USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > Newtown, Connecticut, past and present > Part 4
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David Cobb
His Excellency General Washington Peekskill
On July 1, the French army broke camp in Newtown and proceeding westward joined Washington's army on July 6, at Phillipsburg, New York.
Later this same year, after Cornwallis surrendered, French troops again passed through Newtown.
One hundred and seventy-three years later, on June 26th, 1954, a modern bridge, spanning the Housatonic River, close to the historic fording place, was named the Rochambeau Bridge and dedicated as a tribute to the French for their contribution to American independence.
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EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE 1700'S
Life in Newtown during the 18th Century was much the same as that of any quiet inland village. The people were not out of touch, however, with the larger cities or the seaports. The sessions of the General Assembly, meet- ing alternately in New Haven and Hartford were a source of great interest, and the wars of course gave some of the men glimpses of far places.
On the whole the Town occupied itself with its own affairs, exploring and developing its natural resources. In 1738 it acted to conserve its supplies of oak, walnut and chestnut trees, by limiting by law the size at which they could be cut. The luxuriant timber growth was a large factor in the Town's economy. Chestnut was used for framing houses, oak for floors. Later fine furniture was made in Bradleyville-or Ragged Corner (now Half-Way River district) , from locally-grown trees. Cherry was considered the most desirable wood for this purpose. According to tradition, the best source of supply was Gregory's orchard.
In 1764 a mining venture was undertaken. A number of citizens of Sandy Hook agreed to lease the cliffs in Rocky Glen, near the Black Bridge, to a New York prospector for forty years, with permission "if need be, to dig to the center of the earth"-alas, with no profitable results.
The missionary spirit flourished in the first half of the century. It must have been on the Town's conscience that the few remaining Indians among them were "inclined to hunting, drinking and excessive idleness." In 1742 a grant of twenty-five pounds was made by the General Court for "instruction and Christianizing Indians at the place called Pohtatuck." We have no record of their conversion, but the effort occupied the ministry and presumably in- terested the Town.
There were always welfare problems to contend with. Many instances are recorded. Samuel Hendrix in 1745 was released from paying taxes for a year in consideration of his keeping his aged mother ; arrangements were made to pay anyone sixteen shillings a week each for caring for Thadeus and Pheneas Lyon, "Idiots or Distracted men," and to "let out Nathaniel Parmalee to be kept at charge of the town as cheap as possible."
The Selectmen had problems of a different nature, too. They voted to relinquish a fine against Ivany Taylor for card playing, they met to settle the dispute with Mr. Abm. Ferriss in respect to "the Interest his late wife brought with her into this Town in a manner as they would was it their own private concern," and they notified the Town on March 5, 1772 that they would "consider what method may be thought proper to take concerning Matthew Croofoot's Intrigue with the Widow Parmalee." In this last, the Records serve us right for being inquisitive-nothing more is told!
It may be a surprise to learn that Newtown had a number of slave owners. In 1756 there were twenty-three slaves in Town, and we know that as early as 1735 slaves were held here. They were valued like other household effects, bought, sold and disposed of by will. Also they were frequently emancipated
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by their owners. The Abolition movement was not popular in Fairfield County, but long before Lincoln's Proclamation, slavery had been abolished in Con- necticut. Newtown's latest record relating to them is in 1804. Whether they were field hands or house servants is not made clear. One might hope that it was mostly the latter, for the housewives of those days could have done with a little help.
The enormous fireplaces, huge iron kettles and wooden washtubs are picturesque, but to work with them was another matter. The only factor off- setting the labor of cooking in those days must have been the delicious fresh- ness of everything that was used. Eggs, cream and butter obtained that very day, fruit picked from the trees, vegetables pulled from the garden and bread baked in the brick ovens-no wonder they are remembered as "the good old days!"
Our foremothers were adept in the use of herbs, a device recently revived in favor, and the old houses were fragrant with the aromatic bunches hanging upside down to dry under the sloping rafters.
