USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Oxford > History of the town of Oxford, Connecticut > Part 11
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Nathan J. Wilcoxson was born May 12, 1796. He married Anna Blackman who died in 1870 aged 73, and for his second wife M. Louise McEwen. She was forty years old in 1870 and Mr. Wilcoxson 74. He had a daughter, Frances by his first wife in 1831. She married Egbert J. Warner. "The History of Derby" says that "Nathan J. Wilcoxson came to Oxford Nov. 30, 1825" It does not say from whence he came. There was a Josiah Wilcoxson, son of John and Ann Wilcoxson who was baptized in the Oxford Congregational Church Dec. 20, 1778 and who in 1825 was 47 years old. He may have been related. "Mr. Wil- coxson immediately engaged (1825) in teaching in the Oxford Public School, where he continued one year. He was then engaged as a teacher of a select school in the same village (Oxford) in which he continued two years. (This may have been the "Academy" on Academy Road. )
Oxford according to Rockey became a separate probate district in 1842, and Nathan Wilcoxson was the first judge, also from 1850 to 1866. He was Town Clerk for a number of years. On an insert map of Oxford Center included in a map of Naugatuck, page 44 of an atlas of New Haven County, published in 1868, his house is shown on the
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west side of the Green, opposite the house of H. Lum on the east side of the Green. (Lum's house being the third house south of Academy Road.) Wilcoxson's house may have been at this same location as early as 1834, in as much as in that year one of the suggested loca- tions for the new St. Peter's Church (Episcopal) was "just below the bridge of Mr. Wm. (There is a conflict about the date of the incor- poration of Oxford as a Probate District; Rockey gives 1842 and Sharpe in "Seymour Past and Present" gives 1846.)
At the Centennial Celebration held in Oxford, July 4th, 1876, Judge Wilcoxson read an "Historical Sketch of Oxford" at which time he was 80 years old. From this address much material has been obtained for the present history.
DAVID J. MCEWEN
David J. McEwen was the son of David McEwen who settled in Oxford and filled a number of offices of responsibility and trust in the town. He was master of Morning Star Lodge, F, and A.M. for four years. He died in 1842. His son David lived on Hog's Back Road on the plateau between Oxford Center and Quaker Farms. From 1846 to 1860, he kept there a boarding school for boys, and it is said that many men remembered with gratitude the kindly instruction and the New England training they received there. He was married March 16, 1829 to Frances Jane Wooster of Litchfield. He was Republican and a Methodist. He is said to have been the soul of integrity and principle and that his judgment in the affairs of the town was honored by his fel - low citizens.
ALFRED HARGER
Alfred Harger was a descendant of Jabez Harger (1st) of Stratford, Connecticut who married Margaret Tomlinson of that town in 1662. Alfred was the son of Elijah and Sarah Ruth Lattin Harger, and was baptized in 1804. He married Maria Ruth Beardsley. Their son John married Sarah Delight Fairchild. John and Sarah's son Edgar Burton Harger married Olivette E. Platt, and their children of the present generation are Mrs. Beatrice Sellner, Mrs. Ruth Joy, Mr. Nelson Harger, and Mr. Alfred Platt Harger. They have preserved the diaries of Alfred, son of Elijah, which start July 4, 1828 and carry on until 1863. While they are but a "line a day" record of his personal activities, they nevertheless give a quite vivid account of the daily life of a small farmer of that day with its round of ploughing, sowing, till- ing, and harvesting. And here and there a line stands out which casts special light on the unusual part of his existence. Thus in 1828, one
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day he "rent shingles" ( meaning he split them) for his new house on Quaker Farms Road. Another day he drew logs to the North mill, and "visited schools". ) It was the business of the school visitor to ex- amine the children by asking them questions, and he therefore had to have a reasonable education himself). One day he went to Bridgeport to "General Training" (military, of course) and "Bishop Brownell visited the Farms". When he was sick with a cold, he had several visits from Dr. Stoddard, who came all the way from "the Ville" (as he usually styled Humphreysville) either on horseback or in his "shay". In 1829, he "went a sleighing with B. Candee", and carted logs to Nichol's mill. One curious item reads "Celebrated St. Johns, Humphreysville", but gives no clue as to what the celebration was. He carried wool to Newtown, made cider and "set bushes and trees around the house" and a few days later "laid walls and set maple trees". Today they are still sturdy. On the last day of 1829, he "made ox-bows".
