USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 33
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The Hoyt-Pabst House
the garden-all smooth and white, destined to grow mellow with time and use and become more familiar and friendlier all the while. Little will the future possessor of one of these humble utensils suspect that into its texture are threaded the story of Napoleon, the history of Russia, the characters of Thackeray, the ad- ventures of Stanley, or the romances of Conrad and Locke.
Thus, almost within the shadow of skyscrap- ers which they have never seen, almost within hearing of the roar of subways on which they have never ridden, these exemplars of self- determination seem just as happy as if they were shot daily toward heaven in an express elevator or forced with the crowds through a turnstile. If lack of contact with these modern things creates a feeling of deprivation in the brothers, they betray no hint of it in manner or speech.
They have food and raiment and snug shel- ter, have Gardner and Wilbur Hoyt. They have newspapers to inform them, books to instruct, tobacco to soothe. If that seems not enough to satisfy the worldling, they will set before him honey from the hive, sugar from the ma- ples and cranberries from the nearby bog.
One little tribute they pay to the outside world, and that is the tribute that all men pay to Standard Oil. They use kerosene for lighting instead of homemade candles or tallow dips. But this tribute is voluntary, not forced. They could make candles if they wished .- N. Y. Times.
Addendum by M. MURPHY, May, 1951
Like the old gray mare, the house where the Hoyt brothers led their self-sufficing lives ain't what it used to be. But instead of deteriorating it has been rehabiliated. Time and the activi-
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ties of succeeding owners have produced many drastic changes in it. Though the outside has only been modified the interior has been re- volutionized.
Moses Hoyt bought the house from William Fitch in 1853, land previously owned by James Hayes and Luke Keeler, but from the time it left the possession of the Hoyt family in 1932, til June 1951, it has had five different owners. The title has gone from Hoyt to Johnson to Diserens to Mosle to Pabst to Dixon. After an unmolested existence of about 110 years, most of it in the care of a family who respected it too much to disturb its serenity, the modern world suddenly burst upon it and created a violent disturbance of its interior.
But it is doubtful if the Hoyt brothers them- selves would fail to recognize that the changes had been for the better both in convenience and appearance. Unquestionably they would be amazed but they would ultimately approve, if reluctantly. As they approached their old home and saw the television aerial mounted on the roof they would wonder what kind of crazy contraption that was. At the gate lead- ing to what had been the side door at the southeast corner of the house they would miss the pyramidic woodpile with its sticks of even size, piled so regularly, whose function had now been taken over by oil; that woodpile coveted by every domestically inclined wo- man who saw it, a circumstance which made one wonder how the bachelor brothers so long escaped matrimony.
They would find that "the shed," as the small porch had been called onto which the side door opened, had been enclosed with glass and made into a sunny breakfast room so they would have to enter by the front door on the south which they had seldom used. In what had been the dim old parlor they would see a bright, attractively furnished living-room, the once closed fireplace has been opened, the paint removed from its woodwork and the na- tural wood polished. Going through the door to the right into what had been their sitting
room, where in the long winter evenings they had woven baskets, here again they would see that the fireplace had been opened up, but they would miss the closed-in stairway of their days and discover later that it had been replaced by another in the middle of the north side of the house opposite the front door. In the kitchen where there had stood a woodburning cook stove and a wooden sink, shone an electric stove surrounded by a great assembly of labor saving gadgets and appliances. In simplifying labor how complex life had got to be! The old wooden sink with cupboards beneath which had so easily and fully served so many useful purposes was now a stand for potted house plants in another room.
Up-stairs by the easy treads of a two-stage stairway the visitors would see the room at the southwest corner of the house which had been the workshop of their shoemaker father, Moses Hoyt, transformed into a bright and charming- ly furnished bedroom. Here the cobbler's bench and tools had remained and were used right up to the time the property was sold by the Hoyts. The remainder of the floor was tak- en up by three other similarly furnished bed- rooms, by bath rooms and spacious closets.
Something they would find had been added on the ground floor-a large guest room at the northwest corner of the house with a fireplace at the western end; also at the western end of the main house a stove-paved terrace.
