USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 30
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The second floor ... U-m-m! There will be two large chambers over the main rooms be- low stairs, the "best room chamber" and the "keeping room chamber." If three sleeping rooms were not enough, well, some of the young-uns could take themselves to the attic. Perhaps a stairway thereto and a fair size win- dow at each end would make such a suggestion more welcome. Pretty hot in summer and blessed cold in winter, these attics.
Windows ... Windows at the front will be grouped in pairs to allow more commodious room corners for cupboards, wardrobes and such. Those newfangled, double-hung win- dows with 12 six-inch by eight-inch rectangu- lar lights in the upper sash and eight in the lower are the thing. And "Newcastle glass" while of a thin brittleness would at least en- able one to view the outer world with less dis- tortion than the "Phial glass" that is cheaper.
Cupboards and cups . .. panels and pots! Was there no end to the things that went into
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a house? Reckon it might be well to question the good wife on these. Women do know more about such things than men.
Cornice, interior finish, hardware. The car- penter must be consulted further on these items, and he must be seen at once and told to get on with the house frame. There would be a few questions as to the details of construction of the frame but none at all regarding the ma- terial to use. It must be of white oak.
Here the material at hand in the forest was in line with the English tradition and the tim- bers of the structure, built in accordance with said tradition to stand under the traditional load of "cob" or brick fill and slate, would be of amazing size and weight. But tradition was not the sole reason and excuse for this massive- ness of frame in New England for, as an early builder had exclaimed, "There comes winds here that would blow the top off o' hell. We need weight in the houses to hold 'em down."
[January 27, 1949]
When April tinges the fields and woods with green the timbers of the frame are ready. The men of the broad-ax and the chisel are proud of their work. Sills, joined at the corners with mortise-and-tenon, rest on the foundations; the first floor joists are in place. The masons have laid the hearthstones, built the fireplaces and carried the chimney stack up to receive the second story girts.
At their stations are the sturdy two-story posts, flared to a full 15 inches where they are to support the girts and plates. The "summer- trees," dovetailed to anchor into the girts and notched to receive the ends of the joists, are nearby. These great beams, measuring over 14 inches across, are straight grained and true. They have been well seasoned for, flat side down, they will span the distance from end girt to chimney girt and must carry without sagging the greater part of the floor load. On the under sides they have been carefully fin-
ished with the broad-ax and chamfered at the corners, for their full width will be exposed to view and must not appear unattractive.
Awaiting the word to begin the raising are the "joiners," the "masons," their apprentices and as many of the neighborhood folk as can give time from their own pressing tasks. A yoke of oxen stand by. Strong and steady are they, and smart. With the beasts are the drivers. To one side, the owner erect and eager converses in low tones with the master carpenter. With a last and louder remark which causes a stir of anticipation in the group, the latter steps away and with a wave of the arm and a shout, "Clap 'er up, men," the work is under way.
The posts are rcared to their full height upon the sills and the girts are raised into position, snugged into their joinings and secured with stout oak pegs. The front and end girts extend about three inches beyond the face line of the lower half of the posts, for here the posts have been hewn away to give a slight overhang to the second story. This will give protection to the first floor window heads and, although of common occurence in the New Haven Colony, will be rather a distinction in the far hills of Norwalk. The plates go up to be joined with the top girts upon the posts. They will seat the rafters.
The roughly squared "common" rafters go up in pairs and are put together at the ridge with a tenon joint and peg. At the foot they are joined with the rear plate of the main frame on a double-notched seat and secured with a stout wooden pin called a "tree-nail." A separ- ate set of rafters, extending from this rear plate down to the lean-to plate, are put in place to carry the "break-neck" roof at the back down to the ceiling level of the first floor.
The last pair of rafters rises into place and is brought together at the ridge. With a whoop and a flourish of the mallet the peg is driven home. The highest point of the framing has been completed. Activity ceases and the men stretch themselves erect and look expectantly about. Their questing gaze is not disappointed, for from a nearby copse emerges the master carpenter, a slender young cedar in his grasp.
