USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 28
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Seymour Crofoot saw no reason to change the old house in any way. Somewhere along the line an iron stove had been put in the kitchen to make the cooking easier. It stood on the old hearthstone and its flue ran up the chimney but this was as modern as he cared to get. Newfangled notions such as plumbing and central heating had not been necessary to the sturdy race which had lived in the house for so many generations. He and his wife were no less sturdy.
When old Mrs. Crofoot died Seymour was well past middle age and his cousin, Miss Alice Ruscoe, came to care for him in his declining years. He lived to be over 90 and though, like his house, he showed the ravages of time, he re- tained the dignity, the simplicity and the stur- diness of principles of his forbears.
Miss Ruscoe inherited and still owns the old house. She would like to spend all her time in it but she, too, is bending under the weight of years and there are few people not of her gen- eration who would be willing to live with her there without what they consider the modern necessities. So Miss Ruscoe comes on warm summer days to visit her house, to draw com- fort from the memories it affords and to see that all is well with it.
Because this is the last really old house in New Canaan not to have been "remodelled" or changed in any way one wishes that it could remain forever as it is, not a replica but a real example of living in the early times. The floors which Lindal Fitch laid may sag but the oak is still sound. The early sun still shines as brightly through the old, wax-like glass in the kitchen windows; the water in the well is as sweet, the maples as glorious in their golden autumn dress. There is a sweetness and serenity about the place which would be destroyed by mod- ernizing, no matter how careful one might try to be. Kept just as it is with perhaps a coat of paint outside whenever the storms threatened the health of the old clapboards, the house might become a calm and welcome sanctuary for the visitor who, tired of the tempo of to- day, could go back in time two hundred years.
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C. Van DeWater. 48
COOKE'S BRIDGE ON THE OLD MILL STREAM
RUTH STEVENS LYDEN, Author
CLINTON VAN DE WATER, Artist
[December 16, 1948]
If on a Sunday or even a Saturday you were feeling historical and full of the love of nature nothing could suit you better than a drive to Cooke's Bridge where the old mill stood.
If you were to go out Wahackme Road to Ponus and, instead of turning left to see the new glass house, were to turn to the right, you could dip down Cascade Road and go back 200 years or more to one of the busiest centers of life around New Canaan.
Here in the valley of the Rippowam on the old Mill River was a natural center of industry. Water power turned most of the mill wheels of Colonial days, and there is good reason to sup- pose that this handy little gorge attracted the enterprising settlers of Canaan Parish.
Stories of the neighborhood go back to the days when Chief Ponus of the Rippowams fol- lowed this path to the sea, hunting as he went. (A monolith of uncut stone eight feet high still stands to his memory at the intersection of Ponus and Davenport Ridges just above the valley of this river, dating him at 1640. )
But earliest records of land sales among the white men place the Youngs and the Daven- ports in this section with their grist mills, saw mills and mills for the fulling and weaving of cloth. Their written bequests form endless pat- terns as a widow and heirs receive half a dwell- ing, a quarter of a mill, a barn and a Negro wench.
In 1761 James Young bought, of grantor
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David Stevens, "privileges of the stream, two acres on the west with saw mill, a dwelling and a grist mill, also four acres on the east side of Mill River, and the pond."
In 1790 this same James Young left to his family a grist mill and barn, his dwelling and much acreage "in the region of the Ponuses."
How these holdings came into the hands of the Cookes and the Copcutts, who passed the property back and forth several times, would be the result of a long search. But it was Cooke's world at the finish in the true sense of the word, and it is a triumph of the rightness of things that the bridge should bear his name. For Cookc was the miller and members of the Copcutt family were intermittent owners with the money to control it but apparently no in- terest in living there and working at the trade.
These early records have great charm, but for sheer immediacy and salty wit nonę can compare with the first-hand portrait of Clar- ence Cooke which we stumbled upon.
John W. Saunders, age 85, who today runs his grocery store at the intersection of Cascade and North Stamford roads, quite startled us with a clear-cut childhood memory as follows: "Cooke? Sure. I remember him. One winter day when I was a little fella I took my sister for a ride in our sleigh back of the old black mare. We no sooner'n got over to Cooke's mill than she stopped dead on the bridge. Wouldn't go up the hill. Cooke, he came out-a tall, thin man. Wanted to know what the trouble was. When I told him I thought he'd laugh to split his sides. I didn't know what he was going to do. But he jest stepped over to that horse and swore to beat all Hell and up she went as purty as you please."
