History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 6

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

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The remoteness of these towns from their county seat made them much inconvenience, and as early as 1717 efforts were

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

made to secure the organization of a new county. Failing at first to secure the necessary legislation, efforts were repeated until in May, 1726, the " Governor, Council and Representatives in General Court assembled " enacted, "That the west bounds of the town of Lebanon, the north bounds of Coventry, the north bounds of Mansfield, till it meets with the southwest bounds of Ashford, the west bounds of Ashford, the east bounds of Stafford, the Massachusetts line on the north, the Rhode Island line on the east, the north bounds of Preston and north bounds of Norwich, containing the towns of Windham, Lebanon, Canterbury, Mans- field, Plainfield, Coventry, Pomfret, Killingly, Ashford, Volun- town and Mortlake, shall be one entire county, and called by the name of Windham." The act further set forth that the town of Windham should be the county seat, and that two county courts should be held there annually-one on the fourth Tuesday in June, and one on the second Tuesday in December -- and two superior courts-one on the third Tuesday in March, and the other on the third Tuesday in September of each year.

Three towns, it will be seen, were originally included in Windham county, which are now outside its limits. Lebanon, southwest from Windham, was organized as a town in 1700. Mansfield, at first a part of Windham township, was set off as a distinct incorporation in 1703. Coventry, west of Mansfield, was made a town in 1711. These were all large and important towns, and added much to the strength of the new county. The little irregular Mortlake Manor was included in a distinct town- ship.

It is now impossible to form anything like a definite estimate of the population of that period. It is doubtful if any town ex- cept Windham numbered a hundred families. Windham was then the leading town of northeastern Connecticut, and no one disputed her right to be the county seat of the new county. In population, wealth, cultivation and political influence she had far outstripped her sister townships, and was at once recognized and received as their rightful head and leader. A few hundred Indians, chiefly Wabbaquassets and Quinebaugs, were residents of the new county. Mohegans and Shetuckets roved freely through the towns of Canterbury and Windham. A small num- ber of negroes were held as slaves in the more wealthy families. As to the ratable property of each town, the following figures give some idea ; Ashford and Voluntown not being in that year

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

(1726) sufficiently organized to be assessed, their names do not appear on the list: Windham, £10,709, 10s .; Lebanon, £13.875,- 15s.,4d .; Mansfield, £5,817,0s.,6d .; Coventry, £4,490,7s.,6d .; Plain- field, £6,532,14s .; Canterbury, £6,229,1s.,6d .; Pomfret, £6.474; Killingly, £5,302,10s.

Property was very unequally distributed. Such settlers as were able to buy their land at the outset were soon in comforta- ble circumstances, but the great mass of the people were poor and found it difficult to pay their taxes. Money was scarce, and so were commodities that brought in money, and many could scarcely raise sufficient food for home consumption. Wheat, rye, corn, barley, flax and hemp were the chief staples of pro- duction. Manufactures were limited to leather, potash, coarse pottery, and domestic fabrics of linen and woolen. The people labored hard and suffered many trials and privations, mcrey was scarce, food sometimes scanty and comforts few. This was especially true in the later towns, which were remote from the older settlements. Among the men of the time there was much coarseness and roughness, much bickering and backbiting, but withal a high sense of personal dignity, which was easily offend- ed by the tongue of slander. The first generation reared in these new towns was probably inferior in education and culture to the standard of their fathers. Schools, poor at best, were maintained with great difficulty, and books were scarce. Inter- course with older towns was infrequent. Home training, the church and the town meeting-the only educating, refining and stimulating agencies-could not fully counteract the demoraliz- ing influences and tendencies of their isolated position. The court records furnish abundant testimony to the roughness and violence of the times, and church records bear equal evidence to much looseness of morals among the people. With all their strictness in Sabbath keeping and catechizing, in family and church discipline, there was great license in speech and manner, much hard drinking and rude merry-making, with occasional outbreaks of border ruffianism. Training days were the great festive occasions in all the townships.

