USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 44
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Stamford settlers who held it first as "common land" and then granted it to their sons and sons' sons for homesteads.
Stamford was settled in 1640, but it wasn't until around 1700 that any of the land as far north as the present New Canaan was parcel- led out. The Indians had made a few paths in
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going to their hunting grounds, mostly norther- ly and southerly, and following these, the set- tlers gradually widencd them until they were spoken of as cart paths and then highways, the name used to designate a poor narrow road we would scarcely think of as a highway today.
Ponus or "Ponasus Path" was probably the oldest on the west side of the Noroton River, but another road came up from the Shiloh, or New Hope, or what we know as the Glenbrook section of Stamford on the east side of the Noro- ton River, called the "Ridgefield Road" (now Weed Street).
Still another "highway" left the old Post Road just east of where it crosses the Noroton River, close to the Sound. This led up over Hollow Tree Ridge which to this day gives its name to the long road which when it passes Talmadge Hill Chapel into New Canaan becomes Lap- ham Road. In early days this was called "the Path which goeth to meet the Perambulation Line." Those were the roads the settlers on the Stamford side used in going to "meeting," while on the Norwalk side several led to the old church and village at Norwalk.
By the early 1700's at the southern end of our present New Canaan, even before it was called "Canaan Parish," was a cross road lead- ing from Old Stamford Road up the hill we call Talmadge Hill, making a turn north then bend- ing east just north of where that model high- way, the Merritt Parkway now speeds its traf- fic in such contrast. This cross road continued across that imaginary boundary, the Perambu- lation Line, to the Norwalk side until it linked up with the White Oak Shade road.
It is on this road, just south of the Merritt Parkway on the Darien exit section, which is part of the old road, that a charming old farm house now owned by Robert Scholl stands, nearly opposite the Roberts Homestead. It is difficult to be certain just how old it is. We trace the land from the record that follows:
David Waterbury was granted land in this section in 1698-9 with more land granted to him in 1702 which bordered Stony Brook, Jon- as Seely's, and the "common land" on the west. Also in 1710 J. Bell's estate is described as
bordering Stony Brook on the west. It was one acre of this which Eliphalet Seely was to ac- quire July 22, 1726.
Stephen Holmes had received the allotment of 32 acres next on the west side of the brook in 1699, extending over to the "cart path" on the west (Lapham Road) with Jonas Seely's land on his north. At this time the section of the cross road from Old Stamford Road to the top of the hill where it joins Mansfield, seems not to have existed, because in those earliest deeds the south boundary is designated as "marked trees."
A highway (the continuation of Mansfield) did, at least by 1735, make its way across to and over what we know as Gerdes Road to White Oak Shade. We must keep in mind that there was no South Avenue. The first mention of that road at the south end was perhaps in 1784 as a driftway having been used by Eli- phalet Seely in reaching his land from the cross road, but it did not extend to the Parish.
Jonas Seely, who was this Eliphalet's grand- father, had before 1700 an allotment of 50 acres including the section where the Lapham estate is now. He died in 1704-5 and it was held until 1716 when it was alloted among his sons, Ebenezer, Nathaniel and Eliphalet who was still under 20 years. They all settled upon it.
Much could be written about them, but it was Eliphalet, the youngest, who acquired all the southern section in 1723. He married Sarah Holly in 1724. It was on July 22, 1726, that the Stamford committee, rectifying the land grants, added this particular one acre situated on the east side of Stony Brook.
When we get down to Eliphalet, the story begins to seem real, for he and his wife Sarah were among the 11 from the Stamford side who constituted that first membership in Canaan Parish, in 1733. They had grown tired of the long trip to Stamford for "meeting" every Sun- day, and of paying the tax there, and felt there were now enough with their relatives and friends on the various ridges to form their own "Society."
He was a member of the Train Band, had at
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least two slaves, Flora, at the homestead, and a man on his farm in Pound Ridge. Like the others of his time, he acquired large holdings of land around about his homestead. He lived to be 83 years old and descendants of his arc active citizens in our town today.
When Rev. Drummond was putting in his probation time before being called as minister of the Parish, he wrote in his "Diary" of dining with "Lieut" Eliphalet Seely and his wife Sarah on February 19, 1772. Flora, the Negro servant, was present who was with Eliphalet at his death in 1784 but not his grandson Jonas, son of his son, Eliphalet, who lived with him from 1757 when he was five years old until 1773 when he was 21.
