USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > Newtown, Connecticut, past and present > Part 6
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The rooster weathervane on the Congregational Church and the towering flagpole at the center crossroads have been for a very long time famous land. marks of Newtown, and fortunately are still with us. Another landmark of a different character appeared upon the scene in 1888, but now no trace of it remains: only its name, by which a prominent hill and a Town road are called. This was the fabulous "Castle Ronald" on Castle Hill.
It seems that Peter Lorillard Ronald of New York, inheritor of tobacco millions and described as an "extremely wealthy and somewhat erratic gentle- man," happened upon the site one day and announced that it was the finest he had ever seen. This was high praise for the Connecticut countryside, be- cause Ronald was a world-traveler. Sportsman, bon-vivant, gambler and friend of royalty, he was a flamboyant exponent of a flamboyant era. He was especial- ly devoted to horses, preferring coaching to racing. He had driven a coach with four dappled grays on a tour through Europe-to great appreciation and acclaim-and was considered a famous "Whip" there as well as in this country, where he was known as "the Father of Coaching." Sometimes he drove a wagonette which had belonged to the Duke of Wellington, accompa- nied by "Nero," his pet Russian poodle. Once in Newport, after having roused everyone's interest to fever pitch by tales of his new Tally-Ho, he and his friend Leonard Jerome dashed into the fashionable resort behind six cavorting donkeys-just for the fun of it.
This was the colorful character who descended upon Newtown, bought fifty-three acres for $4,000 on the commanding hilltop, and proceeded to erect a structure described as "more of a castle than a house" with the comment that there was "no building like it in the United States"-nor in the world, one might conjecture. Characteristically scorning the services of architects, Ronald drew up his own plans. The edifice was to be an enduring monument to his 1,000-year Scottish ancestry, and a repository for his collections of armor, paintings and curios from all over the world. Quiet, conservative New- town was breathless with excitement as the structure began to rise. More than 2,000 tons of granite and cut stone were dragged up the steep slope by ox- cart. An army of masons and carpenters was employed. When the wind blew
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down the well-drilling rig, Ronald sheltered the crew in a tent, once the prop- erty of the Prince of Wales.
The walls of the Castle were solid stone two feet thick. The front was 110 feet long, and ran east and west, flanked by two 108 foot wings running north and south. There were three arched hallways thirteen feet high in the center section, the middle corridor opening at the ends and making a drive- way right through the house. The spaces on the sides held a fifty-three-foot cistern, servants quarters, wine rooms, furnace space, gymnasium, swimming pool, bowling alley and billiard room. Upstairs were drawing rooms, banquet halls and sleeping quarters. The bathrooms had trapdoors in the floors, under which were sunken pools equipped for baths of rainwater, of the Turkish, or of the Russian variety. They were filled by the pumping of a windmill whose flashing blades could be seen for miles around. Across the top of the building, between the two wings which were covered with iron shingles, a conservatory with a glass roof was built which housed orange and fig trees, and provided strawberries all year. On top of this was a twelve-foot-square observatory, sixty feet above the ground, from which the waters of the Sound could be clearly seen. There were no trees to obstruct the view, but later Ronald planted those now flourishing on the rim of the hill in the outline of a ship's prow because he liked ships. A system of speaking-tubes provided communication throughout the vast structure, and bells reached the outlying buildings. Stables, icehouse, cowbarns, carriage houses, farmers' houses, ten- nis court, driveways, gardens-all were part of the plan.
In 1889 Ronald left to spend the winter in Europe, and late that fall a fire broke out in the heating system of the conservatory and the Castle was very nearly gutted. Consternation was felt throughout the countryside, and the town voted to rebate all taxes on the property for seven years as inducement to Ronald to rebuild. Although many irreplaceable valuables had been lost, to say nothing of other costs, once again the sound of building was heard on the hill, and numbers of local artisans were employed to repair the damage.
