USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Landmarks of New Canaan > Part 51
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The original purchase of this property was made in 1764. Jonathan Husted bought, from James Hait (Hoyt), of Stamford, a "parcel of land commonly called Platt's farm . . . in quantity 125 acres be they more or less . . . " For this he paid a consideration of 814 pounds, five shillings, and so did he gain one of the nicest sites in all Canaan, stretching lengthwise on the south side of West Road from Oenoke to Weed Street. It was natural for Jonathan to buy land next to his father, Peter, whose land included a dwelling house, blacksmith shop and about three acres, purchased about 1763 from Robert Arnold. This property was later deeded over to Jonathan by his brothers, Thad- deus and Andrew, when they moved away- one to Danbury and one to Fredericksburg.
In the middle of Jonathan's new acres was the piece of land, well known in New Canaan as the property given by James Hoyt to the
"professors of the Church of England" just prior to this sale. It was the site of the first Episcopalian Church here and is today marked by a commemorative sign.
Early in 1772, when there was still a chill in the air, the Rev. William Drummond came to call at the new house, as he visited that part of Haynes' Ridge, now Oenoke Ridge. He found there the squire Jonathan Husted and Mary, his wife. In addition, Mr. Drummond lists "Azariah Betts, Mable Tuttle, residenters; Candace, a Negro wench; one Simms, a Negro child." As he supped hot tea or toddy with the Husteds, probably little "one Simms" held his horse at the roadside, or else added an occas- ional log to the big fire.
And this same little "one Simms" became famous in Parish annals as he grew older. A letter, recorded in one book, reports the fol- lowing: "I Jonathan Husted, of Brookhaven, L. I., do sell ... one Negro boy, nine years old, named Onesimus ... for the sum of thirty-nine pounds ... to Phebe and Sary Comstock ... " The conversion of the boy's name from one Simms, to Onesimus, is interest- ing, and as One simus, he was known for many years as the loyal servant of Miss Phebe Com- stock. He rode to church with her every Sun- day, sitting patiently in a rear pew, and ulti- mately even refusing his earned freedom be- cause of the kindly treatment he had always received. He is considered the last known slave in New Canaan, and he was certainly a happy one.
On February 4, 1773, Moses Comstock, 2nd, purchased this house, with 100 acres. The other 25 of the original plot had been sold earlier to Abraham Weed and David St. John, by Mr. Husted. So Mr. Comstock acquired a dwelling house for his family, a barn and fruit trees, and land bounded in the following fash- ion: "Northerly by a highway and the church- yard; westerly by a highway and the church- yard; southerly by Charles Weed and David St. John; easterly by churchyard in part and by Charles Weed's land and land of Stephen Hanford and Sam Hanford and Ephraim Smith and Joseph Hanford."
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The Comstock family is very well known locally, and as one of the earliest and most highly respected families, it flourished here for many years. In 1780 most of this property was deeded over to sons Aaron and Moses, 3rd. The brothers lived there, on the "broad acres . . . known by the name of Platt's farm," for many years, in harmony and peace. They were among the 22 families listed whose taxes sup- ported the little schoolhouse of the Fourth School District, and were sober, churchgoing people.
In 1824, Moses died, leaving a will rife with fascinating, complex property divisions. It was full of oddities, including such things as a line down the middle of the barn floor, in one case. He gave his children property of value, then, but property that was thoroughly tangled with that of several other owners.
To his daughter, Sarah Comstock, went the house, part of the barn, and about three rods of land. She may also have gained a fruit tree or so, but not much more. The next 20 years we find Sarah making additions to her holdings by quit claim deeds from several people, in- cluding Sarah and Edwin Lockwood, Matthias Comstock and Hannah Benedict. About 1845 Sarah married one Lewis Avery, from Cross River, New York. And together they enjoyed a happy, fulsome life in the big house.
In 1863 Lewis died, and Sarah undoubtedly gave him a fine funeral, burying him in the Parade Ground Cemetery, nearby. He is, in- cidentally, the only past resident of this house who has been buried in New Canaan, accord- ing to all available records, with the possible exception of some of the Comstock family. Sarah lived on alone (as no children are men- tioned in the Avery union) and passed away about 1887. The house was then put in the hands of Henry A. Pinney for re-sale.