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The Benedict-Eels-Thatcher House in a Neglected Period
As he comes forward he holds it high with a shout, "Here we are."
At the building he attaches the small green tree to a line and up it goes to the topmost peak of the rafters where, pointing skyward it is made fast. There, tip swaying with the breeze, it can be seen from all the surrounding coun- tryside. And, according to legendary lore, the wood sprites, seeing, will know that they will be welcome to the hearth of those who will come to dwell among them and be not resent- ful of the intrusion. For these elfenfolk who haunt the hills and the wilds can be helpful or mischievous, or even malicious, and their good will is earnestly besought. If the work has thus far gone forward without hitch or halt, it means that they are well disposed and it is not to be doubted that they will come gaily troop- ing to the repast that will now be spread for the refreshment of all who have taken part in the raising and the joining of the heavy tim- bers.
As the men come from the work to join in the feasting and merry-making they turn to admire their creation, this massive frame of
simple line and shining newness. A work of art and ingenuity faithful to the reason for its being; a structure soul-statisfying in its mani- fest adequacy, it is truly worthy of their un- spoken adoration.
Other days; and the sound of the saw and the hammer echoes through the hills. The builder and his men go on with the work at which they are skilled to the accompaniment of the noises that they love so well. The masons carry the square of the chimney stack above the ridge and the slender purlins, spaced about 12 inches on center, are spiked to the rafters.
Outside the New Haven colony it was usual to employ stout purlins halved into the rafters to stiffen the roof construction and receive the roofing boards, but it has been reasoned that, as the roof has not to carry the traditional load of slate but the much lighter shingle, it need not be of such great strength, and that the small, flat purlins (1)% ins. by 3 ins.) nailed top- side the rafters will fulfill all requirements. Like reasoning has also eliminated collar beams. This system has been tried before, pro- bably as early as 1690 in the Moulthrop house
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over New Haven way (East Haven) and has proven successful, but is as yet exceptional.
Studs are set and secured in the mortises and notches prepared for them in the horizontal timbers. When the window frames and the door frames are in place the outer walls and the roof are covered-in. At the first story over- hang a hand planed moulding of rather flat profile is placed to soften the angle. At the eaves the 12 inch rafter ends are boarded in to form a simple box cornice.
When the building is weather-tight, wide boards of oak, come by ox cart from James Brown's mill which he has just purchased from its builders, John and Matthew Seymour, on the West Branch of the "Norruck" river, go down on the floor beams and are nailed through with wrought nails. Below-stairs the flooring is underlaid along the joints with nar- row strips beveled into the joists and flush with them on their upper sides. On to the studs and on to the ceiling joists, between the girts and the summers, are nailed hand split oak lath to receive the plaster. On the chimney side and where space saving is desirable and protection against cold unnecessary partitions will be panelled.
Now the masons move in to plaster the walls and ceilings. The lime used in the work has come from Norwalk where it is burnt from oys- ter shells found conveniently mounded at several points along the shore. The first, or brown, coat of mortar must needs be a com- paratively heavy one, as the split lath are not of uniform thickness and in places the grain stands out prominently. A wavy roughness characterizes the white finish, which is grayed and speckled with the charred fragments of the shells.
While all this is going on, Deacon John in conference with the good wife and the carpen- ter have decided on the design and quality of the stairs, interior doors, wainscoting, cup- boards and other "furnishings" for the new home.
In the best room it will be pleasing to have panelling composed of bevelled, rectangular, white wood panels sccured in place by rails
and stiles moulded with the half-arch and dowelled at the intersections. A bolection moulding of symmetrical contour, broad and bold but with a refined elaboration of profile counteracting the heaviness, to run at the top and sides of the opening, will set off the trim fireplace of English brick. Four horizontal panels smaller than the others, two rather long and two nearly square, will add to the effect of modest elegance. A cupboard of quaint beauty will grace the north-east corner of the room; a repository for the smaller heirlooms and other subjects treasured for their "artistic" or sentimental value.