The Rev. Drummond called on his son, Eli- phalet, the same day and again on April 18, after he had accepted the call to the ministry, he visited them again. Later he keeps a more careful record of his visits to his parishioners in his "Journal" so-called, and on January 25 he notes that the single call of the day was up- on "Lieut" Seely when ordinarily he would try to see a number.
The Rev. Drummond had previously, on January 4, visited Jonas' father, Eliphalet, Jr., and his family when all of the rest of the chil- dren, 11 in number, had been present including Elisha, then not quite ten years old. Before an- other year Joseph, the eldest son and his wife Hannah were to go and live a little further along the cross road toward White Oak Shade at the beginning of what we call Gerdes Road near where Conrad Moller lived for many years. This piece his grandfather, the first Eli- phalet, had acquired from his brother Nathan- iel when he bought one half of his nine acres in 1734. His father inherited it at his death in 1784 and in 1798 deeded the "three acres and dwelling house where he now lives" to him.
Although the Seely family was evidently very well to do, these people had been living through turbulent times. The Rev. Drummond had been dismissed because of his Tory lean- ings and families too were sadly split in their loyalties. Not only war, but so much illness had to be endured. Two of Elisha's sisters died of
consumption, as did so many of their neighbors and friends from the same dread scourge. He had been young during the war and we find no record of any service although his elder broth- er Joseph was "Capt." and we have his regi- mental orders when "Lieut. Col." in 1802.
Joseph died unexpectedly at 61 years in 1812, possessed of a considerable estate. He had worn silver sleeve buttons and knee buckles on his white breeches with nankeen vest and carried a silver headed sword when he wore his epaulettes and at other times a walking cane. He had a "wagon coach and harness" and a "pleasure sleigh." His establishment of over 50 acres was quite complete, with barn, car- riage house, shoemaker's shop, cows, pigs, oxen and sheep and a three acre orchard on the south side of the road.
Like Joseph, Elisha's father must have seen to it that he had a place to live in when he was married. No doubt it was then our old farm house was built. The date or name of his wife, unless the uncertain clue of Brown proves to be correct, is not known. It was not on the records of the old Canaan Parish Congrega- tional Church. True, an Episcopal Church had been organized in 1791 and his Seely cousins on Ponus Ridge were faithful members.
One thing is clear. In April, 1809, Elisha Seely's home on its one acre of ground was here by Stony Brook, surrounded by his fath- er's land. He needed money and put a mort- gage upon it for $69.72 obtained from Jesse Selleck (son of Sands).
The next February 8 (1810) his father wrote his will, which was probated only three months later, and an inventory taken which mentions land adjoining Elisha's acre. When the distri- bution was made he was given, among other land, the nine acres to the north and west ad- joining his, his part of his father's homestead. (Ford estate today). His brother Ebenezer re- ceived land to the south. In 1812, in February before his brother Joseph's death, he sold his property to Cary Weed.
What happened to Elisha from then on we do not know. Were Stephen and Morris, who remained to die in New Canaan as old men,
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his sons or of the Elisha, son of Wynx? Did Elisha get the fever of that time to find new fields of adventure in the west-Ohio, Michi- gan or Wisconsin? We have no clue.
In 1822 Selleck Reed of Westchester, N. Y., owned the farm and sold it to Joseph Everett. It changed hands repeatedly through three or four owners until July, 1824, when it came into the hands of Justus B. Mead. He too had fi- nancial difficulties, but held onto the farm until his death. In 1882 his widow sold it to Martha A. (Bates) Whitney, reserving three rooms on the north side for herself as long as she should live.
Now we can know more about the people and their lives and feelings in the old house, for Martha Whitney was the mother of Thomas Whitney, who only recently died in New Ca- naan and who keenly recalled much about the place. The old house had been built about a central chimney, of one and a half stories with four rooms upstairs and six down-three on a corner.
