USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Wolcott > History of the town of Wolcott (Connecticut) from 1731 to 1874, with an account of the centenary meeting, September 10th and 11th, 1873 and with the genealogies of the families of the town > Part 19
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Samuel M. Bailey,
Pliny Bartholomew,
Elihu Moulthrop,
Moses Bradley,
Evelyn E. Moulthrop,
John P. Butler,
Sherman Moulthrop,
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SOLDIERS FROM WOLCOTT.
Newell Moulthrop,
Samuel N. Sperry,
David M. Manning,
John Smith,
Samuel A. Merriman, John Mahon, John Milligan,
James Sweeney, Alvah P. Tolman,
Thomas P. Tompkins,
Amon L. Norton,
Orrin Taylor,
Luzern T. Norton,
George E. Todd,
Burritt M. Norton,
Henry Todd,
Lucius F. Norton,
Rev. Henry E. F. Upson,
John Owens,
Lucian Upson,
Charles H. Robbins,
Leroy Upson,
William B. Rose,
George S. Wiard,
Henry Rose,
William Wiard,
Joseph H. Somers,
William Wray.
The following are the names of some of the sons of former residents of Wolcott who were in the army in the late war :
Lucern, son of Simeon H. Norton, of Plantsville, died in battle.
Edgar, son of Jerry Upson, of Cheshire, died of disease con- tracted in the army.
David Frame, son of Rev. Aaron C. Beach, mortally wounded at Louisville, Kentucky, May 2d,.1862, aged 21 years.
Rev. Joseph H. Twitchell, chaplain, son of Deacon Edward Twitchell, of Plantsville.
Manton D. and Theron, sons of Russell Upson, of New Haven. Hobart V., son of Luther Bailey.
Charles, son of Lucius Upson, of Plantsville.
BIOGRAPHY.
JOHN ALCOCK.
John Alcock, son of John, and grand-son of Phillip, was born in New Haven, where his father resided at that time, January 14, 1705. He married Deborah, daughter of Isaac Blakeslee, of North Haven, on the twenty-fourth anniver- sary of his birth, and settled in Wolcott in the spring of 1731, on a farm of 1173 acres of land, which he had pur- chased of Deacon Josiah Rogers, of Branford. He contin- ued to add to his landed estate until he was the possessor of about one thousand acres. He purchased more than twelve hundred acres, but had given some to his children previous to the later purchases. He gave to each of five or six children a farm of about one hundred acres of land, in the immediate vicinity of his home, retaining his home- stead for himself as long as he lived. He was a man of great energy and endurance, for without these qualities no man would or could have accomplished what he did in a wilderness country in the short space of time of forty-seven years. When he made his residence on this farm, coming up from Waterbury, he passed a little be- yond the bounds of civilization into the territory of pan- thers, bears, wild-cats, and immense forests. Here he built his log house and introduced his bride of fifteen months as "queen of the realm," to the privations and severe toil which the circumstances must have imposed in following years. Before his strong arm the wilderness gave way, and in a few years neighbors were on every side. Prosperity was his lot until his acres numbered a thousand, and his sons and daughters a dozen, and his
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
log house, being too strait, gave place to the more com- fortable framed house.
He was a man of considerable public spirit, serving the town of Waterbury in different capacities, but especially as surveyor of lands and highways - the old records now showing his name connected with much work of this kind. His name is not prominent in the doings of the Ecclesi- astical Society, for when it was organized he was sixty- six years of age, and had performed a large amount of hard labor, and was very properly allowed to rest on the retired list of prominent men of the community. He lived to see his children comfortably settled in life, most of them near him, and some of them highly honored as public citizens ; and if a consciousness of having per- formed successfully the work of life can give satisfaction at its close, he must have enjoyed a larger share than is common among men.
He departed this life January 6th, 1777, within eight days of his seventy-second birth-day, and a little over forty-six years after his settlement on territory that be- came Wolcott nineteen years after his death; and had all the inhabitants of the town since his day been as energetic and diligent in the work of life as he, Wolcott would bloom as a garden, and would be the pride of the State. As the first settler of the town, every citizen must feel to honor his name, and congratulate his de- scendants, scattered in many parts of this great nation.
His wife, she that was Deborah Blakeslee, of North Haven, and became the queen bride of Wolcott, by being the first bride residing within its limits, survived her hus- band twelve years, departing this life January 7th, 1789, in the seventy-eighth year of her age.
CAPT. JOHN ALCOX.