Because of Sarah Avery's astute dealings, the land with the house amounted to 14 acres, when Lewis and Mary M. Provost of Stamford purchased it in 1893. They added a small amount of land and entered into community life quietly but enthusiastically. Four Provost children are mentioned by Miss Clara Bartow
in her "Reminiscences," 1874, Mary, Dora, George and Howard.
Mrs. Oliver Finch of New Canaan, daughter of Mrs. Luther Knapp, nee Mary Provost, was born in this house. She tells of her mother's coming here as a bride. Mrs. Knapp's two brothers, George and Howard had moved away by this time but sister Dora lived there with Mr. and Mrs. Knapp and the Provosts.
Mrs. Provost died in 1911, at the age of 74, and Mr. Provost died in 1919, at the age of 82, while still serving as Representative to the State Legislature. It's easy to understand why they sold the property in 1907. As their ages advanced, it must have been a big chore to maintain and to farm.
For the next ten years, Mrs. Jessie R. C. At- water, the new owner, and her family enjoyed life on the ridge. It was, of course, by now thickly settled there, and town activities were numerous and diversified. The Atwaters added pleasant support to the community, but finally moved away from the area.
Following the Atwaters, the house was owned by Mrs. Francis A. Westbrook, and her husband, a writer. They, too, have since moved away, living for a long time in Conway, N. H. Mrs. Westbrook, as Madeline C. Westbrook, owned considerable land during her stay in New Canaan, thus recalling momentarily the past spirit of landowner Husted. But when she sold this particular property to Daniel C. Har- vey in 1928, there was one major difference. Now, the land surrounding the house was just 1.396 acres-a far cry from the original 125. However, over 150 years of ownership change and diminished acreage had in no way lessened the charm of the house itself.
When Mr. Harvey turned the house over to his son, Alexander D. Harvey, almost immedi- ately, he gave him one of the most attractive homes in New Canaan. The fine old maples were still standing as they had for many, many years, huge, graceful, sheltering. The interior of the house had all the warmth and mellow- ness that years of just being a home could pro- duce. The house had probably seen both pathos and happiness and it had offered sanctuary to
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some, excitement to others, and probably se- curity to almost all.
Mr. Harvey, who became president for a time of the New Canaan Country School in 1936 undoubtedly appreciated all these quali- ties. His two young children, Dereke Jay (born, 1929), and Phoebe, (born, 1933), also must have enjoyed the expansive comforts of this home.
In 1944, Mr. and Mrs. Hal E. Seagraves came from Wilton to buy the house. They held own- ership for only a year and a half, before return- ing to Wilton, where they now live in Belden Hill. During this time, they purchased an addi- tional piece of land at the rear of the property, which widened and protected the plot. It is now 1.9 acres, and seems even larger.
For the present, the Pecks,seem well estab-
lished in New Canaan, and will undoubtedly stay here, for a long tenure. They have many plans for more improvements, although it is hard to see what more needs to be done. They came here from White Plains, but have lived in various places about Weschester county, and apparently are very happy with Connecticut.
Mr. Peck is a banker in New York, and Mrs. Peck an active community member. If she has a definite hobby, it most certainly is decorating, in which she is highly talented. They have one son, Jack, recently graduated from Leland- Stanford University in California, which seems a long way from New Canaan. But possibly in his future work he may return to the east and be able to enjoy his home here.
THE HIRAM CRISSEY-ANNABLE HOUSE
JANE BARRY, Author
WHITMAN BAILEY, Artist
[June 22, 1950]
One of the famous old houses in New Canaan is the Hiram Crissey house, now owned by Mrs. J. Parmelee Annable, at 190 Park Street. The odd part about it is that there appears to be no record of the earliest ownership of the land or the building of the house. The land probably belonged originally either to the Hanford fam- ily or the Comstock family, but containing as it did, a large swamp, and lying next to the Perambulation Line, it seems very queer that the records have not turned up. The house, from internal evidence, appears to have been built in the early 1800s, or even before the turn of the century, so we can only piece to- gether what little documentation there is, and hope the results are correct.
Hiram Crissey (1798-1845) was for 20 years a well known New Canaan figure, prominent
in the Congregational Church, known for his great skill in woodworking and wood-carving, and of sufficient importance to be appointed "receiver" of other people's properties (in order to deal with their creditors). But Hiram is, like his house, hard to document. There is very little information about either his immediate ances- tors or his descendants.
