USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 23
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Here Mr. Anderson and his family including his two daughters, Mrs. Jimenis, now of New York, Mrs. McWilliam, now of Ridgefield, and his son John spent more than 30 summers. Mr. Anderson was a man of considerable wealth and not only was he very generous in his sup- port of civic matters, but he spent freely on the upkeep of his estate, and kept a stable of fine horses.
In 1920, being in poor health he sold his place to Earl W. Mayo, also from New York; and moved to a house in the town. Mr. Mayo made further changes and additions to the house, and he and his family have continued to make it their all the year 'round residence.
"HARWINTON HOUSE" THE MERRILL CLARKE HOUSE
EDITH A. MILLER, Author
EDITH A. MILLER, Artist
[April 1, 1948]
Harwinton House, transplanted to Canoe Hill Road in our community by the Rev. and Mrs. Merrill F. Clarke in 1931, had already seen a lifetime of interest and romance in its original
location, 14 miles southeast of Harwinton, Connecticut, on the Bristol Road. This area is rich in Revolutionary history and the conflict between Tory and Continental was ever pres-
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The Merrill Clarke House
ent with its first owners and their little hamlet.
Cornelius Graves of Northbury, now Water- bury, acquired much of this property in the 1750's and probably lived there a time, but it was his son, Stephen, who first built a log cabin and later, in 1795, the house in which we are interested. Stephen Graves of Harwinton was a loyal member of the Church of England and among the first of the Tory clan to come to the famous Tory Den to escape the Sons of Lib- erty. Many a time he ran from his log cabin to hide beneath its moss grown roof. His home was nearer to it than were any of the Chip- peny Hill farm houses, and therefore it is pos- sible that it was he who discovered it in the first place. It was his wife, Ruth, who fed the men in the den, leaving food on a rock near the edge of the woods for she dared not risk
betrayal by going nearer, and it is a tradition that Ruth Graves' oldest child was born there; but, while it is possible that her husband, Stephen, was hiding at the time of the child's birth, it is improbable that the cave was ever the refuge of women.
At this time the Sons of Liberty were led by Captain John Wilson of Harwinton. They were a band of raiders composed of 36 men whom the township volunteered to supply for the war guaranteeing their pay, their clothing and care for their families. Capt. Wilson and his men knew no authority, in fact defied it; how- ever, they did many services for their country which no law could do, including patrolling the towns in which they lived. Tar and fea- thers, a peculiarly American mode of punish- ment, was a product of their ingenuity, and
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since they were no respectors of persons, the churchmen, who were also worshippers of the king, were their special prey.
Stephen Graves was the particular object of Capt. Wilson's raids for his home was a storm center, a rendezvous for the loyalists. This was a cabin which he built for his bride, in the southeast corner of Harwinton, and where they made their home from December, 1778, until the new house was built on the same site. The churchmen in the corner drew the atten- tion of Capt. Wilson, and the Graves family were subjected to many indignities, but the quiet Stephen Graves clung to his indepen- dence and sympathy with the king.
In 1778 he appeared before Daniel Caplin, Esa., and took the oath of fidelity and the free- man's oath, compelling a conscientious denial of the king's power. It is a family story that Graves was drafted for service in the Ameri- can army, hired a substitute, and, according to his daughter's statement, "starved his family to pay the wages of his substitute."
Moses Dunbar now enters our story in his connection with the Graves family-his first wife, Phebe Jerome, being a sister of Ruth, who was Stephen's wife. Moses Dunbar was convicted of being a traitor and, as a result of trial by law, was executed on March 19, 1777, the only person executed in Connecticut dur- ing the Revolution. A pamphlet entitled the "Execution of Moses Dunbar" was published and sold to the vast number of spectators who had assembled on this occasion when the Rev. Nathan Strong, pastor of the first church in Hartford, delivered a long sermon at the Gaol, prior to the execution.
After hostilities were over and some sem- blance of prosperity had returned, Stephen Graves built for his family in 1795 the spacious, well-proportioned farm house with its sturdy hand-hewn rafters, four fireplaces, and well- designed pine paneling which we know as Harwinton House. He lived here until his death in 1827, when Philemon Hinman be- came the new owner. On his death the prop- erty passed to his son, Daniel.