That must have been about 1871 or 1872 when John Saunders was nine years old. He remembers the mill as it stood on the eastern or New Canaan side of the stream with another large building across the pond. There was the dam and the mill race of which the nearly lev- eled remains can still be seen, if one were al- lowed to scale the wire fence and walk along the valley now protected as a watershed by the Stamford Water Company. The mill wheel stood there for years, Saunders says, and the
buildings rotted away. The last days as an abandoned mill are under a cloud of mystery.
Once upon a time, according to Dr. Walter C. Wood of Brushwood Farm, who came to Cascade Road in 1906 and was told it by the late Mr. Davenport who knew this land well, Clarence Cooke ran a flourishing business at his turning mill below the bridge. Using the splendid hardwoods of the valley, hickory, chestnut and oak, he made quantities of knobs and chair rungs and night sticks for policemen in the city of New York. The man who secured him the orders from the police force was a Tammany politician named Copcutt. Things went smoothly until suddenly one day Cooke asked Copcutt for the loan of $2,500 cash, for which he gave a mortgage on his mill. The transaction went through but Cooke disap- peared. The mill shut down, years went by, and not one penny of interest on the mortgage was paid. No one has ever heard what hap- pened to Clarence Cooke. Some think he may have been robbed and killed, others that he just up and disappeared. But no one ever really has known.
Town records set the mortgage at $1,800, taken out September 24, 1861, to be repaid at the rate of $200 a year. Cooke may never have paid, and then decided to disappear.
Whatever the tale, this property was fore- closed in 1906 in favor of John and Francis Copcutt. The mill lay idle while only the dwell- ing house on Cascade Road just before you cross the New Canaan side of the bridge was inhabited. A large family grew up there then, the house burned down, and finally a nephew of the Copcutt clan came to look at his inheri- tance. This man was a dentist in Yonkers. Dr. Wood chuckles with glee as he tells of the startled city owners when they drove down the hill with him to be guided to their land. The wife didn't even get out of the car while her husband climbed about among the ruins.
Years later, in 1917, when she, Rebecca Cop- cutt, died, the land was sold by her executrix, one Rebecca Leale of New York, to Herbert S. Miller of Stamford. Within two days Mr. Miller had disposed of it to the Stamford Water Company, in whose care it now remains.
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The heyday of water power on a stream of this size has long since gone, and it is far better that this busy little torrent should be put to the use which it fits today than that it should be left to meander along with all its vigor gone.
Yet as one stands on the new concrete span dated 1926 one cannot help dreaming of all the things its predecessor must have seen, since the first crude planks were thrown across this stream. Now its walls bear the names New Canaan on one side and Stamford on the other as it crosses the boundary in midstream.
Years ago the western half of Canaan Parish paid taxes to Stamford, the other half to Nor- walk. And it wasn't until 1801 that the two obtained permission to break away from their respective protectors and formed the single unit of New Canaan.
Men crossed this bridge to join up with Stamford troops to fight in the Revolution. Years later men went under arms to the Civil War. The mill hummed then and water under Cooke's Bridge came tumbling from the upper reaches of the stream to the north near Pound Ridge where the now lost civilization of Dan Town had reached its peak (1850-60).
Although "it's all water under Cooke's Bridge," according to George T. Bye, an en- thusiastic student of Dan Town history who lives in the last remaining house of that dis- trict, Dan Town's story still lives, as published in full in the fascinating paper: "Dan Town: the Lost District," prepared two years ago for the New Canaan Historical Society by Edith M. Bartow.
In this broad valley of the river where the waters of Laurel Reservoir now lie so peace- fully, there once lived as lively a crew of Eng- lish and Welch yeomen as ever ran a cider mill, a song fest or a newfangled Methodist meeting. For the most part they raised their crops and cared for their cows as well as any other settlers but there always came a time when their spirits ran high. Once they broke out into such uncalled for rioting that the militia had to march all the way over from White Plains.
"After a mad chase over Dan Town's hills in which the militia was thoroughly outwitted,"
according to Miss Bartow's paper, "three of the four ringleaders were taken, and the fourth, hidden under a pile of straw and potatoes in a cellar, was stabbed through the knee by the bayonet of a suspicious soldier and thereafter limped badly as he walked."
There were quiet evenings too in the valley when farmers bound in by snow or rain em- ployed themselves and their families in a little shoemaking, basketry or finishing of clothes for the factories nearby.