On the way to the barn, which had also had a new birth, they would pass the garage, an- other thing that had been added, and Mrs. Dixon's flower and vegetable garden luxuriant with gay blossoms and tempting produce. At the barn, gone were the familiar cow stanch- ions, and in their place box and single stalls occupied by six riding horses-Palominos and quarter horses.
Altogether though changed and new in part it was a set-up that bespoke permanence. The Robert Dixons act, it seems, as if they, like the Hoyts, had come to stay.
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JELLIFF'S MILL MEMORIES
CARLTON HILL and MRS. ROBERT DUMM, Authors
MRS. RICHARD M. COIT, Artist
[March 24, 1949]
Tales passed down from generation to genera- ation until they have become practically folk- lore, and stories gleaned from research into old records are being recalled in the wake of the loss by fire of Jelliff's Mill, one of New Ca- naan's few remaining landmarks of Colonial days.
The Jelliff family, which has kept and plans to keep alive the last survivor of an old indus- try in what was once known as Millville, has its own recollections, through four generations,
of the industry that has given them their live- lihood.
From the descendants of former owners of the mill and from records of bygone years a part of the story has been outlined by Mrs. Ro- bert B. Dumm in her article on the Talmadge Hill District which appeared in the 1946 an- nual of the New Canaan Historical Society.
Of the earliest days, from 1700 to 1800, only bare outlines have been obtained through re- cords of land transfers. Some students of local
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history say the district really should have been named for the Stevens family, first known own- ers of the mill, for they played a greater part in its early development than did the Tal- madges.
After 1800 the outlines of history have been clothed with more details, gathered in large measure from family descendants. The story of Deodate Waterbury, who bought the mill in 1801, was told only briefly in last week's news account of the fire because of space limitation. It is colorful enough to be worth reprinting from Mrs. Dumm's article:
Deodate Waterbury bought the mill and the adjoining home from Edward Smith in 1801, and the mill remained in the Waterbury family until the early 1860's. From Deodate's time, descriptions of the two old buildings are fairly detailed and as colorful as Deodate himself.
Deodate was a great-grandson of John Wa- terbury, who came from England to Water- town, Mass., in 1640, and then moved his fam- ily to Samford in 1646, where he was a prop- erty owner. In 1657, John served as repre- sentative in the General Court at New Haven, with George Slawson.
The son of Benjamin Waterbury, Deodate was born in Middlesex (Darien), Conn., on April 23, 1763. Thirteen years old at the begin- ning of the Revolution, he enlisted four years later-on January 1, 1780-at Stamford in the Coast Guard of the Continental Army.
He served nine months "as a private under Capt. Jesse Bell and Col. John Mead. Again, from June 1, 1782 to January 1, 1783, he served under Capt. Bell in Col. Stephen St. John's regiment ... taking his turn watching the shore so as not to be surprised by the British."
This once happened, disastrously, on July 22, 1781, when Deodate was living in Middle- sex and the British made their well-known crossing from Long Island and, led by the Tory, Capt. Frost, took the Rev. Moses Mather and men from the Congregational Church as their prisoners.
It is said that "when Deodatc moved to Tal- madge Hill in 1801, he found that same Tory, who went to Canada and came back, and was
tarred and feathered, as his nearest neigh- bor .. . "
Deodate was 38 when he bought "the then small saw and gristmill, and moved his fam- ily from Darien into the small story and a half- house." This story says "tradition claims is was built by the Indians .. . " At any rate, Deo- date later moved it to the adjacent hill from down by the dam, and raised the house and increased the main body to double its size.
"The house is thick-timbered-fastened to- gether with wooden spikes-the hinges on the doors are hand-hammered, some 17 inches long-and the old chimney, of large stones, was put together with plaster made from oyster shells."
Grinding oyster shells and converting them into lime and plaster was one of Deodate's many activities. He ran the sawmill, did car- pentering, and was a good cabinet-maker. Hc ran the gristmill and "made an elevator run by water-power to carry grists upstairs to be bol- ted-instead of customers carrying it by hand . . . This invention was looked upon almost as witchcraft."
He "also invented the first portable hay- press with windlass." It was used in the United States for years, virtually as he designed it, ac- cording to the account of Mrs. Margaret C. Merritt, his great-granddaughter.
"He served as an undertaker and built cof- fins"-the charge being $30 for his services.