The Crissey family in America goes back to two brothers who arrived in Massachusetts from England around 1650. Mighill (Michael) set- tled, and his descendants remained in the vi- cinity of Boston, while William, according to the New England records, settled in Connecti- cut. In 1662 we find a William Crissey in Stam- ford, called "planter," and four years later he is recorded as testifying in the Stamford court- in other words, a substantial citizen.
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William's son, John was a "viewer" in 1700- viewers were men appointed to find safe fields for pasturing "creturs." Two of John's sons, with their families, removed to Canaan Parish in the middle 1700's, settling in "Hecquits" i.e. Ponus Ridge.
We are concerned with his second son, Nath- aniel, born in 1700 and admitted to the Congre- gational Church here in 1747, recommended by the Rev. Mr. Wells of Stamford. Nathaniel's son, Nathaniel, Jr., and the latter's wife, Wait- still, were admitted in 1752, and two of their six children were baptized there. In the Rev. Mr. Drummond's visitation journey in 1772, we find Nathaniel, Jr., and Waitstill, with their children, William, Prudence, Nathaniel, Abra- ham, Jesse and Hannah, and the Widow Martha Crissey.
Nathaniel and Nathaniel, Jr., are both on the first roll of members of the Episcopal Society of Canaan Parish. They are not subsequently mentioned as having been outstanding in the church, however, so it is probably not too sur- prising that in 1827 we find Jesse Crissey (son and brother respectively of the above), his wife Bethia, and Hiram Crissey and his wife Polly, all joining the Congregational Church. In a pamphlet which will be mentioned later, the writer discovered the words "Hiram, of the tribe of Jesse," the first clue as to which branch of the Crissey family Hiram, owner of the house, belonged. For a while it seemed that he was of the name but not the family.
Jesse and Bethia were then living on the east side of Park Street, the northern boundary of their land being 100 rods south of the meet- ing house. Diagonally across the road to the north stood the house with which we are con- cerned. Hiram Crissey apparently never pur- chased the latter property, nor did his father, or the deeds may not have been recorded.
The best guess seems to be that the property was the inheritance of Hiram's wife Polly, from Leeds Pennoyer (the most likely person, from dates and family names, to have been her father). Leeds had died intestate in 1807, leav- ing besides his land, so many personal posses- sions in the way of Kerseymere vests and pew-
ter cups that the inventory covers three full pages in the Norwalk probate records. As usual though, the land was not described.
Hiram Crissey owned at that time a large tract of land on Ponus, but no house seems to have been on it, so the assumption is that that land was farmed, while Polly and Hiram lived in the house near the village; a much handier spot for a carpenter and wood-carver to live.
The house, originally of white clapboard, consisted of two large rooms downstairs, one on either side of the small front hall and large central chimney. A bedroom behind the rooms, with a stairway to the second floor, occupied the rest of the downstairs. The north room was the parlor, with the intricately carved mantel which was Hiram's forte, the south room (the kitchen-living room) still has its ten-foot stone hearth, its cooking cranes, and its fireplace of square-cut granite blocks. Upstairs were four rooms: one with a tiny fireplace, (one wonders how they ever really burned). The upstairs rooms are floored with oak cut from the pre- vailing timber in the neighborhood, which sec- tion now includes Mead Park. There is a full attic, completely floored.
On the 1878 map of New Canaan, a one-story summer kitchen is shown to have been added on south and east; the well, once famous for never going dry, but now unuseable, is in the south yard. The carriage house has become a double house two doors to the south. Mrs. An- nable has had the barn, which stood about 30 feet from the house, added to the northwest corner of the house in such a way that the roof line shows no trace of change.
All these changes were in the future when Hiram and Polly Crissey set up housekeeping. In 1828, after only one year as a church mem- ber, Hiram was made a deacon (a lifetime job in those days) and is so referred to in what little there is about him in writing. He was also clerk, or scribe, of the church, and as such kept the minutes of all proceedings.
Hiram was a master-craftsman in wood, as witness his work on the mantels in Dr. Green's house and in the Congregational parsonage. To quote from Mr. Clarke's article in 1948 on
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BEDEFFRE
Herman Balay-1950
The Hiram Crissey-Annable House
the parsonage, "one should visit his own house. Here he let himself go with pilasters and pil- lars, with elaborate capitals-and sunbursts of the oval variety, in the execution of which he seems to have been adept."
