USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 47
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The Smiths had by this time expanded to fill the space formerly occupied by the Tal- madges. Minot Smith had the house up Tal- madge Hill Road today lived in by the Jensens. About 1840 Sherman Smith built the house (George Jelliff, present owner) north of Jelliff Mill Road, the one which so successfully com- bines Greek Revival and early Victorian archi- tecture.
In 1865 the original homestead descended by heirship to James Smith's nephew, Stephen S. Raymond, son of Colonel Stephen Raymond and Harriett Smith. The pond partially filled in by the Merritt Parkway was Stephen Ray- mond's project created to power his grist and sawmill and in connection with which he con- ducted a plaster and feed business. He also built the house just south of the Parkway.
In 1881 he deeded the old house to his sister and her husband, Harriet L. and Homer S. Crofoot, and for the balance of the century the homestead ceased to be owner occupied, lived in by the farm superintendents and other tenants. The Crofoots lived in and used as the base for very extensive farming and other
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operations the bigger, newer house built by their uncle Sherman Smith. We can't blame them, for Mrs. Crofoot was an adopted daugh- ter as well as niece of Sherman's, had a large family of her own to bring up, and altogether plenty of space was needed for three genera- tions.
Mr. Crofoot, who had had mercantile ex- perience at Lord & Taylor's and A. T. Stewart's in New York, conducted the farm and in addi- tion was partner in two stores in New Canaan, Crofoot and Lounsbury and the New York Dry Goods Company. His death in 1896 was a most untimely one, following a stroke caused by an attempt to lift too heavy a bag of oats for the convenience of a customer. Mrs. Cro- foot died the next year, and was laid to rest beside her husband in the old Smith burying ground.
This little rural cemetery girdled by the huge spruces is still able to hold its peaceful, shaded dignity below the roar of modern traf- fic almost overhead, has on its cold stones only the names of those warm, once living families whose stories we have so briefly recounted- Talmadges, Smiths, Raymonds and Crofoots.
Calvin G. Doig, a New York architect, and his wife had rented the Talmadge homestead summers during the late nineties, and lost no time in buying it when the Crofoot executors placed it on sale in 1902. The year following it became the permanent home of Mr. Doig's sister, Louise, and her husband, Walter Miller, a New York merchant. After their deaths a few years apart just before the recent war, their son Calvin with his family assumed ownership, moving here from their former home in New Jersey. Mr. Miller died last year, and Mrs. Calvin G. Miller lives there now with her son Richard, a 1949 Princeton graduate, maintaining the home and gradually restoring and redecorating it in a manner it so fittingly deserves.
Past generations have found, and future generations will discover with pleasure that in one important way the older type center chim- ney house can be much better adapted to mo- dern living conditions than the center hall type
which came later. This is because the interior walls and partitions bear no weight, so that the whole inside can be swept bare and clean around the chimney and both downstairs and upstairs rooms rearranged to suit the needs of succeeding generations.
That this is so is amply borne out by compar- ing the Talmadge house as it is today with what we know to have been the typical home arrangement in the mid-eighteenth century when it was built. In a house as old as this, with the passing years calling for "moderniza- tion" by so many families to meet always changing needs, it is foolhardy to label as "original" any features except, perhaps, the chief house and roof framing and the masonry below grade.
Dating can be only relative, due to the over- lap of habits and differing local customs-we can only say such and such is old, for our pur- pose before 1850, or modern, from that date on. The following salient features, helpful in identifying any old house, are here listed as they apply to the Talmadge house-the main center chimney part unless otherwise specified:
Masonry: Like all very old houses, the house is built close to grade, with only a few inches of undressed stone underpinning showing below the outside wood covering, giving a hugging the ground effect. Most unusual is the full cellar under the whole main floor. Foundation is of ledge rock carried down about five feet, that under the ell being laid-up without mortar. The center chimney is utterly magnificent, measuring 13 by 11/2 feet, so that no corbeling was necessary to support hearths and frame members above. A demension as big as this makes it almost seem the builder must have had a two and a half story house in mind - it likewise is of native ledge rock and completely innocent of mortar. At second floor level chimney greatly diminished, part probably removed at one time to provide more living space. Above roof chimney modern and out of proportion to house. Cellar floor is of dirt.