Houses were small and rough, and the furniture in them was. rude and scanty. Food and clothing were mainly of home pro- duction, and the ordinary style of living was very plain and sim- ple. Class distinctions, however, were brought here with the settlers, and soon began to show themselves in increased devel-

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

opment. A few families 'were able to adopt and maintain a style of comparative luxury. Ministers were looked up to as social as well as religious leaders, and with their unincumbered homesteads, a salary of sixty to one hundred pounds, and abuh- dance of free firewood, were probably much better provided for than the majority of the people. The inventory of Mr. Whit- ing's estate, taken in 1725, and that of Mr. Estabrook's, two years later, show that these ministers were in very comfortable circumstances, and left ample provision for the maintenance and education of their children. Both left valuable libraries, num- bering nearly two hundred volumes of standard works. A large supply of bedding was included in their household furniture, a goodly array of pewter and brass, a little silver, some chairs and high chests. Carpets and bureaus were then unknown, and earthenware was rarer than silver. The inventory of wearing apparel belonging to Mrs. Estabrook affords some interesting hints as to the customs of ladies in those days. It included "3 black crape gowns and petticoats, 1 silk stuff double gown and petticoat, 1 silk poplin gown and petticoat, 1 silk crape gown, 1 white flannel wrought petticoat, 1 stuff petticoat, 3 linen and woolen petticoats, 1 linen and woolen (home) gown and petticoat, 1 new camblet riding-hood, 1 serge riding-hood, 1 gauze hood, 1 black silk hood, 2 bonnets, 1 silk scarf, 1 pair stays, 1 head dress, 11 night caps, 8 linen aprons, 6 linen aprons, 3 linen and woolen aprons, 2 calico aprons, 2 checkered aprons, 9 speckled h. d. k. fs., 9 pairs gloves, 2 fans, 4 waist-ribbons, amber beads, 4 pairs stockings, 2 pairs shoes, &c."

After the organization of the county the first court of common pleas was held at Windham Green, June 26th, 1726. Timothy Pierce, of Plainfield, who had been judge of probate, was ap- pointed by the general assembly judge of the county court. The justices of the quorum, who attended that first court were Joshua Ripley, of Windham ; Thomas Huntington, of Mansfield ; Joseph Adams, of Canterbury, and Ebenezer West, of Lebanon. Rich- ard Abbe was appointed treasurer of the county. The jury of this court was composed of Eleazer Cary, Jonathan Crane, Joseph Ripley, Jr., Joseph Huntington, Thomas Root and Nathaniel Rust. The first act of the court was " to inquire into the circum- stances" of the unfortunate Peter Davison, of Mortlake, then under the charge of Justice Adams, in pursuance of a recommen- dation from the county court of New London, "that this Court

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

should make some provision for the further support and main- tenance of said idiot." Joseph Backus, of Norwich, appeared as attorney for New London county. The court was of opinion that it had "no power or authority to assign said idiot to any particular place or person for his future support." Forty-six cases were tried at this first session of the court. Licenses were also granted to Thomas Stevens, of Plainfield; Sampson Howe and Isaac Cutler, of Killingly; Solomon Tracy, Edward Spald- ing and Richard Pellet, of Canterbury ; Francis Smith and Oba- diah Rhodes, of Voluntown, "to keep houses of public enter- tainment for strangers, travelers and others, and also to retail strong drink," and to James Lassel, of Windham "to use and oc- cupy ye art and mystery of tanning." At the December session Samuel Backus was arraigned for speaking "vile, ungodly and profane language," and Joseph Bolles, of New London, " for de- claring to ye worshipful Judge Timothy Pierce, 'You fight against God and you are perverting wretches.'" Mehitable Morris was arraigned for unseemly conduct, was sentenced to pay ten pounds, or be whipped ten stripes upon her naked body.

A jail was at once provided for the use of the county prisoners. August 18th, 1726, the justices planned a building to be erected for this purpose, "with all possible expedition," and pending the completion of that building the back room of Mr. Richard Abbe's dwelling house was engaged to be used as a jail. More particular accounts of this reformatory institution and its suc- cessive buildings will be found in another chapter. In April, 1729, the justices began to take steps toward building a "state- house " for the county. A court house forty feet long, twenty- four feet wide and twenty feet high was decided upon, and a committee was appointed to memorialize the assembly, "pray- ing their approbation in this affair, and also, that something be granted to said county out of the duties of goods imported into this Government to assist them in building said house ; also, that something be allowed them from the counties of Hartford and New London, in consideration of what we paid for build- ing the state houses while we belonged to said counties; also, that the town of Windham may be under the same regulations as to keeping and maintaining a grammar school in said town as the other head towns of other counties in this Colony."

