USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1872, Vol. II > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
At the upper end of Nonnewaug Plain, in the deep recesses of the forests, are located the Nonnewaug Falls. These falls are quite fully described on page 92, but are referred to here for the pur- pose of collecting all the references and descriptions of places to- gether. Since the publication of the former edition of this work, this beautiful retreat of nature has been more and more a place of resort for pleasure parties, and for those who delight to retire from the busy haunts of men, and commune with nature in her sacred solitudes. And yet, as has often been observed in other cases of the wonderful works of nature, like the falls of Niagara, for in- stance, people in their vicinity have never seen them, and more singular still, have never heard of them. In this very case, au old
1
It's
FALLS
H.C.CURTIS
UPPER NONNEWAUG FALLS, WOODBURY, CONN.
849
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
gentleman, aged 87, living within half a mile of these falls all his life, and in full ear-shot of their roaring in flood-time, had never known, or heard of them, up to the issue of the former edition of this history, in 1854. This is one of those peculiar instances where the grand and the sublime objects in nature, which always attract the attention and the admiration of men, and sway the heart with great emotions, have been unheeded by those who have readiest access to them, while a view of them has been sought by pilgrims from the most distant parts.
Such were some of the Indian names retained by the first set- tlers, and handed down to the present time. As their families increased, and new inhabitants were admitted, they continued to apply new names to the different localities. The hill south of Good Hill was called Grassy Hill, from its abundant grass, which made a good grazing, or "Pasture Division." The valley east of Grassy Hill, they called Transylvania. The hill at the south end of the village, across the river, west, was called Castle Rock, from the fact that Pomperaug, the last sachem before the advent of the whites, had there his principal wigwam, or castle. Beyond is Bear Hill and Ragland, a rugged country. North-east of the Ore- naug Rocks, is a small artificial pond, covering an area of six or eight acres, which was formed by damming up a small stream that empties into the Nonnewang river. This was done by the late Daniel Bacon, long years ago, and continues to bear his name. Until three or four years ago, it was owned by his son, Rev. Wil- liam T. Bacon, the celebrated poet of our ancient territory, who had a strong reverence for the old homestead, and all its appurte- nances and surroundings. To this romantic, quiet lake, embo- somed among the rugged hills, and to the pleasant groves around, has he often retired for meditation, and here has he composed some of his best verses. A road passing near this sheet of water leads quite around the Orenaug group of cliff's, from and to the main street, making a pleasant and convenient drive, which is often taken by citizen and stranger. East Meadow lies north of the village on the Quanopaug stream, and was much esteemed for its fertility by the fathers, insomuch that it was divided into small parcels among them. Steep Rock is a romantic hill some two miles south-west of the village of Washington, on the She- pang river. The Shepaug Valley Railroad, to which reference has already been made, runs through this hill. A tunnel some thirty rods long has been excavated for its accommodation, and its for-
850
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
mer romantic beauty has been somewhat marred by the ceaseless energy of man. Moose ITorn Hill, so-called, from the large quan- tity of the horns of the moose found in that locality, lies about two miles north-west of Roxbury center. Cat Swamp, so-called, from the numbers of wildcats that lurked in that vicinity, is about a mile and a half north-east of the village, and the White Deer Rocks are abont two miles farther on, near the head of Quassa- paug Lake. These were so named from the numbers of white deer that made these rocks their hiding place, and found their way cautiously to the lake, to obtain water. Wolf Pit Hill is sit- uate near the junction of the Weekeepeemce and West Sprain riv- ers, at Hotchkissville. The place in South Britain near the june- tion of the Transylvania Brook with the Pomperang river, is called " The Bent." Kettletown lies in the south-east part of Southbury, and was so named from the fact that the consideration of its first purchase from the Indians was a brass kettle. But this consideration did not last long, for the proprietors were obliged to purchase it over again several times afterwards, to prevent con- troversies with the numerous claimants. There seems to have been a fatality connected with this locality, for it has been pre-eminenly a place of dissensions, and conflicting opinions, and it has always been more prolific in senseless lawsuits than any similar extent of square aeres within the writer's knowledge. And, although there have been "prophets " in that land, yet they must have been " without honor," or influence in " their own country," if we are to judge by the fruits which have come from that region, or the heart must have been more desperately wicked there than else- where. Salt Tooth Roek Hill lies in Southbury, and twenty-five acres of land there was set out to the wife of Col. Ethan Allen, from the estate of her father, Cornelins Brownson, previous to 1781, when they sold it.