In March 1830, he "worked at the chimney" of his new house from March 12 to July 19th, carting brick from Gunntown and from Leman Clarke's, and lime from Polaski Chatfields. Busy though he was on the chimney, he found time one day to go "a claming to Long Beach with D. Oatman." Through August he worked at the new house "carting 500 ft. of lining boards from B. Lum's saw mill, sand from A. Bates, and more lime from P. Chatfield." Then he "mixed mortar." and the next day he started in "lathing in" the new house, borrowing 204 ft. of lath from Saml Wooster. Then from Sep 5th to Sep 15th, on and off, Oatman "plastered in" the new house. And finally on Oct 11, 1830 he records with Spartan brevity "Moved in to the new house". There was apparently no time for celebration or house warming for the very next day he records "picked corn."
In 1831, he drew logs to Jordan saw mill and Sherman's mill. He must have prospered sufficiently to buy a clock, for on Apr 1st he re- cords "Set up the clock". In October, he spent three days "painting on the church" (Christ Church, Quaker Farms ?)
Then a great event is recorded on Sep 3, 1832, when he "Bought a cook stove at New Haven for $33 1/4". Gone was the day of cooking at an open fireplace !
But the home was still the place of small manufacturing activities, for he states on Feb 11, 1833, "Made brooms etc.". In the summer of 1833, he found time to go "claming" at Long Beach, and then came an event which probably was told and retold throughout the ensuing years, "Went to New Haven, -saw General Jackson," the President of the United States and a great national military hero. Later in the same 87
year, he "bought a stove for father for $24- 4 87 , and the next day, he 100' set it up and presumably another fireplace was closed up.
On Jan 1, 1834, he "attended a temperance meeting at the Baptist
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meeting house." He does not state where this was located.
On Sep 8th of the same year, he recorded "Caravan of Animals at Oxford" (These Caravans were the forerunners of the Circuses).
The first record of his undertaking any surveying is on Sep 22, 1837, when he surveyed land for some estate the name of which is ob- literated. According to his descendants, he learned surveying from his father-in-law, Lemuel Beardsley. From then on, his time was, in increasing measure, taken up with surveying, assisting in distribution of estates and other public matters. At this time he was about thirty four years old, and he soon became the leading surveyor in this dis- trict.
His mother died March 5, 1841 and on the 8th he "divided the things at the old house." On June 26th he carried a load of bark to Oxford Center, probably to some tannery there, and brought home 12 bushels of ashes, i.e. wood ashes for fertilizing his corn, for in another place in his diary he speaks of "ashing the corn." And three days after bringing home the ashes, he records "harrowed the corn with the cul- tivator.ยป
On Sep 1st, 1841, he went to the installation of the Rev. Mr. Topliff as pastor of the Oxford Congregational Church.
By 1848, his public activities included membership in the General Assembly of the state, as on May 3d, he records, "At the General Assembly in New Haven. On May 8th he took his son Charles with him to New Haven and on May 11th they "came home from New Haven on foot."
Aug. 15th he went to Derby to see a vessel launched.
An interesting item is recorded in 1862, "Bought at Derby $400 worth of U.S. 7 3 /10 per cent bonds."