The Benedict shoe factory here in New Ca- naan, which at one time was the largest in the United States, must have let out "peg tops" for finishing. Many of the farmers made all their own shoes, some for the trade and quantities of the heavier type which they sold for use by the slaves in the south.
The making of baskets was of tremendous importance here at one time. There was not only an abundance of good strong woods for the purpose, white and black oak, hickory and ash, but there was a steady demand from the fishermen in Norwalk and as far away as Long Island. They used oyster baskets by the thou- sands, a larger version of our round bushel bas- kets, squared off a little and taller, with firm open slits for handles.
Today at Scott's Corners in Pound Ridge there are several basket makers' shops selling the sturdy old models for flower baskets, mail baskets, market and laundry. Mrs. Lulu B. Har- ris operates Ye Olde Basket Shoppe in the spot where her grandfather, Sands Selleck, devel- oped a good-sized basket industry in 1841, giv- ing steady employment to as many as 10 to 12 men. Although all the work was done by hand some would carve the handles, some weave the bottoms and others do the sides or top edge bindings which made the craftsman's product pliable but strong enough to last a lifetime. "They were celebrated for their artistic beauty as well as utility," said Mrs. Harris. "Tell them that." Some of the neighboring farmers who will still make special order baskets for her are 80 and 85 years old.
Actual tools of the basket-making trade are on exhibition in the Scott's Corners shop just beyond. Out in front of this headquarters of
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the Scofields stands the stone on which the thin staves of wood were beaten with a mallet to separate still thinner "fillers" for weaving. On the walls are hung the razor-like instruments which were used for shaving the wood, and there is a photograph showing the men at work.
But this is already history even as it stands. Elbert Jones, who traveled these parts with a team of oxen when he was a young man, would be the first to admit it as he gives you quick, modern service from his grocery store at High Ridge. Being a spry eighty-some he remembers well the days when the mill was a vital part of the economic life of this community.
Today, as we come to Cooke's Bridge and pause to think of the past, we come to realize that this little valley has a present and a future as well.
Here is a beautiful spot which is protected and will remain so. Into this deep little valley the shafts of winter sunlight pierce the cascade as it tumbles down and away under the bridge. On rushes the vigorous little stream to its fork around the island. And, if one could climb the
fence which now holds out all intruders, he would see these waters rejoining and moving into the depth and calm of the old mill pond.
Below on either bank stand the remains of the mill with the mill race and side wall to the east and the stone foundations of a larger build- ing on the west or Stamford side. High on the cliff stand "the murmuring pines and the hem- lock." There is the clean, sweet scent of them in the air and for a moment one can imagine he hears the high whine of the saw mill once more and the splashing of the wheel, the calls of the men at work and the snorting of horses as they pull their loads out to the highway. Even though one admits it was only a dream the sounds are still there in the clamorous tongues of the stream. This has been a busy valley as far back as we've known, and thank goodness it is busy still. The river is rushing pell mell to some filter bed and to slake the thirst of thousands. It cannot possibly wait to dream any longer. Nature is never as sentimen- tal as man. Even Clarence Cooke has had his day.
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THE
PHILOPÆDEAN SEMINARY, NEW CANAAN, CONNECTICUT.
This Institution formerly known by the name of the NEW CANAAN ACADEMY, is situated in New Canaan, Fairfield County, Connectieut, about half way between New-York and New-Haven, and six miles from the Norwalk SteamBoat landing.
The location is healthy and elevated, commanding a view of Long Island Sound, and embracing the conveniences of a small village with three Churches, Post Office, &c., and daily intercourse, by Stage and Steam-Boat, with New-York.
The object of the Institution is to give to pupils a thorough English and Classical Education, fitting them for any of the Amer- ican Colleges, Mercantile pursuits, or to enter upon Professional studics.
The year is divided into two terms, of twenty-three weeks each, commencing on the first Wednesdays of May and Novem- ber, and preceded by a vacation of three weeks.
TERMS, including Board, Washing, Bedding, Fucl aud Lights, with tuition in English studies, $160 ;- Latin, Greck and French, $200 per annum, exclusive of vacations. No deduction made for voluntary absence during term time. SILAS DAVENPORT, Principal.
REFERENCES
President DAY, Yale College, New Haven
Professor GOODRICH, do. do.
Mr. SAMUEL ST. JOHN, New Haven
Rev. WILLIAM BONNY
Rev. THEOPHILUS SMITH
New Canaan
Mr. WILLIAM BURNETT ? New York
Mr. H. R. DAVENPORT
Mr. CHAS. AMES
Mr. LEWIS ST. JOHN, New Orleans Mr. THOMAS M. WOODRUFF, Augusta, Ga.
