USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 26
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David L. DeForest and his wife, Orilla, were the parents of Cyrus, who was born in 1838 and was the last of the DeForests to occupy the house now owned by Mrs. Keller. Just when Cyrus's grandfather and his family moved from the little house into the "big" house is not shown by existing family records. But in the possession of Willis DeForest of Georgetown, grandson of Cyrus, is a sugar bowl taken from the larger house in which there was a note that read: "Brought to this country 1765, brought to this house 1803." Since it is known that Eliud's son, Charles, was born in the little house in 1796 this would place the building of the big house somewhere between 1796 and 1803.
David L. lived for a time in his grandfather David's house at the corner of North Wilton
and Bald Hill North roads and then removed to the house now owned by Mrs. M. F. Sturt- evant where Cyrus's boyhood must have been spent. When he married Susan R. Olmstead in 1862 they went to housekeeping in the Keller house and lived there the remainder of their lives. They had two children, Willis and Ger- trude, both now dead. Mrs. DeForest died May 9, 1911, at the age of 71 but Cyrus lived alone in the house, almost blind in his later years, and died in 1918 at the age of 80. Cyrus used to say that people up this way "never died, they just dried up and blew away" and the longevity of the DeForests gives strong support to his as- sertion. Cyrus's uncle, Charles, died at 93, his uncle, Edward at 90; Cyrus's father, David L. lived to be 82. Either the climate hereabouts is extraordinarily salubrious or the DeForests were an exceptionally sturdy race.
It seems also that some of the DeForests entertained prejudices as vigorous as their con- stitutions. Charles, eldest son of Eliud, built a school house for the neighborhood children most whom were DeForests. It stood in the triangle where Bald Hill North branches off from North Wilton Road. At one time it had 36 pupils. But when a number of families of German origin moved into the neighborhood and wished to send their children to the school Charles's French blood was aroused. He said he'd be blessed if German children were going to have the advantage of a school that he had built and paid for. Before he would allow that he swore he would move the school house away.
According to the family tradition his wife pleaded with him not to do it but contrary to the custom prevailing today in America she did not have her way and Charles up and carted the building to his own home further east, where it still remains intact and serves Miss Crofoot as a garage.
After Cyrus DeForest's death the first marked changes in the house since its erection were made by Robert D. Shaw who bought the pro- perty in 1923. He had a deep well drilled, put in running water and plumbing, and built a swimming pool as well as tidying up the grounds. A barn that stood about 30 yards to
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the northeast of the house was made over into a livable cottage. Some changes were made in the interior arrangements but outwardly the lines of the house retained their original form.
It was not until Mrs. Kelley acquired the pro- perty in July, 1939, that the house and grounds got a thorough renovation. Under her direction entirely new plumbing was put in and three bath rooms installed, an oil heating system keeps the house warm in winter and an air con- ditioning system cool in summer. Several rooms downstairs were thrown together and the north wall moved out eight feet to make a spacious living room with the great old fireplace as one of its attractive features. This fireplace which is about six feet wide by five feet high has the unusual construction of the oven being set into the masonry of the back wall instead of being placed at the side as is ordinarily the case in old houses. There is a separate firebox under the oven, also of course set into the masonry.
The sight of the kitchen with its washing machine-no rubbing, no scrubbing-its gas stove -no wood to fetch, no ashes to remove- and every other useful appliance to lighten work would send Isabel DeForest, if as a rev- enant she should look on these things in her old house, hurrying back in utter stupefaction to the shades whence she came.
On the outside Mrs. Keller has added bow windows to the house and has transformed the grounds surrounding it from a rough lot filled with cobblestones and deep set boulders into
a trim green sward. As one item in the way of flowers she set out 1,000 tulips. A swampy area to the northwest of the house where the peepers used to announce the approach of spring, too often falsely, Mrs. Keller has had dredged into a small lake of clear water. The cottage has also been improved and is pres- ently occupied by Mrs. Byerly's son, F. N. Byerly, with his wife and small son, David. So the name David so long associated with the neighborhood still carries on.
There is evidence from an old account book that Eliud DeForest kept a store in either the small or large house. As the date of the book is 1830 it seems probable that when he moved with his family into the new house he used the small one for the store since it was right on the road. To the housewife of today there is set down in the book such thrilling items as "2 dozen eggs 44," meaning one shilling four pence, probably around 28 cents. Other items are: One coarse tooth comb six pence, 22 pound plug tobacco 9 pence; one ounce of snuff 3 pence; one gallon of molasses 2/9; one peck of clams 1/6."
