Newtown, Connecticut, past and present, Part 5

Author: League of Women Voters of Newtown
Publication date: 1955
Publisher: [Newtown]
Number of Pages: 130


USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > Newtown, Connecticut, past and present > Part 5


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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It might be mentioned here that this pleasant tavern was not Newtown's earliest. That claim to fame is credited to Peter Hubbell, who in 1711 was "voted liberty to keep a house of entertainment for the year ensuing." This would seem to bring a note of cheer to the serious matters considered at the early Town Meetings, because we know that many of them were held at Town Clerk Hubbell's house. Probably violent disagreements and flaring tempers were mellowed by a jug of hot grog from Peter's friendly hearth.


Czar Keeler started the second Inn on Main Street in 1790, not far to the north of Baldwin's. This was a big house with a long slanting roof and an enormous fireplace, around which gathered the townsmen to exchange news of village affairs. On the second floor was a large room used for balls and other social gatherings. When in 1820 Keeler followed Baldwin as Postmaster, the big desk with the pigeon holes above moved up the street and the Post Office was re-installed. Keeler's Tavern was also a "stage house" and was very popular with travellers.


A later Inn was Dr. Gideon Shepherd's in the house that stands on the corner of Church Street and the Boulevard. It was a rendezvous for sleighing parties and other local gaieties. The sign swaying from the post in front read "A plain Tavern for plain folks, kept by a plain man" and on the reverse


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was the suggestion "if not suited, the road opens both ways." Since this Inn was on the stage route to Hartford it was well patronized. Continuing down the hill, on the same stage route and also near that from New Haven to Hart- ford, was the Sandy Hook Hotel, for a long time under the management of B. Gregory, and still in operation today.


About 1820 Sallu Pell Barnum, a genial landlord, started another road- side tavern in a house on the site of the Library. Later this was acquired by W. H. Dick, and in the 1880's was flourishing as Dick's Hotel. It burned down in 1897 and the "Newtown Inn" was erected on its site and became a very popular hotel for summer boarders. Also doing a thriving business in the 1880's was Brown's Hotel, with George H. Brown proprietor and F. M. Chapman manager. This establishment was known later as the Grand Central Hotel, then as the Parker House and now as the Yankee Drover Inn. One more on the Turnpike was the Middlebrook, almost on the Monroe line and not much of a factor in Town life, but popular with travellers coming by the late stage from Bridgeport.


The old roadside Inns were picturesque and cheerful, and must have been greatly missed when changing conditions brought about their decline.


The building of the Housatonic Railroad (about which more, later), caused business to fall off rapidly. In 1848 the north tollgate was abandoned, and by the late '80's the Bridgeport and Newtown Turnpike Corporation had faded into history.


In all our country villages, fire is an ever present menace, but Newtown waited until 1803 before making any concerted effort for control. At that time the townspeople voted $100 toward purchasing a fire engine, but two months later rescinded the vote and appointed Elijah Nichols "chimney viewer" in- stead. The arrangement proved inadequate because in 1807 a serious con- flagration on Main Street threatened to wipe out many dwellings there. Where- upon an enterprising group led by the Honorable William Edmond, by private subscription raised $450 toward the purchase of a fire engine, but it was learned with dismay that the cost of "a good and effectual engine with a house to shelter it" would be in the neighborhood of $700. The group then presented a petition to the Selectmen asking for money to provide an adequate sum. The petition stated "that seriously alarmed at a recent event which threatened for a time to lay their dwellings in ashes, to unhouse their families and produce a scene of destruction and distress awful to contemplate and too painful to describe," the citizens "met to take into consideration their ex- posed and dangerous situation." Their unanimous opinion was that the householders were in duty bound to see that "their chimneys were swept or cleaned by burning, and that they should provide themselves with ladders as expeditiously as possible." A fire engine was considered to be "the best in- strument properly served with which to contend against so unruly and danger- ous an element and indeed the only one in which any just confidence of success might be placed in the hour of danger."