His record of his farming activities during 1830 is so detailed that it seems of interest to put all the purely farming entries together, and eliminate the non-farming items, so as to give a picture of what farm- ing meant at that time, with the result as follows:
March 15th
Ploughed
April 8th
Ploughed for oats and sowed them April 10th
April 17th
Second ploughing and sowing of oats
April 19th & 20th
Carted manure
April 28th
Carted manure and Apr. 29th ploughed for corn Planted corn
May 7th & 8th May 10th
Harrowed and ploughed for potatoes. Plant - ed them May 13 & 15
May 24th May 26th & 27th
Washed sheep
Hoed corn
June 3d
Sheared sheep
June 4th
Hoed corn
June 10th
"Ashed" the Corn
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June 11th
Ploughed fallow Ploughed for buckwheat
June 17th June 19th July 22d July 24th
-
Hoed corn
Haying, very warm
Turned the yearling heifers into L. Candee's lot
July 27th
Cradled oats and next day took them up
July 30th, 31st, Aug 2, worked at hay and oats
Aug. 3d, 4th, 5th
Worked at hay in the lower meadow.
Aug. 9th, 10th
Worked at hay, Aug. 12, finished haying.
Aug. 29th, 30th
Ploughed fallow
Sep 2d, 3d
Sowed rye
Sep 5th
Took the heifers out of L. Candee's pasture
Sep 10th
Worked at the fallow. Finished sowing rye Dug potatoes
Sep 17th, 18th
Cut stalks
Sep 20th
Dug potatoes
Sep 21st, 22d
Dug potatoes
Sep 25th
Dug potatoes and finished Sep 27th
Oct 1st, 2d & 4th
Cut buckwheat
Oct 8th
Threshed buckwheat
Oct 12th
Threshed buckwheat
Oct 15th
Cleaned up buckwheat
Oct 18th
Picked corn
Oct 22d
Made cider at L. Candee's.
Oct 26th to 30th
Picked corn
Nov. 1
Carted manure
Dec 8th
Killed hogs
Dec 10th, 11th, 13th
Threshed oats
Dec. 14th
Threshed rye
Dec 25th
Threshed rye (No holiday ! )
Dec 27th and 28th
Threshed Rye
COL. JOHN DAVIS.
Col. John Davis was born in 1755, son of Capt. Joseph and Mary Wheeler Davis, who lived on Chestnut Tree Hill in Oxford. He was descended from the John Davis who located in Derby between 1685 and 1690 and who was known as "The Welshman". As a young man, twenty- two years old, in 1777, he took the oath provided by law for freemen. In 1782 he married Mehitable Thomas of New Haven, by whom he had fourteen children, all born in the same house on Chestnut Tree Hill.
A descendant of his, Mrs. Lily Davis Hull wrote in an article read at a Davis Family Reunion, that "when the War of the Revolution broke out, he was in his early manhood. Whether he sympathized with the
Sep 16th
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patriot cause or was loyal to the king for conscientious reasons, I do not know, but while the British occupied New York, they sent a body of troops all through southwestern Connecticut and forcibly carried off all the young men they could capture, hoping in this way to prevent them entering the rebel army, and also to induce them to join the British. John Davis was among that number and was held prisoner for some time, but finally escaped and found his way home."
At the time that the Oxford Green was laid out, (during the years between the inception of the Town idea in 1789 and its final incorpora- tion in 1798), Capt. John Davis, (later Colonel), was a member of the committee who got the people to turn out and clear the ground which was full of brambles.
Col. Davis was active in the affairs of the Connecticut State Militia, attaining the rank of Lt. Colonel of the Connecticut 32d. Regiment, In- fantry.
When 55 years old, he wrote the following letter to his son, telling of his many activities during the day, -
Anson Davis
Perth Amboy, New Gerzy on the turnpike rode
Oxford August 11th. 1810 Dear Sone, I recd your letter of July 25th with its contents which was well acsepted of
your Mother has bin unwell for Eight weaks past but is now in a cumfortable helth She had a Daughter Born the 4th of July at two o'clock A.M.
