USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 4
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"Fredericksburg, Va. "November 6, 1879."
THE LITTLE RED SCHOOL HOUSE IN CARTER STREET
HENRY KELLEY, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[December 31, 1946]
The first school house built by District No. 3 was located on the point of land that marked the intersection of Silver Mine Road and Carter Street. This spot was abandoned about 1865 at which time the present location was bought by Captain Stephen Hoyt, the gentle- man who established the Hoyt Nursery. He purchased the property at the north corner of Carter Street and Clapboard Hill, gave to the District the plot of ground whereon the school still stands, then sold the house with the re- maining land and outbuildings to the late Charles Jones.
On that new site the District taxpayers built
a school just like the present building though not so substantially constructed or so interest- ingly decorated. The taxpayers of the District were generally well-to-do farmers who were proud of their school. Their first effort to beau- tify its surroundings was the planting of trees in the school yard (in 1865) by the late Edwin Hoyt who furnished the trees. He was assisted in carrying out this early landscaping project by Messrs. George Drummond, L. V. St. John, Benjamin Heath and Adolphus Carter. Today great trees stand, living and growing monu- ments to the memory of these men.
In those early days of the first school house
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Edwin Eberman 1946
The Little Red School House In Carter Street
parents had to pay tuition for each pupil. In the Spring of 1868, however, the Legislature voted that all schools be free to the pupils of a Town provided the Town supply the money to pay the teacher, to buy two tons of coal, one box of crayons, one water pail and two dippers. Dur- ing my first years in school the teachers were paid the sum of $16 per month.
I remember vividly that first school from the time my brother and I walked up Carter Street one sunny April morning in 1868, filled with all the hope and ambition of boys of our age. The
pupils were a group made up mostly of the sons and daughters of neighboring farmers, a few bound boys and girls, but all good people.
Our teachers were always good. To be sure they had no degrees but along with the tradi- tional "three r's" they taught high ideals with emphasis on Honesty and Square-Dealing. They taught us to love the land, to honor our country, to respect its constitutional authori- ties, to venerate its founders and to reverence our God. Even then, long before Joyce Kil- mer's earthly sentiment was sung our teachers
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in the Little Red School imparted to us the profound understanding that only God can make a tree. In all my days in the Little Red School I never heard a pupil take the Lord's name in vain.
There were no teacher or pupil strikes and there were no attendance laws; so there were a great many absentees when farm work began in the Spring. Nevertheless, we acquired a goodly store of information that has been help- ful and pleasurable through life. We knew where the first hepatica grew, the first violets and cowslips. We knew why the farmers put tar on the seed corn to discourage the crows. We knew a farmer that never cut his side-hill meadow until the bobolink had hatched and gone. We were allowed to go nutting over and through the farms until some greedy young- ster abused the privilege to the extent that we all had to be deprived of it.
In those days at the annual school meeting a School Committee man was elected. He with the treasurer and three trustees were to act as assessors if a tax had to be laid to provide for repairs.
I was first elected School Committee man in 1885 and well remember my first meeting with four other members to decide what would be of most benefit to the pupils. These men were well-to-do farmers who had children in the school. They maintained that No. 3 school was the best in the town and they wanted it kept so if possible. My first school committee assign- ment was to go before the joint Board of School Visitors and Selectmen to make a request for an additional allowance in the teacher's salary. The allowance requested was $20 so that we could pay the teacher $200 per year instead of $180. I was happy to report that the amount was granted.
Perhaps that first meager grant spoiled me as I have been asking the town for more and more school money each year and have been fairly lucky in my requests.
I have had charge of District No. 3 from that day to this and feel a measure of satisfaction in the commendable way it fulfills the needs of the community. In 1890 I served out a two-
year term as committee man of the District school board. We then consolidated. Elected to the Consolidated School Board I was ap- pointed to continue as committee man for Dis- trict No. 3.
One-by-one eight of the nine original dis- trict schools were closed at the request of the parents, who believed their children would have more advantages in a graded school. But never having thought that the pupils would be transported from the Little Red School Houses, the local School Committee had long kept them staffed with the best teachers money could hire. As a general rule the district schools were short-changed by local Town School Boards but we enjoyed the distinction of being an exception to the rule. And now in the rush of progress, every time we hear of the closing of another district school house we may know that one more cradle of liberty-and of culture -has been stilled.