The keeping room, like the best room, is to be panelled on the chimney side and in like manner. Here, however, a greater simplicity is the order. The bolection moulding will be less elaborate and there will be one large panel of a single piece above the fireplace. This panel will be two feet, three inches high and five feet wide. It is to be hoped that it will neither crack nor curl when the first fires roar up the chim- ney. A cupboard quite like the one in the best room will adorn the south-east corner of the room. Here, clover-leaf shelves will display "company china." choice glassware and other articles for use only on appropriate occasions.
The kitchen, a room 15 feet by 11 feet four inches, more or less, will be wainscoted on its fireplace and bedroom sides with beaded white-wood boards halved together at the joints and standing from floor to ceiling. A batten door made up of boards to match will open to the bedroom at the north.
Sufficient cupboard space there must be. Shelves in the milk room will hold many of the pots and pans not frequently used and some will hang always from the hooks and trammels of the fireplace. Others will repose on the broad hearths or rest in company with the firearms on pegs along the wall and the chim- ney breast. But a plain cupboard in the kitchen for dry foodstuff, spices and such, and for croc- kery, pewter and cutlery of everyday use is a necessary convenience.
"Well, now, I reckon that takes care of about the whole kit and kaboodle of our dwelling
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house. And it is high time that thought be put upon the less interesting but indispensable outbuildings.'
A few definite instructions as to location, size and shape will suffice for the barn. It should be not far from the house to the north, as this situation will have several well-to-consider ad- vantages. Here facing the south, its doors will open to the winter sun and summer breeze, be protected from the cold north wind and be in view and hearing from the house. Here it can be quickly reached when icy blasts rush blind- ing snow over the hills, and sounds of trouble among the horses or cattle come to those at the house. Near, yes ... but not so near that the prevailing summer breeze will fail to waft the barnyard odors far afield.
As with the house, there is no question as to the construction of the barn. Like the house it will be framed of huge oak timbers, joined and pegged at sill, girt and plate. The roof will be shingled. The walls will be covered with wide white pine boards of a single length from sill to plate.
And now, last and least but no less essential, that little dependency which like the barn should be located "so near and yet so far." This small building must be constructed as stoutly and as tightly as its larger associates, for it too must stand against time and the ele- ments. Its frame shall be of squared stuff, snug- ly joined. It shall be shingled without and plastered within to make it tolerably com- fortable in windy weather. Perhaps beside the kitchen garden, screened by vine and bush, will be the best place for this . . -er . . . little mansion house.
[February 3, 1949]
Came a day when the house was finished, the barn and other outbuildings completed. A well had been dug and stoned up, the door- yards graded and soil turned in the garden spot. No doubt the woodshed was filled with good oak logs and kindling from the short
pieces of lumber left by the carpenters. An excusable pride mingled with his more kindly feelings as Deacon John gazed upon this "faire establishment."
On February 27, 1726, "John Benedick, Jr." conveyed to "John Benedick, 3rd, in consider- ation of paternal love and affection," the Mansion House he had built for him, his eldest son, who was to be the progenitor of many generations of Canaan Parish and New Canaan Benedicts.
Came another spring. On a day, kith and kin from round and about gathered to install pro- perly the young couple in their new home, ac- cording to the custom and formalities of the time. Not the least of these ceremonies was the planting of the "bride and groom trees," two young sugar maples, close by either side of the front walk. Other dooryard tree there would be but these two as they grew with the years to arch their branches overhead would stand always as a symbol of wishes and hopes for a long, united life of peace and many bless- ings.
But these good wishes were not to be ful- filled in this home for this hopeful young man and his wife, Dinah. Whatever their fortune, kind or ill, they were destined to dwell but briefly in this house. For reasons that we may assume were good and sufficient, John Bene- dick, 3rd, sold his home place to Benjamin Gregory for the sum of 240 pounds, on Sep- tember 27,1728.
By this time many of the younger genera- tion of the towns of Norwalk and Stamford, finding the lands by the shore well occupied, had made homes for themselves in the wilder- ness to the north. By 1725, a scattered settle- ment had come into being on the broad ridges and along the streams of what is now New Canaan. By 1730, the inhabitants felt that they were numerous enough to express formally to the mother towns the "inconveniences" (the trails were bad and the climate severe) they had long suffered by being forced to journey so far to worship, and in 1731 they were per- mitted to form a new society.