I eat brakefast at three and by a pertickerler Request from Col. Umphrey, I attended him at 7 o'clock at New haven I asisted in bilding a house taking the timber from the stump, hued, fraimd, Raisd Covered Painted with doors & winds by three o'clock in the afternoon. Refreshed with many other things too numerous to mention
Returned home before nine at night. thus ended the memorable fourth of July. Naby is unwell the rest of us is well I have had a quite hard summers work I got my harvest in well & in good season we have had a hard time to git hay -- -- got cheefly threw without much damage your cattle & sheepe are doing well Truman has got his hay well & in good season Truman and John has asisted me some in gitting my harvest & hay Your Mother has begun to spin your wool & calcolates to make you a fine piece of cloth. On the 8th instant I attended a brigade meeting at Bran- ford the 32d. Regmt is to be Revued at Milford on the 24th of September Capt Ira Smith & Capt. Wm. Fenn is appointed Major to Said Regiment Capt Philo Beecher has got discharge from millitary duty & will lead the company to the choice of a captain and such other officers as may bee found wonting on the first munday of Sept next at which time your company would be well
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acsepted of if convenient to atend whilst my pen was in my hand I recd the news that Trumans wife had got a dafter & doing well
Your Mother Brothers and sisters Remember their Love &c.
John Davis
During his lifetime one of the principal money making projects was raising beef cattle which were sold to drovers for the New York mar- ket, and Col Davis was active in this work.
He retained his faculties to a remarkable degree to the day of his death in 1848, aged ninety-three. When he was 90 years old, he broke a colt and rode him from Oxford to New Haven, a distance of some 12 or 15 miles. In the summer before he was 93, he went out with the men and mowed grass nearly all the forenoon. He died shortly after his house was burned, from a fall from his horse and over exertion at the fire. He was a man much respected in and about Oxford for his sterling qualities, both as a citizen and neighbor.
LUGRAND SHARPE
Lugrand Sharpe's father, Thomas Sharpe, came to Oxford from Ridgefield, Conn. where Lugrand was born in 1797. The Sharpe land was in Quaker Farms near Zoar Bridge. The father died there in 1805 when his son was only eight years old. In 1823, Lugrand married a daughter of Ebenezer Booth who "had a house, dam and factory half a mile west of Southford." Two years before, Lugrand had purchased a place in Southford just across the border from Oxford. He con- structed a water works and factory south-west of Southford which was later used for the manufacture of cutlery.
"He was an earnest and efficient laborer in the Methodist Society formed in Southford, and it was to a great extent due to his efforts that a Union Meeting House was soon built in Southford". It is likely that some of the nearby Oxford people attended this church. Mr. Sharpe formed a Methodist "class" at Quaker Farms, of which he was the first leader. The Methodist preachers were mostly all "circuit riders", i.e. they were not located in one place, but divided their time between a number of places. It usually required from four to five weeks to make the circuit of them, and to carry on while he was not there, the preacher established, in likely places, what were known as "classes", over which he appointed "class leaders", of which Mr. Sharpe was one.
In 1843, he left Southford and went to Humphreysville to live, and where his son Wm. C. Sharpe was born who founded the "Seymour Record" in 1871.
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CHARLES A. DAVIS
One of the prominent Oxford men of a later date was Charles A. Davis who was born in 1858, son of Anson Riley Davis and Mary Alling Davis, in the old Skeel family residence on Bowers Hill Road in Quaker Farms, opposite Good Hill Road. He was a great grandson of Col. John Davis of whom we have already heard, and a great-greatgrandson of Capt. Joseph Davis who was active in the founding of St. Peter's Church in 1764. Anson Riley Davis "followed farming all his life, and his son Charles A. Davis was reared in much the same manner as all farmer boys of his day and early acquired an excellent knowledge of all the duties that fall to the lot of the agriculuralist. He assisted in the operation of the home farm until his father's death in 1885. The next year he married Mrs. Mary Lum widow of Harpin A. Lum. Her daugh- ter, Miss J. Mabel Lum became one of the most respected and influ- ential citizens of Oxford.