Deodate also built some weave shops across the road from the other mill, where his daugh- ter, Mrs. Betty Waterbury Weed wove woolen and satinet cloth (cotton warp, wool filling).
"In the attic of the Waterbury homestead, bales of wool were stored-with a hole in the attic floor to throw down these bales of wool. The spinning-wheel and carding-wheel used in the business are still owned by the descen- dants-and one member owns linen sheets woven by the family from flax prepared by them."
Deodate "built cider-mills and cider-presses . . . and at one time he kept a grocery-store in the west room of his house."
He and his wife were both members of the
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Darien Congregational Church, Deodate "was a good singer and a good looking old gentle- man; of medium height and portly figure, his eyes were black, his face round and clean- shaven; with white hair, though a little bald."
It is said he was sitting at a window in his house watching his son Charles' house being built next door when he died, September 22, 1830, at the age of 67. His wife, Mary Ward- well Waterbury, died 14 years later. They are both buried in the Waterbury plot, which is on the corner of the Mill Road and the old driftway that follows the west bank of the Noroton.
When Deodate was incapacitated by ill health, his sons Isaac and Jesse took over and enlarged the business. Linen and woolen cloth was woven at the shops, but "carding and other preparation of the material was carried on in a small mill a short distance upstream. Known as the fulling mill, it was run by water power the water brought in a channel extending from the upper pond."
Used in the last part of the 19th century as a cider-mill, it was abandoned around 1900. Traces of the grassed-over mill-race still show on the John E. White property and lead to what remains of the old stone foundation of the mill itself on the west bank of the Norton.
The "Waterbury Mills" were finally sold to Isaac, and his sons operated the business until they sold out in the civil war period to William Y. Davenport, who sold to Samuel Whitney, who sold to Aaron Jelliff, Jr., of Wilton, in 1869 -"five years from the Waterbury possession."
On the map of the Industrial period of New
Canaan, the area near the mill was called “Mill- ville." The Mill Road was the center of activ- ity in the district, with the saw and gristmills, and a general store operated by Charles Water- bury near his house.
H. G. Benedict recalled that store as it was during a later period: "I can still see (in mem- ory) David Waterbury, sitting on the 'stoop' of the old country store typical of those at the crossroads generations ago. No canned goods at the period, but dried cod fish, white with salt and shaped like a big kite, mackerel salted down in a keg, dark brown sugar in a big bar- rel, molasses and pork, soda crackers in a big box. No fruits of any kind, except perhaps dried apples, and nothing cooked until you cooked it."
In reminiscences of the period it has been said that life in New Canaan around the mid- dle of the last century was "austere-with 'Duty and Obedience' the slogan of the church and schoolhouse."
Making a living was hard work and shoe- making became an extensive business in Tal- madge Hill-or "Millville"-as elsewhere in town, to help out with the small returns from farming. People worked "individually in dif- ferent homes-and in others team work was carried out."
In later years "one of these houses was de- clared haunted, and slumbers were disturbed by the rap-a-tap-tap of hammers, but one old resident consulted said it couldn't be the same team (that had worked there together) as . . . they would not work days, let alone nights."
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Can
THE CALEB S. BENEDICT-
LOCKWOOD-BAILEY HOUSE
STEPHEN B. HOYT, Author
WHITMAN BAILEY, Artist
[May 26, 1949]
On the north side of Cherry Street midway be- tween South Avenue and Park Street, stands an honorable old house. It is the home of Miss Margaret Emerson Bailey, writer and poetess, and her brother, Whitman Bailey, artist.
About 125 years ago New Canaan was cele- brating its 25th anniversary as an incorporated town. It was humming with youthful enter- prise. Among those many expression of and outlets for Yankee ingenuity and inventive genius which marked the period, New Canaan
held a prominent place in the manufacturing of shoes.
Shoes meant Benedicts. The first James and his son Caleb had already established emi- nence in the field on Brushy Ridge, a position that the family maintained throughout the years of handmade shoes and that continued into the later age of machinery, rounding out more than a century in which five generations of the family participated.
Caleb S. Benedict, great grandson of the first
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of that name, was about to be married to Han- nah Elizabeth, daughter of Deacon William Crissey. He built this house for his bride. Archi- tecturally it conforms to the conventional type of the period. Sturdy and dignified, it stands today a worthy landmark, rich in memory and self respect.