An indication of what once went on in these parts was given when Cyrus DeForest plowing one of his fields turned up a tomahawk and a cannon ball. These and the sugar bowl are practically the only souvenirs from the old house that Willis DeForest, Cyrus's grandson, now has.
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FF
NORTH-
LAMENTED
-PERAMBULATION LIRE -
ISAAC'
1
THE PERAMBULATION LINE
MARY LOUISE HALL JOHNSON, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[October 14, 1948]
Discovery of the Perambulation Line was of no great historical importance. Those genera- tions which had known the meaning of the term were gone, and it was left for us working to prepare for the Tercentenary in 1935, to rediscover the "Line." Beginning in 1934, when the early land records of Norwalk and Stamford were examined page by page, book by book, to identify and copy those which we thought pertained to land lying in Canaan Parish, the unidentifiable "Perambulation Line" recurred with annoying but tantalizing regularity. Property was forever lying "between the highway and the Perambulation Line" or contain- ing one hundred and five acres and four rods and thus described "Beginning at an heap of stons in ye perambulation line Between Stanford & Norwalk ... " There were clews. A boundary line? Yes, that was obvious. But where and why? Was it an irregular line which came into being as settlers from Norwalk and Stamford took up the undivided, unused wilderness north of the little villages? Was it an arbitrary line dividing the Norwalk and Stamford lands which lay within Canaan Parish? Reading this, you will not know how the "Perambulation Line" plagued us-and whetted our curiosity; how little was revealed by hours of research in town and court records; and how great was our satisfaction when finally we found the "Perambulation Line."
- AUTHOR'S NOTE
New Canaan was incorporated in 1801. For 69 years it had existed as Canaan Parish because in 1732 the few persons who had lived here had received permission to establish a church
of their own, obviating the necessity of travel- ing on Sunday to Norwalk or Stamford to at- tend the church of that township in which lay their lands. But the story of the Perambulation
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Line begins nearly a hundred years before the founding of Canaan Parish, begins with the Indian deeds to Stamford and Norwalk.
The Colony of Connecticut and the Colony of New Haven were English, and, logically, their institutions of the government were Eng- lish. Perhaps the custom continues today, but certainly in the 17th century and for two cen- turies more it was not unusual in England to see the town fathers "perambulating the bounds"-over field and fence, through swamps and cottages, if they lay on the perambulation line, stopping now to chastize one of the vil- age youths where landmarks were uncertain so that in the years to come someone would have a "beating of the bounds" to help him recall the exact route of the perambulation line. A per- ambulation line was a boundary line, but not an ordinary boundary. The term was applied to those boundaries which, having been dis- puted, had been settled once and for all, not by mechanical survey alone but by the expendi- ture of energy by those parties to the dispute who had walked together over the finally de- termined boundary line. Canaan Parish's per- ambulation line was such an institution. As far as I know the line was perambulated but once.
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On April 20, 1640, Mackem, Naramake and Pomenate, three Indian sachems, sold to Cap- tain Daniel Patrick of Greenwich a tract of land vaguely described as "all bounded on the west side by Noewanton, on the east side to the middle of the River of Norwake ... as farr up in the country as an Indian can goe in a day from sun risinge to sun settinge." This was to be Norwalk in the Colony of Connecticut.
In the same year Captain Nathaniel Turner, acting as agent, purchased from several Indian chiefs a tract of land lying west of that pur- chased by Captain Patrick. This deed, as re- newed 15 years later by Ponus and his eldest son Onax, granted to Captain Turner 16 miles of land northward from the town plot to a white oak marked S.T., westward four miles and east- ward four miles, with all uplands, meadows and grass, with the rivers and trees. This was Stamford in the Colony of New Haven.
On February 15, 1651, Runckinheage and other chiefs sold to a group of "Planters" al-
ready settled in Norwalk the land "known by the name of Runckinheage, Rooaton or by whatsoever name or names the same is called or known ... " which extended westward from Captain Patrick's purchase to the middle of the stream known as Pampaskeheshanke and northward "to the Mohawks' territory." Even if the Colonies had been on speaking terms, I doubt if at that time anyone would have known that Ruckinheage had sold to Norwalk land west of Five Mile River already sold to Stam- ford by Ponus and his chiefs.
