USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut, Volume II, 1760-1880 > Part 3
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
the first formal dedication service held in Windham County. The Rev. Samnel Peters, church missionary at Hebron, assisted in the ser- vice. The sermon, by Mr. Tyler, very appropriately disenssed "the Sanctity of a Christian Temple," and offered many sound and scrip- tural reasons for its outward and visible consecration. Publie services on the following Sabbath were conducted by Mr. Tyler, and on various other occasions. No minister was procured till September, when Mr. Richard Mosely offered his services. He had been chaplain in the British Naval service, and brought with him letters from some of Mal- bone's Boston friends, but no clerical endorsement. His agreeable manners won the favor of Col. Malbone, who retained him in charge throughout the winter, although Dr. Caner and other Boston clergy- men declined to sanction his appointment. Notwithstanding their disapproval Mr. Mosely became very popular, and not only conducted the regular service in Trinity Church, but preached and lectured in Plainfield and Canterbury, having "a great audience each time." The popularity of Malbone's minister, and the freedom and openness of his manners, naturally excited much remark and criticism. The ancient church and ecclesiastic society of Brooklyn had been greatly disturbed by the establishment of this English church and the number of prose- lytes it had seenred. The vigorous opposition and stinging sarcasms of Col. Malbone had excited much bitterness, and predisposed them to severity of judgment. Local wits had tried to meet him with similar weapons. The ceremonials at the opening of the church edifice and at the christening of the first child had been ridiculed in sprightly dog- gerel, but now more earnest action was demanded. They had heard much of the corruption of the Church of England, and the disreputable character and lives of many of its clergy, and here was one officiating in their own parish, and drawing great numbers to hear him, who, it was whispered, was not even endorsed by his own church, and whose ministerial standing and qualifications were extremely doubtful. As the legal censors of religious order and public morality, the committee of the society felt it their duty to inquire into the matter, and accord- ingly called at the house of Colonel Malbone. That gentleman, who was apprized in advance of their coming, received them with great cahnness and composure, and " suffered them to give full discharge of their embassy," which was, he reports, "to inspect Mosely's letters of orders, and find by what right he had placed him as minister." Col. Malbone expressed his entire willingness to satisfy them, provided they would sign a paper he had prepared for them-a most absurd docu- ment, setting forth in inflated, ridiculous and Quixotic terms their authority and power, as committee of the society of Brooklyn, town of Pomfret, county of Windham, and colony of Connectient, for
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POMFRET, BROOKLYN SOCIETY, ETC.
the inspection and transaction of religious eoneerns, and preventing every possibility of chicanery, frand, or collusion in those who had seeeded from their Independent Congregational meeting," &c. They indignantly refused to sign, Malbone refused to gratify them on any other terms, and "away they went," he writes, "like fools as they came," threatening "vengeance, fire and fagot," and refrained thenceforward from further interference with one so furnished with offensive and defensive weapons.
Mr. Mosely somewhat reluctantly left the field in April, declaring that every man in the parish would gladly have retained him, and it may be added that his subsequent career justified the suspicions of his ministerial unfitness. His successor, Rev. Daniel Fogg, received upon recommendation of clergymen in Boston, in May, 1772, was a man of very different antecedents and character, sober, quiet, discreet and de- vout. Devoting himself diligently to his pastoral duties, he soon brought his motley flock into more regular order and discipline, and won the esteem and confidence of all. About twenty-i.ve families were enrolled as his parishioners. A stipend of thirty pounds a year was allowed by the English Missionary Society, and a similar amount raised by his people. The "Malbone Church," thus comfortably set tled and sustained, pursued its way quietly, slowly increasing in num- bers, and suffering no farther inconvenience than occasional trifling " distrainments " upon some of its members.
With all its interest in ecclesiastic and public affairs, Pomfret was not unmindful of its early literary aspirations. The United Library Association retained its hold on popular favor. As older members passed away their places were filled by others. At a meeting of the proprietors of the Library, at the house of Col. Ebenezer Williams, March 20, 1766, Rev. Daniel Ripley was chosen moderator. The so- ciety then voted, viz .:--
" 1. To admit as members of said company the following persons, viz., Nathaniel Carpenter, Samuel Dana, Sen., Dea. Jonathan Dresser, Abijah Wil- liams, Isaac Sabin, Joseph Scarborough, Nathan Frink, Dr. William Walton, Samuel Wilson, Dea. Edward Ruggles.
2. To admit Joseph Griffin, instead of John Davison, moved out of town, of whom said Griffin bought his right, as appears by certificate.