Some Newtown women were especially proficient in various skills. "Aunt Park" in Hattertown and a Negress named Phyllis who lived near her, knew the medicinal qualities of the plants they grew in their gardens, or found in wood or field, and the remedies they made from them were highly esteemed. Mrs. Nichols was unusually skilled in embroidery and quilting, and her hex- agon and star-patterned quilts still withstand the years. Mrs. Roberts of Toddy Hill was renowned for a snake-oil remedy which she prepared for the cure of inflammations, and so it goes. Curiously enough, certain women were heavily taxed for what was called their "faculty". We do not know just what their abilities were, but it is safe to assume that midwifery and nursing skill were among them.
All taxes of those days seem high to us. Samuel Sherman made brooms and was taxed $150.00 on the assessed valuation of his business. Oxen, horses, sheep were all taxed. Of course the land was the chief source of Town revenue, but poll taxes of $30.00 were levied on those eighteen to twenty, and $60.00 on the twenty-one to seventy year-olds. Houses, chimneys, window panes, fire- places, mirrors, watches-all had to be paid for. At one time even the Churches were assessed and taxed.
It is a tradition that Dodgingtown came by its name because it lay within the area which for a long time was claimed by both Newtown and Bethel. When the Newtown tax collectors appeared, the citizens claimed vehemently that they were Bethel residents: when the Bethel agents turned up, everybody insisted that he was a Newtowner. Nobody could prove anything while the boundaries were undetermined, so the dodging continued successfully.
Descriptions of Colonial life are so familiar that we need not go any further in this brief outline. All the early settlements went through similar struggles with Nature, with their fellow men and with conflicting convictions. But not all of them were blessed with so much beauty as is Newtown's.
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"YE FLOCK OF SHEEP FEEDING ON SD COMMONS"
Raising sheep was one of Newtown's first industries, for the animals were an absolute necessity to the well-being of the settlers.
The wool was washed, spun into yarn and knit or woven into garments and blankets. Coats and breeches made from the skin gave welcome protection from the icy winds of New England's winter. The tallow provided soap and candles, and also greased the boots, while ravenous appetites were satisfied with lamb roasted on a spit in front of the great fireplaces.
As far back as 1732 provision for a Town flock was undertaken by the Selectmen. Each farmer was assigned an ear mark for the identification of his stock and a fence viewer and a field driver (or "hayward") were elected, as they had been years before at the first Town Meeting. A Town Shepherd also was appointed to tend the sheep which grazed on the wide roadsides, these good stretches of public land being known as "commons". At the 1732 Meet- ing it was voted "that the Commons should be cleared for the benefit of the flock of sheep where it shall be thought to be most needful by those who are appointed by law to take care of that work." A Ram Pasture was enclosed on the low-lying land extending from Sugar Street to beyond Hawley Pond. After about fifty years the Proprietors divided up this fertile spot among them- selves.
Swine were also "free commoners", but they were a constant source of trouble and the Records are full of measures taken to control their depreda- tions. In 1737 the Town Meeting decided that the creatures should be "ringed or yoked, by sufficient yoking to be understood a yoke 9 inches above ye neck,
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4 inches below ye neck, 6 inches long on each side of ye neck if on grown Swine and proportionately for lesser. Swine so yoked not to be deemed damage feasant." Some years later they were considered so troublesome to the well- doing of sheep that "finding that the swine do dig up ye commons so that it is a great damage to ye flock of sheep feeding on sd commons, which to pre- vent, it is voted that all swine from 10 weeks old and upward shall be ringed if running at large on the commons on the tenth of May next or shall be liable to be pounded according to law."
Sheep had to be "pounded according to law" also, for in spite of shep- herd, fence viewer and hayward the contrary creatures strayed and had to be brought back and auctioned off at the Town sign post "by outcry and beat of drums to the highest bidder." We find this notice: "Taken damage feasant and impounded in Newtown pound, four sheep. One black sheep, marked with a crop on ye neare ear and a hole in ye off ear. Two white sheep with a crop on ye off ear and a half-penny under ye seide of ye same ear. One white sheep with a slanting crop on ye near ear and a hole in ye off ear, and I cried ye same in ye several towns as ye law directs and sold them on ye second day of January 1759, at four of ye clock, afternoon, at ye sign post in Newtown for four shillings each, sixteen shillings for all four by me, William Birch, con- stable of Newtown." The constable's fee for crying and selling and all his trouble, the cost of poundage and damage, the drummer's fee and other charges "exceeded the amount for which the sheep sold by seven shillings and one penny"-the Town treasury was the loser.
