained many years in that office.
Windham's eastern boundary-line occasioned much trouble and controversy. This line, as laid down by Bushnell according to the direction of Uncas, followed the Nipmuck Path and ran a little west of south. The committee chosen to run the town lines in 1691 ran what they called a true south line from Appaquage for its eastern boundary, taking in a gore of Owaneco's land east of Nipmuck Path. When the new town of Plainfield was laid out, in 1700, in the
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GROWTH, IMPROVEMENTS, ETC.
Quinebaug Country east of Windham, the appointed commissioners took for its western bound the original east line of Joshua's Tract, laid down by Bushnell, and Canterbury, when set off from Plainfield in 1704, retained this western boundary line. Windham, however, insisted that her own true south line was the boundary, and obstinately refused to yield the land between the lines to Canterbury. In 1704, Ripley, Crane and Ginnings were appointed to run the line from Appaquage to the south-east corner of the town, and to agree with owners of the land adjoining eastward with respect to straightening the line, and instructed, " To run a south line from Appaquage, or as near south as the Canterbury people will agree to, and not to agree with them further west than a straight line from Appaquage to the northeast corner of the purchased land." No satisfactory agreement was made. Windham retained the bound ran by her own committee ; laid out the disputed land and levied rates on it for many years, though at the cost of much confusion and litigation.
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