3. To admit Daniel Waldo to a right, instead of Jonathan Waldo, of whom he purchased said right, as appears by certificate.
4. To admit Ensign Samuel Sumner, instead of Joseph Bowman.
5. To admit Mr. Ebenezer Weeks to a right in ye Library, instead of Wil- liam Prince.
6. To recall ye vote past on June 10, 1756, and to receive into ye Library, Chambers' Dictionary and Colmeit's Ditto.
7. That Col. Williams be ye Library-keeper."
Lieut. Joshua Grosvenor, Simon Cotton, Simeon Sessions, William Sabin, Elijah Williams, John Grosvenor, Elijah Dana and Phinehas
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Davison were also admitted members of the company in following years. Pope's Essay on Man, the Life of Peter the Great, and Bishop Kidder's Demonstrations of the Messiah were added to the Library. In 1775, a library association was formed in Brooklyn society, and a hun- dred volumes procured for the foundation of a library.
Roads and bridges demanded the usual care and legislation. In 1770, Pomfret joined with Killingly in rebuilding what was known as " Danielson's Bridge "-Colonel Putnam, Seth Paine, county surveyor, and Samnel Williams, committee. In the following year, "Cargill's Bridge" was rebuilt-John Grosvenor, Samuel Perrin and Benjamin Cargill, committee. Putnam was foremost in a movement for procur- ing a new road through Pomfret to Norwich and New Haven, but failed to secure it. An attempt to lay out a more direct route from Ashford's east line to Cargill's Bridge was equally unsuccessful. Not- withstanding all the pains taken to secure easy communication with Providence, rendered so needful by intimate business and social rela- tions, the road thither was still very stony and rough, and the journey laborious. So late as 1776, when Mr. S. Thurber drove over it in the first chaise, he "could not ride out of a slow walk but very little of the way, and was near two days in going." Pomfret was much interested in a project for deepening the channel of the Quinebaug, so as to make it passable for boats, Ebenezer and John Grosvenor petitioning with citizens of other towns for this object. One of the first dams upon the Quinebang was accomplished by Jabez Allen, near the mouth of Bea- ver's Brook, about 1770. A large grist-mill was here erected by him, and carried on successfully for a few years. A change of county bounds or county seat was one of the public questions in which Pom- fret was deeply concerned. A very earnest meeting was held at the honse of Colonel Israel Putnam, Feb. 11, 1771, "to consult in regard to some new bound for the county." Delegates from Woodstock, Kil- lingly, Thompson Parish, Plainfield, Canterbury, Ashford, and Union discussed the situation with much spirit, but as both Pomfret and Woodstock aspired to the shireship, and times were unpropitious for any important change, no movement was undertaken.
The taverns of Pomfret enjoyed a high repute during these years with such noted landlords as Putnam, Ebenezer Grosvenor, James Ingalls, Simon Cotton, William Sumner and Joseph Abbott. In these stirring times these resorts were much frequented, and rum and debate flowed with equal freedom. A grocery store opened in Pomfret, in 1762, by Joseph Carter, of Canterbury, enabled families to procure comfortable supplies of vital necessaries. Beside all that was drunk on the premises, or paid for upon delivery, he had charged in his first fortnight more than twenty-five gallons of West India rum. Some
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POMFRET, BROOKLYN SOCIETY, ETC.
families carried away each several gallons. A single gallon usually sufficed Rev. Mr. Whitney. This excessive drinking may have con- tributed to keep Pomfret's physicians in practice. Dr. Lord was handsomely sustained in Abington ; Dr. Walton had his friends and patients in Brooklyn and Killingly ; and old Dr. Weld ministered to the sick in Pomfret society. Dr. David Hall removed to Vermont, after the loss of his wife and several children. He was succeeded in practice by Albigence, son of Zechariah Waldo, a young man of uncommon energy and promise, who had studied for the profession with Dr. John Spalding of Canterbury. Nathan Frink, as King's attorney, still practiced law in Pomfret and adjoining towns. Thomas, son of John Grosvenor, Esq., after graduation from Yale College in 1765, and preparatory legal studies, also opened a law office on Pomfret street. The young men of this town were still emulous for collegiate education, and its three ministers were much engaged in fitting them for admission. It will be remembered that eight Pom- fret boys were graduated from Yale in 1759. In 1760, Joseph Dana was graduated ; in 1761, John and Ephraim Avery and Jesse Goodell ; in 1766, Asa H. Lyon ; in 1767, Elisha Williams ; in 1769, Daniel Grosvenor ; in 1770, Joseph Pope was graduated from Harvard College. It is said that a lady visitant from Massachusetts querying for what purpose they were training so many young men, was told that they were to be sent as missionaries to that State, and it so chanced that very many of them did settle as ministers there, and filled positions of honor and usefulness. One Pomfret youth, not a college graduate, engaged in most useful missionary work in Connecticut. Willard, son of Benjamin Hubbard, succeeded Robert Clelland in teaching Mohegan children about 1764, and continued for many years in this most difficult and thankless service. A small salary was allowed by the English Missionary Society, insufficient for the support of his family even by the addition of his own labor out of school-hours, and it was with great difficulty and many urgent appeals that he obtained relief from the Assembly. He was often obliged to supply the hungry children with bread as well as instruction, and to repair with his own hands and means the dilapidated school-house, nor were the apparent results commensurate with the labor and self-sacrifice.