Framing: Except for two adjoining posts where ell joins main house, no above ground framing is visible, but probably typical 12 post braced frame construction was employed. Corner posts are quite properly covered with casing, probably old, giving
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character to rooms. This is in contrast to the methods of some restorers, who strip off the easings which they eonsider later additions so that they can stand baek to admire the ax marks which the builder went to such trouble to hide. In cellar first floor girts and joists are visible, very large and heavy, faeed only on the top sides with the bark otherwise left on. No evidence of summer beams, perhaps they weren't necessary because of small- ness of house and heaviness of joists.
Roof Framing: Rather large rough hewn eommon rafters irregularly spaeed, unusual in that they are joined at the peak by half dovetailing and peg instead of mortise and tenon. There being no ridge- pole, rafters are held in relative position by overlaid roughly sawn horizontal boarding with untrimmed edges.
Outside Woodwork: Although elapboarding pre- dates shingling, it is probable the Talmadge house has always had the latter eovering. Mitered at all eorners exeept south rear, where they terminate against an old eorner board, shingles are modern exeept on upper north gable end where they ean be seen to be hand split with the lower nailing prominenees visible. Simple rake molding is old, and the old fashioned wood gutters modern. The poreh is modern but beeause it sits on the ground it goes well with the house.
Interior Woodwork: Almost all inside and outside doors are of batten eonstruction, the earliest type of openings. There are old baseboards on the second floor, up to 11 inehes high. No moldings visible. Although on the first floor sensible modern oak flooring has been put down, from the eellar it ean be seen that the original flooring is still there consisting of random width boards laid across the joists over what almost amounts to a sub-floor- rough flat pieces of board ealled "slit-stuff" spaced widely to eome under the edges of the top boards. At the head of the eellar stairs some old hand split lath and plaster is visible, possibly original.
Fenestration: Except for the gable end of the ell, where they were eut in late, all the windows are old and of special interest. Composed of nine or six lights over six, they are of the guillotine type, with fixed upper sashes and lower sashes held open when neeessary by a spring cateh in the jamb. About half the panes show the wavy streaks or slight irrideseenee denoting great age. One even has a pontil mark. Framing simple, and the wood stoek of the heads, sills and jambs varies greatly in height and width. The eyebrow dormer in the ell and the two peaked dormers on the
main house were eut through in Victorian times.
Fireplaces: Beside what serves as the living room fireplace in the ell, there are three ringing the eenter chimney. Mrs. Miller has succeeded in bring- ing their pleasing qualities back to life and pried open some of their seerets, but there are still probably brieked up ovens and hidden eupboards galore in a chimney of that size.
Stairs: Main stairs modern and perhaps not in original location. In northwest corner of ell is blocked up steep stairease with winders curving to former attie. Stairs to main attie very old with varying risers up to 12 inches.
Hardware: In this eategory we can declare as original a magnificent pair of strap-pintle hinges on the front door, spear headed and 30 inches long, as well as a set of half-strap hinges half that length on the lower hall door, with straight rat-tail ends.
The Talmadge house has had the compli- ment paid it of being used as the model for an- other New Canaan residence, that built in the early 1930's by Mr. and Mrs. Thompson Dean. Now owned by Mr. and Mrs. George H. Day, 2nd., it may be seen as the last house north on Chichester Road. Another house similar in feeling, also built between the two World Wars, is the residence of Mrs. R. K. Brown a short distance south of the Parkway on Mans- field Avenue. Both houses had the same master carpenter in charge of construction, and it is interesting to note that both incorporate the columned flat porch as integral in the design. The chief differences are in the treatment of the dormers.
Because the road by which the Talmadge house stands is on the main route to Stamford (with the recent dubious distinction of being a parkway exit) we are prone to think it was ever thus. Not so. The cyclist of the 80's and the pioneer motorist of the early 1900's would have found his guide maps directing him to take the following unbelievable route be- tween Stamford and Danbury: Glenbrook Road, Christie Hill, Hollow Tree Ridge, Lap- ham, Old Stamford, Park, Oenoke, Lambert, Country Club, Smith Ridge, North Wilton, Bald Hill Road and so out of the state into a wilderness which to this very day lacks that
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sure sign of civilization, the public utility pole. This because those roads were gravel, all other parallel ones dirt.
