History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 61

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.

four sons were : David, Ephraim, Jonas and Jesse. There was also one daughter, Amy. David married Elizabeth Pitman, of Newport, Rhode Island. Their children were two sons, William and James Pitman; and two daughters, Lucy, wife of David Bayless, and Nancy, who married Abijah Prouty. William Pike left Sturbridge in 1810 and settled in Sterling. He learned from his father, who was by trade a hatter, the art of coloring. In the year 1811 he began the dyeing of cotton yarns and later as- sumed the charge of the dye house of the Sterling Manufactur- ing Company. Removing to Pawtucket he introduced the bleach- ing of cottons by chlorine, and thus superseded the primitive method of bleaching in the sun. In 1814 he was employed by the Sterling Manufacturing Company, and a year later started the manufacture of pyroligneous acid for the use of the dyers' art. About this date he established the firm of William Fike & Co., for the manufacture of the above acid, in Sterling. He married Lydia Campbell, to whom were born five children, the only survivors being James, the subject of this biography, and William.

James Pike was born December 31st, 1826, in Sterling, the scene of his lifetime business experiences. After a season at the public schools he became a pupil of the Plainfield Academy and the Scituate Seminary. Soon after he found employment in the mills of the Sterling Manufacturing Company, and sub- sequently aided his father in the manufacture of chemicals. Meanwhile, by a series of experiments, he discovered a pro- cess of coloring black, which for permanency and general ex- cellence was superior to any dye in use. He at once organ- ized the Sterling Dyeing and Finishing Company, in which he holds the controlling interest and for which he is the agent. So favorably received was this new process that the capacity of the works was soon inadequate to the demand, and exten- sive additions have since been made, most of the buildings being substantial stone structures. To this business his time and attention are exclusively given.

Mr. Pike was married on the 10th of May, 1853, to Mary E., daughter of Abram Shepard, of Brooklyn, Connecticut. Their children were: J. Edward, who is engaged with his father in business; Lydia Campbell, wife of Claramon Hunt; Mary E .; Harriet E., wife of George Call; and one who is de- ceased. Mr. Pike is a republican in politics. He served as

W. W Preston & Co

Jame, Pike

Horny AStormton

ARTOTYPE, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y.

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railroad commissioner from 1868 to 1871, has held various town offices and while a member of the state legislature served on the committee on banks. He is a member of Moriah Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Danielsonville, and a sup- porter of the Congregational church.

AVERY A. STANTON .- The subject of this sketch was born in Preston, Conn., in 1837, is a son of Lodowick Stanton, and the great-great-grandson of General Thomas Stanton, who came from England and settled in Stonington, Conn. His great-grandfather, John Stanton (known as Warrior Stanton), served in the French and Indian war and also fought in the revolutionary war, com- ing from battle with eighteen bullet holes shot through his coat. The mother of Avery A. Stanton was a daughter of Deacon John Stanton, who was a son of Joshua Stanton, whose father Wash- ington also came from England. His brothers are Captain John L. (who fell at the siege of Port Hudson), Alburtus S. and Rev- erend William E.

In 1848, Mr. Stanton and his mother removed to Voluntown, Conn., his father having died one year previous. He received his education at the schools of Voluntown, East Greenwich, R. I., and at the Connecticut Literary Institution, of Suffield, Conn. He taught school about eight years in Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, and in 1862 settled in the town of Sterling, Conn., where he has since resided, engaged in farming and the lumber business. In 1864 he was elected one of the school visitors of Sterling, which position he held for twenty-four years. In 1873 he was elected first selectman, and has held other important town offices, being town agent and auditor for a number of years. In 1874 he represented the town of Sterling in the state legislature. In 1884 he was appointed by the governor of the state county commissioner to fill an unexpired term, and was chosen by the legislature of 1884 to the same office for a term of three years. He still holds this position, having been reap- pointed for a second term of four years.

Mr. Stanton is married to Laura, daughter of Benjamin Gallup, of Voluntown, and has five sons-Walter A., John B., Benjamin G., William E. and Albert H .- and three daughters-Nettie E., Ella C. and Lottie E. Mr. Stanton belongs to a family that is able to trace 6,000 relatives.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE TOWN OF THOMPSON.