Transylvania lies in the south-west part of the town, and Flan- ders in the north, bordering on Bethlehem. Weekeepeemee is a little hamlet in the north-west part of the town, on the river of that name. Carmel Hill lies still further on, in the edge of Beth- lehem, and is noted for its excellent land. Hazle Plain lies west of Hotchkissville, on the West Sprain, and Hell Hollow still fur- ther on, near Washington line. Making an inquiry for the reason of this name, many years ago, the writer was informed, that it was so called from the peculiarity of its appearance, as viewed from the village and surrounding country. That as it lay sunk in
851
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
its gorge among the hills, "it always had a smoke rising from or hanging over it, as if ascending from the bottomless pit." Non- newang lies in the north-east, on the river of the same name. The lower part of this locality, at Burton's mills, has, in later years, been called Minortown, from the large number of Minors residing in that vicinity. West Side is the street beyond the river, running parallel to the main street of the village. Quassapang is a small settlement at the ontlet of the Quassapaug lake. Break Neck Hill lies near the north end of the lake, in Middlebury. It is not known how the hill became thus named. It could hardly come from the rapidity of its descent, for it is not more steep than a multi- tude of other hills in Ancient Woodbury. At the date of the former edition, there was a rumor current among the old people, that it was so named from an occurrence which took place when Rochambeau's French army passed through our town during the Revolutionary war; that it was so called because an ox broke his neck while descending the hill, drawing heavy cannon. Such an accident may have occurred, but it was called by this name, in the ancient conveyances, more than eighty years prior to the Revolu- tion. The Purchase, so-called, because it was among the last purchases from the Indian reservation at Pootatuck, lies in the western part of South Britain. White Oak Plain is the level land by the river below the Whitlock place, in which was the old White Oak, to which reference has been so often made. Bullet Hill lies east of Southbury village, Pork Hollow, where large quantities of provisions were concealed in the Revolution, is a ravine in the hills beyond. The Lightning's Playground lies east of Orenaug Rocks, west of Quassapang Lake, and is so called be- cause no thunder-storm has ever been known to pass over the town withont one or more bolts of lightning descending in that locality. Alder Swamp lies between Woodbury north, and Hotch- kissville. Hooppole is a hill south-west of the latter place. Scup- po is a hill in the south-easterly part of Woodbury, opposite the village of Pomperaug, and is so called from its having been the location of the cabin of an Indian of that name, living there long after the fathers settled in this village. Puckshire is in the eastern part of the town. The Poorhouse is located there. The street west, and running parallel with the main street, in Southbury, is called Poverty; for what reason is not now known. Jeremy Swamp lies east of Kettletown. George's Hill lies north-west of Kettletown. Horse Hill is south-east of Shepaug Falls. Tousey
852
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
lies north-west of William Hayes' house, in the south-east part of Bethlehem, and is so called from a Christian Indian, who lived there for a time. Ilis full name was Hachet Tousey. A further account of him will be found on page 101. Sonth and west of Good Ilill, in Roxbury, lies a large tract of land called Rucum. South-west of that is Wildcat Rock. Still further to the south- west is Flag Swamp, lying between Roxbury and Southbury. West of Flag Swamp runs Brown's Brook. The mountain north of Good ITill is called West Mountain. West of Good Hill lies a deep and long ravine, called Tophet Hollow. It was a dark, damp, heavily wooded, dismal place, and hence its name. West of this is Josiah, or Booth's Hill, and north of the latter is Pain- ter Hill ; all in Roxbury. Moosehorn Brook rises in Painter Hill, and flows into the Shepang, near Treat Davidson's. West of this brook is Center Hill, and in its rocks is a cave, called Gama- liel Den. Bottle Swamp Brook runs through the north-western part of Roxbury, into the Shepaug river, and west of this brook, West of James Wakeley's house, is Raven Rock. Jack's Brook rises in Tophet Hollow, flows southerly through Pulford's Swamp, and then westerly to the Shepang, near Warner's Mills. This stream is said to have received its name from a native African slave, who committed suicide on its banks, by hanging, at a place south-east of the residence of Hon. Harmon B. Eastman, of Rox- bury. He pined in his servitude, and, like all of his race, was very superstitious. He longed to return to his native land, and, having become possessed of the idea that he should immediately return to his beloved Africa at death, he took this means of rejoin- ing his fathers, and revisiting his native shores. Hedgehog Swamp is east of Warner's Mills, and is said to have been so named from a canine contest with a porcupine there. This state- ment may be taken " with many grains of allowance." Hop Brook, so called from the enormous quantities of wild hops found growing on its banks, in the early days, rises in Second Hill, in New Milford, and flows south-easterly, to the Shepaug, acar the house of Charles Trowbridge. North of this is the Pine Cobble, and east of the latter is situate the village of Chalybes, at the foot of Mine Hill. This name was given to the village a few years ago by Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford; is derived from a Greek word, and signifies something " pertaining to steel." It was so named from the steel works located there.
