History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 52

Author: Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York, Preston
Number of Pages: 1506

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

Grosvenor's, in what is the north part of Abington. Two years later, Samuel Sumner, son of George Sumner, of Roxbury, took possession of the sixth lot of the square, purchased of Captain Sabin-building his house near the site of the present Quaker meeting house, and marrying Elizabeth Griffin, probably daugh- ter of Joseph, the Mashamoquet proprietor. The young Ingalls brothers, who came up with their widowed mother, Hannah In- galls, from Andover, bought a second-division lot in the south- west of the purchase, and made them a home in the depths of the wilderness. Joseph Craft appears at about this date as a resident of the west part of Pomfret. It is quite possible that his land was secured by an early grant from Major Fitch, as the name of Samuel Craft appears among the original grantees of the town and no subsequent deed has been discovered. Some sales of land were also made to non-residents. Several tracts were sold by Captain Chandler to Jonathan Waldo, of Boston. Eight hundred acres of second-division land, south of the Masha- moquet and west of Newichewanna brook were sold by Major Fitch, in 1714, to John Dyer, of Canterbury, and by him con- veyed to Colonel Thomas Fitch, of Boston. The strip of land west of the purchase, embracing about two thousand acres, was made over by Major Fitch to his son Daniel in 1719.

These new inhabitants of Pomfret were mostly men of char- acter and property, and at once identified themselves with the growth of the town. Jehoshaphat Holmes was soon chosen town clerk, Samuel Gridley served as clerk both for town and proprietors, Abiel Cheney was licensed as tavern keeper, Sharpe, Holbrook and other new inhabitants were appointed to various public services, and "Father Coy " opened his house for public meetings. Efforts had long been made to secure better trav- eling communication with Providence, the most accessible mar- ket town for this section. The existing bridle path could not accommodate teams or vehicles. The movement was initiated in 1708, and the road completed and opened in 1721, under the supervision of Nathaniel Sessions, who himself brought over it the first load of West India goods to Pomfret. The road, like the path preceding it, crossed the Quinebaug just below the falls at the old fording place first opened by Peter Aspin- wall, who soon after 1700, begged the privilege of building a bridge there. Captain John Sabin, with the aid of his son, constructed a substantial bridge "over the Quinebaug at ye falls

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

near Pomfret, in 1722." Joshua Ripley and Timothy Pierce were appointed by the general court to view the bridge, and reported it "built in a suitable place, out of danger of being carried away by floods or ice, the highth of the bridge be- ing above any flood yet known to any man living there, and think it will be very serviceable to a great part of the govern- ment in traveling to Boston, being at least ten miles the nearest way according to their judgment." The cost of this bridge was £120, for which three hundred acres of land in the common lands, on the east side of Connecticut river, were allowed to Captain Sa- bin, "on condition he keep the same in repair fourteen years next coming." Various minor matters were considered and set- tled. A rate of three pounds was allowed for procuring weights and measures and a black staff. A penny a head was allowed for destroying blackbirds, twopence for squirrels, woodpeckers and blue jays, and twopence a tail for rattlesnakes.

Pomfret, for a time, was so remarkably healthy that, in five years, the only deaths occurring were those of three infants, so that the burial ground by the meeting house was scarcely made use of. In 1719, the town voted "That the burying place be re- moved to a more convenient place," and accepted the gift of two acres of land for this use and service, bounded north by Wappa- quians brook and east by the highway, from Deacon Philemon Chandler. The first person interred in the new ground is be- lieved to have been Joseph Griffin, one of the original Masha- moquet proprietors, in 1723. He was followed, in 1725, by Dea- con Benjamin Sabin, an early Woodstock pioneer, and one of the most useful and respected citizens of Pomfret.

Mortlake, during this period, made little progress. Houses were built within the manors, and part of the land brought un- der cultivation. Wiltshire was rented to Henry Earle. Five hundred acres in Kingswood were leased by Mr. Belcher to Isaiah and Thompson Wood, of Canterbury. That Belcher even made a summer residence of his farms, is extremely doubtful. William Williams purchased of Belcher a farm west of Wilt- shire, in 1719, and took immediate possession of it. His family, with those of Belcher's tenants, were probably for many years the only white inhabitants of Mortlake.