Capt. John Alcox was the eldest son of Mr. John Al- cock, the first settler in Wolcott, and was born Decem- ber 28, 1731, and was, without doubt, the first child born in the territory of present Wolcott. He married, Au- gust 28, 1755, Mary Chatfield, daughter of Solomon Chatfield, of Derby, Connecticut, and settled on a farm, a little east of his father's residence, where his grandson, Almon, still resides, he being in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Captain Alcox was appointed one of the first prudential committee, at the organization of the first Ec- clesiastical Society, and he and his wife Mary were among the number of forty-one persons who united in the for- mation of the first church in Farmingbury parish. He was a man of stability and honor, but his energy of char- acter fitted him for military service more than ecclesias- tical, and hence he was distinguished in the former more than the latter, though in the church he was a leading and substantial member.
All his commissions in the military service are preserv- ed, though that of Sargeant is not at hand. That of Ensign was addressed, dated, and signed as follows : " To John Alcox, Ensign of the new erected company or train- band in Waterbury [Farmingbury] Winter Parish so called. Given under my hand and the seal of this colony, in New Haven, the 19th day of October in the 9th year of the Reign of our Sovereign, Lord George the Third, King of Great Britain, &c., A. D., 1769. By His Honor's Com- mand, Jonathan Trumbull. George Wyllys, Secretary."
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
CAPTAIN'S COMMISSION.
Jonathan Trumbull, Esquire, Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, in New England.
To John Alcox, Gent., Greeting : You being, by the General Assembly of this Colony, accepted to be Captain of the Thir- teenth Company, or Trainband, in the 15th Regiment in this Colony, - reposing special trust and confidence in your loyalty, courage, and good conduct, I do, by virtue of the letters-patent from the crown of England to this corporation, me thereunto en- abling, appoint and impower you to take the said Company into your care and charge, as their Captain, carefully and diligently to discharge that trust ; exercising your inferior officers and soldiers in the use of their arms, according to the discipline of war; keeping them in good order and government, and com- manding them to obey you as their Captain for His Majesty's service. And you are to observe all such orders and directions as from time to time you shall receive, either from me or from other your superior officer, pursuant to the trust hereby reposed in you.
Given under my hand and the seal of this Colony, in Hartford, the 18th day of May, in the fourteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, George the Third, King of Great Britain, etc. Annoque Domini 1774.
By His Honor's Command, JONTH. TRUMBULL. GEORGE WYLLYS, Sec'y.
In the Autumn after Mr. Alcox received his Captain's commission, and when Colonial matters were taking on a serious attitude toward the mother country, in conse- quence of the warlike preparations of Governor Gage, of Massachusetts, he received the following paper, appar- ently in General Putnam's hand-writing and signature, and signed by other persons :
PUTNAM'S ORDER.
CAPT. HOPKINS :
POMPHRET, Sept. 3, 1774.
Mr. Keys this moment brought news that the men of war and
* Isaac Hopkins had been Captain previous to the appointment of John Alcox, and hence when he received the above notice, he not then being:
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CAPT. JOHN ALCOX.
troops began to fire on the people last night at sunset at Boston, when a post was sent immediately to inform the country ; he in- forms the artillery played all night. The people are universally for Boston as far as here, and desire all the assistance possible ; - it was occasioned by the country's being robbed of their powder as far as Framingham, and when found out, people went to take them and were immediately fired upon; six of our people were killed the first shot, a number more were wounded ; and [ I ] beg you would rally all the forces and be upon the march immediately for the relief of Boston and the people that way.
ISRAEL PUTNAM.
A copy compared, etc. Per JAMES HUNTINGTON.
WOLCOTT. (Probably Governor.)
Ten days later, the Colonel of the Regiment sent the following paper :
To Captain John Alcox, Captain of the 13th Company in the 15th Regiment of the Colony of Connecticut :
These lines are to desire you to call forth the company under your command as soon as may be, and see that they and each of them are furnished with arms and ammunition according to law, and see that they hold themselves in readiness to march at an hour's warning, if need be.
Dated at Farmington, this 13th day of Sept., A D., 1774.
JOHN STRONG, Colonel.
The following paper is also preserved in Capt. Alcox's handwriting, except the name of Abraham Woster, and is now, 1874, ninety-nine years old :
To the Honorable Assembly to be holden at Hartford on the Second Thursday of May. A. D., 1775 :
These may serve to inform your honors, that being required by a statute of law passed in your session in October last requiring all captains of military companies in the government to call out their companies twelve half days before the first day of May next
captain, passed the order to Mr. Alcox, who preserved it. It is now in pos- session of Mr. A. Bronson Alcott.