Location, Description, Geology .- Pre-historic Occupants .- The Indians of this Region .- Early White Settlers .- Quinnatisset Hill .- Increase of Population. -Land Controversies .-- Pattaquatic .-- Highways in the Wilderness .- Bridge Building .- Samuel Morris .- Early Attempt to secure Town Privileges .- Sec- ond or North Society of Killingly .- Thompson Parish .- Land west of the Quinebaug annexed .- Building the Meeting House .- Religious Worship Es- tablished .- Military Company .- Non-resident Land-owners .- Various Im- provements .- Schools .- Town Affairs .- The French War .- The Old Red Tavern .- Business and Finance .- The Revolutionary Period .- Quadic Ship- yard .- Petitions for Town Privileges.

T HOMPSON occupies the northeast corner of the state of Connecticut, bordering north on Massachusetts and east on Rhode Island. Its territory is ample, about eight miles by six, comprising 48.49 square miles. . The Quinebaug and French rivers, flowing through the west of the town, unite below Mechanicsville. The Five-mile or Assawaga river is near the eastern border. Capacious reservoirs greatly augment the vol- ume of these streams and multiply the manufacturing facilities of the town. The surface of the soil is much broken and diver- sified, particularly between the rivers, and so encumbered by stones as to make its cultivation very laborious. Granite ledges underlie the hills, and myriads of detached stones overlie field and pasture. Sixty years ago Niles' "Connecticut Gazetteer" reported "more miles of wall fence in Thompson than in any town of the State," and it is doubtful if this record has been broken. Elaborate and unique stone walls in all parts of the town testify to the ingenuity and industry of the farmer. Many well-cultivated farms, neat and convenient farm houses, and a general aspect of thriftiness indicate a further triumph over natural disadvantages. In spite of hard and stony soil, farming in Thompson has not been unremunerative, and the majority of her farmers are well-to-do and comfortable. The eastern part of the town is less favored-a barren ridge of rocky woodland,

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stretching into Rhode Island and southward to the Sound. With increasing emigration and modern methods of farming, less pains are taken to cultivate poor soil, and many fields and pastures are left to grow up into forest, and though much wood is cut off and sent to market, much more is growing than there was fifty years ago.

The territory now included in Thompson was, prior to white settlement, a part of the Nipmuck country, though also claimed by the Narragansetts. The Great Pond, Chaubunakongko- muk, just beyond its present northern boundary, wasthe " bound mark " between the Nipmucks and Narragansetts. An Indian captain named Allum or Hyems gave his name to the little Al- lum pond, near its northeast corner. In the days of John Eliot's missionary labors, 1670-1674, the Nipmucks were in ascendency, occupying a fort on the hill east of what is now Thompson hill. This latter hill and the surrounding country was known as Quinnatisset, and the little brook circuiting from "the meadow" into the French river was called Quinnatisset brook. Through the faithful labors of Eliot's Indian mission- aries the Quinnatisset residents were persuaded to gather into a village on the hill, where a large wigwam was constructed, visible as late as 1730. Twenty families, containing about a hundred souls, were reported to Eliot, partly civilized and in- clined to religious worship, to whom was sent in 1674 " a sober and pious young man of Natick, called Daniel, to be their min- ister, whom they accepted in the Lord." The breaking out of King Philip's war quickly obliterated the results of missionary labor. The Quinnatisset Nipmucks joined the Narragansetts and were mostly destroyed. The fort in Quinnatisset, known as "Fort No. 1 in the Nipmuck Country," was assaulted and demolished, but the aboriginal cellar on Fort hill, described by surveyors in 1684 as "the ruins of an old Indian fort," is visible until this day, one of the oldest and best authenticated Indian relics in Windham county. Many Indian utensils and arrows, found in this vicinity and the adjacent Pattaquatic (now Quadic), show that this Assawaga valley was once a favorite resort. The remains of corn rows were distinctly seen upon Fort hill within the memory of older inhabitants.

In connection with the general settlement of Indian affairs following King Philip's defeat, five thousand acres of land at Quinnatisset were included in the reservation allowed to the