The listed inhabitants and proprietors of Pomfret in 1731 numbered over one hundred. Omitting those who lived in the south part, afterward Brooklyn, and the non-residents, the

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

list included the following: On the purchase, Major John Sabin, Mrs. Elizabeth Grosvenor, Leicester Grosvenor, Edward Pay- son, Joseph Griffin, William Sharpe, Zachariah Waldo, Thomas Goodell, John Weld, Abiel Lyon, John Sharpe, Benjamin Grif- fin, Deacon Philemon Chandler, John Parkhurst, Ebenezer Sabin, Jeremiah Sabin, Deacon Benjamin Sabin, Captain Joseph Chandler, Joseph Grosvenor, Edward McCoy, Nehemiah Sabin, Ebenezer Truesdell, Timothy Sabin, Joseph Tucker, Samuel Sumner, John Shaw, Philemon Chandler, Jr., Joseph Sabin, Josiah Sabin, Benjamin Sabin, Peter Sabin, William Sabin, Isaac Dana, Jacob Dana, Thomas Goodell, Solomon Sharpe, Nathaniel Sessions, Joseph Dana, Humphrey Goodell, Zachariah Goodell; residents and proprietors east of purchase: Major Sabin, Noah Sabin, Samuel Paine, Seth Paine, Jonathan Dresser, Samuel Perrin, James Taylor, William Gary, David Howe, Nathaniel Johnson,' James Sawyer, Jonathan Lyon, Benjamin Sanger, Samuel Gary, Samuel Carpenter, Henry Taylor, Thomas Mighill, William Short, Stephen Paine, Penuel Deming, Isaac Bacon, Daniel Bacon, Matthew Davis, Noah Upham; residents west of purchase were: David Stowell, John Ingalls, Benjamin Chaplin, Thomas Durkee, Nathaniel Stowell, Samuel Kimball, Daniel Allen, Samuel Allen, Thomas Grow, Caleb Abbot, Ben- jamin Allen, Jonathan Stowell.

Population had now diffused itself throughout the township. Thomas Grow's settlement was near the Windham line, now included in the town of Hampton. A large tract of the land west of the purchase was owned and occupied by John Stowell. A farm in this vicinity was purchased by Joseph Bowman, of Dorchester, in 1731. His stepson, Daniel Trowbridge, bought of Abiel in 1734, a farm of a hundred acres bordering on Mashamoquet. Major John Sabin, the first settler of Pomfret, and long its most prominent citizen, died in 1743, leaving three sons, John, Hezekiah and Noah, and a daughter, Judith, wife of Joseph Leavens. The farm north of the meeting house, owned by Jonathan Waldo, passed into the hands of one of his heirs, Zachariah Waldo, of Windham, in 1733, who soon took personal possession.

The peace and prosperity of Pomfret during this period were only marred by its relations with Mortlake, which were in every way uncomfortable and unsatisfactory. The intrusion of a distinct, independent township within its borders was a

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

great detriment and inconvenience, especially as the intruder was wholly without organization and proper government. Residents without rights or responsibilities were not always manageable or agreeable. Mortlake had no town government. The position of this anomalous township was becoming more and more uncomfortable; a manor without a lord; a town with- out organization or officers; its inhabitants regarded as aliens and intruders, with no rights in Pomfret and no privileges in Mortlake, and not even in capacity for lawful country-rate pay- ing, an entire change in status and administration was impera- tively demanded. The inhabitants of the section had never forgotten the town privileges accorded to Sir John Blackwell by the general court, and now again attempted to secure their confirmation. Pomfret, on the other hand, sought its annexa- . tion to her territory. Pomfret was at this time involved in sectional commotion, her western inhabitants seeking for society, her southern for town privileges, and said she would listen to neither. The assembly decided to erect the parish of Abing- ton in 1748, and was unwilling to subject Pomfret to further curtailment. The petition for a township was positively rejected and the north half of Mortlake annexed to Pomfret's first society -a result that pleased no one but the inhabitants of that sec- tion, who preferred even this connection to total isolation. The grievances of the complex society were not in the least abated, while Pomfret was as much dissatisfied with her gain as with her losses, and vainly petitioned to have the north half of Mort- lake removed from being part of her First society. In 1737 excessive rain, with boisterous winds, raised the streams higher than ever known, carried off bridges and greatly damaged Howe's grist mill. A barn filled with hay and stacks of grain, was struck by lightning and consumed in 1742. The following summer a violent hail storm did much damage in Pomfret and adjoining towns, breaking glass, blowing over a house and barns-" a melancholy time with many." At about the same time a mischievous old wolf was devastating farm-yards and sheep-folds. With these exceptions Pomfret enjoyed remarka- ble prosperity.