In 1838 there was a good bit of excitement in the Congregational Church. An anonymous pamphlet (referred to above) was printed in 1839 entitled "Blue Laws, or a Feature of the Spanish Inquisition, revived at New Canaan, Conn., 1838," and written in Old Testament style. It is an account of how the Temperance Society within the church, including the min- ister, the Rev. Mr. Smith, and most of the dea- cons, attempted to expel Edwin Seymour from the church for selling spirits. After six months of meetings and debates, charges and argu- ments, Mr. Seymour's defense that he was a
good member of the church but not of the Temperance Society won the day, and he was not expelled. In all this tempest in a teapot, Deacon Crissey was one of the active Tem- perance faction.
Then comes an incident of which several older residents remember reading, but of which there is no written or printed record available today. We wish there were-it is put in here completely unsubstantiated, as a story which might have happened exactly this way.
In 1843, the Congregational Church decided to build a larger edifice and plans were pro- cured by the Rev. Mr. Smith. Money was raised and the building was built by James Jennings of Weston; a story so familiar it need not be repeated here. But, it seems, and this is our un- substantiated story, that Deacon Hiram Cris-
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sey wanted the contract for building the church. When he didn't get it, he had printed a small sheet, or broadside, claiming to have evidence that that pillar of Temperance, the Rev. Theophilus Smith, was anything but a good abstainer. The repercussions must have shaken the town!
The church was built and duly dedicated, and when Hiram Crissey died in 1845, the death of the Deacon-for-life was not even on the church records. Nor are there any minutes of church meetings for those years, only blank pages in the photostat copies, labeled "mis- sing." Competent authorities feel that these missing papers were undoubtedly lost in the St. John fire, but for the sake of a good story, maybe there was more to the incident than meets the eye!
Twenty years after his death, Hiram's
daughter Mary married Nathaniel Wheeler of Bridgeport, and removed to that city. Mr. Wheeler was connected with the firm of Wheeler and Wilson, or perhaps he was the Wheeler in the firm name. At this time the sewing machine bearing that company's name, was generally considered the finest, and en- joyed the present fame of the "Singer."
After Polly Crissey's death in 1864, the Wheelers were her executors, and as such sold the Park Street house, with 20 acres of land to Samuel Whitney in 1866. Whereas Polly sold her "undivided one-seventh" of the Ponus property in the 50's, the Park Street house was apparently entirely hers, bearing out the pre- vious theory that it may have been her in- heritance. Perhaps it should have been called the "Polly Crissey House" but Victorians never did things that way.
THE LOCKWOOD-MARTIN-HALLIDAY HOUSE
WALTER TERRY, Author
LEONARD ROBBINS, Artist
[June 30, 1950]
The afternoon sun, looking through a wel- coming window, glances upon a weaver's bench and a spice cabinet. Its shining focus, how- ever, settles upon a tumble of red curls, upon a figure seated on a stool in front of the spice cabinet. The girl is singing as she pulls open several of the cabinet's drawers and with cer- tain fingers and never a look, withdraws some of the contents from each. The bench, the cab- inet, the view of peaceful fields and woods framed by the sunlit window, a broad and ancient beam, the lilt of song might lead one to believe that here is a scene from the New England past, that the year is, say, 1787, when a new hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," could be heard on the lips of many.
It is not, however, 1787. True, the house is old, but the drawers of the spice cabinet now contain the innumerable aids to beauty and grooming required by a 20th century girl, the weaver's bench no longer serves the craftsman for whom it was originally made, and the song is not-at least not always-"How Firm a Foundation." The air we hear might well be "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy" and the singer, perched in front of her adapted spice cabinet, would be, of course, Mary Martin.
The house in which the wonderful star of "South Pacific" resides with her husband, Rich- ard Halliday, and her daughter, Heller, is both old and mysterious. Perhaps "coy" would be a better word, for unlike its present forthright
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The Lockwood-Martin-Halliday House
mistress, it refuses to divulge its age. In "Who's Who," for example, Mary Martin lists the year of her birth (admittedly, not very long ago) and proudly records not only young Heller but also her teen-age son, Larry.
Her house on Ponus Avenue in the Middle Clapboard region of Norwalk bordering on New Canaan is not nearly as helpful in re- sponding to the curiosity of the general public. If it ever permitted its age to be recorded-and this appears to be doubtful-it succeeded in obscuring the date by having its legal listing conveniently confused with the listings of ad- jacent houses and properties; thus, from its point of vantage on a slight rise of ground, it might look over other aging houses in the Clap- board area and smugly echo another "South Pacific" phrase, "Younger Than Springtime Am I." Nobody could satisfactorily prove the error of such an echo.