Finally, at long last, Castle Ronald was complete, its flag flew from the 75-foot pole, and again the coach-and-four became a familiar sight around Town. But then, alas, Newtown learned a sad truth: the incredible Castle, the object of everyone's curiosity, was occupied, not by Mrs. Peter Lorillard Ronald, but by Miss Elizabeth Blake. True, Miss Blake, petite, pretty and red- haired, was always chaperoned by an aunt and was always referred to as Mr. Ronald's secretary :- but this was not acceptable to Mrs. Grundy, nor to the ladies of Newtown. Nor, evidently, to Mrs. Ronald, for never, as far as is known, did she set foot in the Castle. She was born Miss Mary Frances Carter of Boston and was one of the few American women welcomed at the British Court by Queen Victoria. As is well known, the Queen made it a rule to re- ceive no divorced women, so it has been presumed that Mrs. Ronald con- sidered the prestige of the royal entrée to be worth remaining the wife-even if only in name-of the philandering Peter Lorillard. Suddenly in 1905 Ronald died, and left the Castle to Miss Blake. Without sufficient funds for its sup-
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port, Miss Blake tried to conduct a sanitarium, but the attempt was unsuccess- ful and before long the property was lost by foreclosure. A dreary period followed. Attempts to establish schools and other ventures met with failure, and finally for many years the Castle stood abandoned, desolate and seeming- ly haunted. Still it remained a picturesque landmark as its massive bulk dominated the village from its commanding height, and many Newtowners re- gretted its demolition in 1947.
Early in the 1890's the Pohtatuck Grange used to organize yearly agri- cultural fairs which were so successful that they led to the formation of a corporation known as the Newtown Agricultural Association. This body sold shares and bought acreage approximately where the Hawley School and Taylor Field are now, enclosed the entire property with a seven-foot board fence (a challenge to small boys!), erected a covered grandstand and other buildings, and laid a half-mile race track. Here the Agricultural Fairs and other public celebrations were held. P. L. Ronald used to contribute $100 annually and his arrival in the famous Tally-Ho was always a spectacular incident. The competition for the prizes in the different classes was keen and of great importance to the local farmers. The horse races were especially lively and altogether the Fairs were extremely popular for many years.
The close of the 19th century brought the Spanish-American war, a con- flict finished almost as soon as it was begun. Only two Newtown men enlisted (according to Johnson's History), and one of them died of typhoid fever.
For a small community, Newtown can boast of a number of distinguished citizens who served their fellow men during the 19th century. She gave three Governors to the State of Connecticut, the first being Isaac Tousey who held that position in 1846. He also served as Congressman for four years and in the Connecticut Senate for six, and under President Buchanan he held the post of Secretary of the Navy. A Supreme Court membership was offered to him, but he declined. He died in Hartford in 1869.
Henry Dutton was not born in Newtown, but lived and practised law here. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives in the General Assembly, later State Senator, and Governor in 1854. Afterward he became Law Pro- fessor at Yale and died in 1869.
Luzon B. Morris was born in Newtown in 1827 and in 1880 was one of the Committee appointed to settle the disputed boundary line between New York and Connecticut. Perhaps his efforts helped our State to obtain the ex- tended section of waterfront on her extreme southwestern border. In 1893 Morris was elected Governor.
Reuben Booth was born in Newtown in 1794 and was Lieutenant-Govern- or in 1844-1845.
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A noted personality of the town was Ezra Levan Johnson, born here in 1832. He was a well-loved teacher all his life, serving on the local Board of School Visitors for the astonishing period of fifty-eight years. His painstaking search into Newtown's history brought forth articles which appeared from time to time in The Bee. After his death in 1914 his wife, the former Jane Eliza Camp, collected these and other writings of his and compiled that great fund of source material, "Newtown's History and Historian," without which no outline of our historical background could be written.
Another prominent son of Newtown was Dr. Charles H. Peck, who was born here in 1870. He was graduated at the head of his class at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1892. When the United States entered World War I, Dr. Peck was commissioned Director of Base Hospital 15 (the Mackay Unit of the Roosevelt Hospital in New York) and sailed for France early in June, 1917. The magnificent service of this Unit is a matter of record and Dr. Peck was promoted to the rank of Lieut. Colonel. His son, Charles H. Peck, Jr., lost his life in France. The local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars bears the names of father and son.