The petition appears to have been granted, and its purposes accomplished except in regard to reimbursement from New

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

London and Hartford counties on account of what the towns of Windham might have contributed toward building their court houses. The assembly gave permission for those counties to do this, but it does not appear that they ever did anything in that direction. The new court house was erected, probably in 1730. It stood on a corner of Windham Green, and was considered a handsome building for the time.

Captain John Sabin, the first settler of Pomfret and a leading citizen of northeastern Connecticut, was appointed by the as- sembly in October, 1726, " Major of the Regiment in the County of Windham." Upon the petition of several persons, the assem- bly ordered Major Sabin, a. year later, "to raise a troop in the County of Windham, and to enroll such suitable persons as will voluntarily enlist themselves and engage to equip themselves well for that service; and if there appear and enlist to the num- ber of fifty persons, the major then lead them to the choice of all proper officers." It appears that the required number pre- sented themselves and the troop was organized in May follow- ing, Joseph Trumbull being chosen captain ; Jabez Huntington, lieutenant; Ebenezer Metcalf, cornet; and Thomas Newcomb, quartermaster.

It will be remembered that at this time the important town of Woodstock was not included in the county of Windham. It had been held by Massachusetts as a part of the very extensive county of Suffolk, but the need of different county associations were sorely felt. A movement to effect this object was begun in 1721, and renewed during the years that followed until ten years later, when in 1731 it was incorporated with many towns to the north of it into the county of Worcester. Colonel John Chandler, one of the most prominent citizens, and a member of a very influential family, was a very active and persistent advo- cate of the measure. The distinguished position held by the Chandler family, with the general prosperity and advancement of the town, gave Woodstock a very prominent place in Worcester county. In point of wealth it was only exceeded by the older towns, Leicester and Mendon. Its quota of tax for building the new Worcester county court house was thirty-two pounds.

We have said before that Woodstock was held by Massachu- setts. Although lying south of the southern boundary line of that colony, Massachusetts having in a sense purchased the land for her offspring to settle upon, continued to exercise powers

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

and rights of jurisdiction as well as rights of proprietorship. As the people had favored this course, the colony of Connecticut had neglected to assert her rights of jurisdiction over this terri- tory, which clearly fell within her bounds. But the people of Woodstock now began to see that it would be more desirable for them to be associated with the colony of Connecticut. Their taxes would be lighter and their privileges greater. Notwith- standing the original settlers came from a Massachusetts town, a new generation was now in public life, less personally con- nected with the mother colony. The death of Colonel Chandler severed the strongest tie that bound Woodstock to Massachu- setts. That the grant of the king gave Woodstock territory to Connecticut was admitted by all parties, although an agreement between the colonies had yielded it to Massachusetts. The Woodstock people maintained that this agreement, which had never been confirmed by the king, was invalid ; that a title of land could only be annulled or transferred by the power which had granted it, and that they were thus within Connecticut limits; and entitled to the privileges of its government.

The geographical position of Woodstock was similar to Somers, Suffield and Enfield, further west, in regard to the Massachusetts line. These three towns lay south of the proper Massachusetts line, while between Woodstock and Somers a large tract of Con- necticut land (undisputed) ran up to the line, the territory being nearly the same as that now occupied by the towns of Stafford and Union. These Massachusetts towns extending into Con- necticut territory were called "indented towns." As early as March 31st, 1737, Woodstock appointed by its vote a committee, Colonel William Chandler, to join with the other "indented towns " in a petition to the assembly of Connecticut to take them under its jurisdiction. The assembly appointed a committee to confer with a Massachusetts committee in regard to the matter, but the assembly of that colony indignantly refused to consider the question or to appoint a committee to confer with the other in regard to it. Woodstock and her neighbors, however, pressed the question during the years of a decade, and the assembly in May, 1749, acted on the matter, declaring " that all the said in- habitants which lie south of the line fixed by the Massachusetts Charter are within and have right to the privileges of this Gov- ernment, the aforesaid agreement notwithstanding." A com- mittee was also appointed to join with a Massachusetts commit-

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

tee in running and fixing the line between the colonies, and if the latter should refuse to participate, then the committee should through their agent in Great Britain appeal to the king to "ap- - point commissioners to run and ascertain the division line."