Mine Hill, which is situated here, along the New Milford line,
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY. 853
and is about two miles in length, north and south, by one mile in width, east and west, bounded west by New Milford line, and east by the Shepaug, is at present, and indeed has always been, from the early days, a most interesting locality, from the mineral wealth concealed in its bosom. The hill was known to contain minerals of some kind almost from the first advent of the settlers. But although it has been alternately worked and litigated for more than one hundred and fifty years, its true character as a mine, has been but vaguely understood, till quite recently. Its chief attrac- tion for more than a century was as a silver mine. Its reputation was highest, in this respect, while it was worked by a German company, for a few years, previous to the Revolutionary war. When that company broke up, it was believed that the superin- tendent, named Feuchter, carried away for his own use a large amount of silver in bars, which he had smelted in secret, while pretending to be running the mine for iron ore for the company. The mine has been thoroughly worked for the last four or five years, by the company which now owns it, and although they find small quantities of silver lead of considerable richness, in various parts of the vein, yet they do not find it sufficiently abundant to pay the expense of working the mine for that ore. And yet they have driven their drifts more than twenty feet lower than the main shaft left by the Germans, and drained the water from it, making its total depth nearly one hundred and fifty feet. The vein increases a little in width as it descends into the mountain, and there is a slightly perceptible increase in the quantity of the silver lead ore. There is no probability that this mine will ever prove valuable for its production of silver, for the main shaft, above alluded to, is the one in which the superintendent, Feuch- ter, was supposed to have amassed his heavy silver bars.
But in spathic iron ore, this mine is the richest in the United States, and as good as any elsewhere on the face of the earth, so far as discovered. A very full account of it will be found on pages 15 to 19, inclusive, and a further account on page 155. It is, in all the details of its history, a most remarkable mine for steel-bearing ore. It becomes steel in one operation from the pig. It is of such tenacity and purity, that the manufacturers cannot afford to use it alone for common brands of steel, but are obliged to mix it with other less valuable ores, or with scraps of various sorts, to bring it down to the desired grade. Although the works for manufacturing this ore into steel have not been in operation
854
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
more than two years, yet it has acquired the very highest rank in the market for fineness, tenacity, temper, and all the other desira- ble qualities in the best brands of steel, and is being rapidly in- troduced into the varions manufactures requiring the purest qual- ities of steel.
In the month of May, 1865, Mine Hill, with all its minerals, was purchased of Mr. David J. Stiles, whose title thereto had now be- come quieted and perfected, after a series of bitter lawsuits, reach- ing through the period of thirty years, in the State and United States Courts, by the present owners, who had procured a special charter from the Legislature of Connecticut, under the name of " The Shepaug Spathic Iron and Steel Company," with a capital of $350,000. The price of the hill was $100,000. The company proceeded to build an extensive smelting furnace, and the neces- sary dwellings for workmen. The point of failure in all the pre- ceding efforts to smelt this ore, was in the explosive gases which it contained. When smelted in the common blast furnace, the gases would accumulate, and the first thing the men would know, the furnace would " blow out," and all their labor would be lost. The present company has overcome that difficulty, by means of " sweating the ore," previous to smelting. This is accomplish- ed by placing alternate layers of the ore and charcoal, in large open circular vats, which are much the largest at the top, like a tea- cup, and igniting the mass, thus heating the ore, and throwing off the explosive elements. The ore is then smelted in the ordinary way, as readily and safely, as any other ore. In making all these improvements, the company must have more than expended its original capital. They have mined and smelted large quantities of the ore into the pig, employing, for that purpose, men brought from Prussia, who were skilled in the working of spathie ore, and the making of steel after the Prussian method. Finding the iron adapted to the making of a superior quality of cast-steel, the company decided, in 1867, to erect complete works for its manu- facture, at Bridgeport, Conn., having made an application to the Legislature for power to increase its capital to one million dollars, and for a change of name to that of the American Silver Steel Company, which was granted. These works were finished and put in operation in 1869, and have steadily increased their produc- tion of steel of various kinds, some of which are claimed to be superior to any steel of foreign manufacture.