There is no place where the pupils can get more direct individual attention and more thorough understanding than in a Little Red School House. A few years ago there was a great hurry to do away with it. Now there is arising an equally high wave of interest to re- turn to it. Such return is probably out of the question. We well know that the district schools here cannot be restored nor re-estab- lished, chiefly because of the danger to the traveling pupils.
What we should do and must do, however, is to kindle and keep the Little Red School House spirit in each room of our modern con- solidated school. Now we have begun to pay our teachers better salaries and we should ex- pect each teacher to be capable of giving pro- per attention and active interest to the mental, emotional and social development of the young people in her charge. Our teachers should be equipped to give intelligent understanding, and willing to give personal guidance to each pupil, recognizing in him (or her) the potenti- alities of the man ( or woman) who is building our future both immediate and remote.
We are very proud of our one remaining Little Red School House, District No. 3, as it
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functions today. We are proud of the boys and girls who year after year go forth to continue their education. Mr. Eberman has splendidly portrayed the outward appearance of this school. To learn more of its Character it would be well to see the inside, its walls embellished by murals depicting subjects from Aesop's Fables painted by Mr. Gruelle. When the sun shines in the west window, this is one of the pleasantest school rooms in the State. And when the thirty-two pupils ranging from the first to the fifth grades welcome a visitor with
their bright animated faces it is a heart-warm- ing experience indeed. .
In the current cycle of changes called Im- provements, perhaps our Little Red School Houses will be put out of existence. Many of us who had the good fortune to have lived a part in so epochmaking a phase of Americana will cherish the distinction, though we will re- gret its passing with a pang of sorrow.
I wonder how much longer I may enjoy the privilege of going in to sit in the place where I sat in 1868, so long ago.
BURIAL HILL
HALSTED MYERS, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[January 9, 1947]
On the north side of Frogtown Road, some two hundred yards west of Weed Street, lies Burial Hill, the cemetery of the Weed family. It is a perfect and completed story of an ancient family custom long since replaced by our mod- ern public burying grounds.
Completed, yes, for the last of the family passed when Miss Amanda died in 1942. There they all are, their graves marked by white marble stones (exactly alike), as shown in Mr. Eberman's drawing.
This is one of almost thirty rural cemeteries reflecting the character of the settlement of our town. Why are there so many, and why did the first settlers bury their dead in the orchard instead of a church yard? In the first place, their church was far away, either in Stamford or Norwalk until 1733, and the first church had no church yard-it was a very primitive affair. Interment followed demise rather sooner than is the custom today. So, in the absence of a public burial spot, people naturally had to makes the best of it and use some bit of ground on the farm. Since then, many have been moved to the large public cemetery, especial-
ly when there were only four or five graves to disturb; but those which are larger and almost completely filled remain. Once they were family shrines tenderly kept, but descendants have become so widely scattered and the mem- ory of these old spots lost to children who per- haps have never heard of them.
The condition of some of these little ceme- teries has given the Historical Society deep concern for some years. Steps are now being taken to propose to the town a more permanent answer to this stigma upon our respect for the dead who precede us, than the casual method now in operation.
The neglect of these less fortunate dead of New Canaan is quite in contrast with the sub- ject of Mr. Eberman's drawing, for the Weeds were an outstanding example of family solid- arity, and Burial Hill is and always has been well cared for; and its future is assured by the terms of Miss Amanda's will. Points of interest on their hill, are the Comstock vault (the only underground vault in New Canaan), and the graves of many, who though unrelated to the Weeds were generously taken into the family's
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Еслижи Свечлан 1946
Burial Hill
burial ground, beeausc they had no proper place to go.
As one mounts the solid steps; passes through the iron gate in the fine retaining wall, and wanders through this impressive half aere peopled by Weeds from Abraham of Colonial
days down to the generation so well remem- bered today, one ean seareely eseape the eon- clusion that they were an orderly people, and closed the book of their lives in a typieal Vie- torian New England "finis."
THE JELLIFF MILL
MRS. ROBERT DUMM, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[January 16, 1947]
A lot of water has flowed over the Dam, and a lot of history has flowed around the rambling old structure that crowds along the east bank of the Noroton River in Jelliff Mill Road.