A shoemaker's house of same dimensions and plan, as stood by nearly every farmhouse, was close to the road just north of the house. Here Justus Mead had employed others of the neighborhood, men, women and boys. When the hand sewing was completed, working on a cobbler's bench, the shoes were carried back to the factories in New Canaan and more pre- pared parts obtained. Several dollars a week could be earned-a large sum, as $1 a week was the highest weekly wage. For hour work, journeymen were paid in "trade" or store goods. One of these little houses had also stood on Joseph Seely's land before 1812.
The old barn stood close to the road just to the south of the house. This Thomas proceeded to pull down and built an entirely new barn and carriage house back from the street. A few years later he got the neighbors to help him and moved the shoemaker's house back, turn- ing it halfway around to be used as a cow stable. The door had been on the south side.
When he was first married the three rooms formerly occupied by Mrs. Mead served very well, but soon came the urge for major changes.
He took out the central chimney and built an addition on the north side with what had been a milk house belonging to the Gerdes. He added on to the cow stable, changing it into a small cottage. The south side of the house he rebuilt for his mother who was becoming blind. Here they lived until 1927.
One of his most vivid memories was of the blizzard of 1888, especially as his father died as the results of exposure. That Sunday after- noon in March started with rain turning to hail. He had wanted to go calling and got the mare and the buggy out with difficulty. Even the horse seemed to question him. It was too much to ask. He put them back and gave up. By 10 or 11 Monday morning there were banks of snow and it was blowing and drifting terribly. It snowed all day.
Dr. Clark had a big place down Middlesex Road a ways and the family expected his fath- er to care for the cattle, etc. After he had gotten started Monday morning, Thomas began to worry, feeling the storm was really pretty bad, and followed him. Only the fact that the wind was at his back made it possible.
He reached there only to find his father had started back and, when he himself turned back, he realized how truly serious the storm was. He came to a 15 foot bank and stopped behind a very large elm tree trunk to get his breath. Fitch, the boss carpenter, lived there and he decided to ask if he could borrow a horse to ride back. At his knock on the door he was welcomed in out of the storm, kept for dinner and over night, for they agreed even a horse, if he got into one of the snow banks, couldn't get out.
He started back the next morning about 8 with the sun shining and the wind blowing so that it wasn't until noon that he reached home, having covered perhaps a mile. His father was home, having reached there the previous day in an exhausted condition from which he did not recover.
It was in 1898, while the Whitneys were still living here, that the Darien Water Company owned the land to the south and considered making a reservoir. This bears out other stories
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indicating that Stony Brook was once much more in evidence than now.
As late as 1911, when the Whitneys wanted to go to town in the spring, they were obliged to follow the cross road to White Oak Shade and up South Main Street, for South Avenue was a dirt road which became very muddy and allowed wagon wheels to sink in deep. It was not macadamized until 1927. Work on the south end beyond the Dr. Brook's place (Carl- ton Manor Inn) had not begun until 1896.
We trace, then, the ownership of the land back to 1710 and the date of the house to 1809, at least, or a probable earlier date, the mar- riage of Elisha Seely. Justus B. Mead's family lived in it over 60 years and the Whitneys 45.
The present owners, the Scholls, who came from New Jersey, were already in love with Connecticut because of many summer visits along its shore. With their two boys, 14 and 18, they have snuggled cosily into the farmhouse which has been changed just enough to adapt it to present day living and efficiency. With
entrance on the side (old front door replaced by window and small hall made into lavatory) it turns away from the street and focuses on lovely little Stony Brook with its perpetual spring and beautiful old trees at the rear. Even the old milk shed addition makes a grand "den" for the older son.
In 1931 the Whitneys sold the property to William Chapman, who made the shoemaker's house over for his mother. She made an attrac- tive place of it for a few years and now in 1950 it looks like an alluring summer hide away and is used by the Scholls as a guest house.
The farm house itself had a certain quality about it even during the war years, when few repairs could be made or paint added, which promised it would catch the imagination of a new owner. So it has done for the Scholls, with- out losing its old charm, or forgetting it be- longs as well to the past as to the present. This has made it one of those places, characteristic of New England, that one carries in his memory and always loves.
THE HICKOK-OSBORN-VALENTINE HOUSE
RUTH PURDY, Author
CLINTON VAN DE WATER, Artist
[March 23, 1950]
As the early settlers of New Canaan were in many cases the forefathers of present residents, so it might be said that the original land and houses were the mothers of the town, bequeath- ing not flesh and bones, but sticks and stones. As the ramifications of the first families spread and the need for large holdings lessened, pro- perty was divided and sub-divided among the sons of succeeding generations, and occasion- ally cven among the daughters, and new fam- ilies set up. A single picce of property might
prove as prolific as its owner, and in time a brood of homes would surround the original farmhouse.