In the Spring of 1899, Mr. Davis purchased the place of Stephen Mallett, containing some 260 acres of land and engaged extensively in the dairy business and general farming. His house is on the west side of Quaker Farms Road directly opposite Christ Church. "He was one of the most enterprising and successful dairymen and farmers of Oxford, and as a citizen, stood high in the esteem of his fellow men. His strict integrity and honorable dealing in business commended him to the confidence of all; his pleasant manner won him many friends and he was one of the popular and honored citizens of his community."
In 1894, Mr. Davis was elected Parish Clerk and Treasurer of Christ Church, Quaker Farms, positions which he held until 1910 when he became Senior Warden, continuing as such until his death in 1937. In addition to his activities as farmer and church leader, Mr. Davis became something of a private local banker, loaning money to indi- viduals and to the Town of Oxford before The Town got its first bank loan from the Valley National Bank of Seymour, in 1903.
CHAPTER 18
STEAMBOATS AND RAILROADS
The first use of steam for transportation was on boats. While of course, neither sailing vessels nor steamboats could come up the rivers as far as Oxford, they could come to Derby, which was near enough so that the arrival of the first steamboat in Derby must have caused some excitement in Oxford. This was in the summer of 1824, seventeen years after the memorable trip up the Hudson River in 1807, by Robert Fulton's "Clermont". The name of the boat coming to Derby was the "General Lafayette"; a small vessel built with a mast and a bowsprit, and propelled by side paddle wheels. It was owned by a company in New York, who planned to run it regularly between that city and Derby. Thousands of people came to see it steam up to Derby and surely some of the people of Oxford must have ridden or walked down to Derby for such a sight. Opposition to the plan to have it run regularly to Derby developed in Bridgeport and the boat was pur- chased by persons there, presumably to have it run to Bridgeport in- stead of to Derby. Other attempts were made to furnish steamboat transportation between Derby and New York, eight vessels, at one time or another plying between the two places as late as 1879.
Sailing vessels continued well after the coming of the "Gen. Lafayette", it being recorded that in 1838, packets of 80 tons plied weekly between Derby and New York, carrying wood and ship timber, the river having about ten feet of water at Derby landing.
It was twelve years after the advent of the "Gen. Lafayette" in 1824, before the first railroad came to the neighborhood of Oxford. This was the Housatonic Railroad, which ran along the west bank of the Housatonic River. It was designed to provide an all-year-round route between New York and Albany in connection with Long Island Steam- boats from New York to Bridgeport. It was chartered in 1836, the company being authorized to build a railroad from the north line of Connecticut, near Canaan, down the valley of the Housatonic River to Brookfield, (and Stevenson) to Bridgeport. It was opened in 1840.
How much use the people of Oxford made of this railroad is not on record, but there was a station at Stevenson, which they reached by driving down the Old Mill Road ( now known as Barry Road) in Quaker Farms, past the old mill at Eight Mile Brook, then up Bowers Hill Road to what is now Freeman Road, down that road to the road on the east bank of the Housatonic River, and north on that to Zoar Bridge.
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On the eastern side of town, the Naugatuck Railroad, running along the Naugatuck River, was not opened to Seymour and Naugatuck until 1849. It is significant that this date coincides closely with the drying up of the local industries, caused by the railroad bringing coal to the towns along the Housatonic River, thus providing for steam power much greater than the local water powers.
The Naugatuck Railroad was not planned as part of any through route but was intended merely to provide a rail outlet especially for the thriving manufacturing towns of Winsted and Waterbury. For the people of Oxford, it provided a shipping and receiving point at Seymour which was considerably nearer than Derby or New Haven, to which, previously, they had had to travel laboriously by wagon, and it was un- doubtedly made immediate use of by them in 1849.
To show the character of service which this road gave the people of the Valley at the height of its traffic, we give below its timetable of June, 1871.