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The Academy on Church Hill in 1857
[December 23, 1948]
EDITORIAL NOTE: For many years the New Canaan Historical Society has had in its files an interesting but undated prospectus of the Phi- lopaedean Seminary, Silas Davenport, princi- pal, as pictured above. The building on the right is, of course, the present Congregational parsonage.
This week the society received the "Order of Exercises" reproduced on page 241. It was sent by Henry J. Davenport of 135 Broadway, New York City, with the following comment:
"In going over some old papers the other day I came upon the enclosed program. Someone has put in the date (1834) which would indicate that
it is 114 years old. It might be interesting for you to have this document in the library.
"It was preserved in our family because one of those who perpetrated this amazingly long eve- ning's entertainment was Amzi B. Davenport, my revered grandfather."
The date 1834 seems correct. Amzi Benedict Davenport, who had the lead in the drama, "William Tell," was then 16 years old. Two years later he was through with his seminary training and was teaching in one of the Stam- ford schools.
Each document reproduced here contains names long familiar to students of New Canaan history. ARBA B. MARVIN.
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ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE EXHIBITION OF THE PHILOPÆDEAN SEMINARY New Canaan, April 16, 1834
1. Hall's Address to the Volunteer's at Bristol John Pentz
2. Patrick Henry on Resistance - Enoch Pentz
3. Speech of Lord Chatham Theodore Mead
4. Wonders of Nature John P. Smith
5. Otis' Speech on English oppression Samuel Lockwood
6. Gipsey Girl - Joseph J. Waltar Charles Fox
7. Mr. Hayne's Speech in Congress -
Thomas Raymond
9. Latin Oration from Cicero
Isaac Benedict
Mary E. Ayres
Mary E. Button
Mother
Cornelia Turney
11. Conversation between Mother and Child 5 Child Emma Carter
12. Compositions
Euphelia § two young ladies
Sophia I. Budlington
Pastorella \ of distinction Cornelia Turney
13. Pastoral
Urania, an ancient Shepherdess
Miss M. E. Summers
Drama
Sylvia Eliza her daughters
- Lavina Ayres
Florella, a young Shepherdess
- Sarah Turnier
14. Prologue
Richard C. Ludlow
15. Chalmers on War
- Alexander Law
16. Right of Discovery
- Edward Chichester
17. The Guide Post - - Charles Ames
18. Lochinvar
19. Judge Story's Address
20. Bernardo Del Carpio
- I. Benedict
22. William Tell. Gesler, Tyrant of Switzerland
- I. Benedict
Sarnem, his General Charles Fox
Tell
A. B. Davenport
Albert, his son
E. Underhill
Verner, friend to Tell Thos. Raymond
Sentinel and Soldiers
Scene Ist. A mountain with mist;
2d. Gate of Altorf; 3d. Gesler's Palace;
4th. Court Yard.
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- J. A. Underhill - Amzi B. Davenport Edgar Underhill
21. Wirt in behalf of Blannerhasset
- M. E. Ayres
8. Webster's Reply -
10. Sentimental Dialogue Child
Stranger
c. Kon de water.
THE DELEVAN-CHICHESTER - THOMSON HOUSE "Cherry Brook"
FRANCES PARKER NEAVE, Author CLINTON VAN DE WATER, Artist
[December 30, 1948]
When New Canaan people living in old houses do some remodelling, especially in the attics, they sometimes come on historical treasures. And so it was when in 1933 Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liam A. Thomson, repairing the attic of Cherry Brook, their house on West Road, found a small tattered black book. It contained the records of District No. 4 from 1825 to 1848.
Carlisle Lockwood was clerk of the School Board during those years and lived in the house now occupied by the Thomsons. The school house was the present Garden Center and these records, torn and disfigured as they are,
give us a fascinating glimpse into the running and financing of a rural school of the time.
For instance, we read that in November, 1826, it was voted "to have the school taught this present winter to commence on the 20th of November and continue until the 1st day of April, 1827, at 12 dollars per month." The heat- ing problem was solved by a vote "to allow 1 dollar 75 cents per load of Oak wood, 2 dollars and 50 cents for Walnut wood" and "to give Edwin Lockwood 12/2 cents per load to cut wood and prepare it for the stove."