Yet this route, following ridges rather than watercourses, must have been the culmina- tion of over a century of custom and main travel, and we wonder how a mere generation of motorists can have so drastically altered the old grooves of transportation. In other words, the Talmadge house for most of its long life slumbered in the valley away from the main stream of traffic, its dwellers stirred only by
the local eddies caused by the nearness of the mill.
It is amusing and instructive to reflect that those watchers introduced in the first para- graph of this article stand on what used to be the main highway, unconscious as they look down on the busier valley of the transposi- tion in the roles of the two thoroughfares. Of such minor man-made changes, however, the Talmadge house is unaware-in this commun- ity of homes its future is untroubled, its func- tion secure for many decades to come.
C. BENEDICT-ELLS HOUSE
RUTH STEVENS LYDEN, Author
WHITMAN BAILEY, Artist
[May 4, 1950]
Old houses have a special charm for most of us, not necessarily because they are achitec- turally perfect or because they are the birth- places of famous men, but simply because they have been lived in for so long that they have stories to tell.
One that we are fond of is not the oldest house in New Canaan, though it is well over a hundred, but it is the only homestead left bearing the name of Ells. It has never stood empty and hence has seen a lot of living and dying, and of necessity over such a long period of survival, it has seen courage.
You will come upon it some day when you go up Brushy Ridge Road from route 123. It stands there to the right on the first rise, look- ing for all the world like a little white steam- boat ready to take off. I expect to hear a toot and see a captain look out of his wheelhouse in the glassed in tower. Of course it will do none of these things, and to you it may give quite a different impression. But the little house has a distinct character and many famous New Canaan connections.
One famous Ells who never lived here, but
certainly left his imprint on the memories of those who do, was the Rev. John Eells (old spelling), first minister of Canaan Parish in 1733. Fresh out of Yale College he came to New Canaan, first thrilling and then upsetting the parishioners with his bright, impatient ways. Aroused in the wee small hours, he had married a couple with them standing outside his window. As a result of such unconvention- alities, was well as the tall tales woven by that restless imagination of his, he was urged to retire-which he did after some seven years of service.
Rev. John did, however, continue to live out his life to a ripe old age in New Canaan, hav- ing two wives and four children. It is from his first son, Lieutenant Jeremiah Beard Ells of the Revolutionary Army, that our Ells family is descended.
Even though not built by them, this house nevertheless is an Ells house by right of longest ownership, and a Benedict house before that. Ruth Benedict Ells bought it from her father, Caleb Benedict, in 1841 when she returned to New Canaan as a young widow with three
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sons. It must have been a haven for her and it has been for others off and on even down to the present. Today a dear little old lady, known as Alice Deering Ells, lives in it with her two widowed daughters.
To begin at the beginning, the Ells house must have been built by Nehemiah Benedict sometime between 1816 and 1830. Records show the sale of the land, 11 acres at the time, without a house, changing ownership from Nehemiah Benedict, Jr., to Nehemiah Bene- dict (1816). Then in 1830 we find eight acres of it mortgaged by Nehemiah to Edward Nash and Thomas-Husted "with the homestead that I (Nehemiah Benedict) occupy and buildings thereon."
Neighbors who are listed for boundaries of the land recorded in the transaction of 1830 are Ebenezer Ayres on the north, James and Eunice Benedict to the south, Matthew Reed, east, and the highway-now Brushy Ridge Road-on the west.
At this point we are faced with a change of ownership, which can only be described as being not quite clear. The facts set down are that one year following the time that the mort- gage was given, the same property was sold for the price of the mortgage ($600) to one Nathan Hanford. There is no mention of the length of time the mortgage was supposed to have run, nor of an official foreclosure. But very often, we are told, land changed hands for reasons not written down, and mortgages then as now, were given as collateral.
At any rate, five years later, in October, 1836, Caleb Benedict bought this house and land (and more) from Nathan Hanford. The record of quit-claim reads, "twenty acres with two dwelling houses and other buildings" for $2,000. The two parcels lay on either side of Brushy Ridge Road and we find Ebenezer Ayres still to the north and the highway to the west of our picce.