The sheep must have led a hazardous life. We know the territory harbored bears, "wild catts" and wolves. On these last a bounty of fifteen shillings per head was paid, and half as much for "wolve's whelp yt suck." Curiously enough
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we find no mention of dogs-usually the friend and sometimes unaccountably the enemy of the flocks. Perhaps they were all well behaved in those days.
We have no record of the number of sheep in the Town before 1800, which is surprising because the numerous references in the Town Records show what an important factor in the farmer's economy was his flock, but in 1803 as many as 4,010 are listed. Beside the sheep he kept on his farm, each man at this time was allowed thirty head in the Town flock. Each year a Sheep Master was appointed and he hired a shepherd, assisted for many years by a trusty Negro named Caesar, who was employed at $12.00 per month, "if not to be had for a lower price." The season for this common flock began in early June (after the sheep had been sheared and when the new lambs were old enough to be turned loose), and lasted until late September. The Sheep Master saw to collecting the sheep from the different school districts, planned the route or "drift" to be followed during the summer, chose the best common land for pasturage and arranged for overnight "yarding" in safely enclosed fields. Farmers were glad to pay to have the flock use their fields for these stops because the droppings were considered excellent fertilizer for grain crops, especially wheat and rye. The highest bidder won the privilege of keeping the flock for week-ends, since wherever they stopped Saturday night, they re- mained until Monday morning. Even for sheep the Sabbath was a day of rest. The popularity of keeping the flock overnight was so great that frequently the same farmer bid sufficiently high to secure several chances. It usually worked out that farmers paid enough to cover all flock expenses (wages of shepherd, etc.) and even to distribute a small dividend at the end of the season.
In 1823 The Newtown Sheep Company was formed. Moss K. Botsford was chosen Sheepmaster for that year. The route for collecting the flock was as follows: "from Chestnut Tree Hill through Zoar to Ebenezer Beers, thence through Toddy Hill to Caesar's (the old darky), thence through Taunton, Palestine, Land's End and Hanover to Wapping, and thence through Sandy Hook to Newtown Street." All this was expected to be accomplished in about eight days. Naturally the sheep must feed along the route and rest over Sun. day, besides waiting for those additions to the flock which did not reach the pick-up spot exactly on time. When the entire flock was collected, the shepherd, and a boy hired for three or four dollars a month to help him, started on the season's tour. Picture the boy, the shepherd and surely several eager dogs, starting out with nearly a thousand sheep for the first night's stopping place, about a "ten-hour feeding drift" away. At night, with the sheep safely en- closed in the farmer's field, the shepherd and the boy were provided with their "keep" and a night's rest by the same farmer. So, all through the summer, the flock moved along their pre-arranged route until the Sheep Master ordered the disbanding in September. The final round-up was held at Caleb Baldwin's on Newtown Street (the second house south of Trinity Church). Here the owners gathered for the breaking up of the flock and to claim their own sheep. Since Baldwin's was a tavern as well as the point for the round-up, the oc- casion was undoubtedly one for general celebration.
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The sheep business was profitable until about 1860 when the establishment of the Beecher Satinet Factory in Sandy Hook sharply cut the local demand for wool.
Now, almost a hundred years later, there is revival of sheep raising in Newtown.
NEWTOWN'S LATER CHURCHES
As has been told, two of Newtown's Churches were a part of the Town from the earliest times. The histories of Churches and Town are so interwoven that the story of no one of them can be told without bringing in the others. This, however, is not the case with other Churches and Parishes which were established later, or which flourished for a short time only.
A Sandemanian Society had a considerable influence in Town affairs for a number of years. These followers of the Scotsman, Robert Sandeman, or- ganized here about 1740 to hold their services or "love feasts," in each other's houses. The ritual-or lack of it-must have been effective, for this emotional type of evangelism drew many members away from the more austere Congre- gational and Episcopal Churches. The movement seems to have burned itself out after about fifty years.
The first Baptist Church was established not in the center of Newtown nor of Sandy Hook, but at Zoar Corners. There in 1794 the Society erected a large barn-like structure, not at all suggestive of a Church. How long services were held there is not known, but tradition has it that the building was torn down and the timbers found their way into various barns in the neighborhood. In 1850 a smaller, well built and well furnished edifice was erected just next to the Zoar Cemetery, and the lovely Berkshire Pond was used for baptisms. But slowly the congregation dwindled and after several years of disuse the Church and contents were sold at auction in 1913.