Woodstock now called a meeting of her inhabitants and or- ganized as a town of Windham county in Connecticut, July 28th, 1749, seventy-four freemen being at that time admitted to the privileges of citizenship. After sixty-three years' subjection to . the government of Massachusetts, Woodstock thus triumphantly · effected her own secession. No longer an appended indentation but an integral part of her rightful commonwealth, she was now . organized under Connecticut laws and formally enrolled among Windham county townships. It is not to be supposed that Massachusetts quietly submitted to this secession of towns over which she had held jurisdiction. A considerable of diplomatic fire and smoke followed, but the association of Woodstock with Connecticut and with Windham county was maintained.

The northern towns of the county were at this time included in the Plainfield probate district, but this being an inconvenient „arrangement for them, in 1752 a new district was formed com- prising the towns of Woodstock, Pomfret, Ashford, Killingly, Mortlake and Union. Paul Bowen was appointed clerk of this court, and he kept its records in his dwelling house on Wood- stock hill.

The migratory impulse which has ever been a characteristic of the New Englanders, which indeed has led the sons of the Pilgrims from Plymouth Rock to the coast of the Pacific, was early manifested in Windham county. The settlement of this field had not been consummated ere the people were look- ing westward in search of new fields and pastures green for their restless feet to tread upon. As early as 1735, residents of Ashford and Killingly joined with others from towns in Massa- chusetts in petitioning for a township among the "Equivalent Lands" allowed to Connecticut, and received a grant, which was afterward laid out as Town Number One, of Vermont. Wind- ham settlers followed in 1737, asking for a town east of Salisbury, and although their request was refused, many residents from that and other towns of the county, removed with their families to the new towns in Litchfield county. A more decided out- break of this emigration spirit, however, occurred about the year 1750. The charter rights of Connecticut to a strip of land

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

forty leagues wide, extending southwest across the continent to the Pacific ocean, had never been yielded. A proposition was now put forth to plant a colony in the Susquehanna valley and thus incorporate it into the jurisdiction of Connecticut. The marvelous richness and beauty of the proposed field of settle- ment was then well known, and the enthusiastic originators and promulgators of the scheme painted it in glowing colors. March 29th, 1753, the assembly was petitioned by ninety-three inhabi- tants of Farmington, Windham, Canterbury, Plainfield, Volun- town and several other towns, not specified in the petition, to grant a quit-claim on a tract of land sixteen miles square on both sides of the Susquehanna river. The petitioners represent- ed that the tract in question was occupied by Indians, whose claim they proposed to purchase, and that no English inhabi- tant lived upon or near to it. They further proposed to go and settle upon it. No formal answer appears to have been given, but the petitioners evidently received encouragement to go on with their plans for the proposed settlement. The project now gathered additional strength. A blaze of enthusiasm seemed to invest the people. A meeting to form a company to carry out the plan was held at Windham July 18th, 1753, at which articles of agreement were signed by more than two hundred and fifty persons. A committee, consisting of Jonathan Skinner. Jabez Fitch, Eliphalet Dyer, John Smith and Captain Robert Dixon, was appointed to prospect the land, purchase the Indian claim, and lay out and convey the tract to the settlers. The subscribers agreed each to pay in advance, two "Spanish milled dollars," toward the expense of the committee, and on their return to make up any deficiency by equal shares in the amount. The committee, however, was limited to one thousand pounds in the expense they were to incur. They were to secure a tract twen- ty miles one way by ten miles the other. This movement, orig- inating in Windham, soon attracted the interest of inhabitants of neighboring towns, until it extended to every corner of Con- necticut. Meetings were held here and there and step by step the interest grew. At Windham, January 4th, 1754, an import- ant meeting was held, when in answer to applications for mem- bership in the company it was agreed to admit forty persons each from the counties of New Haven, Fairfield and Litchfield ; thirty from Hartford county ; twenty from New London county ; and ten more from Windham. The price of a share was now

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

raised to four dollars instead of two, but this advance did not check the applications for membership, which now poured in so rapidly that in May it was determined to admit five hundred more, at a still further advance in price to five dollars per share. The most keen sighted and public-spirited men were engaged in promoting this scheme.