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FEDDE 55
OUR TOWN BENEFACTRESS
In closing this review it seems appropriate to add to the list of distin- guished citizens the name of Miss Mary Elizabeth Hawley, to whom Newtown will be forever indebted because of her munificent generosity to the Town of her birth. She was of the 9th generation in descent from Joseph Hawley, a buyer of land in Stratford in 1650. Her father, Marcus Clinton Hawley, was an astute business man who sensed the needs of the expanding nation and made a fortune in hardware and agricultural implements. He foresaw the de- velopment of the West and invested extensively in railroads, steamship lines and water works, and as each new territory was opened up his business in- terests increased until they were national in scope. Born in Bridgeport in 1834, he married Sarah Booth of Newtown and settled in the Booth family home (now the Hawley Manor Inn). He used to commute daily to his offices in Bridgeport or New York driving to Newtown Station in a two-wheeled gig with a pair of dalmations running under it.
Mary Elizabeth was the first child, born in 1857. Two little boys followed who died in early childhood, and another son, William E., who lived to be sixteen. It is believed that this son had some connection with Yale University: perhaps it was intended that he should become a student there-which may account for his sister's interest in the College and her bequest to it many years later.
Mary ("Mame" to her family) appears to have grown up along strictly conventional lines in a period of great conservatism. She was never goodlook-
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ing, having inherited her father's huge frame, short neck and rather heavy features, and she seems to have taken no notable part in the activities of the young people in Town, except to attend Church regularly, dressed in the elaborate tight satins of the day.
Into this circumscribed existence in 1884 there came the Rev. Mr. John Addison Crockett who was called temporarily to fill the place of the Rev. Mr. G. M. Wilkins of Trinity Church. Mr. Crockett is remembered as a man of cheerful and friendly disposition, beloved by children and an enthusiastic organizer of cultural projects. He was greatly interested in the Beach Me- morial Library and sponsored a reading circle connected with it, and also brought together a group which loved to sing, besides encouraging the various activities within his Church. That he was popular and sought after goes with- out saying. In the spring of 1885 John Addison Crockett and Mary Elizabeth Hawley were married, and left at once for a honeymoon in Europe.
It is at this point that mystery, never to be penetrated, descends upon these two lives. Marcus Hawley and his wife sailed to Europe shortly after the wedding and brought back their daughter, alone. She seems thereafter to have entered into an existence of retirement which could have been the subject of a Charlotte Brontë novel. At some period the marriage was dissolved and Mary resumed her maiden name.
The Rev. Mr. Crockett never held a Church position again, but under- took to teach classes in English in the Ingleside School for Girls in New Milford. He is described by a former pupil as "the saddest man I ever saw." What became of him after the school closed is hard to establish, but he is believed to have died, friendless and in want, in a public sanitarium.
Marcus Hawley and his wife kept their daughter almost like a prisoner. She took no part in the life of the Town and seems to have had no friends at this period. Later she became fond of two German sisters whose father had worked in some skilled capacity in Sandy Hook, but who, at the time of World War I had returned to Germany with his family. After the War Miss Hawley brought the sisters back again, in the hope of obtaining teaching positions for them, one being a fairly talented artist. But Germans were far from popular in those days and the kind attempt was fruitless. Both were remembered in Miss Hawley's will. When her father died in 1899, Mary be- came even more of a recluse, completely under the domination of her mother. Tales are told of the old lady's parsimony that are nearly incredible. She wouldn't trust a neighbor's small boy with a nickel's worth of milk until he trudged home again and brought back the nickel. Mary had to patch and re- patch her blouses, and when a fall in Bridgeport drove her knee through her skirt, she had to mend the skirt and go on wearing it. No telephone was per- mitted in the house until three days before Mrs. Hawley's death, when the doctor insisted upon it. This was a woman who possessed several million dollars.
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The mother did not die until she was ninety, and Mary was sixty-three. At once a change in the daughter was noticed, but she had worn the yoke for so long that the pattern of her life was pretty well set. She still sat in the bay- window sewing and still walked up and down the street after dusk; but she appeared in new clothes and furs, and people learned that a tiled bathroom and many other improvements were being installed in the old house. Before long the family carriage horses, "Samson" and "Dewey" were replaced by a big Pierce-Arrow car, and Miss Hawley seems to have had a little fun at last, taking daily drives and extended motor trips with new-made friends.
It was in 1922 that she made her first gift to Newtown, the Hawley School. After that, in quick succession came the fund to provide for the care of the cemetery, the beautiful gates and the Memorial Vault. The magnificent Edmond Town Hall, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Memorial Bridge and the handsome Library were all planned by her but some of them were not completed until after her death. People who remember her in those days say that she spoke so fast and breathlessly that she gave the impression of one who feared she would not have the time to get everything done.