The road and the building as viewed here from the east in Mr. Eberman's sketch, arc named for the family that has owncd and sue- cessfully operated this old Talmadge Hill mill since Aaron Jeliff Jr., the grandfather of George Jelliff Jr., the present owner, bought it in 1869 and began the manufacture of wood-rimmed sieves. Though the mill has changed hands a number of times in its nearly 240 recorded years, it has carried the names of but a few families in its time.
Probably Deodate Waterbury, who made it "Waterbury's Mills" when he purehased it in 1801, was one of its busiest owners. He was thirty-eight at the time, and a veteran of the Continental Army Coast Guard. He used the mill for grinding grist, and sawing wood-and with true New England enterprise he also did carpentering, combined with eabinet-making, coffin-making and undertaking, on the side. He ground oyster-shells for lime; invented a water- power elevator that saved the backs of his customers who brought grist to grind-an in- vention which was considered almost witch- craft; he invented the first portable hay-press with windlass-and he built weave-shops across the road from the main mill, where Mrs. Betsy
Waterbury Weed, his daughter, wove woolen and satinet cloth.
From the 1750's to 1800, the mill earried the name of the Talmadge family. Known then as the "Talmadge Saw and Grist-Mill," it is said to have furnished supplies for Washington's armies. Thomas Talmadge, the founder of the family, became one of the first two deacons of the church, the same day Canaan Parish was founded, and served for more than 30 years, until he died in 1766. It was his great grandson, William Talmadge, who gave the land for a station when the railroad was built in 1868, and from whom the section, then known as "Mill- ville" took the name of Talmadge Hill.
A deed of sale in 1746 refers to the mill as the "Leeds Saw-mill," and a 1722 record speaks of it as the "Stevens Saw-mill, in the Noroton River region." As far as is known, a mill has stood on this spot sinee around 1709.
As it nears its 240th birthday, Jelliff's Mill is as busy as ever. It no longer uses its mill-pond for water-power-steam succeeded that a long time ago-and now electricity operates the machines that still turn out wood-rimmed sieves. It is probably the oldest wood-rimmed sieve mill in the country. The reeent war also put it into the business of making packing- cases, and it still supplies nearby factories with boxes and erates.
Artists have found this many-windowed old
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Edwin Eberman 1946
The Jelliff Mill
building a colorful subject. In its picturesque setting at the curve of the road, beside the mill-pond that reflects its weathered red
boards, this old mill stands as one of New Canaan's most alive and interesting historical landmarks.
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THE HOYT-BURWELL-MORSE HOUSE
EDWIN HOYT BOUTON, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[January 23, 1947]
At the northeast corner of Canoe Hill and Ferris Hill Roads stands an ancient house now owned by Mrs. Robert B. Morse. Its story is concerned with many people who have lived there since it was built-probably by Abner Hoyt circa 1730-1740.
Like many ancient houses which have passed through several hands since the earliest days, land and probate records do not reveal a com- pletely clear picture of all of its story. Some hold that the house which now stands was not built until 1800. That we cannot definitely prove-it is a matter of structural study and speculation. But this we do know; a house stood on its site as early as 1730-1740 and it has been occupied constantly since then.
The land upon which it stands is a portion of a large division among the sons and ne- phews of Joseph Hoyt. This tract included ap- proximately all of the Canoe Hill from where it leaves Carter Street, East, West and North into Laurel Road. It marked the beginning of the exodus of the Hoyts from Norwalk to Canaan Parish. A generation of Hoyts built their houses along this ridge and it became known as "House Ridge."
The upper portion fell to Deacon Daniel who divided it later among his sons. Of these Abner had the six acres on the corner where the subject of Mr. Eberman's sketch stands.
Abner did not dwell there long. He sold it in 1749 to Jonathan Burwell (Burall) who had married Hannah, daughter of Captain Ebene- zer Carter, remembered as the only one of the Carter family ever to return from the Deer- field massacre, having been redeemed from captivity in Canada, and brought back to Bos- ton by a British sea Captain.
Burwell lived there for several years and ac- quired extensive acreage in the neighborhood
as well as a right in the mill where the F. C. Nobles now live. In 1756 Jonathan Burwell sold out to his father-in-law and went pionecr- ing along the Hudson.