Little of special note occurred in Abington Parish during this period. Rev. David Ripley officiated to public acceptance, and taught a gram- mar school in his own house till disabled by bodily infirmity. Paro- chial and school affairs were wisely managed by competent committees. John Holbrook, Amasa Sessions, William Osgood, James Ingalls, Dr. Lord, and many other Abington residents were active in general town affairs. 3
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Much of its land was still held by descendants of the original proprietors. Nine hundred aeres originally laid out to Thomas Mowry, descended to Miss Elizabeth Pierpont, of Boston, who took personal possession after her marriage with Captain Peter Cunningham, building a substantial dwelling-house near the Mashamoquet. Part of this land was already laid out in farms and occupied by Benjamin Craft and other tenants. Land in the south part of the society, afterwards known as Jericho, was occupied prior to 1760, by deseend- ants of William Sharpe. The venerable Nathaniel Sessions, long the last survivor of the first settlers of Pomfret, died in 1771. The Providence Gazette gives this notice :-
" Sept. 25. Died, at Pomfret, Conn., Nathaniel Sessions, in the ninety- sixth year of his age-father of Hon. Darius Sessions, of Providence, Deputy-Governor-one of the first settlers in Pomfret, in 1704 : the first that opened a cart road through the woods from Connecticut to Providence in 1721, and transported the first cart-load of West India goods from Provi- dence thither. His wife died about three months before him with whom he had lived sixty-five years, had nine sons and three daughters. Could repeat the New Testament, Psalms and most of the moral and practical writings of the Old Testament, the greater part of which he committed to memory after he was eighty, from fear that he should be deprived of his eye-sight, which happened two years before his death. A sober man and useful member of society."
The Worcester Spy, July 19, 1773, thus records the death of another valued resident of Pomfret :-
" On Saturday last, departed this life in a sudden and affecting manner, the very amiable consort of the Rev. Aaron Putnam, of Pomfret, in the thirty- sixth year of her age. She had been unwell for some years, and for the promoting of health had been riding out a little way, and now returning back she desired Mr. Putnam to stop the chaise and pick her some useful herbs which she observed as they were passing. Accordingly, apprehending no danger, he got out of the chaise and was doing as she proposed, at which time the horse in the carriage took some start and running with one wheel over a rock, she was thrown out of the chaise, which gave her such a shock, as proved her death in about three hours space. She was a daughter of Rev. David Hall, of Sutton. From her very early years a professor of godliness, and of a very serious and exemplary deportment, a person of distinguishing endowment, a good wife, a tender and indulgent mother, one beloved by her acquaintances abroad and by the people among whom she lived.
She hath left her husband in deep affliction and sorrow for his great loss ; hath also left three young children. On the next (being Lord's) day, her remains were decently interred a little before sunset. The Rev. Mr. Whitney, of Brooklyn parish, delivered at Pomfret, on that day, two very suitable dis- courses, that in the afternoon more particularly adapted to the mournful occasion."
Though Pomfret was in many respects so highly favored, she could not retain her increase. Her best land was held by descendants of early settlers and could not easily be purchased. Large families were the fashion. It is said that in the households of three neighbors, Captain Nathaniel Clark, Capt. Stephen Keyes and Ebenezer Grosven- or, there were thirty-three children growing up. To provide food for
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ASHFORD, GENERAL TOWN AFFAIRS, ETC.
so many mouths and work for so many hands, was sometimes a difficult matter. New countries were opening where land was cheap and facil- ities for settlement more abundant. As early as 1735, Deacon Samuel Sumner, Isaac Dana and others from Pomfret, had attempted to pur- chase a township in the Equivalent Lands. In 1761, Dana received a patent from Governor Wentworth for a township in the New Hamp- shire Grants on right of land granted to John White. This land was laid out as the township of Pomfret. Its first settler was Benjamin Durkee, with wife and five children, journeying thither from its Con- necticut namesake.