The grievances of Pomfret were somewhat relieved in 1739 by the transfer of Mortlake into the hands of new proprietors. The south part of Wiltshire was sold by Governor Belcher to Israel Putnam and John Pope, both of Salem. In the course

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

of the year Putnam purchased. Pope's share and took personal possession of Wiltshire manor. In the following year all that remained of Belcher's land purchase, viz., the north part of Wiltshire, the whole of Kingswood, and twelve hundred acres in forest and meadow, were sold by him for $10,500 to Godfrey Malbone, a prominent merchant of Newport. Malbone pur- chased much other land in the vicinity of Williams, Cobb and others, but made no immediate attempt at settlement. The manorial status of Mortlake was unchanged by this transfer of ownership, but its owners were accessible and its land more open for improvement.

In 1742 it was voted by the society, "That the burial place shall be fenced with a stone wall, at the direction and discre- tion of the standing committee." Tavern licenses were now granted to Joseph Dana, Zachariah Waldo, Alexander Sessions ·

and Benjamin Hubbard-Waldo living near the meeting house, the others in the east, west and south parts of the town. Sam- uel Nightingale was chosen town and society clerk in 1745, upon the death of Jehoshaphat Holmes, who had long faithfully discharged those offices.

Twenty years later we find Pomfret a very thriving and pros- perous township, with three well-established, self-supporting religious societies, and the once lawless and irregular Mortlake peacefully incorporated within her borders and made amenable to lawful rate-paying and road-making. The inhabitants of the three parishes united harmoniously in promoting the general interests of the town, and bore proportionate share of public charges and services.

Much of the land was still held by descendants of the origi- nal proprietors. Nine hundred acres originally laid out to Thomas Mowry descended to Miss Elizabeth Pierpont, of Bos- ton, who took personal possession after her marriage with Cap- tain 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, afterward known as Jeri- cho, was occupied prior to 1760 by descendants of William Sharpe. The venerable Nathaniel Sessions, long the last sur- vivor of the first settlers of Pomfret, died in 1771.

The heavy burden borne by Windham county through the wearisome French and Indian wars was not without its compen-

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

sations. Stringent compulsory demands called out the energies of the towns and developed their resources. Wider experiences and the stimulating discipline of camp and battle made stronger men of those engaged in warfare, and fitted them for greater usefulness at home. No town was more favored in this respect than Pomfret. Her sons greatly distinguished themselves in the war, and returned to engage, with zeal and fidelity, in the service of town and county. At the annual meeting of the town, December 1st, 1760, many of these returned soldiers were elected to town offices.

About the revolutionary period and after, society in Pomfret was very brilliant, but had the reputation of exclusiveness. Some of the new families affected a superior style of living. The old established families had also fine houses and furniture, and were thought by their plainer neighbors to live in great magnifi- cence. Many distinguished visitors from abroad were enter- tained at these fine mansion houses. Fashionable belles and beaux came up from Providence and Newport. John Hancock improved his purchase for a summer country seat, and brought thither many distinguished strangers from Boston. Visits were exchanged between these notabilities; balls and dancing parties were given. Pomfret assemblies became very famous and fash- ionable, and drew together all the elite of the vicinity. The airs and graces of the assembled gentry, and the aristocratic assumnp- tion of some families, excited the ridicule of the country peo- ple, and led some local wit to affix to the fashionable quarter the derisive sobriquet of " Pucker Street," by which it was- long distinguished. Several fine houses had been built upon this beautiful street, and the elm trees set out by Oliver Grosvenor and the banished Frink, were already its pride and ornament. The present "Eldredge house" was completed by Colonel Thomas Grosvenor in 1792. Its raising was accompanied by great mirth and festivity-a young Indian delighting the crowd by dancing upon its ridgepole.