By 1772, when Rev. Dr. Drummond made his famous "Visitation Journey," he found the house occupied by Ezra Hoyt, another son of Deacon Daniel, who had been a resident of the "House Ridge" region since 1730. His and that of his wife, Phoebe Benedict, were names recorded as founders of Canaan Parish when it was formally established in 1731.
The will and distribution of the estate of Ezra Hoyt in 1790 is an interesting document, inviting to students of Americana. He devised the homestead property to his son John. Around 1800 we find that Captain Samuel Hoyt owned and lived in this house.
The next 100 years contain too long a story for this space. The old house was occupied by several families, mostly descendants of the first tribes who settled the "House Ridge."
About 1870 history repeated itself on Canoe Hill when the vast acreage of the first Hoyts, long since divided, again came into the posses- sion of a single owner-Gilbert Birdsall, grand- father of Mrs. R. B. Morse and Charles Stevens. Gilbert Birdsall was the life stream of the old Third Avenue street railway line in New York as to its horse power, came to New Canaan and bought the hill from and including the present Victor Barnes place, up and including the sub- ject of Mr. Eberman's drawing. He also bought from a Mr. Taylor, grandfather of Mrs. Ber- tha Purdy Putney, George and Harry Purdy and Miss Caroline Purdy, the present Birdsall House in Main Street. He operated this as a tavern and livery during the rest of his life.
Annabelle, daughter of Gilbert Birdsall, married Franklin Stevens and they went to live
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Edwin Elerman 1946"
The Hoyt-Burwell-Morse House
in the old house on the hill. Here Mrs. Morse was born, and here she has lived during the Summer over many years.
The ancient sugar maples in front suggest the "Bridal Maples," which were commonly planted when a young couple went to live in their new home.
One is tempted to explore the lives of the Hoyts, Burrals, Carters, Benedicts, Boutons, Stevens and others who lived in the old house, for there is rich human interest there as the writer found when he learned that his great-
grandmother, daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, who was taken captive by the British in the old brick church in Darien, lived in the house for a number of years and died there in 1894.
But the fact that she who was born within its sturdy old shelter now owns it, is impressive enough to arrest attention and invoke respect for one of our finest old houses which, even through the many efforts to enlarge, remodel and adjust it to modern requirements, still maintains its original character.
THE WEED-LOUNSBURY-DAVENPORT- BRADFORD HOUSE
AIDA KLETT DIERCKX, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[January 30, 1947]
"At ye head of Ponasses Path" overlooking the valley of the Rippowam to the east where Ponus Ridge and Wahackme Road meet, stands the home of Lindsay Bradford, the sub- ject of Mr. Eberman's drawing.
It appears that either this or a former house was built upon the site as early as 1774, for a deed from Hezekiah Weed to his son William "for love" describes the property as containing three acres with dwelling, fruit trees, bounded north and west by the highways, east by his own land, and south by land of Elijah Weed, deceased, which "I value at seventy pounds."
Inasmuch as the Drummond Visitation Journal of 1772 does not mention Hezekiah Weed as living upon this spot, it seems reason- able to assume that the house was built between 1772 and 1774.
William Weed, like his contemporaries, young couples making their start in the Parish, started at once to enlarge his acreage and con- solidate them into a farm. For twenty-five years he bought adjoining land which is re-
corded in some dozen or more deeds. But he must have encountered reverses or evil days of some sort, for by 1813 after his death, his son, William Weed, Jr., acquired the house and thirteen acres through several executions at law.
The next change of title was in 1837 when Hanford Davenport acquired the house and 104 acres "with Ponus Ridge running through it." At the same date, Davenport conveyed to Edgar Lounsbury the homestead with forty- four acres for $2,000.
The map of 1867 shows Silas, son of Edgar Lounsbury, living there. Silas was the father of Mrs. Carrie Lounsbury Davenport, widow of John who passed away at her residence in South Main Street only a few weeks ago. She lived most of her life on this farmstead until she sold it to the present owner, Lindsay Brad- ford.
Mr. Bradford altered the house extensively, retained fifteen acres and one of the large barns now converted into a dwelling but with consid-
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Edwin Eberman 1946
The Weed-Lounsbury-Davenport-Bradford House
erable skill in that it retains its early atmos- phere.