It was during Daniel's lifetime that dances
were frequently held in the ballroom which occupied approximately half of the second floor, and perhaps it was at this time that coins slipped down between the floor boards, 18th century coins which came to light when the floors were taken up and are now in the pos- session of Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. After this there were several owners until 1882 when C. W. Cooke purchased it and went there to live.
The house was in bad condition, and Mr. Cooke put in new sash, added blinds, porch and kitchen chimney in the ell, and made two rooms in the attic. He occupied it until 1887, and it was during this time that Professor John C. Griggs visited there, while his father was pastor in Terryville.
In 1895, just 100 years from the time the old house was built, Professor Griggs took title and named the house, "Upton," and, since he was a teacher, he and his family were able to spend their long summer vacations there for 25 years or more. In 1924 Prof. Griggs decided to sell their home, which necessitated remov- ing the library of his father and grandfather, both of whom had been Congregational min- isters. Apparently there were books in every room in the house including the kitchen, so the task of clearing it took nearly a month.
The next date of interest to us is October 4, 1931, when L. J. McGrath, the Lewisboro an- tique dealer, bought it and on October 12, ap- proximately a week later, Mr. and Mrs. Clarke took it over. The Griggs family was devoted to the old house and in a letter to Mr. Clarke dated November 5, 1931, expressed the de- light and thrill they felt in knowing it was to be perpetuated, since it had meant much to them through the long years.
Under the supervision of Richard Dana, the architect, who is a grandson of Henry Wads- worth Longfellow, the task of taking down the old house was started. All paneling was care- fully marked, measurements taken, and brought to New Canaan where it was scraped time and time again for it was completely cov- ered with many layers of paint.
All the beautiful wide oak floor boards are original, and it is particularly interesting the
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way the kitchen ones were found. A badly- worn pine flooring had been used here, and it was only when the old house was demolished that a second floor was discovered, this one of oak with very wide boards. The kitchen and buttery are now one large handsome room, with a massive six foot fireplace complete with Dutch oven. Its original hearthstone, which was found in the garden at Harwinton, had been carefully chosen, reminding us that in in the early English tax strueture it was a unit of taxation.
The big square chimney, with its four fire- places, three on the main floor and a charming small one in the ballroom upstairs, forms the very heart of this house, and we ean well im- agine the many family gatherings that have taken place before the eraeklings fires while long flames went roaring up the ehimney and the winter winds swept past. Little has been done to change the outside appearanee with the exception of a kitchen ell whose sloping roof reminds one of the typical salt box. In- side the changes have been minor ones, merely adding convenience and comfort.
We have gone far afield to choose this fine example of 18th eentury construction and it is particularly fitting that it should have been
diseovered by Mr. and Mrs. Clarke and rc- built in its present location. For in the early days of the parish, James Richards, a collateral aneestor of Mr. Clarke's, was one of the largest land owners in this district, and owned all the northern end of Smith Ridge. His deseendants continued to be numerous on the Ridge until the end of the 19th eentury for in 1895 the last one lived at "Jim Richards' Corner" as the pres- ent Canoe Hill Corner was known. Another memory of the James Richards family is to be found in the little Canoe Hill Burying Ground. A spinster daughter of some means named Diana, had two slaves, Grace and Blaek Ben- jamin. They and their only ehild lie buried bc- hind the grave of Miss Diana, while James Richards' tombstone stands in line with the three Hannahs who were his wives. Shortly after 1895, a large tract of land in this area was bought by William E. C. Bradley, whose daughter became Mrs. Merrill Clarke and whose initiative and imagination were instru- mental in carrying out the transfer of Harwin- ton House.
It is gratifying to know that Mr. and Mrs. Clarke have at last eome to live here, and they alone ean develop it to the utmost, and earry out their original dream.
THE HANFORD-BROWNSON-NEHER HOUSE
EDITH WHITNEY VAN DE WATER, Author
CLINTON VAN DE WATER, Artist
[April 8, 1948]
It is difficult to deeide whether to give this house a name which will at once signify its be- ginnings, or distinguish it by the name of one of its more famous owners. The earliest records, while describing the boundaries quite elearly, often fail to show whether any buildings were standing when the property was purchased.