We get an interesting view of the compara-
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tive wages of men and women at the time when we read that in 1827 they voted "to em- ploy Charles Hanford to teach at the school for five months at 15 dollars a month and Board himself," but when in 1830 they employed Polly Lounsbury as teacher for the same length of time, she was voted "8 dollars a month and Board herself."
The faculty's salary somewhat depended on the number of pupils taught, for we find in 1835 that they voted "We give Thomas A. Com- stock 18 dollars per month for teaching our Winter school provided it shall average 25 stu- dents through the term, if less than 25, 17 dol- lars per month."
The problem of money for repairs and up- keep existed then as now. Faced with it in 1829 the board voted to try to raise money by sub- scription-"if not successful to lay a tax." No tax appears to have been laid at that time, so the subscription seems to have been success- ful. In 1840 we find the board appointing a committee "for to inquire into the probable cost of a Library."
Carlisle Lockwood was evidently an able clerk, holding his position for 23 years. He came to live at Cherry Brook through the in- heritance of his wife, Mary Ann Chichester.
The property had been in the Chichester family since 1749, when old Daniel Chichester bought it "with dwelling" from Timothy Dele- van for £101. There were about 45 acres of land, bounded on the north by David Water- bury's property, on the south and west by Sam- uel Pennoyer's and on the east by the Perambu- lation Line, which roughly parallels West Road.
Timothy Delevan built the dwelling, now the central part of the Thomson house, on ac- quiring the land from David Stevens, the Stam- ford Proprietor, in 1746. A rarity in these parts, it is built of field-stone with walls some three feet thick. The present white clapboard facing was added later, but exactly when it appeared is unknown.
Old Daniel probably enlarged the house and built the barn. In 1762 he made over to his son Daniel the buildings and 20 acres of land and fruit trees "for love," as the old deed reads,
retaining however the south part of the house for himself and his wife for their "natural lives." Three years later, after the old man's death, the picture changes. Perhaps times were harder and certainly "love" had flown out the window when in 1765 young Daniel sold his mother back the house and land for £100 and sold the northernmost 15 acres to his sons Abraham and Daniel for £51.10.0.
The value of land and property was rising steadily now. The youngest Daniel Chichester left Canaan Parish in 1781, selling his share in the old house and 17 acres of land to his brother Abraham for £130.00. Abraham and his fam- ily appear to have been pretty well ensconced at Cherry Brook anyway, for the Rev. William Drummond's Journal of Family Visitations re- cords his visit to the house on Christmas eve, 1772, and his meeting with Abraham, his wife Jerusha, and six children.
Third of these children was David Chiches- ter, the next owner of Cherry Brook. He was the grandfather of Mary Ann, she who married Carlisle Lockwood of the tattered black book in the attic. While Mary Ann's inheritance was only one-sixth part of her grandfather's house and lands, the Lockwoods by further purchases and inheritances, seem shortly to have owned the house and about 30 acres of the land.
Mary Ann left the property to Carlisle and he sold it to John W. Hoyt in 1871. After Mr. Hoyt's death in 1890 his daughter, Mrs. Eda G. Dow, inherited it. Mrs. Dow was the mother of Mrs. Joseph M. Silliman of Maple Street. Solomon Searles in 1905 bought Cherry Brook from Mrs. Dow and in 1926 Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liam A. Thomson, the present owners, bought it from him. The Thomsons divided the land with Mrs. Thomson's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward T. Buxton, who built to the north the house now occupied by the Edward Cushings. The Thomsons live in the old home, retaining also on their southern section, the fine old barns.
Fruit trees still stand in the south orchard and the barn on old Daniel Chichester's foun- dations; and anyone who enters the Thomson house on a sizzling summer day or on an icy winter night, will appreciate the thick stone
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walls that Timothy Delevan built so well and truly 200 years ago.
The Thomson house is a typical colonial farm type, two and a half stories in front and the basement at the ground level in the rear. The "summer kitchen" with the bake ovens built beside the fireplace was the winter living room of the original owners whence they fled at bedtime to the chilly apartments above, armed with hot bricks or stone jugs filled with hot water to raise the temperature of the very chilly beds.
There is some distinctive wood work in the two front first floor rooms which has attracted the attention of visitors especially those inter- ested in antiques. The frames about the re- cessed windows are fluted in familiar pattern
across the tops and the upper two thirds of the sides. Below these points, however, the mold- ing fans cut diagonally to the floor. The de- sign was evidently the individual expression of the wood worker who did the original job, since it does not conform to any of the standard pat- terns displayed in books on colonial architec- ture.
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