In the case of the gracious white house on Valley Road now owned by the Stephen Valen- tines, the lineage is even more direct, several houses in the vicinity owing their literal exist- ence to the old place. The house just north owned by Leland Vincent, and the ones next south belonging to the Middletons and the Clifford Burroughes, have incorporated in
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C.Kände Water.
The Hickok-Osborn-Valentine House
them parts of the early farm buildings. Un- doubtedly still others would have been meta- morphosed into Colonial mansions in their own right if they had not been partially destroyed by a disastrous neighborhood fire in 1920, be- fore the fire department had reached its pres- ent peak of efficiency.
The original John Hickok property on which the Valentine house was built is one of the oldest holdings in New Canaan, although this was not the first house to be built on it. The original John Hickok house, farther north on the west side of Valley Road, has already been the subject for an article in the Historical So- ciety's Landmarks series.
The property lay on both sides of Valley Road and for a long distance along it-a large tract of fertile farmland. James Osborn, des- cendant of the first James Osborn, still lives on the original Hickok land. He is an authority on the roots and branches of the Hickok fam-
ily and has many of its records, as well as a rich hoard of interesting stories.
John Hickok was apparently all his life, like most of his contemporaries, a man of large holdings, which he was continually buying and selling. He found time also to be a weaver, a common occupation in early New Canaan days. The exact date when this farmhouse was built seems in question, but it apparently was in existence about 1795. John Hickok was said to have built it for one of his 11 children, a son, Jesse, who had married Betsy Hait in 1791.
In 1806 John Hickok died at the age of 76, and all of his property descended to his sons, Seth inheriting the first Hickok home and Jesse the house which his father had built for him. Apparently he spent the rest of his life on the farm and made his living from it. Acording to old records it was a period of sedate and pious living. It was said that Seth observed the Sab-
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bath day from Saturday afternoon until Mon- day morning, making an exception only for the exercise of good works, and it may be sup- posed that his brother Jesse had a similar con- science. A letter about old New Canaan writ- ten to the Messenger supplement in 1908 said about this period, "it was against the law for a man to work in his garden on Sunday, or kiss his wife. Now-a man can kiss his wife or some other man's wife, and still some people claim that the world is growing better."
When Jesse Hickok died in 1836 the farm passed for a time out of Hickok hands. Ac- cording to documents in the possession of the present James Osborn it was bought by Fred- erick Noble, and at a later date which is un- available, sold to Homer Sterling. Little is known of either of these owners, and they ap- parently had no further connection with New Canaan life. But in 1866 it was sold to James Osborn, a man who came originally from Red- ding, Conn. One of James' sons married a Hic- kok, the other married the daughter of James Lockwood, whose wife's sister had married a Hickok. So in a circuitous way the old place made connection again with the original owners.
From the existing anecdotes it sounds as if James Osborn, the first, had been a lusty and colorful soul. While living in Redding he mar- ried a girl from a neighboring town, and to- gether they set forth to Washington, D. C., to seek their fortune. They had seven daughters and two sons, twins, who, having been born in the nation's capital in 1848 or 1849 were named appropriately Zachary Taylor and Millard Filmore, after the incumbent president and vice president.
Their father got a job as letter carrier and de- livered the mail in a coach drawn by four hor- ses. One day he was ordered to leave his route to take a load of ammunition from the arsenal to help put down the John Brown raid. On hurrying back to complete his regular mail deliveries he was arrested for running his horses over the Potomac River bridge. When it was learned that he was on official business he was excused without penalty, which does
not happen to anyone guilty of speeding in present day New Canaan.
When Lincoln was to be inducted into his first presidency, the Civil War threat was get- ting uncomfortably close to Alexandria where the Osborns were then living. One of the twin sons remembered that at the breakfast table that day his father had said to his mother, "Fannie, I think we'll go north today." With the unconcern of a typical 12-year-old he went to the inauguration as he had planned, and found to his surprise when he got home that the house was empty. All the rest of the family had indeed gone north, in their haste taking nothing but their clothing with them. The boy had to make his own way to join them, which he apparently did successfully, as he lived in New Canaan for many years afterwards and fathered a large family.