To Caleb S. and Hannah were born seven sons and four daughters. Four of the sons, Irv- ing, Junius, Theodore and Henry, continued their father's shoe business in the Benedict Block, which is the brick building on the south- west corner of Elm and Main streets.
One son, William, was killed at the battle of Stone River during the Civil War. A daughter, Mrs. Lockwood, lived in the homestead until her death, after which her daughter, Miss Min- nie Lockwood, continued until the property was sold in 1923 to the Baileys.
Like the Hoyt family, which settled Canoe Hill and later became town dwellers, their neighbors the Benedicts, removed from Brushy Ridge into the village and built on Cherry Street, Caleb S. on the north side and his cousin Charles opposite.
These two headed the two different branches of the family in the two largest shoe factories in town. Their properties were almost identical as to land and position of the buildings on the respective lots, as were the orchards and out- buildings.
As Caleb's daughter, Mrs. Lockwood, dwelt in his old homestead for the remainder of her life, so did another Mrs. Lockwood, daughter of Charles, spend her entire life in the house opposite. This is now the property of the Con- vent.
The descendants of Caleb S. now living in New Canaan are Dr. Theodore W. Benedict of South Avenue, and George Kellogg and his sister, Miss Estelle Kellogg of St. John Place.
The property originally extended to the lot on the corner of South Avenue and Cherry Street. When Cabel's son Theodore married Miss Marion Wildman of Danbury, he also built a house for his bride on the homestead land. This is the present O'Shaughnessy house. Here Dr. Benedict and his sister Marion, the late Mrs. Myron Crawford, were born.
Junius built the house on the northwest cor- ner of Main and Maple streets. Henry built on East Avenue, the house next west of the home of Dr. John Bucciarelli. It was this Henry Bene- dict who contributed so many letters of rem- iniscence for both the old Messenger and later to the Advertiser. These are priceless records for the researcher in local lore.
As the old house on Cherry Street enjoyed distinction in the town's industrial period, it has in later years held a proud position in its cultural life. The present owners came from Providence, where their father, the late Profes- sor William Whitman Bailey, was a member of the faculty of Brown University.
Collateral descendants of Ralph Waldo Em- erson, the Baileys were cradled in an atmos- phere of the fine arts so it is not strange that one is a writer and the other an artist. Their mother, the late Eliza Simmons Bailey, pos- sessed a brilliant pen and to her hospitable home came many distinguished writers and artists to enjoy the so called lost art of good conversation.
Margaret Emerson Bailey is so well known that any brief biographical sketch just here would seem inadequate. She was the first woman member of the Board of Selectmen New Canaan ever had.
We have been accustomed to the term town fathers, but here was a town mother. Her ad- ministration was during the World War I years, when the selectmen had acute relief problems. Miss Bailey took over the war gardens. Never before nor since have there been so many small patches of family sustenance gardens in New Canaan.
People who had their own land were sup- plied with seeds and plants. Those who had no land were assigned plots in large areas which the town plowed and cultivated for them. Miss Bailey spent hours and hours and days and days executing this extensive plan.
She also served on the Board of Education, the Board of Finance and the Welfare Board. After her political years, she wrote the book "Rain Before Seven," which is really New Ca- naan with thinly disguised characters.
This was not the beginning of her books.
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She had already written "Robin Hood's Farm," which was copiously illustrated by her brother, Whitman. Then came "The Wild Streak" and a volume of poems entitled "White Christmas." This last appeared long before the popular song of the same name.
It is perhaps permissible to say here that the writer has an inscribed copy of "White Christ- mas" on his bedside table and still enjoys re- peated readings from its sweet but not saccha- rine thought, its nostalgic but not sentimental music and its New England fragrance.
Her last book was "Goodbye, Proud World." In the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and Scrib- ner's, have appeared many of Miss Bailey's writings over a period of years.
The pen and ink sketches done by Whitman Bailey are almost a New Canaan institution for they appeared in the Advertiser as illustrations of old houses and familiar spots for several years.
Mr. Bailey's knowledge of colonial buildings of New England is notable among the many who have striven for eminence in this field, for his was not the passing moment with a camera but, after long search and selection of subject, a patient pen and ink drawing.