Here with Caleb we suddenly come to a significant crossroad-the Benedicts meet the Ells. Caleb was the father of Ruth Benedict who married James B. Ells, great grandson of old Rev. John Eells. I was greatly surprised to
find this Ruth Benedict Ells, then a young wi- dow with three sons, returning to New Ca- naan in 1841 and buying the house and eight acres from her father for $900. One's first re- action is, doesn't she have enough on her hands to raise the three children? Why can't her father at least give her a place to live? Until one finds that Caleb was the father of 13 other children.
And one discovers that parents with large families to provide for figured the cost of everything. One man deducted several hun- dred dollars from a boy's share "on account that I have also taught him the shoemaking trade."
Ruth Benedict probably had been given her "birthright" as a dowry. All that we hear of her is complimentary. Although there are no photographs or letters available her memory lingers among old residents who will tell you that they have always heard "she was a won- derful woman, full of courage."
Two of her boys, Morvalden and George, lie buried in Arlington Cemetery in Washing- ton, D. C., while her other son, James B. Ells, left photographs and letters and dear mem- ories to his grandchildren now living in the house.
James B. was quite a fellow to the end of his days. His father had died when he was a young boy and he learned early to make his way. All these boys must have had a good deal of imagination. Whether it came from old "Priest" Eells, as Rev. John was called, no one can tell. But Morvalden, J. B.'s brother, went into the Catskills and opened Watkins Glen to the general public, and James B. built himself quite a career as a shoe salesman travelling throughout the south.
From the daguerreotype in the north parlor he looks to have been a large handsome man with a long nose, a keen eye and flowing beard. He loved to dress well and entertain and tell stories about his travels. His first trips were on foot and romantic in nature. Hc used to boast that it was no chore at all to walk to Wilton when he was courting Elizabeth Bundy. This was successful, too, as were most of James B.'s
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The C. Benedict-Ells House
projects. Elizabeth said "yes" and they were married when she was 17 and he a year older.
This must have been about 1845, though it is figured from dates of birth and death given from memory. The young couple were headed straight for the Civil War and it is reasonable to believe that James B., like his brothers, served his country. We do know that with the war and his business he was away from home for long periods of time.
And yet his presence was always felt. Even the house shows it. Hc and Elizabeth Bundy wanted to plant the traditional bridal maples when they finally came there to live with his mother. (In 1857 James B. bought the house from his mother for $1,000 after having taken
from her a mortgage of $300 two years before). Ruth Benedict continued to live with the couple until she died, and it is a favorite family story that she watched with much pleasure as the young wife, Elizabeth Bundy, held each young maple in place as her husband threw the dirt into the hole and stamped it down. Those two maples stand today.
Then James B. wanted a larger house. Al- though he and Elizabeth had only one child, Clarence Oakley Els, born 18 years after they were married, they had relatives and frequent guests and the need to expand. What we find today is the original 1820 house with wings on, and a porch. The wings are one story and not over 12 feet wide but the over-all effect is one
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of perfect balance and charm. They add a music room leading from the north parlor on one side and a dining room off the south par- lor across the hall.
This presented excellent possibilities for holiday festivities when all the rooms could be opened through graceful connecting arch- ways. The Christmas tree, we are told, always stood in the music room and there were fires roaring in the fireplaces of both parlors. There are 11 rooms in the house, not counting the cupola or a widow's walk into which the chil- dren used to climb and look across the valley at the town. There is even a little square house out back, used as a laundry, where they could play.
With such a substantial homestead James B. had a haven to return to from his selling jaunts in the wilds. The tales he told as a grandpa, taking any one of his four grandchil- dren on his knee, used to make their hair stand on end.
He rode horseback carrying his sample shoes in saddle bags. When New Canaan was the center of the shoe industry these may well have been Benedict shoes. Many's the time grandfather told the children he had to drop the horse's reins and gallop for his life when highwaymen set upon him along lonely stretches. At night he slept with a six-shooter cocked and ready by his side which he often aimed when the door would creak and open. In those days men of business had to carry their money on their persons and run risks day in and day out that would frighten us half to death.
