USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > Newtown's bicentennial : an account of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the purchase from the Indians of the land of the town of Newtown, Connecticut, held August fifth, 1905 > Part 5
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Grist mills and saw mills were almost as much a neces- sity as houses to live in, for unless people had mills in which
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to grind their grain they must go to Stratford or Danbury for their flour or go without. Without saw mills they would have to depend for lumber upon the crudest of ways, by rending it, for use. At the second town meeting, held December 4, 1711, Benjamin Sherman, Ebenezer Pringle and John Griffin were appointed a committee to view the great pond and see if it would contain a grist mill. It was further voted that Jeremiah Turner should have liberty to build a grist mill and that he should be given 40 acres adjoining the mill, and a committee of three, Benjamin Sherman, Ebenezer Pringle and Samuel Sanford, were appointed to draw articles concerning a grist mill on Pond brook.
December 24, 17II, it was voted to get a grist mill on Poodertook brook. Jeremiah Turner did not build a grist mill upon Pond brook, and the town gave Samuel Sanford liberty to do the same. For some reason Sanford did not build the mill, and in January, 1714, the town gave Samuel Sanford liberty to set a grist mill near Mount Pisgah on condition that he would build a good grist mill for the sup- ply of the town of Newtown before the twentieth day of August, 1714, on the Poodertook brook, the town agreeing that no other grist mill should be erected to the damage of said Sanford so long as he would supply the town with a good mill. The town also agreed to give him 40 acres of land lying under Mount Pisgah together with the land lying southwest of the mountain to the farm known as the "old farm." So the first grist mill was located in Sandy Hook, now called. The mill of 200 years ago is gone. Another stands on the old foundations. Mount Pisgah still forms the background. Generations have passed away, but though men may come and men may go, the streams flow on forever.
In March, 1712, the town voted liberty to build a saw mill on Deep brook and one was built, where W. C. Johnson's
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feed mill now stands. The following October liberty was given John Hawley to set a fulling mill on the Deep brook above the saw mill and the use of half an acre of land above his mill, provided he does not damnify the saw mill so long as he maintains a sufficient fulling mill on Deep brook. The place is known as "Fulling Mill hole" to this day.
February 1, 1714, the town
"voted to give liberty to Ebenezer Smith, James Hard, Jeremiah Turner, John Seeley and Joseph Gray of Newtown to build a saw mill on Half Way River, northwest of Derby road, down near Strat- ford, on Poodertook river, and as much land as shall be needful for said saw mill as long as said persons shall erect a saw mill there, provided they will saw for the town to the halves and all such timber and logs as the inhabitants of the town shall bring to their mill for 2s 6d per hundred, and also shall have liberty of convenient passage to the Great River."
February 2, 1714, another town meeting
"voted to give Thomas Bennitt, John Burr and Peter Hubbell liberty to set a saw mill on Poodertook brook anywhere near the Great River, within 60 rod of the Great River, provided they build it any time within three years."
The foundations of the mill still stand, a short distance below the lower Rubber factory. So before 1715 the town was supplied with a grist mill and three saw mills, important adjuncts to any inland town at so early a date. The records also speak of a path that goes from Poodertook to Danbury as early as 1714, but no road.
In 1718 the town voted that a town house or school house should be built twenty-five feet square and eight feet between the joints. It was built by contract, the builders to furnish all the timber, make the frame, get all the shingles and clapboards, the town furnishing the nails. They were to receive for their work ten pounds money. The building stood on the highway just north of where Trinity church now stands and remained there until 1733.
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH SANDY HOOK
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In November, 1715, the first country road was laid out by a committee chosen by the town, called the road to Wood- bury, commencing at the center of the town, running east- erly to Poodertook brook, thence towards the Housatonic river. The highway was laid out 25 rods in width, with a cart bridge across the Poodertook. The same is the high- way now from the town street to Sandy Hook, though somewhat curtailed as to width. A second layout of road was made the same month and year, called the country road towards Stratford, running south from the center three miles, to what is now known as Cold Spring, where the Poodertook was crossed by a cart bridge. A few years later a highway was laid out, Io rods in width, northerly to the New Milford line, crossing Pond brook at the north end of the town over a horse bridge. Another road 10 rods in width was laid out running westward from the center past the Great pond to a place called Taunton. These four highways radiating from the center of the town, as the four points of the compass, with extensions and branches as they now have, reaching out in all directions, have become a network of lanes, highways and byways that are a delight to the naturalist, the artist and the botanist, and at the same time a burden to the taxpayers and a perplexity to the town fathers.