Methodist meetings were held as early as 1800 in a private house just about where Trinity Church now stands. They were conducted by two instruc- tors, Joseph Pierce and Levi Buson. For a long time the members had been ministered to by circuit preachers, the nearest Church being in Easton. By 1831 the first Meeting House was built on Main Street, just south of the Library. Soon the increasing population in Sandy Hook, due to the flourishing factories there, made the parishioners demand a Church located nearer their homes, and the present Church was built there in 1850.
In 1831 the Zoar section of Town was a populous center with many more houses than at present, and mills, small shops and factories made up a lively
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community. On the hill (then quite high, before the State road reduced the grade), opposite the old Gray's Plain Schoolhouse, a new house of worship was erected. This was the Episcopal Church of St. James, an offshoot of Trinity Parish. (The novel, "Shiloh," by W. M. L. Jay, is based on life in the district of Zoar at this period, and it describes St. James Church in detail). The first Rector had resigned from Trinity after an incumbency of thirty years, but stayed with the new Parish only a very short while. Whatever caused the split, it did not last long because after ten years (and a different Rector), St. James Parish returned to the parent one. The Church building was finally torn down in the 1870's, and its cornerstone can now be seen set into the lawn of Trinity Church-"St. James Ch. 1831."
The followers of the Universalist denomination built a large Church in 1835 on Main Street, on the site of the present Town Hall. The membership appears to have lessened rapidly, because in 1858 the building was sold to St. Rose Parish and used for the Roman Catholic Church. In 1883 it changed hands again, when it was bought for the Town Hall, and served that purpose until the Edmond Town Hall was erected in 1929.
Tradition holds that the first Mass to be celebrated in Newtown was in June, 1781, offered by Abbé Robin, Chaplain of Rochambeau's troops. But it may be that some kindly missionary priest had conducted services here for the forlorn French refugees from Acadia nearly a quarter of a century earlier.
The frightful potato famine in Ireland in 1840 seems remote from New- town, but actually it had a direct bearing on the development of the Town. Following that terrible event, over a million and a half people sought a new homeland in America. It was just then that industrial expansion was occurring in Sandy Hook, and in time a large influx of Irish workers came there, ready to settle down in the new village and become a part of it. We have told how the School Districts expanded to accommodate the new citizens, but long be- fore that, naturally, they sought the consolation of their religion.
There are two traditions as to the first service held for the Roman Cath- olics of Newtown. The first is that Mass was celebrated in 1841 by the Rev- erend James Smythe, one of the pioneers of the Diocese. The second puts the date six years later. As we have no record of Catholics living in the town be- fore 1845, it seems as if the latter date were correct. According to this under- standing. Mass was celebrated in 1847 by the Rev. John Brady from Hartford at the home of Peter Leavy. This is the small white house still standing near the railroad tracks. There were twelve persons present at the Mass. Since the tax list of that year contains the names of three Irish families, they could easily have made up the twelve present.
By 1858 the number of Roman Catholics had increased rapidly, and when the Reverend John Smith of Danbury purchased the Universalist Meeting House for a Church, the congregation had grown to one hundred members. Up to this time the Newtown Catholics had been under the jurisdiction of St. Peter's Church in Danbury, from where a priest would come at intervals to
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celebrate Mass and administer the Sacraments. Many of the pioneer Catholics used to tell about walking to Danbury for Mass when the priest could not come to Newtown.
In 1859 the first resident pastor, Dr. Francis Lenihan, organized the present Parish under the patronage of St. Rose of Lima. He also purchased land for the cemetery, but it was not blessed until 1862. There is a stone there erected to the memory of Mary Cain (Keane) dated Sept. 7, 1860, that is marked as the first burial in the cemetery.
At one time in the 1860's, New Milford was a mission under St. Rose, attended by the priests from Newtown, and other Parishes which they served were Oxford, Brookfield and Southbury.