She died in 1930 and her famous will, disposing of millions to charities and civic organizations is too well known to need reviewing. It is to be hoped that her generous spirit is aware of the gratitude and appreciation which surely will be eternally felt by her fellow townspeople.
Five years after the coming of the twentieth century Newtown celebrated the 200th Anniversary of the purchase of the land from the Indians. The ac- count of this occasion is described in the book, "Newtown's Bicentennial, 1705. 1905." Now fifty years more have passed and our Town, proud of its long history and grateful for the blessings which have been bestowed upon it, looks forward with trust in the Almighty, to an even more distinguished future.
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THE PRESENT
Chapter I
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE PRESENT TOWN
Description
In area, Newtown is the fifth largest town in the State. It is roughly triangular in shape and covers 38,644 acres or 60 square miles.
The very characteristics which attracted the early settlers remain today some of Newtown's greatest assets. The wide green valleys, the rolling hills, rocky crags and beautiful trees give us a sense of quiet permanence and beauty. To preceding generations they meant that and more, for through the years the inhabitants depended heavily on field and forest for their livelihood. Those who settled here had come to Newtown to make their permanent home, and they took good care of their chosen town. We have particular reason to be grateful for the combination of nature and circumstance that kept the town agricultural and preserved its natural beauty.
Geological Characteristics
Actually it almost happened otherwise. For many years there was con- siderable interest in mineral deposits of the area, and several mines were opened. In 1837, Charles Upham Shepard, M.D., wrote for the governor of the State "A Report on the Geological Survey of Connecticut". It contains many references to Newtown from which the following are quoted :
"An ore nearly identical in appearance with that just described (mag- netic iron ore at Redding, RRM), it being both fine granular and inter- mingled with chlorite, occurs in Newtown, on a wooded swell of land, a little east of Judson's quarry. It is found disseminated through seams of quartz in gneiss . .... As the rock is much concealed by soil, it will not be easy to settle the question whether or not a profitable bed of ore does here exist."
"At Sandy Hook, Newtown, about fifty rods north of the spot where search was made for coal, is a tunnel carried for a short distance through
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BEDROCK GEOLOGY OF NEWTOWN, CONN .*
Hou
Satonic
Hawleyville!
River
Sandy hook
Newtown
N
E
W N
Poolatuck R.G
O
5 miles
BECKET GNEISS
DANBURY GRANO- DIORITE GNEISS
HARTLAND SCHIST
THOMASTON GRANITE-GNEISS
BROOKFIELD DIORITE
*Copied from the Preliminary Geological Map of Connecticut.by H. E. Gregory and H. H. Robinson, 1906.
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a projecting quartz vein contained in mica-slate. It is called a silvermine. Attached to the walls of this excavation, traces of galena and iron pyrite were observable."
"The only serious attempt which has been made to obtain coal in the primitive of Connecticut, is at Sandy Hook in Newtown. The excavations have been made into a highly glazed, plumbaginous mica-slate, on the banks of a small river (the Pohtatuck) ."
Shepherd goes on to discuss this at length saying that "it would be a liberal estimate to rate the richest samples as containing ten per cent of carbon and concluding "all expectation of coal ought to be abandoned without delay."
"The chlorite of Newtown is well adapted to the manufacture of ink- stands and similar objects, and has already been employed to some ex- tent for this purpose."
Under section XV. Materials for Flagging, Tiling, and Paving, Shepard states "The quarries of gneissoid flagging stone in the western part of the State, are in a more fissible and easily cleavable rock. A few of the most important of them are the following: at Thatchersville (Bridgeport), Burr's quarry Fairfield, Judson's quarry Newtown, Mine Hill Roxbury, Banks quarry Redding." (Judson's quarry is at the corner of Mine Hill and Rocky Ridge roads in the Dodgingtown section.)
From Charles Burr Todd's "In Olde Connecticut" is the following pass- age: "Lower down the Housatonic Valley at Sandy Hook in Newtown, we have a gold mine which was worked by British Soldiers in the Revolution and casks of its ore were sent to England for treatment. From one pound of its ore 75 cents in gold and 11 cents in silver were taken, if the assayer is to be believed." Since then there has been sporadic interest in possible mineral resources although information on the subject is sparse. A study of the geol- ogical makeup of the State is now in process under the joint auspices of the Connecticut Survey and the U. S. Geological Survey. Until that is completed our knowledge of the earth beneath us seems likely to remain very limited.