It was not long, however, before the land lying north of the two small villages was par- tially explored, and about 1662, when Stam- ford received a new charter from the Colony of Connecticut-the Colony of New Haven had been absorbed-trouble began to develop. On August 26, 1666, the Norwalk town meeting "voted and agreed, that such men of our in- habitants as doe goe to cutt hay on the other side Five Mile River, the towne will stand by them in the action to defend them, and to beare an equall proportion of the damage they shall sustaine upon that account; and if they shall be affronted by Stamford men, the town will take as speedy a course as they can to prosecute them by law, to recover their just rights touching the lands in controversy: and also they have chaosen and deputed Mr. Thomas Fitch to goe with the sayed men when they goe to cutt or fetch away, make answer for and in behalfe of the towns, and the rest to be silent." This was literally a declaration of war, for the men went armed with guns although Norwalk's title to the land was questionable.
In 1670 the Stamford town records note that "men should be sent to mark our bounds at Rowalton (or by ye English called Five Mile) river & ye same P'sons sent are impowered to cut & deface whatever markes they find upon trees or otherwise set by Norwalk men or any others on this side ye five mile river afforesaid as bound marks, without ye approbation of this town." To which Norwalk replied "that Mr. Fitch and leuetent Olmsted and Daniel Kellogg are chosen a committee to goe to Stanford to treat with the inhabitants their, to se if they and we can come to a loving and neighborly
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issue and agreement, about the division of bounds betwixt them and us; and the said com- mittee is to make these propositions to the men of Stamford, eyether to divide betwixt five mile river and pine brook; that is to say in the middle betwin both; or else to divide in the middle be- twin Saketuk River and the bounds betwin Stanford and Greenwig."
A "loving and neighborly issue and agree- ment" apparently did not result from the meet- ing of Stamford with the Norwalk committee, and in 1685, the Colonial Assembly at Hart- ford, appointed three men "to runn the line . . . between Stanford and Norwalk according to grant of this court formerly, as soone as may be." The line was run the following spring, three men from Norwalk and three from Stam- ford joining with the three Colonial commis- sioners. And the line which these nine men ran and perambulated over was, according to court decision, from the mouth of Five Mile Brook "till it meet with the cross path ( that is, where the present Post Road crosses Five Mile River about two miles east of the center of Darien) & thence to run up into the country til 12 miles be run out upon the line that is between Strat- ford and Fairfield."
[October 21, 1948]
Now the line between Stratford and Fairchild ran 3712 degrees west of north, and so from "the cross path" the Perambulation Line be- tween Norwalk and Stamford ran 372 degrees west of north for 12 miles. In 1686, except near the shore, it ran through all that land which was held in common by the proprietors of the two towns.
Years passed and lands back from the shore and northward of the towns were taken up by individual owners. Settlements grew up: Mid- dlesex Parish which was to become Darien and Canaan Parish which was to become New Ca- naan. But the Perambulation Line remained
immovable, 372 degrees west of north, deter- mining for the settlers the township in which they voted and were taxed. And disputes arose again.
In 1710 Stamford suspended a previous order to its surveyors to lay out land on the Peram- bulation Line and appropriated money for a lawsuit with Norwalk. The disputed land which prompted the lawsuit lies a little to the north of that point in White Oak Shade where the New Canaan, Darien, and Norwalk town lines meet. Joseph Bouton of Norwalk had settled there on a four-acre tract which Stamford claimed belonged to her.
The land was described as "two and one half miles north of the country ( or Post) road, half a mile south of a place commonly called white oak shade and westward from five mile river." The evidence offered by plaintiff and defen- dant was the layout of the Perambulation Line, the patents of charter renewals to the respec- tive towns by the Governor of the Colony is- sued after the line had been settled, and the early Indian deeds.
Permit me to digress for a moment, because my discovery of the final records is another in- stance of that absurd luck which now and then restores the research worker's heart. I had found in the Norwalk land records the deed of purchase issued to Joseph Bouton; in Stamford the minutes of the town meeting told of the appropriation for a law suit. A deed of sale or a will would have told me whether or not Joseph Bouton retained his title to the four acres, but neither would have told me what happened to the law suit.