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Indians. This land was immediately made over to the Massachu- setts agents, Messrs Stoughton and Dudley, and soon after sold to non-resident English gentlemen. June 18th, 1683, two thou- sand acres of " forest land in the Nipmuck Country," including the present Thompson hill and surrounding land, was conveyed to Thomas Freak, Hamington, Wells county, England, and a two thousand acre tract, east of the above, was soon after sold to Sir Robert Thompson, North Newington, Middlesex, England- the initial bound between the tracts running through the cellar of the old fort. Another large slice of the Indian reservation, east of the Quinebaug or Myanexet, now occupied by New Bos- ton village, was secured by Joseph Dudley, and smaller farms by other non-residents. These farms were all laid out in 1684, the earliest of any in Windham county, but owing to the uncer- tain tenure of the land, they were not improved for many years. The survey under which Massachusetts claimed Quinnatisset and the adjacent Senexet (now Woodstock) was clearly errone- ous. Woodward and Saffery's line, dividing Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies, deflected southward six or eight miles, striking the Connecticut river at Windsor. The protracted boundary quarrel greatly discouraged settlement, and it was not till after 1713, when Massachusetts consented to rectify the line provided she could keep all the towns she had settled, that much progress was made. The township of Killingly had meanwhile been settled and organized, and as it was certain that Connecti- cut's claim would ultimately prevail, a few settlers had straggled in north of that town.

The first known and datable settler within the limits of the present Thompson was Richard Dresser, of Rowley, Mass., who in 1707 purchased " the place called Nashaway," a beautiful farm west of the Quinebaug, at its junction with the French river, a little south of the present Mechanicsville. His son Jacob, born in 1710, was the first white boy born upon Thompson territory. Sampson Howe followed the next year, settling between the rivers. Farther north, between the rivers, land was taken up by Isaac Jewett and John Younglove, whose premises were so infested with bears, wolves and Indians, that a log fort or garri- son was needed for protection. The first settler in the vicinity of Quinnatisset hill was Samuel Converse, of Woburn, who, with wife and four sons, in 1710 took possession of what was known as the Quinnatisset farm, about a mile south of the hill (now

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occupied by Mr. Stephen Ballard). Mr. Converse was a man of middle age and excellent position and character, and was long regarded as the father of the growing settlement. His resi- dence was the first south of the great wilderness between the colonies, traversed yet only by blazed paths, and served as a welcome resting place to many a wearied traveler. On the doubtful border-land adjacent Killingly the first settler was Richard Evans, as early as in 1693. His establishment, with "tenement of houses, barn, orchard, tanning pits and fulling mill," was purchased by Simon Bryant, of Braintree, in 1713, the happy father of seven blooming and capable daughters, the future mothers of many a Thompson family. The oldest daugh- ter, Hannah, married her neighbor, William Larned, another early settler in this vicinity. Thomas Whitmore, James Wilson, Joseph Cady, Samuel Lee, Jonathan Hughes, were among the early residents of this old "South Neighborhood " very promi- nent in Thompson affairs, although their various farms and homesteads are now within the limits of Putnam.

The first regular settler in the northwest of Thompson was a man of much character and influence, Samuel Morris, son of Edward Morris, of Woodstock, who purchased fifteen hundred acres of the Dudley land on the Quinebaug in 1714. The " old Connecticut Path," long the chief thoroughfare of travel between Boston and southern colonies, ran past his dwelling house and through a mile of his estate. One of his first achievements was to bridge the turbulent and troublesome Quinebaug, then greatly addicted to freshets. He also built two smaller bridges over tributaries, expended time and labor in clearing out the channel of the river, and greatly improved the road and kept it in order. His energy and prowess gave him great influence over his Indian neighbors of Woodstock and the reservation northward, who honored him with the title of governor. Gov- ernor Morris was emphatically the great man of this section, and it was said that a blast from his conch-shell would bring a hun- dred Indians to his aid. Wild land south of the Morris farm, west of the Quinebaug, was owned and settled by Woodstock resi- dents. The first to take possession were John Dwight, John Corbin and Penuel Child. Freak's farm, on Quinnatisset hill, passed on to Josiah Wolcott, of Salem, and his wife, Mary, niece of the original proprietor. In 1716 Wolcott, for £200, conveyed four hundred acres on the summit of this hill to Captain John

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Sabin, first settler of Pomfret, agreeing "to defend said Sabin in quiet and peaceable possession of the premises, so that he be not forcibly ejected." With this guaranty, Captain Sabin's son Hezekiah took possession of the present Thompson hill and soon put up a large frame house, known even within the present cen- tury as "the old Red Tavern." This tavern soon became a place of familiar resort, especially when a country road was laid over the hill, accommodating Plainfield and Killingly with more di- rect communication with Boston. Along the French or Little Quinebaug settlers had already gathered, viz., David Shapley, Samuel Davis, James Hosmer, Nathaniel Crosby, Henry Elli- thorpe.