20
nitritritit
Siluer Strel Ca. 9
BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
1
855
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
Mining in the hill has been progressing for several years, night and day, until openings have been made more than two thousand feet in length, in the aggregate, the lowest of which is about twenty feet below the bottom of the old shaft, or 145 feet below the surface of the hill. The quality of the ore continues quite satisfactory, and some thousands of tons of it are now (June, 1871) ready for smelting, in addition to all that has been smelted before. A cut of the works at Bridgeport accompanies this ac- count. They consist of three buildings, located on a point of land jutting out into the harbor, making a very convenint place for loading and unloading their heavy freight. The larger build- ing contains the furnaces, rolls, lathes and all the machinery for making and finishing the steel ; the next is the house covering the engine, which furnishes the motive power to the works; and the third is the gas-house, in which they manufacture all the gas used in the production of the steel. All the heating operations required in making the steel, is accomplished by this gas, which has greater heating with less lighting power than ordinary coal gas. It is made by a process of their own, and, in its manufacture, they can use not only the ordinary coal for making gas, but refuse coal, fine coal, coal dust, and coal " siftings," or cinders, and every thing combustible in the coal is made into gas, leaving no coke-nothing but ashes.
The Bridgeport site was purchased for $40,000, and was a good bargain. It would now readily bring $60,000. The works have cost $170,000, including $30,000 worth of machinery removed from the works at Mine Hill, making an outlay of $210,000. It is a great pleasure for one who delights in seeing the operation of perfect machinery, to go through these works, and observe the several processes from the melting of the pig iron, to the turning out of the same in the perfect article, ready for the market-all being accomplished in a brief space.
The legal history of Mine Hill is very interesting. In the va- rious litigations that have grown out of conflicting interests, in the title to it, for the last 150 years, many of the most eminent lawyers in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, have been employed, and there have been many able and brilliant forensic contests. As has been stated, the existence of mineral treasures there, of some kind, has been known from the first settlement of the territory. It was owned by Hon. John Sherman, ancestor of the General Wm. T. Sherman, the present head of our armies, be-
856
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
fore 1724, and was by him leased to Thomas Crane, of Stratford, and others, May 16, 1724, for a term of years, reserving to himself one-sixteenth part of all the ore which should be there raised. John Crissey, and his wife Mary, also had some rights in the hill. Still later, Thomas and John Wheeler, Doctor Jonathan Atwood, and Doctor Thomas Leavenworth, acquired rights, by lease, or other- wise, to said mine. The mining tract, at this time, was supposed to contain six acres, and that is the number of acres mentioned in the various deeds and mining leases that were then executed. It was at this early day worked to some extent, but with what suc- cess, is not now known. The next digging at this place was by Ilurlbut and Hawley, but the history of their operations is sub- stantially lost.
The next company was organized by the Messrs. Bronson Broth- ers, about the year 1764, and many persons became interested in the mining right. This right, at that date, was supposed to cover forty acres. Col. Ethan Allen purchased two and a half acres of land on Mine Hill, or one sixteenth part of the mining title, in 1764, and was interested in the Bronson operations. It was this company that sunk the " old shaft " 125 feet into the mountain, and another lateral one for the purposes of ventilation. The working was carried on under the direction of the German goldsmith, Feuchter, to whom reference has been made, who conducted his processes of pretended separation and refining with great secresy, occasionally producing small quantities of silver, which kept the hopes of his employers alive. But after several years this under- taking collapsed, like the others before them. Still later, the mine was worked by a company organized in New York, which ob- tained a lease for 42 years. This effort failed. Later still, Asahel Bacon tried the experiment, with no better success. Finally, David J. Stiles, of Southbury, began to collect the scattered titles in 1824, and then the legal contests broke out afresh, and there was no " rest for the sole of his foot," till after he had repeatedly passed through the highest Court of Connecticut, and the Circuit Court of the United States, when his title was finally quieted, and no enemy any longer wagged his tongue in all the Mine Hill Moun- tains.