However, as this seetion of Main Street, from what is now Hoyt Street south to the present
Old Norwalk Road was owned mainly by the several branches of the Hanford family, all de- scended from Rev. Thomas Hanford, and since we know that as early as 1821 "4 aeres bounded South and West by highways" ( Lakeview Ave- nue and Main Street) were conveyed to Jo- seph Hanford and held by him until his death about 1841, it is reasonable to suppose that a house did exist there and that he lived in it.
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The Hanford-Brownson-Neher House
We do know that in 1801 the "Old Red House" just north of this onc was standing, where Levi and Elizabeth Hanford lived with their five children; that (near No. 238) Bart- lett Hanford (Joseph's brother) lived directly opposite, and that Theophilus Hanford (grand- father of Joseph and Bartlett) lived on the west side of Main Street, opposite the "road to the mille," the present Lakeview Avenue, where Mrs. R. M. Starrett now lives.
The house was probably much smaller origi- nally, for there are evidences of the addition of two sections, one on the southeast, a "pump room" when it became possible to pump water into the house from the old well, which is still standing; and a larger addition to the north, as evidenced by the fact that there are threc sepa- rate cellars under the house!
On the death of Joseph Hanford the four- acre tract passed in 1841 to Samuel Raymond, 2nd, who lived a little to the north, where Dr. Ralph L. White now livcs.
In two separate conveyances, Samuel Ray- mond decded the property to Harvey Bouton, about whom there is a wealth of material. His father, Jakin Bouton, had built a home on Mill- port Avenue, which still stands, and where Harvey was born. In 1835 a daughter, Louisa, was born to Harvey Bouton and his wife. Evi- dently she grew up to be a village belle, beau- tiful and popular.
According to Junius Benedict, who was in- terviewed by J. Olin Howc, then a resident of New Canaan, and which interview was pub- lished in the Boston Transcript, in 1920, "She was one of the finest girls ever born, the most
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popular girl in New Canaan, Louisa Bouton was. And she deserved to be. She had the best disposition of any girl I ever knew and was mighty good-looking. When this young man Kling came on from the West and married her and took her away, he left some sore hearts be- hind, I can tell you. She was born in 1835. I well remember her wedding in the Methodist Church here, back in '59. Her folks lived oppo- site the church and the reception was held there."
Kling had met Miss Bouton while visiting the family of L. M. Monroe, who was the druggist here and ran the local paper. Louisa and Amos H. Kling moved to Ohio and Harvey Bouton and his wife also moved to Ohio soon after. There a daughter, Florence, was born to Lou- isa. Florence Kling was later to become Mrs. Warren G. Harding and achieve national fame in 1920.
Upon moving west Harvey Bouton sold the house and property, now only about two acres, and it passed through several hands until 1866 when Dr. William G. Brownson acquired it. Dr. Brownson was a veteran of the Civil War and had four children, William Clarence, also a doctor, Frances, Carleton and Wendell Green Brownson.
We do not know the number of doctors in New Canaan at that time, but we do know that as late as 1889 there were only three doctors here, the two Dr. Brownsons and Dr. C. B. Keeler, so that the need for doctors must have been great and their life an arduous one.
Dr. William G. Brownson purchased the "Old Red House" on his north bound, already more than 100 years old, and had it torn down and a new one erected ( the present Urban Sey- mour house) for his son, Dr. W. Clarence Brownson and family. For many years the two practiced side by side. Dr. William G. Brown- son died in the Noroton Soldiers' Home, Janu- ary 3, 1899. He was a kindly man, well loved by all. The present owner, Mrs. Clarence Neher, recently was delighted to discover in her attic Dr. Brownson's old sign which had hung in front of the house for some 30 years.
I have seen a very old picture of the house, at the time it was owned by Dr. Brownson. At that time there was no porch in front, only a fine old doorway, but with porches on the north and south. Also a fence similar to the one still standing in front of the property on the south ran all along the front and seemingly also ran in front of Dr. Clarence Brownson's house on the north.
In 1897 the house passed to Lester H. Messinger, who with his wife and two sons lived there until 1921. From him it passed to Alanson B. Walker, who also owned the Bart- lett Hanford house on the opposite side, and then to Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Neher, its pres- ent owners.
So we see, while not as old as many in New Canaan, this house is rich in memories of little children growing up in its comfortable rooms, and much wholesome living.