In those days Fairfield was the county cen- ter and there sat the county court. I went to Fairfield only to find that all the county court records had been moved to Bridgeport, the present county seat. At Bridgeport I was told that the colonial records, because of their an- tiquity and value, had been sent to Hartford for preservation.
I went to Hartford, where, in those days, the custodian of records gave helpful assistance to all seeking information to be used in the Tercentenary. His response to my inquiry was discouraging: yes, the records were there but
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Edwin Eberman
The Perambulation Line
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jumbled into drawers of steel filing cabinets -- dozens of them. They were out of order, unin- dexed, and unexamined.
By chance the first packet of brittle, time- worn papers I took from the first drawer I opened was the case of Stamford v. Norwalk, 1710. And on the back of Runckinheage's decd to Norwalk in faded ink were these words: "Wee whose names are underwritten aggents for the town of Stamford Do own that the land we sued for is set forth ... and is comprised within this written deed. ( signed) John Stone, Jonathan Holly." Norwalk had won again.
Perhaps other law suits arose as the land farther and farther back in the country was taken up by individual inhabitants of Stamford and Norwalk, but the Perambulation Linc re- mained unchanged, running from the country road 372 degrees west of north for the 12 miles as perambulated in 1686.
In 1801, when New Canaan was incorpo- rated, it ceased to be a boundary line from White Oak Shade to the state line; in 1820, when Middlesex Parish became Darien, its use- fulness ended forever; it no longer divided two townships. New boundaries were staked out which, never being disputed at gunpoint, were not perambulated over by the town fathers. There is only the one Perambulation Line.
If you were to begin today to walk over the Perambulation Line as it affected New Canaan, to learn out of curiosity if you were by inheri- tance a citizen of Norwalk or of Stamford, you would start in the field north of the Mather homestead on Stephen Mather Road, where, as I said before, New Canaan, Darien and Nor- walk come together. You would walk north- west, cross the Merritt Parkway, and stand on South Avenue about opposite the entrance to the Lapham estate.
Continuing 372 degrees west of north you would go through the woods, through a house or two, until you came to the intersection of Bank and Park streets. Then up through a cor- ner of the Bird Sanctuary, across the tracks to the foot of Kelley's hill where the brook runs.
Through Doctor Selinger's place, coming out on Wecd Street almost in front of Adams house, you would cut through the Mayo property, keeping the house, which belonged to James Hait of Stamford, on your left.
Then out West Road, the line running first on the east and then on the west side of the highway, through the Renshaws' front yard, to the little brook which runs into Lockwood's pond at the northern end, and then through woods and swamp to the state line. Should you do this, stop and realize that some of the "heaps of stones" were put there in 1686, and that the stone walls running 37/2 degrees west of north were built over 200 years ago. They have sur- vived, although the reason for their being was forgotten for more than a century.
It is interesting to read in the town meeting minutes of the early 1800's references to the ancient custom of perambulating town bounds in conjunction with the selectmen of adjoining towns. This was not a matter of option, but was mandatory and, in fact, the original statute with some modification still stands and it is the law that this be done every so often. There is also a fine which threatens any town in Con- necticut which fails to comply. The last ref- erence to the subject seems to be about 1825 when the selectmen of New Canaan and Wil- ton perambulated their bounds. In the very early days they observed "Perambulation Day" as a calendar event and it is claimed the insti- tution was so noted in the famous Farmers' Almanack.
Lest some eager soul be tempted to collect the $15 fine from the town over the long pe- riod of neglect, it should be noted that the se- lectmen of New Canaan, Wilton and Norwalk did go through the motions some 20 years ago when they located the meeting point of the three towns over on the little island in the West Branch of the Norwalk River ( commonly but erroneously called the Silver Mine River ). The monument lies just north of the Silver Mine Tavern, barely visible from the highway.
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- D.P.B.
THE HOYT-MILLS-McGHIE HOUSE "Long Meadow Farm"
MRS. HAROLD W. GILLEN, Author
D. PUTNAM BRINLEY, Artist
[October 28, 1948]
The old salt-box called Long Meadow Farm on Brushy Ridge Road, now owned by the Mal- colm McGhies, is an archive of good stories, tales of a witch and a buried treasure and more lore about a branch of that omni-present New Canaan family, the Hoyts.