A minister was needed and John Eells of
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Milford (Yale, 1724) was prevailed upon to take up the work in the newly organized Ca- naan Parish. It was then necessary to acquire a house of some dignity as a "settlement" for the pastor, and a committee was appointed to at- tend to the matter. Evidently, of those avail- able at the time, our Mansion House on the Clapboard Hills seemed best to fill the bill, for by deed dated October 7, 1732, this property was conveyed to Ebenezer Carter and John Benedict of said parish committee, or society, for the consideration of the sum of 260 pounds, current money. They in turn, on June 20, 1733, conveyed the property to John Eells, "for the consideration that John Eells do settle in said parish, as minister to ye people therein."
Thereafter, for over 50 years this house was the home of the colorful John Eells, a man of learning, piety and as great imagination. After the death of his first wife, Anna, in 1736, he married Abigail, daughter of Moses Comstock, and their union was blessed with two sons and a daughter. Although his pastorate endured less than eight years owing to eccentricities deemed improper in a minister of the gospel, he continued to reside here until his death in 1785.
Twice told are the tales and legends of him and his time and many of them are associated with this old house. While these are admittedly outside the scope of this chronicle, one in par- ticular that has become what we may lightly term a "classic," and seems as much a part of the house as the red paint that once embel- lished its shingles, cannot with any justification be omitted.
As the story goes, a couple came in a thunder storm to the house of Priest Eells to be married. It was late in the evening and the minister had retired. From an upper window he inquired who was there and what was wanted. Learning that the couple wished to be joined in holy matrimony, he shouted above the roar of the storm: "Come over under this window here and I'll marry you."
When they presented themselves below, he remarked that it was customary on such an occasion to make a prayer, but it was nothing
essential, also to sing a hymn, but it was noth- ing essential. Then directing them to join hands he proceeded to perform the ceremony in the following lyric style:
"Under this window, in stormy weather I join this man and woman together; Let none but Him who made this thunder, E'er part these married two asunder."
The marriage having been thus solemnized, the bridegroom is said to have remarked in turn: "It is customary on such an occasion to pay a dollar, but it is nothing essential. Good night."
What changes came to our Mansion House during the long and eventful lifetime of Mr. Eells can be only surmised. Probably there was no noticeable alteration in the structure, and except for the weathering of the exterior little change in its appearance. At his death, in 1785, the property came into the possession of Stephen Fitch who ten years later sold it to Ebenezer Carter, the great-grandson of the original owner of the land.
Ebenezer Carter, 3rd, with his helpmeet, Rhoda, made his home here on the ancestral acres for nearly half a century, and here they raised a family of nine sons and two daughters. In view of their numerous offspring, it seems reasonable to suppose that during the earlier years of their occupancy they felt the need of greater living space, and it is more than likely that sometime during these years they in- creased the height and depth of the lean-to. This was accomplished by erecting a new rear wall farther back and running new rafters of a single length on the longer slope. These could not rest on the plate of the main house frame and so were blocked up from it with short pieces set vertically. Also it was necessary to change the position of the ridge in order again to equalize the pitches.
Probably at the time of this rather extensive alteration, new window frames and sash, of six lights each, were put in and a new front
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The Benedict-Eels-Thatcher House Today
door frame with double sidelights installed. Probably at this time the house was shingled with hand riven white-pine shingles in various widths and averaging nearly three feet in length, exposed around 13 inches to the weath- er and secured with wrought nails.
And, possibly, that portico of slender col- umns and narrow seats was added at the front entrance. However, it is perhaps more likely that it remained for the son, Thomas Carter, who inherited the place, to make this addition at the insistence of several or all of the nine daughters that graced his household. Thomas Carter lived here with his family until 1855, when he sold to James Tournier.
James Tournier, and after him his son, with their families, dwelt here for three score and ten years, until the tragic death of the younger James in 1925.