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A Town Meeting was called to consider the petition, and $200 from the Treasury was voted to augment the $450 already in hand for the purpose, "provided that nothing should subject the Town hereafter to the payment of any other or further sum, either for the engine, a house to shelter it, or for cisterns, ladders, fire hooks, ropes, buckets, working the engine or any expense whatever respecting the same, but the Town shall be exempted therefrom in the same manner as though this vote had not been passed."


The Town seems to have taken no further action in this connection ex- cept to appoint annually a chimney viewer, a post held for years by the same Elijah Nichols. However, benefits for the Fire Company became regular social events and then, as now, were supported by the grateful townspeople.


The War of 1812 seems to have made almost no impression on the daily life of the Town, and the Records concerning it are meager in the extreme.


That the indecisive conflict was unpopular is well known: in fact, the State of Connecticut at one time considered secession from the Union because of it. According to Johnson's History only twelve men appear to have enlisted from Newtown. They served apparently in New London and New Haven, and happily there is no report that any lost their lives.


Newtown's next political step was to accept and ratify the "Constitution of civil government of the people of this State" in 1818. This is the same Constitution under which the State is functioning today.


1824 saw the establishment of the Borough of Newtown, the second oldest in the State. It is fully described in the present-day section of this book.


Years rolled by, and steady growth and the blessings of peace marked the life of the Town. The need for markets, however, was always being con- sidered. At one time (1822) the proposition was made to construct a canal alongside the Housatonic from Long Island Sound to the Massachusetts line. Newtown favored the project (provided the Town was put to no expense), and even went so far as to present it to the General Assembly. Many were disappointed when the undertaking fell through. At about this time Barber's History refers to "the flourishing village of Sandy Hook" with the "fine mill stream (the Pohtatuck) running northerly at the foot of an almost perpendicu- lar bluff 160ft. high." The Sandy Hook factories could have made good use of a canal running down to the sea. The financial crash of 1837 had an ad- verse effect upon these factories and on some of the local home industries, but fortunately not for long. The businesses as a whole were built on sound financial structures and valiantly weathered the storm. An astonishingly varied list of products were being made in Sandy Hook, Zoar and nearby centers and to a smaller extent in Newtown at this time. There were innumer- able small plants manufacturing horn combs and buttons, importing "horns and hooves from Buenos Aires," as well as metal-casting shops for brass keys, reinforced pewter spoons, parts for shotguns and rifles, and in the woodwork-


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ing trades, furniture, wooden screws, sleighs, carriages and coffins all were turned out to meet the demands of the expanding nation. The New York Belt- ing and Packing Company, "the largest institution of its kind in the world," made a tremendous impact on the Town's economy as has already been sug- gested. Newtown's connection with the rubber industry began nearly 125 years ago. Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven and his sister married a Sandy Hook resident. Young Goodyear spent many hours experimenting with rubber in his brother-in-law's factory in the Glen. He had discovered the process of the vulcanization of rubber in 1839, and the commercial possibilities of the new material were quickly realized by enterprising manufacturers. Goodyear himself never became wealthy from his inventions, but he benefited his fellowmen and to this day the rubber industry is active in Sandy Hook.


It is not surprising to learn that by 1835 Newtown and all the Housatonic Valley towns realized that transportation facilities must be developed in order to reach markets. The more venturesome souls advocated construction of that modern miracle, a railroad, to connect Bridgeport with the distant trade center Albany, and from there to the limitless West. Shares were sold, money flowed in and the start was actually made three years later, commencing at Bridge- port. All work was done by hand or with one-horse dumpcarts. When the crews reached this section and made the tunnel at Hawleyville it was the won. der of the countryside. Under the circumstances, the road seems to have been constructed very quickly. It was the first railroad in the State, and the first passenger train made the trip from New Milford to Bridgeport on February 14, 1840. Needless to say, dire predictions followed its breathless passage, but the children ran out of the schoolhouses to cheer, housewives waved their aprons, the dogs barked themselves into hysterics, horses, cows and sheep fled in terror and pleasurable excitement was provided for all. The trains made stops in Botsford, Newtown, North Newtown, Hanover Springs and Hawley- ville. The first person in Town to buy stock in the Housatonic Railroad was Daniel Botsford, a wealthy man who at one time owned more acres of land than any one else in Newtown. His son Jabez was the Station Agent here for years.