The land upon which the colony proposed to locate was held by the Six Nations. During the summer negotiations were en- tered into with them by Messrs. Woodbridge and Dyer repre- senting the company, and a deed was secured for a tract of land called Quiwaumuck or Wyoming, in the Susquehanna Valley. The company had now outgrown the limits of Windham county, and its next meeting was held at Hartford on the 27th of No- vember, 1754. At this meeting a committee was appointed to petition the king for a confirmation of the purchase. This com- mittee was composed of Phinehas Lyman, George Wyllis, Dan- iel Edwards and Eliphalet Dyer. The limit of numbers now fixed for the company was eight hundred " wholesome persons," and the entrance fee for new subscribers was advanced to nine dollars. Samuel Talcott, of Hartford; Isaac Tracy, of Norwich ; Samuel Gray, of Windham; Oliver Wolcott, of Litchfield; Sam- uel Bishop, of New Haven, and Joseph Wakeman, of Fairfield, were appointed to manage the affairs of the company in their respective counties. In May of the following year the assembly was petitioned to incorporate the colony under a charter, but though fully acquiescing in the measure it was not willing to commit itself to any action in advance of the decision of the king. The company was thus forced to await the result of its appeal to the Crown, and this being presented just at a time when the difficulties between England and France were absorb- ing the royal mind, received for the time no attention, and the outbreak of hostilities here still further compelled the develop- ment of the Susquehanna colony to submit to an indefinite post- ponement.

After the return of peace, five years later, renewed efforts were made and the Susquehanna Company resumed active oper- ations. At a meeting held in Hartford March 12th, 1760, the committee previously appointed were directed to go forward with the work entrusted to them with all possible dispatch. An- other company, known as the Delaware Company, was engaged in a similar scheme of locating a colony in the Susquehanna

HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.

Valley. Both these companies joined in sending an agent to England to get a confirmation of their purchases from the Crown, but in this they failed. The assembly of Connecticut also refused to issue a charter for town settlements or incorpor- ation in territory which was claimed with so much reason by the government of Pennsylvania. Powerful Indian tribes also contested the ground. Before all the Indian claimants had been satisfied the company gave liberty to individuals to begin set- tlement there. This liberty was improved by several Connecti- cut families, who effected a settlement in the Wyoming valley in the years 1762 and 1763, but were soon attacked by the hos- tile savages and butchered without mercy. On the return of Eliphalet Dyer, who had been sent as the agent of the Delaware and Susquehanna companies to Great Britain on a fruitless er- rand to the king, both companies were summoned to Windhanı court house January 16th, 1765, to hear his report.

Undeterred by rebuff and threatened opposition, the Susque- hanna Company continued its efforts. Renewed attempts were made to gain the sanction of Connecticut, but that government was too wise to expose itself to collision with Pennsylvania, and discreetly withheld its formal endorsement of the enterprise. Colonel Dyer in particular, so warmly pleaded its cause, and so glowingly depicted the charms of the Wyoming Valley as to call out from one of the wits of the day the poetic impromptu :

" Canaan of old, as we are told, Where it did rain down Manna, Wa'n't half so good for heavenly food As Dyer makes Susquehanna."

The Susquehanna Company was, however, too powerful an or- ganization and too strongly entrenched in popular favor, to be repressed by lack of official aid or recognition. At a meeting in Hartford in 1768, it was voted that five townships, five miles square, should be surveyed and granted each to forty settlers, being proprietors, on condition that these settlers should remain upon the ground and defend themselves and each other from the intrusion of all rival claimants. To encourage them still further, the sum of two hundred pounds was appropriated to provide implements of husbandry and provisions. Great as the risk was, there were many ready to meet it. The chance of gaining a home in the beautiful valley was worth a contest, and indeed to some who had shared in the exciting service of the

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History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 6

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