Through it all James B., who earned a tidy $3,500 or more, a large sum in those days, never lost his hardihood or enjoyment of life. Nor did he shirk community responsibilities. He was always boiling over about something or other and writing a letter to the paper about it. Even when he had retired his granddaughters, Mrs. Douglas and Mrs. Powers, tell about his composing some document and signing it with his own name or an assumed title such as Uncle Ben.
Eight years before his death we find his let-
ter published in the Messenger of May 20, 1893, which has so much flavor of the times and James' own personality that it is worth quot- ing in part:
"One third of a century ago we had a great, devastating and bloody civil war," it begins. It goes on to say that young men between the ages of 13 and 18 went to war. Many never returned. Then .
"Now I see by your last week's issue that the Senate passed a bill providing that any person who shall permit a minor, under 18 years of age, to drive a horse used in conveying persons for hire, shall be fined not more than $10. Senator Jones explained that it was dangerous to have too young drivers, and livery stables are bad schools for boys.
"Permit me to say, that bill of Senator Jones makes me tired. Driving a horse is a matter of ability, not of age. Many young fellows of from 12 to 15 are expert horsemen, while adults fre- quently handle a horse about as handy as a cow does a musket.
"Some men are born great, some achieve great- ness, others have it thrust upon them. I hope if the house has not acted upon that bill they will wipe it out. ... James B. Ells.
The letter has a good forthright tone. No- body was going to put anything over on that old gentleman. And you never could, the chil- dren used to say, unless he looked the other way, on purpose. Grandpa was always kind- ness itself. Not but what mother and father were good to their brood, but parents are dif- ferent.
Alice Deering who married Clarence Oakley Ells, James' only child, was a gentle, serious- minded girl. Her family owned the large farm in Silver Mine, of which the main house is now owned by Richardson Wright.
The couple took up residence in the Ells house with James B. and Elizabeth Bundy and there raised four children: Mrs. Louise Vivienne Powers, Mrs. Alice Daisy Douglas, Mrs. Pearl Sulzar, and Oakley Ells.
Two other children, James and Ruth, died when they were little.
Clarence Oakley Ells, whose name still is on the letter flap in the front door, cuts a dashing
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figure as he stands in the north parlor in a full length colored photograph. He was a sandy complected man with clear blue eyes, wavy hair and a mustache. There he is in a stylish fur-collared coat with a backdrop that could have been New Canaan with the twin church spires.
His is the story of a man who conducted a business in New Canaan, real estate most- ly, and was always ready with an opinion or a helping hand. He evidently had a taste for the amusements that came to town, and who didn't?
At any rate in the Messenger of October 10, 1891, we find that "C. O. Ells has gotten up a house program for G. D. Nichols this week to be used on all occasions during the theatrical season. The space for advertising was readily taken by our merchants at very reasonable terms. This is an excellent way of advertising and ought to bring good results."
Nichols ran the Opera House which stood on Main Street on the site of Rosen's store. Judging from his newspaper advertisements he brought to town people of great musical and theatrical talent.
New Canaan had its culture right at home, and people were thankful not to have to travel the roads to the coast late at night. Mrs. Doug- las shivers a little even now when she tells how her mother and father would start off to Norwalk in the carriage and be startled by ruffians who jumped out from the side of the road. Clarence Ells would have to stand up and lash at the men and then at the horse in order to make a getaway.
They had a horse that could do it, too. He was a powerful black horse named Prince. The neighbors all remembered how he danced at parades and won races in the days when Clar-
ence Ells would hitch him up and run a friend- ly match.
That was all years ago. Clarence Oakley Ells has died. And the barn where Prince once lived, lower down the hill from the house, fin- ally collapsed. The little children have gone, and the nieces who planted the three red hem- locks on the right of the house. Three little girls played a game one day and each brought a seedling from the back woods. As they plan- ted them each named a tree for herself. So Mary, Edna and Ruth are standing still.
And the well is still the coldest in New Ca- naan. Although the bucket has given way to underground pipes and a pump, that water is as cold as it was in the days when local work- men came from miles around to fill their pails.
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