Land north of Quinnatisset hill was bought up by Governor Saltonstall and Sampson Howe and sold out to settlers. Among these permanent residents were Comfort Starr, of Dedham ; Ben- jamin Bixby, of Topsfield, and his nephew Jacob ; Israel Joslyn, of Salem; Nathaniel Wight, Abraham Burrill, John Wiley, Na- thaniel Brown, Joseph Ellis, James Coats, Samuel Narramore. Ivory Upham, of Malden, and Nathaniel Jacobs, of Bristol, R. I., were somewhat later in settlement. The first resident propri- etor of land eastward in the vicinity of Quadic, was Henry Green, of Malden, with eight sons, in 1719. John Hascall, of Middle- borough, Edward Munyan and William Moffatt, of Salem, also settled on the eastern line. Nathaniel Merrill purchased a farm near Quadic pond, now owned by Mr. Horace Bixby. His near- est neighbor on the west was Jonathan Clough, of Salisbury, whose old house is still standing, owned by Mr. Asa Ross.

The rapid increase of population in all parts of this tract was the more remarkable, considering its chaotic condition. The old boundary difficulty was slow in healing. Killingly regarded with great contempt the claims of its non-resident proprietors, and would gladly have ousted them from all possession, insisting that her town patent extended to the new boundary line of 1713, and rightfully covered the whole ground. In 1721 the select- men of Killingly, without permission from government, pro- ceeded to lay out portions of this ungranted land and make it over to previous residents and new comers, and exercised in many ways unlawful authority over these settlers. The original white proprietors of Quinnatisset and their representatives, Paul and William Dudley, Samuel Morris, the agent of Sir Joseph Thompson, and Josiah Wolcott, very strenuously opposed these

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efforts of Killingly, and insisted that she had no right beyond the Woodward and Saffery line, on which she was laid out, and that the land north of this line should be erected into a distinct and independent township. As early as 1714 these gen- tlemen petitioned the general assembly for a town, and secured a vote in their favor from the upper house, but were unable to carry the lower. The government was poor and embarassed; Killingly was most persistent in her claim and conduct, and im- mediate decision was inexpedient. Delay only increased the difficulty of decision ; both parties were too powerful to be offended, and so the matter drifted for many years. Killingly received permission to levy rates on the inhabitants for the sup- port of her minister, but her petition to annex the land was flatly rejected, and she was positively forbidden to exercise any jurisdiction west of the Quinebaug. This strip of land border- ing on Woodstock was long left "a peculiar "-unstated to any town, subject only to New London county and the general gov- ernment. Possibly this very lack of organization made settle- ment therein more desirable and attainable, especially as con- trasted with neighboring towns, where land was held by strong corporations and new comers subjected to very severe scrutiny, while Killingly opened heart and lands to all immigrants, and especially those who were willing to run the risk of ejection. Many sterling citizens received their original homesteads under the irregular if not unlawful apportionment of 1721. In several cases settlers were obliged to give up their allotments, the gov- ernment of Connecticut always confirming the claims of non- resident land owners when a suit was brought to issue. It is very creditable to these early residents, that in spite of land dis- putes and the absence of local town officers, there is so little trace of disturbance. Practically they were left to shift for them- selves; they had no schools, no suitable roads, no selectmen or constables, and only the privilege of attending church in Kill- ingly's far-off meeting house.

Scattered over a wide section, still mostly a savage wilderness, they broke up land and built their log houses, knowing so little of each other that three families settling on the eastern frontier in 1721 supposed themselves the only inhabitants north of Kill- ingly. The ten-years old boy of one of these families, Joseph Munyan, delighted in old age to tell the story of their emigra- tion and early experiences. Over the long, rough road from

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Salem to the purchased homestead, they brought their scanty household goods and stock-six cows, ten sheep, four hogs- sleeping by night on their cart, and foraging as best they could. Oxen were hired to draw the cart from one settlement to an- other. Reaching their new home after a long and wearisome journey, they found but rocks and wilderness. The great oak under which they encamped was covered with wild turkeys in the morning. Game of all kinds was abundant ; brooks swarmed with fish ; wolves chased and terrified the cattle. Pine knots were burned through the night to keep off wild beasts and In- dians. During the first summer they built a log house and broke up and planted some land, from which in the autumn the daugh- ters harvested three aprons full of corn. During the hard sum- mers of 1725 and 1726, when crops were everywhere cut off by drought and frost, the Munyans were obliged to travel to old Hadley, in Massachusetts, to buy corn, a journey almost equal to that of Joseph's brethren into Egypt.