But perhaps the history of this long warfare, and the state of the title, cannot be better elucidated, than by giving an epitome of the findings in the last legal decision before the Circuit Court of the United States, held by the late Hon. Charles A. Ingersoll, at
857
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
New Haven, at the April term of the Court, 1856, which was ar- rived at after a closely contested trial, running through nine days. Certain parties in New York, claiming title under the old mining leases, sued Mr. Stiles in ejectment, and thus the title to the prem- ises became the only issue, Stiles being in undoubted possession. The case, from its antiquity and complications, had consumed months in its preparation, on each side. Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll, of New Haven, Hon. Norton J. Buel, of Waterbury, Henry S. San- ford and John M. Buckingham, Esqrs. of New Milford, appeared as attorneys for the New York claimants, and ex-Gov. Roger S. Baldwin, of New Haven, and the writer, appeared as attorneys for Stiles. To state it in vulgar phrase, it was a " tiger-fight," and Stiles succeeded in fully and forever establishing his title to the spathie mine.
As a result of the trial, it was found that the plaintiff, the New York party, claimed title by a series of conveyances from one Sampson Simson, a Jew in New York, who was the nephew of a man of the same name, and who, with his brother; Solomon Sim- son, and brother-in-law, Myer Myers, worked the mine on said premises as early as 1764. This Simson supposed he had some title to convey, the other two being dead, but on the trial of the case it was discovered that his interest was never any other than that of a lessee.
The disputed premises contain a very rich mine of spathic iron ore, the richest, and perhaps, the only mine of that valuable ore for the manufacture of steel in the United States. It also con- tains a vein of silver, yielding a small quantity of silver, with a large per cent of the pure metal. The extent of this deposit has not been sufficiently tested to pronounce npon its value as a silver mine. The title to the mine has been more or less litigated since the year 1724, and large sums of money have been expended, both in litigating and working the mine.
It was proved to the jury that the mining tract was laid out as as common land, on the original proprietors' rights in Woodbury, and that it was thus laid out because it was discovered that there was a mine there. It was laid out to Moses Hurlbut and Abel Hawley, in 1751. Previous to 1762, Hurlbut and Hawley sold it to Abram and Israel Bronson, who laid ont an addition to it, making the whole tract sixty seven acres, in the early part of 1764. Soon after this, Abram and Israel Bronson leased seven- eighths of the mine to Sampson Simson, Myer Myers, and George
3
858
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
Trail, of New York, for the term of forty-two years, ending in 1806. They entered into possession under the lease, and worked it from 1764 to 1766, when, from some unknown cause, they abandoned the enterprise, and returned to New York. The title to the premises continued to be bought up in fractions by various parties, till 1781, when Cyprian Collins and others, of Gosher, Conn., who were then owners of a considerable interest in the premises, commenced working the mine, the main shaft of which had been sunk by the Sampson Simson company, to the depth of 125 feet, and continued it two seasons, when, meeting with bad luck, they in turn deserted the enterprise. In 1792, Sampson Simson & Co. underlet the remaining portion of their forty-two years' lease to Israel Holmes, of Salisbury. He commenced work, had bad luck, and after staying two years, abandoned the under- taking in the same manner as his predecessors had done before. About 1780, Jabez Bacon, of Woodbury, commenced buying up the shreds of title which were scattered, and before his death, in 1806, had succeeded in perfecting the title to the entire premises in himself, and the same descended to his seven heirs, through the Probate Court. Asahel Bacon, one of the heirs of Jabez, bought out all the rest of the heirs, took possession of the premises, and maintained the exclusive possession thereof, until he sold it to the present defendent, David J. Stiles, in 1824. Immediately upon his purchase, Stiles took possession of the premises. He cut wood and pealed bark all over them, experimented with the ores, enclosed the whole hill with fences, built a road all over and around the place in dispute, and built a small barn directly by the main shaft excavation. From the day of his purchase till the day of the trial, he had kept one or more men near the premises, to watch and warn off trespassers, and had exercised every aet of ownership, that a man could exercise over forest property. Yet, at three several times, had Stiles been put out of the possession of this property by trespassers, and had been as often restored by writ of forcible entry and detainer. Since 1824, he had thus kept strict possession of the premises. Meanwhile Simson and his as- sociates never returned to make any claim to the property, nor any claim to use it under their lease, till 1850, forty-four years after it had expired by its own limitation, when said Simson's nephew, Sampson Simson, deeded to one Josiah K. Sturges, his supposed interest, as heir of his uncle. Sturges received his deed from Simson, when he was in possession under Stiles, and for this
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.