From Washington, James went first to join relatives in Cannondale, but in a few years made his way to New Canaan where he bought the old Jesse Hickok house from the estate of Henry Sterling on March 19, 1866. At this time the house was a typical slant-roof Colonial farmhouse of simple and conventional lines. It had two large rooms in front and three smal- ler in the rear, one being the room where it was customary for the men to take off their working clothes on coming in from the fields. James continued to show his versatility by his further choice of a career. He became a cattle-drover first, buying cattle in Canada and driving them into the United States to sell. Later he took up stone-dressing, and had quite a reputation for meticulous work. The quarry, from which much of the stone used in well known Stam- ford and Norwalk public buildings was taken, can still be seen on the P. R. B. Dixon property on Laurel Road.
James died in 1892 without leaving a will, and one of the twin sons, Millard Filmore, suc- ceeded to the property, Zachary Taylor having left and moved to the older Hickok house on his marriage in 1871. Milard Filmore Osborn, or "Uncle Fil," as he is better remembered, was a practicing physician, whose skill in obstetrics was highly regarded even by the women in his
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own family. At his death the house passed fin- ally to an owner with no Hickok connections, being sold by his widow, Lizzie, to Miss Jennie Dorman on October 31, 1905.
The deed which was executed to Miss Dor- man included many of the farm's appurten- ances, such as one mowing machine, two mow- ing scythes with snathes, one buggy, one rock chain, three pitchforks, two manure forks, two ox-yokes, three cows, one horse, one grind- stone, one churn, strainer, butterbowls, ladle, milk pails, and "windoe" shades.
During her occupancy the old chicken houses, the root cellar, the apple trees sur- rounding the house and the peach trees across the river were highly developed for specialized use. With her father, mother and sister who lived with her, Miss Dorman ran the place as an intensively cultivated farm, disposing of her produce at the Greenwich Inn at Indian Field Point, in which she had an interest.
In 1927 the old place for the first time passed into the possession of a speculator, Henry James. He sold off 25 acres, putting up houses on some of it, had the old farmhouse restored by James Kelley, and in January of 1929 the house with the ten acres remaining came into the hands of the present owners, the Stephen Valentines, who had come here from Brooklyn like so many of the more recent residents.
For a while the Valentines occupied the house mostly during the summers, but of re- cent years have become permanent residents. They have two children, now both married and starting families of their own, the son in Ridgefield and the daughter in Cincinnati. But even with a small family in the house there is still a suggestion about the spacious rooms of the many men and women who lived in the house and loved it before them, who were born there and raised their families and made their living. The Valentines have carried on its tradi- tion of hospitality and guests always feel at home. The door is open and the hearth is warm.
The major job of remodelling which Mr. James completed for the Valentines was, how- ever, not the end of changes for the old house.
One cold February night in 1945 some tenants who had taken the house for the winter woke up at 2 o'clock in the morning and smelled smoke. When they opened the door into the upstairs hall they found it a mass of flames.
Fortunately there was a telephone in their bedroom, and even more fortunately the fire- men were having a party at the firehouse, and, considering the alacrity with which they re- sponded to the alarm, they might even have been wearing their helmets and boots. In any case they broke all speed records and were at the burning house in ten minutes. They ar- rived not only in time to save much of the old structure but to save the lives of its inhabitants, who had climbed out on the roof of the kitchen wing as soon as they had sent in the alarm and were waiting there trustfully to be rescued. The fire had apparently started in a defective flue and was of great intensity, every window in the living room having been broken and much of the panelling consumed.
But again the restoration was done with un- derstanding and authenticity. To one coming for the first time into the living room it is as if old Jesse Hickok himself might still be liv- ing there, although a little more comfortably. The low ceilings, the dark beams with their wooden pegs, the panelling around the fire- places, an original cupboard under the stairs, the candle ledge in the upper hall-all give an old-time atmosphere, although the house itself has been adapted for modern living. Old and new have been blended intelligently so that the transition is not noticeable; but a student of antiquity could find evidences where new wings were added, a bedroom changed to a dining room, old doors replaced, new windows added.
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