The railroad rapidly brought into being that strange species known as commuters, and men began to conduct their business in places other than their home town. By 1853 stagecoaches made connections at Newtown station for towns not served by the railroad and the traffic rapidly increased.


Not everyone felt kindly toward this noisy monster pouring out wood smoke in the green valleys. Some towns did not permit trains to run on Sun- day and others restricted their passage until after the hours of Church services. We read in the July, 1853 issue of the "Academician" (published by the en- terprising pupils of the Newtown Academy) an indignant report of an accident to the Reverend Mr. O. H. Smith of Redding Ridge, when his horse was scared by the train and tipped over the carriage: "the engineer, although he


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saw the whole occurrence, passed on without stopping to render any assistance. Are such men fit to be engineers?"


By 1881 Hawleyville is described as "a great railroad center." "The Housatonic Road from Bridgeport to Pittsfield and on to the State line, the New York and New England Road from Brewster's Station on the Harlem Road to everywhere down east, the Shepaug Road from Danbury, its hats and its Danbury-News-Man, to Litchfield, cross each other here." A train trip of the day has us "pass through the little stations and quiet hamlets of Stepney and Botsford, and press on till we reach the pleasant region of Newtown, so pleasant indeed, that during the summer months its homes are well filled, its roadways thronged and its broad acres rambled over by numberless guests from the cities, who get good air, good living, rest and recreation, health and strength at very reasonable rates, as far as dollars and cents are concerned."


The Newtowners of those days would find it hard to believe that seventy- five years later there would be no passenger trains, only three freight stops and many abandoned lines in the territory which they knew as a center of railroad activity. Today's mammoth trucks and fast cars were of course un- dreamed of.


Although general prosperity brought material gains, it must not be thought that the Town lost its grip on moral matters. The temperance move- ment was in full swing at about this time, although efforts to control drinking had been under way for a long while. People ate and drank lustily in the 1850's. Slimness of figure was considered a misfortune, sports as we know them were indulged in hardly at all and liquor was plentiful and cheap. It is something of an eye-opener to find that at a meeting in Fairfield of Church officials from neighboring towns, it was voted "wholly to discontinue the use of ardent spirits at all future meetings of this body, except in cases of real necessity."


In 1854 the State Legislature took action to suppress intemperance and made a grant of money to Newtown's Selectmen to aid them in carrying on the good work in this locality. The stories of the Temperance Rallies of those days are too familiar to need repeating; the white badge, "taking the pledge," slogans like "lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine," and so on, are part of American folklore. But one cannot resist presenting two verses from "The Temperance Songster" of the day.


"RUM, CURST RUM" (To the tune of "Home, Sweet Home") 'Mid charnel and pest houses though we may roam Be it ever so frightful, there's no plague like Rum! A charm from below seems to lead to the snare


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And leaves us in darkness and gloom and despair. Rum, Rum, curst, curst Rum! There's no plague like Rum, There's no plague like Rum.


"PRAISE OF WATER" (To the tune of "America") Yon silver fountain's basin


'Tis sweet to see thy face in, Fair harvest moon! And, when the sun has shone in,


On the white pebbles thrown in, 'Tis sweet to see our own in, At sultry noon.


Somehow one might wonder if such verses would not drive a sinner to drink, rather than away from it.


A most important step toward progress was made in 1855 when the New- town Savings Bank was organized under the leadership of Henry Beers Glover. Not many American business institutions can boast of so substantial and help- ful a career as that of this local Bank which celebrated its 100th anniversary in June of this year. It is unnecessary for this scanty account to re-tell the story for it has been so ably set forth in the anniversary booklet issued by the Bank itself, but no account of Newtown would be complete without a tribute to an institution which for a century has been of such vital importance in the development of the Town.


The years rolled by, and although the Town was prosperous and expand- ing along the normal lines of progress, behind the sunny skies rumbled the thunder of critical divisions in political philosophy: should the Nation be "half slave and half free?" President Lincoln was admired but not altogether understood by the New England states. After all, he was an uncouth, log-cabin frontiersman, and how could the followers of Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Thoreau and Alcott completely trust so outlandish a leader? Newtown strug- gled with the same problems that rent the rest of the Nation, and in addition, as a frightful climax, came the scourge of smallpox. As has already been told, this was not the community's first encounter with the plague, but it was almost a hundred years ago that the dread disease had afflicted the village. Now the danger was greater because there were more people, living in closer contact with one another.