THE CONGREGATIONAL PARSONAGE
Reverend MERRILL F. CLARKE, Author [April 15, 1948]
KENDRIC RUKER, Artist
The parsonage of the Congregational Church was built as a private home in 1822. Elisha Leeds Silliman, born in 1793, was the owner. The original house is the eastern half of the
present structure, a four chimney, central hall design. The windows are much larger than in the houses built prior to this time, and reflect the "nco-classic" expansion of the so-called
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The Congregational Parsonage
Georgian house. There was doubtless a kitchen wing. The only original cabinet work down- stairs is the dining room mantelpiece; a beau- tifully modeled, carved shelf, and a design of fluted pilasters and an amazing number of “sun bursts," even continued along each side of the chimney breast, which is two feet wide.
The structure cost Mr. Silliman $4,500. Un- fortunately he lost it from inability to pay either the loans incurred or the mortgage he had bought. Mr. Silliman was the son of Dr. Joseph Silliman, the physician in Canaan Par- ish, who had graduated from Yale College. Elisha Silliman's grandfather was the Rev. Robert Silliman, minister of the Congrega- tional Church from 1742 to 1771. Elisha Silli- man's first wife was Hannah Betts, a relative of Captain Stephen Betts, well known here in the Revolutionary period. She died after only a year of married life and two years later Mr. Silliman married Miss Amelia Cook, and they
moved to New Haven after losing the house. He died in California in 1850.
The interior woodwork was made by Mr. Crissey, who also did the very beautiful carv- ing and woodwork in Dr. Nathan Green's house at the corner of Oenoke Ridge and Lam- bert Road. The upstairs mantelpieces, although plainer, are very well designed, but for the full scope of Mr. Crisscy's artisanship one should visit his own house, now the home of Mrs. Stephen P. Annable, 190 Park Street, near the intersection of Mead Street. Here he let him- self go with pilasters and pillars, with elabo- rate capitals, and more sun bursts of the oval variety in the execution of which he seems to have been adept. He was evidently a master craftsman.
The present interior of the parsonage is a re- modeling of the original house with two rooms each side of the wide central hall, done by the late Dean Grosvenor of the Cathedral of Saint
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Church Hill or God's Acre in 1837, showing the old burying ground. The center building is the present parsonage.
John the Divine in New York. The living room, made from the two rooms on the south and containing two chimney breasts, was then wainscoted with paneling and the matching mantelpieces replaced the west ones. They are "colonial" in design as understood at the turn of the century, but it is regrettable that the first ones, of nearly a century earlier, were not retained. Across the hall the dining room (doubtless the old "parlor" because of its marble facing to the fireplace and the above mentioned carving) was added to from the room to the rear of it. This room had been per- haps a bedroom, and had white-washed walls which are still a problem to painters when re- decoration is due. Anyone who has lived in the house must have wondered at the temerity of designing so long and wide a hall in a house without a furnace. He understands also why there are doors closing off all the rooms so that the benefit of the fireplaces, which are well built for giving out heat, might be felt on frigid days.
The next use of the house was as a boarding school for boys inaccurately called the New
Canaan Seminary, which was another institu- tion at Park and Seminary Streets. Paying $6,000 to whoever had taken over the property, which was then seven acres and house, D. S. Rockwell started the 'Church Hill Institute." The probable date of this is 1834. The old prints show the additions made during his own- ership, a wing to the south which was the re- fectory downstairs and dormitories above. To the south of this and running east and west was the school house with a portico and belfry. The monthly report for February, 1853, of one of the best known New Canaan citizens, then known as "Master Henry B. Rogers," shows the engraving of the school. The credits of Master Rogers are phenomenal: the school subjects like spelling and "defining," writing, composi- tion and geography are listed as having the mark of 80 attainable, and Master Rogers gained 80 in every subject, making first rank in all. In the Spencerian handwriting at the bottom: "I am happy to say Henry's conduct and proficiency have been commendable dur- ing the last month"-is the kind of cautious statement limited to a short period, with due
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allowance for decline and misbehavior at any moment, which is both school-teacherish and a little bit New England. Mr. Rogers became a leading business man here. He built the elab- orate villa type of home which formerly stood on the present town parking space and was su- perintendent of the Congregational Sunday School from 1864 to 1901. He was the father of the present Mrs. Thomas W. Hall.