In the picture of the original house (p. 225), the old man drowsing over his book under a
maple tree (still standing) is old "Uncle Sam- uel Hoyt," according to his grandniece, Mrs. Charles Augustus Tuttle, who now lives in Glenbrook. She was greatly amused by this old picture because she says her husband, Charles, likes to use a book for the purposes of napping just as his great-uncle Samuel is doing in the sun in front of his old home.
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Charles Tuttle was the fifth child of Katha- rine Amanda Hoyt Tuttle, daughter of Lam- bert Hoyt, brother of Samuel, who owned this house. Charles was born when his mother, Katharine, was nearly 60, to her great surprise! She lived to be 87 after that. Mrs. Tuttle rec- ognized the woman in the doorway as "Aunt Clarissa," Samuel's wife.
Samuel and Clarissa had no children, so when Clarissa died Katharine moved in and kept house for Uncle Samuel until he died in 1888. Thus Charles Tuttle lived in this house from the time he was four until he was 14. Then the house was willed by Lambert Hoyt to Mr. Tuttle's sister, Mary Esther Tuttle Taylor, and her children were born there, now Mrs. George Stevens of New Canaan and Mrs. Lester Crabb of Glenbrook.
The homestead was built in 1732 by Joel Hoyt, Samuel's father, and it stayed in the Hoyt family until 1907. It is called the Samuel Hoyt homestead, although it was his father, Joel, who took original title from the Common Land holding, and his brother, Lambert, who inher- ited it. Samuel lived in it the longest.
Samuel was a harness maker, and a good one. He had his shop in this house, and probably did work for his nearest neighbors, the wealthy Gilbert Birdsall who lived in the old Block House and owned the big hotel in town (the old yellow building on Main Street) for Dr. Humphrey, called Dr. 77, who lived in the Waring House on Canoc Hill, for his next door neighbor farmer John Patterson, for Job Lock- wood and the Fisher's on Lone Tree Hill.
It is said that Samuel lisped and was felt to be rather "slow" by his brother Lambert, but there are those who remember that he had a rather dry wit and shrewdness in practical mat- ters. Mrs. Tuttle remembers old Samuel Hoyt being brought to the Congregational Church with a great shawl around his shoulders, and that a place was saved for him in the front pew because of his deafness. She recalls that he was always seated at the family table with rc- spect for his "good ear," and she commented upon this kindness and consideration for age as one of the "graces" of that day.
A collection of the old furniture and the rec-
ords of the harness shop were burned in a huge bonfire by Mrs. Laura Mills, self-styled "Witch of Endor," the next and perhaps the most pic- turesque character in the history of this house. The McGhies bought the house from Mrs. Mills in 1933.
Mrs. McGhie tells an entertaining story of Mrs. Mills as she found her at the age of 80 in the tumbled down little saltbox. She said she was selling the place so she could "visit mamma in Chicago, as she is getting pretty old." The house was in great disrepair, buried in weeds, all shades pulled down, and as she knocked at the door, dogs began snarling and barking and a man's voice boomed inside.
The door was opened a crack, and there stood an old woman, bent and gnarled, wrapped in an apron made of old feed bags, a broom in hand, a peaked cap on her head and a black cat beside her! After explaining her purpose, Mrs. McGhie was grudgingly ad- mitted into a room that had not been aired, cleaned or lighted for years.
An accumulation of a lifetime littered every corner, there were shoes and dirty dishes on the mantel, open drawers were bulging and spilling out contents (among which Mrs. McGhie saw men's nightshirts, though she later learned that Mr. Mills had died 20 years before). A radio droned monotonously, and Mrs. McGhie was relieved to find that this ac- counted for the man's voice. The cellar door pushed open and out poured many Dalmatian dogs. There were 13 in all! This was Mrs. Laura Mills.
Mrs. Mills' pride was in her small herd of Jerscy cows, and she was particularly proud of her cream. In spite of dirt and disorder elsc- where, the dairy utensils and the milk were kept scrupulously clean. Before the afternoon was over, Mrs. McGhie was eating a delicious rhubarb shortcake with great spoonsful of thick yellow cream on top, and listening to a strange story.
Mrs. Mills said she was the rebel in a wealthy Chicago family. When she first came to New Canaan she had "lived in style" as her husband was a successful salesman for the Gage Hat Company. She went to meet her husband on
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H
The old house photographed sometime before 1888
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