To the present generation this old farm sug- gests John and Carrie Lounsbury Davenport. They had no children but were "Uncle John" and "Aunt Carrie" to a host. He was a round- ish blond man, rosy cheeked and wore a small mustache and was never far from a horse or far from a horse deal. Jolly, too, he was and would swap horses with the naive enthusiasm of a boy but with the sage and subtle wisdom characteristic of horse-wise men of his day. He was a liveryman in town at one time when transportation meant horses-lots of horses and "rigs" of all sorts from buggies to carryalls. The transition from a horse man to an auto- mobile salesman of our day is a rich field for speculation, a long step in which the original breed is now as rare as a pug dog.
"Aunt Carrie," quiet and retiring, was a de-
voted member of the Historical Society and the Ladies' Sewing Society of St. Mark's Church and remembered both of them in her will. To do her justice in the eyes of all who knew and loved her would require a tender and gifted pen.
Mr. Bradford, who is president of the City Bank, Farmers Trust Company of New York, and now a long time resident of New Canaan, has done this old house and farm sweet justice in its restoration and preservation. In addition, he has implanted with its human associations the long story of his descendance from William Bradford, that grand old Pilgrim who gov- erned the Plymouth Colony for most of his life. It is a long way back to 1620 but between then and 1699 when this Ponus Ridge land came into private ownership is but the life span of one old man.
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Edwin Eberman 1946
THE STEVENS-HANFORD- BERNART HOUSE
STEPHEN B. HOYT, Author
EDWIN EBERMAN, Artist
[February 6, 1947]
This is a very old house. Its architecture and structural character indicate mid-seventeen hundred. Just who built it and when, has never
been satisfactorily determined by any of the several research workers to date. The earliest land grants in the vicinity were
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large acreages to Davenports, Finches, Seeleys and Stevens. As these tracts were resold in smaller measure, there appeared the names of Leeds, Scofield, Weed, Hoyt, Bishop, Young and others who became homesteaders.
From the first settling period which began circa 1720, until the census of 1772 in the form of the Drummond Visitation, there is but meager information other than that to be found in the Church and Land Records, with those of the Probate Court and such genealogical fragments as occur here and there.
Some years ago a study of the Drummond Journal with reference to the location of the homes where Rev. Drummond called, left this particular house in doubt. There is reason to believe, or, at least suspect, that it was where David Stevens, II, lived. Here is the evidence:
In 1832 Edwin Stevens sold his right in his father's estate to his brother (?) Chauncey for $400. It was apparently one-fourth of the homestead and is described as eleven acres with buildings and appurtenances bounded north by Hannah Hewlett (his sister?) east, the highway, south, Chauncey's own land, and west by Curtis. At the same date, James Stevens sold his right in the same property to Chauncey. In 1839, Watts Comstock, guardian for Caroline, James and Mary Stevens, sold their rights in this with other land to Chauncey. In 1844, Ann Silliman released a mortgage for $1,004.50 to Chauncey. If the subject of Mr. Eberman's drawing is the house described in these items, it is apparent that David Stevens, II, widower, with Abraham, Rebecca, Ezra, David, Susana and James, children, lived there in 1772.
In 1854, Chauncey Stevens sold the property to Noah Hanford then including fifty-six acres but excepting certain dower rights of the "wid- ow of David Stevens," for $3,330. Noah Han- ford is indicated as living there on the maps of 1857 and 1867.
From the many entries on the Land Records
it seems that Noah Hanford was something more than just a contented farmer. He men- tions a "store" and gives numerous chattel mortgages for costly farm equipment, cattle, etc. He finally became involved and assigned his property, which he eventually lost, to New York City creditors. It seems to have been sold by them to William Lockwood of West Road, builder of "The Big House" where the Mulli- kens lived until it was razed recently.
From circa 1870 the story has not been com- pleted.
If our reasoning is correct, this old house was one of those substantial mansions built by a substantial man for his children and grand- children for generations. There are many such remnants of the dreams of our forefathers here in New Canaan-pathetic in a way, but rather noble, too. "There will always be St. Johns in this house," said our wisest man, Professor Samuel St. John as he sat on the spacious ve- randa of the mansion that stood in the center of what is now St. John Place, back in 1876. Well the St. Johns disappeared from not only that spot but from all New Canaan within fifty years excepting one here and there. The Stevens family, once so numerous as to give their name to lower Weed Street, is a parallel story.
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