In all probability, it was sometime during
the occupancy of the Tourniers that the old house was "modernized." The great chimney stack with its fireplaces and oven were re- moved and the stack replaced by "a rather flimsy affair." The bay was enlarged to a cen- tral hallway and a straight stairway installed. The fireplace openings were boarded up and these and the panelling in the front rooms were covered with muslin and the more fash- ionable wallpaper. The exposed surfaces of the beams and posts were lathed and plastered and papered to hide their honest nakedness. A new "stoop" of less graceful detail was added and the house painted red.
In the autumn of 1926, the place was pur- chased by Miss Mabel Thatcher, the present owner, whose lineage goes back to the settlers of New Canaan's mother towns of Norwalk and Stamford. As faithfully as possible she re- produced the original chimney stack and fire-
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places and restored the chimney bay and stair- case. Fortunately, the original hearth stones and all of the chimney stones and bricks were found on the place mid a tangle of brush and briers. And (believe it or not) the old stair rail and wainscot were discovered in the cellar, nailed beside the cellar steps.
A new kitchen and pantry were added in an ell at the south-west corner so that the old kitchen might remain as it was. Unfortunately it was necessary to remove at this time an old milk room that had been added under an ex- tension of the lean-to roof. As restored, the kitchen fireplace is two feet deep, four feet high and six feet wide. The old hearth stone, its surface worn smooth and uneven through the years, measures seven feet, seven inches in length. The original crane with its pot hooks and trammels was found on the place, buried beneath the bricks and stones of the chimney stack.
Today, approaching by the front path be- tween the now ancient bride-and-groom ma- ples, it may be noted that it still appears a tall house and of good proportions. The front en- trance has been reconstructed by Miss That- cher with a feeling for the simple dignity of the facade. The door, whether or not the original, is very old and is hung on shouldered iron pegs with wrought "strap-angle" hinges with "snakehead" terminations. Of "cross and bible" design, it is made up of six bevelled panels in moulded stiles and rails. It is six feet one-half
inch high, three feet one-half inch wide and is in places less than one and one-eighth inches thick.
The window sashes are not old but, excepting for the details of construction and the quality of the glass, they must be quite like the original in appearance. The blinds are an addition. As for the shingles, those on the front are neither new nor old; those on the north wall are sup- posedly from "way back." Those on the south wall date back to the restoration by Miss Thatcher, at which time they replaced clap- boards of a recent period. On the shingles of the north wall are two crudely carved, roughly circular, signs or symbols. No doubt the house was thus adorned to protect it and its occu- pants from plague or pestilence, or the evil spirits.
"I shall place a cross within a circle and no harm shall come to this house."
Miss Thatcher has restored the panelling and the plastering of the interior, and waxed the exposed surfaces of the beams and posts to a glowing umber.
Furnished throughout with rare old pieces and other smaller articles of appropriate anti- quity, our Mansion House on the Clapboard Hills is to this day worthy of our veneration. All credit to the one who has done so much to preserve for us our precious heritage.
THE COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA
MARIAN MCMULLEN ROWAND, Author
WALTER RICHARDS, Artist
[February 10, 1949]
Thirty years ago, when the New Canaan Com- munity Orchestra came into being, the popula- tion of the town was 3,800, the first World War
was just over and the young men coming home were then, as now, looking for refreshment and rest.
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Community Orchestra Rehearsal- 1949 Walter Richards
Among the first of the men to return from overseas was Berrain R. Shute, a musically gifted home town boy who had recently grad- uated from the Institute of Musical Art in New York. With the memory fresh in his mind of what music had meant to the men in service, he conceived the idea of a community orches- tra, a musical organization in which all those able to play, service men and townspeople, adults and children, might meet for their own pleasure and the creation of something of cul- tural and educational value to the community.
His idea found ready acceptance in the minds of a few far-seeing people and in the fall of 1918 the first meeting was held, on the lawn of the home of Miss Katherine Rogers, president, pro tem. The New Canaan Com- munity Orchestra took form that afternoon. It was a small group, perhaps half a dozen people, and included, besides Miss Rogers, Mrs. John H. Dye, first president of the organ-
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