Trains leaving Seymour as follows:
Going South
5:50 A.M.
Freight train with passenger car.
8:53 A.M.
Passenger train
11:17 A.M.
Freight train with passenger car.
1:28 P.M.
Special
3:51 P.M.
Passenger train
6:36 P.M.
Milk train with Passenger Car.
Going North
8:53 A.M.
Milk train with Passenger Car
11:17 A.M.
Passenger Train
1:28 P.M. Freight Train with Passenger Car.
4:26 P.M.
Freight Train with Passenger Car.
6:10 P.M.
Passenger Train
8:00 P.M.
Special
The New England Railroad
The railroad which ran east and west through the northern part of Oxford was known from 1895 on as the "New England Railroad". It was originally part of an ambitious scheme to provide a through over- land route between Providence, R.I. and the Hudson River, and was named the "Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill Railroad" It was opened from Hartford to Bristol, Conn. in 1850 and was extended to Waterbury in 1855. West of Waterbury, the first survey was made in the Fall of 1845, but no application to take land was made until 1868, when it was made in the name of the "Boston, Hartford and Erie Rail- road." It is shown on the 1868 map of Oxford under that name. Work was commenced west of Waterbury in November of 1869, and con- tinued till 1870, when work was suspended with about three quarters
Form-BIN. New York & New England
-
-
RAIL ROAD
COMPANY
N.Y. & N. C.R . R.
J
DEpl-17 188/
-
--
MARKS AND NUMBERS.
Maigs & frost.
Received of IM H.V. Oalman 21 Poli Butter
of 6 Bannon.
3 Cases Bottles
Numbered and marked as above, which the Company promises to forward by its Railroad, and deliver to
- or order, at its Depot in
-
he or they first paying freight for the same, at the rate customary per ton of 9,000 pounds. N. B .- If merchandise be not called for on its arrival, { it will be stored at the risk and expense of the owner.
Essaich
FOR THE CORPORATION.
Way Bill, N. Y. and New England R.R.
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-
134
Towantic Station on Riggs St.
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of the road bed completed. Work was resumed in 1880 by a new com- pany, the "New York and New England Railroad." It was opened for travel from Waterbury through Oxford and Danbury to Brewster, N. Y. in 1881 and to the Hudson River in 1882, at Fishkill Landing (now "Beacon"), from whence trains were ferried across the River to Newburg. At Hawleyville the road connected with the Housatonic Railroad.
After several re-organizations, the road became known in 1873, as the "New York and New England Railroad" and in 1895 as the "New England Railroad".
The accompanying illustration is a reproduction of a waybill of the "New York and New England Railroad", dated Sep 17, 1881, in which year the railroad was extended to Brewster. The waybill from H. J. Oatman of Southbury is addressed to Meigs and Frost, who were makers of crackers in Waterbury.
Another illustration is that of the railroad station at the north end of Riggs St., Oxford, known as the "Toantic" station. The station known as "Oxford" was located in Southford at the Oxford Turnpike. The railroad between Waterbury and Southbury was abandoned about 1938, and between Southbury and Hawleyville about 1949.
While the people of Oxford enjoyed the use of the Naugatuck Rail- road from 1849 on, it was not until 1881 that the New England Railroad provided them with other outlets, at the northern part of the town, the one by connection with the Housatonic Railroad on the west, and the other with the Naugatuck Railroad on the east.
The New Haven and Derby Railroad
In the meantime, a railroad was opened directly from Derby to New Haven, known as the "New Haven and Derby Railroad" in 1871. This gave the people of Oxford a direct all-rail route from Seymour to New Haven without having to journey down to Devon.
In the Sep 1, 1871 issue of the "Seymour Record" it was noted that "the Derby and New Haven Railroad is now fairly under way and mak- ing four regular trips between Ansonia and New Haven. Arrangements have been made with the Naugatuck Railroad, so that passengers can change cars at Ansonia.
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