II.
ASHFORD. GENERAL TOWN AFFAIRS. WESTFORD SOCIETY. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. EASTFORD SOCIETY.
CORBIN LAND CLAIM.
A SHFORD, in 1760, was prominent among Windham County townships. Its position on one of the great thoroughfares of the country brought it into constant communication with Boston, Hart- ford, and other business centres, and kept it awake and stirring. It was especially noted for high military spirit and keen interest in public affairs, and no town was more ready to speak its mind and bear its part whenever occasion demanded. Descendants of many of the first set- tlers now filled the places of their fathers, and new families of respec- tability and influence had established themselves in various localities, and identified themselves with the interests of the town. Ebenezer Byles, upon coming of age, settled about a mile west of Ashford Green, on land purchased in 1726 by Josiah Byles of Boston. William Knowlton of Boxford, a relative of Robert Knowlton, purchased a farm of four hundred acres in the west part of Ashford, divided in time be- tween his sons Daniel and Thomas, who, after serving brilliantly in the French War, engaged with equal ardor in cultivating their land and discharging the ordinary civil and military duties of good citizens at that period. Ephraim Lyon removed from Woodstock to the east part of the town, and was greatly esteemed as a man of shrewdness and sound judgment. Daniel Dow of Voluntown, settled north of the Green, with a rising family of great promise. David Bolles of New London, established himself near the present Eastford village, with a license to exercise " the art and mystery of tanning leather," and great skill and experience in working up the same into serviceable shoes. Stephen Keyes, Theophilus Clark and Amos Babcock were admitted freemen prior to 1760. Samuel Woodcock of Dedham, succeeded to
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
the farm once held by Jacob Parker; Jedidiah Dana to that of John Paine. The remaining part of the Stoddard Tract fell to Martha, danghter of Anthony Stoddard, and wife of Captain John Stevens of Boston, who, in 1757, laid it out and divided it into thirty-one lots or farms, which were sold to John Chapin, Abel Simmons, James Parker, Robert Snow and others. A large and valuable farm near the site of the present Phoenixville, known as the Beaver Dam farm, was retained and occupied by Captain and Mrs. Stevens, and brought under very high cultivation. President Stiles, journeying through Ashford, in 1764, was very much interested in Captain Stevens's agricultural operations. He reported him as holding six thousand acres of land in the town. He had thirty acres of hemp growing tended by one man, and employed thirty hands in pulling time. He expected to harvest twenty tons of hemp and two hundred bushels of seeds. The people of Ashford testi- fied their respect for their distinguished residents by voting, that Capt. John Stevens and his family have liberty to sit in the ministerial pew during the town's pleasure. Captain Benjamin Sumner, Captain Elisha Wales, Elijah Whiton and Amos Babcock were prominent men in town. The latter had "a shop," and engaged quite extensively in trade. Three young physicians-Doctors Joseph Palmer, Nehemiah Howe and Thomas Huntington-eared for the bodily health of the town. The various tavern-keepers licensed in 1762 were Benjamin Sumner, Joseph Palmer, Benjamin Clark, Jedidiah Fay, Ezra Smith, Samuel Eastman and Elijah Babcock. Mills were run by Solomon Mason and others.
Town affairs were managed with the usual formalities. At the an- nual town meeting, December 1, 1760, Amos Babcock was chosen moderator and first selectman ; Ebenezer Byles, Jedidiah Dana, Captain Benjamin Sumner and Ezra Smith, the remaining selectmen ; Mr. Byles, town clerk and treasurer; Ezekiel Tiffany, constable and clerk for the west end of the town; Samuel Holmes, constable and collector for the middle of the town ; Benjamin Russel, constable and collector for the east end of the town, and also for colony rates ; Timothy East- man, Josiah Spalding, Benjamin Carpenter, Amasa Watkins, Samuel Allen, Jedidiah Dana, Stephen Abbot, John Bieknell, Benjamin Walker, Jonathan Chaffee, Job Tyler, Benjamin Clark, David Chaffee, William Preston, surveyors of highways ; Jonathan Burnham, Josiah Eaton, fence-viewers; Benjamin Clark, Josiah Holmes, Benjamin Russel, Jedi- diah Blanchard, Asaph Smith, listers; Nehemiah Smith, Jonathan Burnham, grand-jurors ; Josiah Rogers, Stephen Snow, William Chub, tithing-men ; Benjamin Russel, brander, pound keeper and collector of excise ; Caleb Hende and Josiah Chaffee, branders and pound-keepers ; Samuel Snow, sealer of weights and measures ; Asaph Smith, sealer of leather.