The poor were carefully maintained. Bidding them off at a vendue was little practiced in Pomfret. . In 1788 a house was hired for their accommodation, and Doctor Jared Warner ap- pointed their physician in all cases, his services to offset his taxes of every kind. The selectmen were ordered the following year to make the best disposition of the poor for their comfort and the least expense to the town, by putting them to one man or other-

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wise, as they should think proper, and to be vigilant in putting out all vagrants and idle persons that were found residing in the town and not legal inhabitants. In 1794 it was voted to build a house for the poor, and Deacon Robert Baxter and Mr. Joseph Chandler were chosen to superintend the care of the poor. The house was not erected for two years, when it was further ordered to be built on land belonging to the town, to be sixty feet long and fourteen wide, one story high with two stacks of chimneys, two cellars and four rooms. Selectmen were required to take care of the poor after their removal to the town house. "The house of Col. Calvin Day " was made a work house in 1824. Eli- sha B. Perkins, Darius Mathewson and Lemuel Ingalls were directed to consider the condition of the poor, and consult with other towns.

Pomfret suffered serious declension after the loss of her fac- tory, but revived with the opening of the New York & New Eng- land railroad, which accommodates her with three stations and a great influx of company. The pleasant scenery and fine old trees and farm houses of this picturesque town are more and more appreciated, and it is becoming a favorite and fashionable resort. Families from many cities enjoy the coolness and com- forts of these airy homes. This summary demand has greatly quickened agricultural enterprise. A flourishing Farmers' Club has been instituted, which discusses improved methods of farm- ing, and puts them in practice. Intelligent and capable men give their time, energies and thoughts to farm work, which has resulted in increased products and profits, and a higher standard of agricultural attainment throughout the town. Pomfret dair- ies have gained a higher repute, and her "model farms" excite wonder and imitation. Pomfret is also gaining permanent res- idents. Children of her old families come back to the old haunts and hearthstones, and strangers after a summer's sojourn, return perhaps to build villas and mansions of their own. Elegant res- idences going up on sightly hill and shady nook attest the in- creasing popularity of the town. The tasteful "Pomfret Hall," recently erected, manifests the public spirit of its citizens, and their efforts to provide suitable entertainment for guests and stranger sojourners, while its book clubs and library associa- tions show that they have not outgrown their literary pro- clivities.

Pomfret has been foremost in the interest manifested in lit-

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

erary acquirements and especially in the promotion of what culture a public library can bring to a people. In 1739 " The United English Library for the Propagation of Christian and Useful Knowledge " was established here, the citizens of Wood- stock, Mortlake, Killingly and the west part of Thompson join- ing with those of Pomfret in laying its foundations. The so- ciety numbered thirty-four members, who subscribed various sums from ten to forty pounds. The sum expended for books at the start was about £418. The first books were obtained in 1840, and a larger number were added in the following year. The affairs of the society were well managed by a faithful and efficient committee, and its membership in time embraced all the leading men of the township. Pomfret's library be- came one of her most cherished institutions, and maintained and extended her reputation for intelligence and culture.

In June, 1745, the library and its society were divided so as to allow the Woodstock and Killingly people to have their part nearer at home, while Pomfret kept on with its library and association under the same general regulations except as to territorial limitations. For many years the library exercised an influence in favor of higher intelligence and culture in this community. As the old members passed away new mem- bers joined it from time to time, so that the interest seemed unabated. It may have been due to the influence of this library that in 1755 eight young men of this town entered Yale Col- lege, and three others followed soon after, so that there were eleven Pomfret youths in that institution at one time. Nine of them became ministers and achieved respectable positions, and another became a teacher. In 1775 an offshoot from this was established in Brooklyn society, with a hundred volumes.

The United Library was reorganized at the close of the war. It numbered then about fifteen members. The prepon- derance of theological and dogmatic books in the collection was detrimental to its popularity, and it now fell into a de- cline, while the reading people to a large extent thirsted for something lighter, more entertaining, and more in the line of their practical thoughts. To this end a Social Library was formed in 1793, which brought in works of a lighter charac- ter, more attractive to the general reader; but this failed to meet the wants of still a large class, and so, in 1804, a Farm- ers' Library was instituted. The last recorded meeting of the

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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

"Proprietors of the United Library in Pomfret for Propagat- ing . Christian and Useful Knowledge " was held February 12th, 1805, when the librarian was directed "to call upon the Pro- prietors to return the books into the Library agreeably to the original Covenant."