These have been reproduced in the Provi- dence Journal, the Boston Transcript, Boston Herald, Fall River Globe, Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate. Scribner's Country Life, Yachting, Motorboating, and St. Nicholas have also printed Mr. Bailey's work.
The drawing which Mr. Bailey has made to illustrate this article is different from any for- mer ones. He selected this because of the side entrance and porch and to introduce a figure approaching. This person might suggest the one who, back in the first days of January, 1862, brought to Mrs. Benedict the sad news of the death of her son, William.
It was the last day of the year and Christmas messages had just passed between the family and the boy at the front far away in Tennessee. He was in General Rosencrans' army near Mur- phreesborough where that terrific battle at Stone River took such terrible toll of young lives.
The west porch has many fond human asso-
ciations. For the present generation it recalls the late Mrs. Bailey's love of and solicitude for birds. She fed the wild birds here, and soon there appeared some pigeons to partake of her bounty.
These increased, as pigeons will, until they became so numerous that certain thrifty neigh- bors became concerned for their young corn and also their roofs. Mrs. Bailey was not con- cerned. She continued to feed the pigeons and the flock increased.
Today they may be seen in flight over the region and are one of the sky pictures that gives life to the clouds. He who has not seen the first rays of the sun strike the golden cross atop the tower of St. Aloysius' Church with these pig- eons sailing against the morning sky has missed something.
When the Baileys came they found in the cellar a curious object that was most difficult to remove. It turned out to be the ancient high pulpit of the second Congregational Church building. This has since been restored and somewhat remodeled and is now in the chapel of the present church.
Among the papers which came to light after the death of Mrs. Bailey were letters from Abraham Lincoln to her grandfather who was United States Senator from Rhode Island. In one of them Lincoln administered a verbal spanking because of Senator Simmon's sup- port of an extravagant congressional bill which Lincoln feared might contribute toward the election of his rival Stephen A. Douglas.
There were also letters from Daniel Webster and other well known political figures. Among Professor Bailey's effects were first editions of Charles Darwin inscribed to his father, and many well known scientific books and letters from poets and writers he had met in his youth.
There were several letters from John Green- leaf Whittier, in one of which the poet ex- pressed the opinion that "men should marry by 25 and women by 18."
No major alterations were made in the in- terior since it was built in 1825. The door from the Cherry Street porch opens into a hall, with a staircase on the right and a small sitting room on the left. Then comes the parlor all across the
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house. In the parlor is a fireplace mantel dated 1779, which was brought from the Governor Fenner homestead at Cranston, Rhode Island. Beyond the parlor is a library on the right, and a kitchen on the left. Opening off the kitchen is a woodshed which was formerly a Benedict shoeshop, separate from the house.
The west door out of the parlor, leads out onto another porch, near which is the old well,
now covered up. The old apple tree, grafted to bear three kinds of apples, which used to shade the porch, was blown down in the big hurri- cane.
Few old houses here in New Canaan are so rich in human association. Owned and occu- pied by its builder and his descendants for a century, it has changed hands but once. An honorable old house.
THE FITCH-AYRES-PERKINS HOUSE
FLORETTE WEBB KEANE, Author
WALTER RICHARDS, Artist
[June 2, 1949]
The large white house with Grecian columns and gray-blue blinds that stands with simple and impressive dignity at the corner of Park and Seminary streets is one of the interesting landmarks in New Canaan. During the hun- dred or more years that it has been there, many worshippers have passed by on their way to the churches on Church Hill and many commuters have rushed by to the trains.
When Seminary was known as Brook Road and was the main thoroughfare west to Weed Street and Stamford, the Old Red School House of District One stood on the corner at Park Street. The exact date of the building of the school is not recorded but it was probably around 1800 since District Number One with its 38 families was organized at that time.
Canaan Parish had been formed in 1731 and Church Hill had been granted to the Parish the following year. But it was not until 1801 that the Town of New Canaan was incorporated and became responsible for its own schools and roads.
About 1835 it was evident that the small red school on the corner was inadequate. Two years before, the younger children had been
sent to the home of Hannah Mitchell for their lessons. Now it was decided to buy land from Mrs. Mitchell and build a new and larger school. The Long School House which was built at that time is part of the home at 40 Sem- inary Street.
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