It seems that the outbreak can be traced to a settlement of five or six families living in the Hattertown district. Their farms were located along a


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Town road, now nothing but a vague trail, which ran from the junction of the Hattertown and Mt. Nebo roads and made a short cut to Redding. One of their members brought the disease back from New York, and the entire com- munity subsequently was wiped out by it. The horrible contagion spread, and in 1859 the Selectmen approved the building of a pest house in the contamin- ated area because Dr. Bronson recommended isolation. Great crises bring forth great leaders, and this time it was a Negro named Purdy who had had small- pox, and he volunteered to take care of the afflicted. Tradition holds that he was operating a station on the "underground" and was smuggling runaway slaves into Canada. With another heroic volunteer, name unknown, Purdy ministered to the sick and dying. Coffins were made by one of the Parmalees who had a hearse to carry them (the "hearse house" is still standing on Hat- tertown road, though now transformed into a modern garage). Parmalee would bring the coffins as far as he dared toward Mt. Nebo road, where the devoted Purdy would pick them up and probably himself dig the graves in the cemetery on the Redding border. Although this section of Newtown is known locally as Purdy Station and a street sign so designated is placed at the start of the abandoned road, it would seem that the Town might have be- stowed some greater official recognition upon one who so nobly embodied the highest ideal of Christianity.


The dreadful Civil War took its toll of Newtown men, as it did every- where else. Twelve days after Ft. Sumter was fired upon, three local men volunteered, two of them to die and the third to suffer all his life from wounds. The Town had its difficulties in the years following to fill its quotas, voting bounties of two and three hundred dollars to those joining the Army. By 1863 it was necessary to form a committee to procure volunteers, and the next year the Town was authorized to borrow $25,000 to defray the cost of supply- ing the quota under the last call of the President. The records of the Adjutant General's office show that 243 Newtown men enlisted in the tragic struggle. Their names are recorded on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the head of Newtown's Main Street: but what does a mere list of names tell of the agony and heartbreak of war?


The human animal has great powers of recuperation, and so has a Town made up of such specimens. Newtown adjusted itself to economic and social conditions after the War between the States, and took the momentous changes in its stride. Naturally during the War, local affairs had had to be put aside, but by 1870 the condition of the roads throughout the Town was a subject for bitter complaint. The highway from Sandy Hook to Newtown was an especially unsatisfactory one, the steep grade on Church hill, as it rose to Newtown Street, being the straw that used to break the camel's back. Our forebears held many Town Meetings and spent endless hours considering the problems of the roads: which is just what we find ourselves doing today. Bog-


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gy roads used to be particularly trying, and one of the methods used to im- prove them was "blotting"-dumping cartloads of sawdust on the wet stretches. As far back as 1885 we read of agitation to build a sidewalk from Sandy Hook to Newtown, to cost not more than $2,000. We still do not have the much-needed sidewalk, but perhaps seventy years is not time enough for the Town to act upon a proposition.


Along with the humming of factories, the agricultural interests of New- town were not neglected. Improvements in farm machinery lessened the labor and expanded the scope of the farmers, and the increase in population pro- vided a local outlet for their produce. Around the latter half of the century several Newtown farmers were successful in raising turkeys and found Bridge- port to be their most satisfactory market. The method of delivering the birds in those automobile- and truck-less days was for the farmer to start out in the morning on horseback, driving his "gobble"-ing flock ahead of him on the peaceful highroad. When evening came the birds, knowing their own business, would fly up and roost in the bordering trees. Whereupon the farm- er rode back home and spent a comfortable night in his own bed. Early the next morning he would return to his roosting flock and perhaps hurry their descent with a scattering of tempting grain. Then the drive would be resumed and the city dealers reached before another nightfall. Have we mentioned that times have changed?