The disposal of these two wings is interest- ing. When Dr. Willard Parker remodeled, he moved the refectory wing some distance from the house on Oenoke Ridge. It is now the rec- tory of Saint Mark's Church. On its south side the position of the windows corresponds to those in the old engraving of the building. The school house had its belfry and pediment re- moved and was attached to the rear of the main dwelling with the portico facing south. This was made into a two story porch with pilasters and explains the unusual size of the present building. The boarding school under Mr. Rockwell (who was the great grandfather of David S. Rockwell of our First National Bank and Trust Company, and of Reynolds Rockwell of White Oak Shade) attracted boys from both the New York and the New Haven areas; the former had to come by sailing vessel to Darien and thence by stage coach to New Canaan. The tuition was surprisingly low, but domestic employees were available at $6 a month and they raised their own vegetables.
In 1861 the school, which by then was known as "Private Board School," was sold to Joseph L. Gilder, this time for $7,500. Mr. Gilder was an uncle of Richard Watson Gilder, poet and for many years the editor of the old "The Cen- tury Magazine." One of the picturesque charac- ters of the village until recently was a Mrs. Lockwood who had had a gentle upbringing but had become a kind of nomad, wandering long distances up and down our roads, clad in a strange array of hats, coats and shawls and dragging skirts. In the home she had taken over on Brushy Ridge Road, windowless and almost doorless, she kept a large variety of cats and dogs and for her the food problem was more for them than for herself. Yet Mrs. Lockwood revealed when she spoke the refinements of
education and one of her accounts was of sit- ting in the living room of Dr. and Mrs. Gilder and listening to Richard Watson Gilder read his poems.
The school sent many of its graduates to Yale College and evidently had a good repu- tation. The references on one of Mr. Gilder's catalogs, which was simply one sheet of paper with an engraving at the top, included Harper and Brothers and leading New York citizens of the time. But oddly enough there appears the name of the Honorable William M. Tweed. This was the New York politician whose op- erations were later exposed for their scandalous character by Thomas Nast and other outraged citizens. The story is that "Boss" Tweed came to the present Guion house on Park Street and was hidden there in the attic for several weeks after things got too hot for him in an indig- nant New York. "Sic transit gloria Tammany."
Dr. Willard Parker was one of the group of family physicians of New York whose settling here initiated the coming of New York people to New Canaan on their doctor's recommenda- tion. Some of the first comers were sent here because of a suspected tendency toward tu- berculosis. The changes in the house already described were not all of the Parker family's additions to New Canaan building. Owning land which extended around the bend on Oe- noke Ridge, Dr. Parker's son built a large house, since torn down, and he in turn built two and remodeled one for his three sons. Only one of these still stands, enlarged and remod- eled, and now owned by Edward Neilley. Dr. Parker paid $12,000 for his holding and his widow sold it to Dean Grosvenor who occu- pied it in the summertime with his two sisters and half sister.
In this period what had started out to be a hemlock hedge on the south boundary was al- lowed to grow into huge trees. This conven- iently hid the church from the somewhat rigid Episcopal eyes of his sisters, two women who were entertaining both in their deep wit and because of their well nourished prejudices. When they had gone to Florence, Italy, to live and heard that this home had been sold to the Congregational Church, they expressed both
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horror and indignation, as if that "conven- ticle" were not a proper participant in their for- mer summer estate. The story has often been told of their instructions by telephone from New York to the caretaker to prevent the town slicing off some of the sharp curve then oppo- site Saint Mark's. The caretaker appeared with a shotgun, but the determined town officials and workmen proceeded to make the corner safer without too much alarm or delay.
In 1921, after a famous auction of their household goods, the Misses Grosvenor sold the house to Mrs. William Bateson, then of New York. She was a niece of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. With her son-in- law and daughter she used it as a summer home until an exchange of houses was effected be- tween the Congregational Church and her, the former parsonage now the home of Dr. George
C. Ludlow, being taken over by her. The Con- gregational Church trustees had seen the need of more land than had been allotted to the church at the time of the separation of the par- ish from the town. The church had retained God's Acre and the Green on the west side of Park Street, but more parish house room was needed and these parcels of course could not be built upon. So with a $15,000 cash equali- zation of the value between the two properties, the exchange was effected in 1927 and some of the parsonage rooms were made available for classes before the latest additions to the church building in 1940.
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