A 1951 publication of the State Geological and Natural History Survey, by J. A. Sohon listed the following minerals from Newtown:
1. Chlorite, Green plate-like crystals of metallic silicates (aluminum, iron, magnesium)
2. Damourite, Soft but unelastic variety of mica-usually pearly luster
3. Diaspore, aluminum hydroxide
4. Fluorite, Fluorspar-calcium fluoride-green, blue, purple and yel- low crystals (source of fluoride)
5. Gold
6. Kyanite, Aluminum silicate-blue or green bladed crystals
7. Magnetite, Black iron oxide-attracted by magnet-good iron ore
8. Pyrite, "Fool's Gold"-yellow iron disulfide-source of sulfuric acid
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9. Rutile, Titanium dioxide-red-brown metallic luster-used as coating for welding rods
10. Talc, Magnesium silicate
11. Tourmaline, Silicate-various colors-clear varieties used in jewelry.
Geologically, Newtown lies in the Western Highland area of Connecticut, a section extending from the New York State line to the rim of the Connecticut River valley. This rim lies north to south from Granby on the Massachusetts border through Farmington, Bristol, Bethany and New Haven to Orange on Long Island Sound. The Highland is underlain by crystalline rock, formed through long geological phases of intense deformation, erosion, deposition and upheaval of the earth surface. Of more importance in terms of the visible results was the subsequent period of glaciation. In his report "The Glacial Geology of Connecticut", F. R. Flint estimates the thickness of the ice cover over Connecticut as 1,650 feet. The advance of the ice sheets eroded the higher areas, filled in the low, and scattered materials from distant places over the entire region. It left fine views from the upland areas, and the rounded hills which soften the landscape. It left the good soil of the meadows as well as the rocky till on many hillsides which, being too rough for cultivation, ac- counts for the sizeable woodlands. Flint also notes that in the valley of Deep Brook in Newtown there is evidence of glacial lake deposits at an elevation of 470 feet.
As will be seen from the accompanying diagram five types of bedrock underlie the town: Becket Gneiss along the Bethel town line in the Taunton Hill district; Brookfield Diorite in the immediate vicinity of Hawleyville; Thomaston Granite-gneiss in the Lake Zoar area; and Hartland Schist in a section beginning at the northern corner of the town and running southeast to include the Borough, Castle Hill and Taunton Pond regions. The remainder and far largest part of the town is underlain by Danbury Grano-diorite Gneiss.
Rivers and Ponds
The Housatonic River which flows along the entire northeastern boundary of the town is today an important source of electric power. Large dams hold its water back to form Lake Zoar and Shepaug Lake.
The only other stream of importance is the Pohtatuck River which flows south to north across the township to enter the Housatonic north of Sandy Hook, just above the old Route #6 crossing. Along the Pohtatuck are located some of the historic manufacturing establishments of Sandy Hook.
The town abounds in "ponds" as they are invariably called, mostly fed by springs or small streams. In the south of town is Castle Meadow Pond in the Hattertown section. Curtis Pond, which is a favorite of the school children who are invited there for summer swimming, and Warner Pond are both near Route #34 east of Sandy Hook. Cavanaugh Pond is in the Hanover district. Taunton Pond, which is over a mile long is the largest of the group
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and is the source of the Borough water supply. Mannhardt (formerly Carp Pond) lies just to the south of it on Taunton Lake road.
Parks and Forests
Rocky Glen State Park is situated on the Pohtatuck River west of Sandy Hook. Only 41 acres in area, it contains one of the most beautiful hemlock groves in Connecticut. Fishing is allowed.
The Paugussett Forest is a State park of 1016 acres. It is located along the shore of the Housatonic in the northeast section of the Town. It is heavily wooded and undeveloped. Hunting is allowed.
At the head of Main Street, in a tiny park, stands the Soldiers' and Sailors' monument, gift of Mary E. Hawley, in honor of Newtown's fighting men and women. It was erected in 1931. Every Memorial Day since, the patriotic organizations of the town gather here to honor their fellow citizens.
On two bronze plaques in front of the Monument are the names of those who have fought for our nation from the Revolution through World War I. The lists for recent wars are, unfortunately, not complete.
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