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ASHFORD, GENERAL TOWN AFFAIRS, ETC.
Though in the main thrifty and prosperous, Ashford still suffered from "providential visitations" of drought and frost, together with land disputes and religious dissensions. The excellent town clerk, Ebenezer Byles, jots down among his records some meteorological items which elucidate the former phenomena :---
" The 5th day of May, 1761-a very stormy day of snow, an awful sight, the trees green and the ground white; the 6th day, the trees in the blow and the fields covered with snow.
The 19th day of May, 1763, a bad storin of hail and rain and very cold, fol- lowing which froze ye ground and puddles of water.
The 17th day of October, 1763, it snowed, and ye 18th in ye morning the trees and the ground were all covered with ice and snow, which made it look like ye dead of winter."
Religious dissensions were only heightened by the settlement of Rev. Timothy Allen as minister of the town. A devout Christian and a fervent and eloquent speaker, he was erratic, visionary and im- prudent in speech and conduct. Earnest efforts were now made for the division of the town into religious societies. " Two months preach- ing in the winter paid out of the common stock " emboldened the west- ern inhabitants to ask for full society privileges. "The use of their whole ministerial rate to maintain preaching by themselves," granted by the town, only made them more anxious to gain liberty to dispose of it as they pleased. The " great and almost impossible difficulties " of attending worship in the distant centre incited the eastern inhabit- ants to join in the struggle for territorial division. At the town meet- ing, April, 1762, Captain Benjamin Sumner was chosen moderator, and after a long and vehement discussion it was voted by a majority of one, That the town will divide in three equal societies. A year later it was further voted, " That each part shall have one-third of all the pub- lic money." Captain Sumner, Edward Tiffany, Benjamin Russel, Amos Babcock, Jedidiah Dana, Captain Benjamin Clark and Jedidiah Fay, Samuel Knox and Ezra Smith were appointed a committee "to con- sult and advise in what form it was best to divide," who agreed and concluded, March, 1764, " that the town shall be divided in the follow- ing manner," i. e. :-
" That the east part shall have one-third part of said town for quantity set off to them for an ecclesiastic society, which shall extend west and bound on Bigelow River, provided there is one-third part on the east side of said river, and that the northwest part shall extend from the northwest corner of said township five and one-fourth miles south on the west line of said town, from thence a strait line to the crotch of Mount Hope River, and thence a strait line to John Dimmock's south line, where said line crosses Bigelow River, thence north on said Bigelow River to Uuion line, and the remaining part remain to the middle society."
As usual in such cases this decision satisfied no one, and all parties hastened to the General Assembly with their objections. Sixty-seven residents of the central and eastern sections, including such men as
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Joseph Suow, Thomas Knowlton, Edward Byles, Ebenezer Eaton, Philip Squire, Daniel Dow, Joshua Kendall, Zebulon Marcy, Josiah Spalding and Ephraim Lyon declared :-
" 1. That the form of the proposed new society is such that said old socie- ty will be seven miles in length and three in width, and that the meeting- house will be left within one mile of the east end, so we shall be put to the ex- pense of building a new one.
2. By the manner of being done at the expense of town. We think it quite sufficient to bear our own expenses and not those of others.
3. For that we are small and poor, being the oldest part of the town, and our land almost all under improvement and so not capable of growing much better by improvement; are not quite four thousand pounds on the list, and would further suggest that the votes of the town in choosing committee to make division, in accepting reports and in choosing agents to prefer a me- morial, &c., ought not to have any infinence in the affair, because it appears that about two-thirds of the town in the two ends move jointly at one time to be made two societies, and what cante or wont they do as a town towards crowding us, the minor part, into a corner and loading us with cost unless your Honors interfere, and we think the whole town hardly able to hear the necessary expenses by reason of the bitter effects that we yet forcibly feel of a long and tedions war, scorching dronghts, blasting frosts, and many strong and unhappy misfortunes which of late befel us, and we would farther suggest that the vote of the town was delayed till near night while many of the voters were retired and obtained but by one majority. We pray you to dismiss the memorial, for if it is done, it will make such an uneasiness and so discourage and impoverish us, that the whole design thereof will be defeated. October, 1764."
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