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
then ensuing, and to cause them to be taught in the art of mili- tary discipline, encouraging all that would faithfully attend, with a premium of one dollar for their service, whereupon I have warned out my company to said twelve half days within said act limited, and under me there have attended faithfully the said twelve and a half days, fifty-eight of those to draw pay. Eleven that have attended eleven half days, eight that have attended ten half days, two that have attended nine, two that have attended eight, and one that attended seven, on which I exhibit this ac- count before your honor, requiring the aforementioned premium.
Dated Waterbury, May 9th, A. D., 1775.
JOHN ALCOX,
Capt. of the 13th Company in the Fifteenth Regiment.
The above is a true account of the proceedings of the above said half-day trainings.
ABRAHAM WOSTER, Clerk of said Company.
On the reverse side of this paper is the following re- ceipt and autographs :
FARMINGTON, June 24.
We, the subscribers, have received of Capt. John Alcox in full for our half-day training.
Ezekiel Upson,
Joseph Benham,
Samuel Atkins, Abraham Tuttle,
Amos Hall,
Joseph Beecher,
James Thomas,
Wait Hotchkiss,
David Alcox,
John Bronson,
Aaron Welton,
Jacob Carter, jr.,
Elkanah Smith,
Noah Neal,
Eliakim Welton, jr.,
Abel Collins,
John Talmage,
Jared Harrison,
Abel Curtiss, sen.,
Heman Hall, James Alcox,
Johnson Cleaveland, Stephen Miles, jr., Daniel Alcox,
Charles Upson, Jeremiah Smith, Mark Harrison, Cyrus Norton, Abraham Woster, Nathan Seward,
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CAPT. JOHN ALCOX.
Samuel Harrison,
Nathaniel Sutliff,
Dan Tuttle,
Philemon Bradley,
Aaron How,
John Greely,
Curtiss Hall,
Isaac Newell,
John Miles,
Moses Pond,
Jeremiah Selkrigs,
James Alcox received the wages for Phillip Barrett and David Alcox, jr., and receipted accordingly. Daniel Lane received "six shillings" for Joel Lane.
Captain Alcox espoused the cause of his country in the revolutionary war with great spirit and energy. It is said of him that on hearing some report, about the time of the commencement of the war, he buckled on his Cap- tain's sword and walked to New Haven, twenty-five miles, to see if his services were needed as a soldier. Three of his sons, Solomon, Samuel, and John B., served in that war.
His wife, Mary, departed this life, February 28, 1807, and Mr. Alcox died September 27, 1808, wanting one day of being seventy-seven years of age.
A. BRONSON ALCOTT .*
The first settler of Wolcott, John Alcock, of New Ha- ven, left a son, Captain John Alcock, who lived on Spindle Hill, along with his brothers, each possessed of a good farm. At his house his grand-son, Amos Bronson Alcott, now of Concord, Mass., was born November 29, 1799, being the eldest of eight children of Joseph Chatfield Al- cox and Anna Bronson, his wife. The homestead of Joseph C. Alcox was near his father's, and it was there that Mr. Alcott spent his boyhood. The present house, built in 1819, is that from which Mr. Alcott set forth for Boston in 1828, when he began his active career in the great world. It stood near the fork of the road, where in former times was the district school house in which Mr. Alcott and his cousin, Dr. William A. Alcott, commenced their education, in the fashion described by Dr. Alcott many years ago. This school house has now disappeared, and the house and farm of Joseph C. Alcox have suffered from neglect since his death in 1829.
He was a skillful farmer and country mechanic, making farming tools and household utensils for his townsfolks, and having the best tilled and best fenced farm (of nearly 100 acres) in the Spindle Hill district. Two of his broth- ers had built log cabins on their clearings and lived in
* This biographical sketch was prepared by request of the author of this book, by F. B. Sanborn, Esq., of Concord, Mass., and is extended for the purpose of giving some account of the experiences of the young men of Wolcott in their southern tours, and of Mr. Alcott's efforts in education, for which the author extends to Mr. Sanborn his most cordial thanks.
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A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
them in the early part of this century, but he always oc- cupied a frame house, and lived with comfort, though with frugality. He was a diffident, retiring man, and kept much at home, content with his simple lot ; indus- trious, temperate, conscientious, honorable in all his deal- ings, and fortunate in his domestic life.