The Mary Martin-Richard Halliday House cannot conceal its age entirely. A long, sloping roof-line tells of its Connecticut salt-box past; ancient beams in the cellar hint that they were hewn by hand; a lintel, revealing the gray- blush of age, invites the hand to stroke the pa- tina of years; a worn doorsill, a stretch of broad floorboards and a sense of sturdiness-yes, of "a firm foundation"-speak, albeit mutely, of a long chronology. Tracing the chronology of the house is quite another matter and the next step is to find a clue here, another there in the mem- ories of those who have lived long.
Houses have names. Today, they are mainly descriptive, lyrical or sardonic, but in the past the house and lands adopted the name of its owners or, in sequence, the names of many owners. Later generations may well call the house on Ponus Avenue the "Mary Martin House" because of its place in the life of one
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of the great theatre artists of our time, but what has it been called in the past?
During a period which commenced about a half a century ago the associated name was "Hoyt"; before that and even during the time of Hoyt ownership, it was known as the "Lock- wood Farm." But can we stop there? No. Some- one remembers, not with full certainty how- ever, that it was once referred to as the "St. John Farm." Memory has borne us as far as it can. It has given us old and noble names with which to treat, names which extend into the colonial past of our town and through them, perhaps, we can discover something more about a mysterious (it would have us think thusly) house.
Mary Martin and Richard Halliday bought the old house from Ruth Sheldon in 1945 and with it a plot of 5.09 acres. For a time, this acreage serves as a steady clue, bearing us back to Mrs. Rae Emerson Donlon, who owned the place from 1927 until 1932 when Ruth Sheldon bought it. Mrs. Emerson in turn had purchased the farm from H. M. Mack of Nor- walk in 1927. Before that date, the owners had been Stephen Hoyt's Sons Company which had purchased this tract and adjoining land in 1904 from the estate of George Lockwood.
It is in the year 1904 that the path to the past commences to dim. The house and land were bought at auction, for the heirs of George Lockwood (who died in 1870) were scattered from Denver to London. The name "George Lockwood," then, becomes the next target in our path back, but unfortunately, the path di- vides and one can no longer be certain which is the true one for the destination desired.
One set of yellowing, not always legible, re- cords informs us that George Lockwood had bought his buildings and land from Louis L. and Mary Ann Godfrey in 1855. Some 26 acres were involved in this transaction but then, as if he would confuse posterity, he also pur- chased adjoining land (five acres, an appealing size in this particular story) from Edward Tay- lor in the same year and completed his trans- actions with the addition of approximately seven more acres of land obtained from Henry
and Rebecca McGhee. Rebecca, we are told, had inherited this land from George Lock- wood's father, Joseph, but we are not told in the terse record whether Rebecca was Joseph's daughter, sister, niece or, in truth, whether she bore any kinship to him at all.
One surmise would lead us to believe that George, a native of Norwalk but at the time of the property purchase a resident of New Rochelle, had decided to procure for himself the ancestral property in the Norwalk-New Canaan area. But is the surmise correct? Mr. Taylor had bought some property in the area only the year before from Thomas Green and Mary Ann Godfrey had purchased her 26 acres, also in 1854, from Charles Isaacs with the understanding that a house would be erected upon it within one year. Is this our present house? or was the house on the McGhee por- tion of the property and, if so, was it a house built years before by Joseph Lockwood or even by one of his forebears?
Perhaps the Mary Martin House was built in 1855 and occupied shortly thereafter by George Lockwood. Perhaps it was built earlier by a Lockwood, lost temporarily to the bearer of the family name and later secured by George Lockwood; if this is so, it is quite pos- sible that the house was erected well over a century ago and, perhaps, even as far back as Revolutionary times. But since the solution-or attempted solution-of a mystery requires that all clues be accorded careful consideration, we cannot tarry with Lockwoods to the exclusion of other landowners and builders of an earlier day. Someone had recalled that the farm had once carried the name "St. John," so search- ing elsewhere in Norwalk's yellowing records, one comes upon yet another pathway of re- search and memory is verified, or partly so, by the presence of the St. John name in the story of property purchases.
Another George Lockwood transaction, dated 1866, lists the sale of a 100-acre tract of land with buildings (for $6,500) to John F. Murray and the deed specifies that it is bounded north by other land of George Lockwood, east on the highway, south on land of the heirs of
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