The library is still maintained. In more recent years the interest in it has revived, and it has been enlarged, and is now one of the institutions of which Pomfret society is justly proud. It is well taken care of, being accommodated with a room in Pomfret Hall. The library now numbers some two thousand volumes.

Pomfret Hall is a handsome building, standing on the east side of classic Pomfret street, just a little north of the Episcopal church. It is one story high, and having its auditorium on the ground floor, is easy of access. A covered drive way for carriages to the front allows approach and departure without exposure to storms. The hall was built by subscription, and is used for en- tertainments, lectures and other public gatherings. Religious meetings are sometimes held in it. The hall is one of the finest to be found in a country-side place like this, and sustains the reputation for progressive culture and refinement for which Pom- fret has for generations been noted.

In the matter of schools Pomfret, in its early existence, showed great remissness, making no provision for them until January 28th, 1720, when the town voted to have a school house. Its lo- cation was to be near the meeting house and its size 19 by 24 feet. In 1723 the house was completed and schools established in the north, south and center of the town about the same time. In the course of a decade the diffusion of population throughout the town made more schools needful. As several families, by reason of distance, could have no benefit of the schools already established, it was granted by the town that upon the application of any number of families to the selectmen, they should at their discretion accommodate them with a school at any part of the town. In 1733 four schools were ordered, "one at the sign-post; one at the end of Samuel Dana's lane; one at Noah Upham's, and one west of Mashamoquet Brook, just at going over the bridge by Lyon's mill."

After the division of the town into three societies-Pomfret, Brooklyn and Abington-school as well as church matters were settled in the society meetings. The Pomfret society now com-

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prised only the north part of the town. The first meeting of this as a society distinct from other parts of the town was held in December, 1731. In 1732 it was agreed that there should be one standing school, kept by a schoolmaster six months in the winter season, midway upon the road leading from Woodstock to Mr. Williams's bridge, and the other half of the year be kept by schooldames in the four quarters of the society. In 1733 four schools were allowed through the winter, and " as the north part about the sign-post hath built themselves a house," it was now agreed " That the other parts should provide school houses for themselves." In 1755 the society was divided into four school districts, each of which provided its own school house and master.

The number of children in this town of school age-four to sixteen years-in 1858 was 415; in 1881, 292; in 1887, 287. The town is divided into nine districts, and the enumeration of 1888 showed 282 children of school age.

One of the first needs that Pomfret felt after the meeting house had been built, was for a way to get to it. Roads were not laid out at the start and the attention of the people was now turned toward this deficiency. Within the bounds of the pur- chase, which covered more than half the territory of the town, it belonged to the proprietors to provide them, but outside of those limits it belonged to the town. This arrangement was not satisfactory, as harmony of action was not always attainable. The proprietors, at a meeting in March, 1726, agreed to make over to the town all highways in the purchase. The town then went forward with the work of making roads and bridges as oc- casion and circumstances required. In 1731 a substantial cart bridge was built over the Mashamoquet at the saw mill, and a highway was laid out from it to Windham village. In 1788 a new road was laid out to Ashford, beginning " at a small fall in Mashamoquet brook, thirty rods below the old going-over to Ashford."

In 1770, Pomfret joined with Killingly in rebuilding what was known as " Danielson's bridge." In the following year, "Car- gill's bridge " was rebuilt. Putnam was foremost in a movement for procuring a new road through Pomfret to Norwich and New Haven, but failed to secure it. Notwithstanding all the pains taken to secure easy communication with Providence, rendered so needful by intimate business and social relations, the road

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thither was still very stony and rough, and the journey labori- ous. 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 Quinebaug was accom- plished by Jabez Allen, near the mouth of Beaver's brook, about 1770. A large grist mill was here erected by him and carried on successfully for a few years. The laying out a public high- way from Pomfret street to Cargill's mills gave the town a great deal of trouble. After the rejection of many proposed routes, the road " from Little bridge that crosses Mill river, leading to nigh the dwelling-house of Mr. Abraham Perrin," was estab- lished and recorded, May 14th, 1798. It was also voted to re- build Mill River bridge and repair Cargill's bridge.

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History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 52

Author: Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: New York, Preston Number of Pages: 1506

Author: Bayles, Richard M. (Richard Mather)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York, Preston
Number of Pages: 1506