His wife, the mother of Mr. Bronson Alcott, deserves special mention, since from her he inherited his name, his early religious training, and the general turn of his mind. Anna Bronson was the daughter of Captain Amos Bronson, of Plymouth : a man of property, influence, and decided theological opinions, somewhat at variance with those of the majority of Connecticut farmers at that time. She was the sister of an eminent clergyman and scholar, -- Dr. Tillotson Bronson, for some years at the head of the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, and previously rec- tor of St. John's Church, in Waterbury. She had some advantages of culture not so common in Wolcott at that time, and at her marriage brought to the Spindle Hill neighborhood a refinement of disposition and a grace of deportment that gave a more polite tone to the little community. In course of time her husband and children joined her in the Episcopal form of worship, when intro- duced in their neighborhood, where the service was read (at the Spindle Hill school house), until in course of time a church was gathered. She united steadfastness and persistency of purpose with uncommon delicacy and sweetness of spirit, and was truly, as her son declares her, " meek, forgiving, patient, generous, and self-sustained, the best of wives and mothers." She lived to a great age, surviving her husband more than thirty years.
From his earliest years Mr. Alcott was fond of books, and read eagerly all that he could find. He went to school in the Spindle Hill district until he was thirteen years old, and at the age of twelve began to keep a diary, a practice which he has continued the greater part of the time since. Still earlier he had read Bunyan's Pilgrim's
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
Progress, the book of all others which had the greatest influence on his mind. He learned to write by practising with chalk on his mother's kitchen floor, and became in his boyhood a skillful penman, so that his first essay in teaching was as master of a writing school. He was mainly self-taught, in the higher studies, although he was for a time a pupil of his uncle, Dr. Bronson, at Che- shire, in 1813, and in 1815 of Rev. John Keys, of Wol- cott Hill.
He worked during boyhood on the farm and in the shop with his father and brothers, and was dextrous at mechanical tasks. At the age of fourteen he worked for a while at clock making, in Plymouth, and in the same year went on an excursion into northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts, selling a few articles as he went, to meet the expenses of his journey. At the age of fifteen he was confirmed, along with his father, as a member of the Episcopal church, the ceremony being performed in Waterbury, by Bishop Brownell, after which young Alcott, with his cousin, the late Dr. Alcott, used to read the church service on Sundays at the school house in their neighborhood. The two cousins also car- ried on a correspondence at this time, and founded a small library for their mutual improvement. A few years later they visited Virginia and the Carolinas together, on one of those peddling pilgrimages which make such a romantic feature of Mr. Alcott's early life. Of one of these journeys Dr. Alcott has printed an extended ac- count.
His first visit to New Haven was in 1813, when he went to a book store and sighed for a place in it, for the sake of reading all the books. And he turned his rambles in Virginia and North Carolina to good account in the way of reading ; gaining access to the libraries of the great houses as he went along.
The beginning of these rambles was in the autumn and winter of 1818, when the youth was almost nineteen
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A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
years old. At the age of sixteen he had played the part of a subscription book agent, selling copies of Flavel's " Keeping the Heart." His earnings were spent in New Haven for a prayer book for his mother, another for him- self, a dictionary, and a supply of paper for his diaries. These short journeys in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, had worn off his natural bashfulness some- what, and had increased his longing to see more of the great world. His father and mother would fain have re- tained him at home, but he resolved to go to Norfolk in one of the coasting vessels from New Haven, and had a dream that he could easily, in Virginia, find a place as a teacher. Accordingly he sailed from New Haven, Octo- ber 13th, 1818, in the good sloop "Three Sisters," Cap - tain Sperry, skipper, with fifteen other passengers, chiefly peddlers from Connecticut and workmen going in the employ of the Tisdales, Connecticut tinmen, who had a shop at Norfolk. The voyage lasted about a week, and young Alcott landed in Virginia, October 20th. His pas- sage money seems to have been ten dollars. For a few days after arriving at Norfolk he continued to board with Captain Sperry, but soon went to live at Tisdale's, the tinman, and was urged by him to enter his service. At first Mr. Alcott was bent on teaching, but having tried from the 24th of October to the 12th of November, with- out success, to get a school, and being then somewhat in debt, the youth accepted his offer, and began to peddle for him about the city. This continued until some time in December, but apparently without much pecuniary re- sult, for just before the Christmas holidays we find Mr. Alcott buying a small stock of Virginia almanacs, and selling them to the citizens of Norfolk at a profit of two hundred per cent. Each almanac cost threepence, and was sold for ninepence, and the young merchant easily earned a dollar or two a day so long as the holidays lasted. Then it occurred to him to enlarge his stock, and to selltrinkets and silks to the families in the surrounding
I7
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HISTORY OF WOLCOTT.
country. He went, therefore, to a dealer in "fancy goods " in Norfolk, and bought goods costing nearly three hundred dollars, which he bestowed in two small tin trunks, to be carried in the hand, as the peddler jour- neyed on foot from house to house. There were tortoise shell combs, thimbles, scissors, various articles of orna- ment for ladies, puzzles and picture books for children, spectacles, razors, and many other wares for the men, besides needles, buttons, sewing-silk, and much more that was not then a part of a peddler's stock in Eastern Virginia.