Henry Green and his numerous sons were very helpful in for- warding settlement at Pattaquatic. A saw mill was soon set up and in full motion, the dam built by the beavers furnishing suffi- cient water power. One of the most northerly settlers on the road to Boston was Benjamin Bixby, a little west of the present Brandy hill, whose house was also used as a tavern. Here oc- curred the only reported instance of Indian disturbance-the shooting of Mrs. Bixby in the thigh by a drunken Mohegan for refusing to give him more liquor, for which injury £17 was for- warded to Mr. Bixby by the Indians at New London. "The aw- ful providence of heaven," in further visiting the unfortunate Mrs. Bixby by lightning stroke in a terrific thunder shower, called out universal sympathy and compassion, even Governor Saltonstall expressing his "tender concern" at this series of misfortunes.

Perhaps the most serious inconvenience resulting from the unorganized condition of the future Thompson was inability to provide suitable roads. To make a good road in its hard and rock- bound soil was a very difficult enterprise, requiring the authority of selectmen or suitable officers. Lacking such authority, the set- tlers simply " trod out " their own ways from house to house, and to such points as enabled them to communicate with the outer world. For public roads there was the " old Connecticut Path," obliquely crossing from Massachusetts line into Wood-

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stock, below the site of the present New Boston. There was also the road from Plainfield, a wretched "old gangway," as it was sometimes called, very nearly corresponding with the present north and south road through the town. The entire lack of all other accommodations may be gathered from the universal cry that arose from all sections simultaneously, for " roads to Thomp- son meeting house " when that edifice was opened for public worship. They seemed demanded not merely as a matter of convenience, but out of respect to the day and occasion. Home- made, trodden-out paths might answer for going to mill and vis- iting neighbors, but a special "go-to-meeting" road seemed as indispensable as Sunday clothes., The only apparent use for a road was "to travel to Thompson meeting house " upon ; at least no other object was hinted at in the numerous petitions with which Killingly was deluged. The selectmen of this town, only too happy to exercise authority over this coveted section, ap- pointed a committee in 1730 to go to the parish of Thompson and to take a view and see what ways they need to go to their meeting house, and lay out what they think best, modifying this order by the subsequent vote-" That for the future every per- son that shall move to this town to have any way altered or re- moved, it shall be done at the petitioner's cost and charge." So arduous was the task laid upon the committee, so large the num- ber of roads demanded, and so difficult of manufacture, that it seemed quite unable to grapple with it, and in the great major- ity of cases simply confirmed the roads "as trod out," or made slight alterations and improvements. Among the roads thus altered was the one " beginning west side of Quinebaug River, near Mrs. Dresser's, and on between Captain Howe's house and barn to the French River . . . and so as the road is now trod to ye meeting house " -- varying little from the present road to West Thompson.

The road from "Sabin's Bridge" (now Putnam Centre) was a very remarkable achievement, accommodating Joseph Cady, Deacon Eaton and other widely separated prominent citizens, and also contriving to intersect "the path by which Simon Bryant already traveleth from his own dwelling house to Thompson meeting house." Still more remarkable was a road laid out by a special committee " chosen to view ye circumstances in ye quarter of ye Greens," which, starting from Thomas Whitmore's corner (now Whittlesy's, Putnam), mean-

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dered leisurely about Pattaquatic, from Bloss's pasture along- side of a brook to an oak near Phinehas Green's house, thence to another oak in Henry Green's pasture, crossing and recrossing the stream at lower and upper fordways, and after accommodat- ·ing all the families of that section, wound through Merrill's im- proved land "into the old road over Quinnatisset Brook, and so as the road goes till it comes into the country road, southwest corner of Hezekiah Sabin's little orchard, foreside of the meet- ing house." This very ancient road, "old " in 1735, is still ex- tant and in good condition, forming the southern side of that nondescript geometrical conformation east of the village of Thompson called by courtesy "The Square." A venerable Sea- konk sweeting and one or two Roxbury russets are the sole sur- vivors of this primitive orchard. One of the ways left "as trod," to evolve itself in time into a passable cart road, was one demanded by Hascall, near the Massachusetts line, who had to let down twelve pairs of bars on his way to meeting. The con- dition of the road over which Samuel Morris was required to travel to that distant shrine will be best described by himself in another place. Among old roads still in use is what is called the " Mountain Road" to Putnam, which was laid out in 1763. To this very irregular and inconvenient style of road- making the present residents of Thompson are indebted for the number and variety of rural, romantic, roundabout drives for which it is distinguished, dating back to those old days when every household in town had a special way of its own.

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History of Windham County, Connecticut, Part 61

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