It was Father James McCartan who came here in 1873 and who was the builder of the present St. Rose Church edifice. In order to accommodate the large portion of his congregation which lived in Sandy Hook and the adjacent districts, the location of the new Church was transferred from Newtown Street to its present site. It was completed in 1883. Father McCartan also built St. Patrick's Hall in the rear of the Church, and the Convent, which was the original rectory. Dearly loved by his parishioners, upon his death he was buried in front of the Church he had erected.
St. Stephen's Church in Stepney was a mission of St. Rose until 1934, and the Parochial School in Sandy Hook was built by the priest, Father Fox, in 1896. The old rectory there was turned into a Convent for the Sisters of Mercy who taught in the school. The school prospered until the removal of the New York Belting and Packing Company from Sandy Hook in 1900, when so many families left town with the factory that the school was finally closed. The building was sold to the town in 1928 and is the present Sandy Hook Public School.
St. John's in Sandy Hook is another offspring of Trinity Parish. The first building was erected in 1868 under conditions of a bequest of William B. Glover. It was then a Diocesan Mission. The Parish of St. John's was organized in 1880, and the Guild, which came into being at the same time, has always been an important factor in the support of the Church. Unhappily in 1929 the original structure was burned to the ground, but five years later a new building was completed and the present Church was consecrated in 1934.
The youngest Church in Newtown's proud list of the 19th century seems to have died in infancy. We know that a Union Chapel was erected in Taunton District in 1878, but beyond that fact the Records are silent.
It is to be regretted that such a brief outline as this cannot go into the significance of the spiritual inspiration given to our Town by our Churches, but it is written in the hearts of the members and needs no other accounting.
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MILESTONES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
When the 19th century appeared over the horizon it found Newtown again violently in opposition with the neighboring towns, this time over a startling new project: the organization of a Turnpike Corporation which pro- posed to construct and maintain a toll road right through Newtown, from New Milford to the city line of Bridgeport. The agitation had been going on for two years and the other towns along the route favored it enthusiastically as a means of getting their farm produce and manufactured goods to the city markets. But Newtown, with her customary conservatism, was opposed. Perhaps a stock-selling enterprise seemed suspicious. The Town protested to the General Assembly in 1800 against the granting of a charter and objected to having "our road obstructed by turnpikes and gates," although offering to repair and improve the nine miles of road going through Newtown, ar- ranging to pay 75¢ per man per day to do so.
As happens too often today, the Assembly did not act upon the Bill the year it was presented. By the time it was due to come up for consideration at the next Session a change of feeling had come over Newtown's 2,903 inhabi- tants, and it was voted not to remonstrate after all. So the Assembly granted a charter to the Bridgeport and Newtown Turnpike Corporation and permitted the erection of three toll gates; the north one on the Brookfield line, the Middle gate on Newtown's south boundary, and a third four miles north of the city limits of Bridgeport. No tolls were charged for those going to Church, to funerals or to the grist mills, but 4-wheeled pleasure carriages with driver
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and passenger paid 25¢, a rider on horseback, 4¢, sleighs with two horses and driver, 8¢ (seems well worth the price!), stage coaches, 25¢, horses, mules and neat cattle, one cent each. In 1839 the rates were raised on pleasure carriages "hung on springs of steel, leather or iron"-(one always has to pay to be comfortable) .
In spite of her misgivings about the Turnpike, Newtown profited greatly by it. The Town became the midway stopping point for man and beast. The round trip for ox-drawn carts loaded with produce or other goods took three days for the haul from New Milford to Bridgeport, and Newtown caught them coming and going. The inns and taverns reaped a harvest from the traffic, and especially from the stage coaches which rattled into town with hooves clattering and the drivers' horns blaring the announcement of arrival. By 1829 the stages were running on regular routes and almost regular schedules. Horses were changed in Newtown and the passengers piled out for food or lodging before starting off again on their trips to Hartford, Bridge- port and Norwalk, or up to Litchfield, over to "Sing Sing," or down to New York.
Two Inns on Main Street were established in 1790. Caleb Baldwin's, where the town flock was rounded up in the fall, was always popular with drovers of cattle and horses. The place was restful and conservative and famous for good food. Among the many positions of civic trust held by Baldwin was that of Newtown's first Postmaster, appointed in 1800. He held that assign- ment for twenty years. The post riders and later the mail coaches made de- livery to his Inn where the Post Office was located-a collection of pigeon holes above a broad, high desk. The mail usually got through about once a week.
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