The first trip was made in January, 1819, and was a circuit from Norfolk, by way of Hampton, along the James River for awhile, then across the country to York- town, and by the York county plantations back to Hamp- ton and Norfolk again. It proved profitable, and both goods and merchant found unexpected favor in the eyes of the Virginians. An American foot-peddler, a bashful Yankee, neither impertinent nor stingy, was a novelty in those regions, and, it soon appeared, an agreeable nov- elty. He was kindly received at the great houses of the planters, where he generally spent the night, accepting courteously their customary hospitality, though some- times sleeping in the slave quarters. On Sundays and rainy days, when his trade could not be pursued, this diffi- dent and bookish Autolycus remained in the planters' houses, and had permission to read in their libraries, where he found many books he had never seen or heard of before. In that part of Virginia there lived some of the oldest and best descended families of the Old Do- minion, with large and choice libraries, which they al- lowed the young man from Connecticut to explore for himself. Biography was his favorite reading, then poems and tales, and he had a keen appetite - not so common among lads of nineteen-for metaphysics and books of devotion. Cowper's Life and Letters, Locke's Conduct of the Understanding, and Lavater's Physiognomy, were
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A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
among the books thus read; nor was his favorite, Pil- grim's Progress, forgotten, which he found in fine editions among the Virginians.
A word may here be said of the style of life and of reading, schooling, etc., which had up to this time been familiar to Mr. Alcott. The region where he lived was one of the most primitive parts of Connecticut at the opening of the century, and, though it was so near to those centers of culture, Hartford and New Haven, was but scantily supplied with books. There were not a hundred volumes in the parish library, and it had fallen into disuse when Mr. Alcott was a lad in his teens. He used to get permission from his father on Saturday after- noons to go round to the houses of the farmers in Wolcott for several miles about to examine their libraries and read their books, which included the Bible, and perhaps . half a dozen other books, among them Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Hervey's Meditations, Young's Night Thoughts, and Burgh's Dignity of Human Nature, a book then in much vogue among the country people of New England. These volumes would be kept on a shelf in a corner of the family room, and young Alcott readily got leave to borrow them.
It was his custom for years to borrow and read the Pilgrim's Progress once a year ; and this book, more than any other, gave direction to his fancies and visions of life. Wolcott, indeed, might pass either for the Hill Difficulty or for the Delectable Mountains, according to the mood of the inhabitant of its uplands. The township lay high, and Spindle Hill, or "New Connecticut," was at the sum- mit of the range of Wolcott hills, commanding a wide prospect on all sides. Seven parish steeples were in sight, and from an oak-top the young Christian could see the glittering waters of Long Island Sound.
Books were always his solace and delight, and he read constantly of evenings, and while resting from work at noon, during his father's nap or pull at the tobacco-pipe,
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in which he indulged himself moderately. Sometimes, too, the barefoot boy took his book afield with him, and read under the wall or by some tree, while the oxen rested in the furrow.
To a youth thus bred, the comparatively elegant and courtly life of the wealthy Virginians was a graceful and impressive revelation, -the first school of fine manners which he had entered. An English gentleman, hearing the story of Mr. Alcott's early years-his farm life and his progress as a peddler-could scarcely believe it true. "Why," said he, "your friend has the most distinguished manners - the manners of a very great peer." He would have been still more surprised to learn that it was during the years of peddling that this polish of manner began to be acquired by contact with a class then esteemed the first gentlemen in America.
During these first months of 1819 he visited the Vir- ginian towns of Portsmouth, Smithfield, Williamsburg, the old capitol of the colony, Gloucester, and others in that region, and traversed the surrounding districts, without anxiety or misadventure, and with something to show at the beginning of April as the profits of the win- ter's trade. Something more than one hundred dollars was the net income, after all debts were paid, and travel- ling homeward with this, Mr. Alcott put it into the hands of his father, as the price of the six month's time he had taken from the work of farm and shop. The money went into the new house which the father was then building (in 1819), and which is still standing.
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