Social life in those days was gay and lively, although of course much more limited to local affairs than now. In winter the young farmers had more time for fun than in summer, when their lands demanded labor from morning to night. Skating parties on the Foundry Pond (the ice pond) and races in fast, graceful sleighs were very popular. A famous sledding party was once held when, with snow conditions exactly right, a group of young men actually coasted on the road from the top of Mt. Pleasant hill down to Pohtatuck brook!


Taunton pond was always a fisherman's favorite. Steps to regulate the sport there were taken in 1858, and in 1870 the pond was stocked with black bass and no fishing was permitted for the next three years. Trout abounded in the local brooks, rushing in those days through almost uninhabited woods and meadows. Quail and pheasant, rabbits, deer, foxes, opossums, raccoons and an occasional wildcat provided sport for the hunter. A fox hunt of great renown was held in 1875 and seems to have been a notable event.


Many of the social affairs were undertaken with a civic objective-like raising funds for the John Beach Memorial Library in 1877. Performances of the Dramatic Club helped to build sidewalks, and other events raised money for the Volunteer Fire Company.


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In 1882 there were two Brass Bands in town which were called upon frequently, especially at the Fourth of July celebrations. These were elaborate all-day affairs in those days, with no restrictions on the use of fireworks to lessen the excitement.


The Nation was very patriotism-conscious in the centennial year of 1876, and on that Fourth of July Newtown's first "Liberty Pole", as they called it, was erected. Forty-three citizens had raised $107.50 to purchase the pole and the flag. (Our present steel one, set up in 1950, cost $2,900.00) . The first flagpole was succeeded by a second and a third, always in the same loca- tion. For years it used to be painted by one Bert Nichols who would shinny up the pole without benefit of safety ropes, an event which always drew an admiring audience.


The year 1877 was one of great significance for Newtown although at the time few supposed that the newspaper started then by John T. Pearse of Bethel would become such an important element in the life of the Town. With the financial backing of A. A. Bensel, The Newtown Bee started buzzing in a loft over a plumbing shop located just north of the Congregational Church. Although the editor, Pearse, was credited with having "a nose for news," he was an eccentric character and so undependable that sometimes The Bee missed an issue altogether. By 1880, failure seemed inevitable, es- pecially since a rival newspaper, The Chronicle, published by a man named Madigan, was flourishing in the same field. But at this point Reuben Henry Smith, a newspaper man with experience in Waterbury and Springfield, ven- tured to buy the ailing Bee. With every sort of technical difficulty to contend with, he brought out his first issue in April, 1881. The story is told that Smith called in all the members of his family and they sat around the dining table of the hospitable Ezra Levan Johnson and wrapped the copies of that first issue. By dint of hard work and perseverance the antiquated equipment was replaced and The Bee made its regular weekly flights over an ever-expanding territory. Reuben Smith was indefatigable. Known for miles around as "The Bee Man," he drove in his buggy through the wide area covered by his paper. He established correspondents in the surrounding communities and every- where made friends and new subscribers, almost all of whom he knew by name. As the Town grew, so did The Bee. Before long the rival Chronicle was bought out, larger quarters were needed, and the paper moved into the Post Office building on Main Street which had formerly housed the Newtown Academy. This was about 1882.


Ten years later, two brothers of Reuben Smith bought the business from him because illness in his family forced the editor's retirement, and he moved to California to live. Allison P. Smith and Arthur J. Smith thereupon entered into a partnership as editor and business manager respectively, which lasted for forty-two years and was noted for its harmony, as well as for its success in the publishing field. The two brothers conducted the same sort of personal-


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type newspaper as had their predecessor, and drove about the countryside for a radius of thirty miles, gathering news items and advertisements. "A. P." and "A. J." as they were known, were widely loved and respected. Again The Bee outgrew its quarters, and in 1903 settled in a new hive on Church Hill, the site of its present-day establishment which was enlarged in 1950. Today's editor, Paul S. Smith, is the son of "A. J." He joined the staff of The Bee in 1932 as assistant to his father in the business management and in 1934 be- came editor upon the death of his uncle. Arthur J. Smith died ten years later and the son and nephew of the famous brothers carries on their policies and ideals today. The loyalty of the staff and their long terms of service, as well as those of the out of town correspondents have always been notable, and are a genuine tribute to The Bee Publishing Company.




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