In 1725 the town preferred a memorial to the General Court, then in session at Hartford, for relief from taxation for that year because of their distressed condition. The Court voted (Colonial Records, vol. 6, p. 556),
"Upon the memorial of the town of Newtown showing to this Assembly that said town is at present under pressing circumstances occasioned by the removal of their former minister and their settling another, being weakened by their disunion in opinion which hath been and is still among them, and remarkably cut short in their crops this present year by the frost, by all which they are much straitened and incapacitated to pay a rate to the publick. This Assembly there- fore upon the special reasons aforesaid do see cause to free, and do
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hereby exempt and free the inhabitants of said town from paying any county rate for the year next ensuing, provided the town of Newtown draw no money for their schools nor send representatives to this Assembly during their exemption."
In the early days of the Colony letters and newspapers were delivered by post riders, who, on horseback, went over their respective routes as laid out for each by the General Court. The Court fixed the compensation for travel from town to town, and also fixed the price that might be charged by the ordinary keepers in the respective plantations, who should provide suitable accommodations for man and horse, which should be, for the keep of man by the meal, six pence, for the horse at grass four pence a night, and for oats four pence a half peck, and for hay the night, four pence. Great care was to be had by the ordinary keepers that hired horses were not to be deprived of their allowance.
In 1733 the General Court voted that Peter Hubbell have liberty to set up a ferry across the river running between Newtown and Woodbury, at a place commonly called Poodertook, and that the fare of said ferry be three pence for a single man or a single horse, and eight pence for man, horse and load, the stating of the fare of said ferry to remain in the hands of the Court.
In 1748 the Court changed the fare, and it was for man, horse and load four and six pence ; led horse, one penny ; a foot man, one and a half penny ; ox or other kine, three pence half penny ; hog or goat, one half penny.
In the early history of the town it was the custom at the annual town meeting for the town to pass a vote as to what person might keep a house of entertainment. As all travel for many years was on horseback or on foot, the transient travel was light, and not until after the close of the Revolutionary war did wagons come into general use and travel increase so as to make it any inducement to keep open what came to be known as the tavern.
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Newtown played no small part in the French and Indian wars. We can find no information at the Adjutant General's office at Hartford in regard to it, but I have in my possession a memorandum book that dates back to 1757. The book belonged to William Beardslee, who lived within an eighth of a mile of my own home, and many of the entries in the diary show that he was a teamster in the French and Indian war, although he was a mason by trade. The diary may tell its own story.
Ensign John Nichols, Dr.,
For 14 days service at driving your team, which service began March 31, A. D., 1757, and so continued till my Return from Kender- hook at 3 shillings per day, £2 '09 0
To money expended upon Team, £o 06 0
To 28 days service at Driving Team to Millers and attending them at 3 shillings per day, £3 18 0
To 16 days more at driving Team after said Team was entered into the service, £2 08 0
Then follow the names of those enlisted in the French and Indian war in 1757 :
William Stickney, Thomas Greenleaf, Thomas Knight, Nathaniel Hunt, Jonathan Rogers, William Muggridge, Samuel Wallanford, Thomas Sweet, Joseph Coffin, William Coffin, Joseph Garland, Thomas Ford, Joseph Greenleaf, Francis Holody, John Holody, Sar- geant Weed, Elimalet Weed, Daniel Norton, Morel Wicker, Daniel Tilton, John Flood, Ebenezer Flood, William Cursel, Ballard Smith, George Patterson, Benjamin Wenter, John Downing, Joseph Coker, Daniel Dooer, Josiah Brown."
Following is a copy of a letter in my possession, which is an echo from the field to the home circle. The writer was the son of Mr. Heth Peck, among the earliest of the pioneers.
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"At Lake George, July 27, A D., 1758.
To My Beloved Heth: Hoping these lines will find you as well as I and the rest that came from Newtown, and remember me to my father and mother, brother and sisters, and threw God's goodness I am preserved through many Dangers that I Have Bin in thanks be to God therefore. There was 18 men at Half Way Brook, there were three Captains, two Subalterns and one ensign. There was a man hanged the 25th day for stealing. I want to have you heare a Litil while. Sargeant Summers sent hum to have Robert Cum up and bring him up sum Chease and other provition, and if he cums if you can send up sum chease and some biskit, and so no more at present.
I remain your Loving brother, and when this you see then you think of me."
Here is a bit of pathos in an entry taken from Rev. David Judson's record :
"September 27, 1758, Lost in the army by the sword of the Enemie, a son of William Northrop, aged about 20 years."
An entry found in an old town record reads as follows :
"Calvin Leavenworth the eldest son of Thos. and Mary Leaven- worth, departed this Life by being Killed at Lake George in the battle fought between the french and english September the 8th 1755 and in 29th yeare of his age."
In 1733 upon the petition of the people of the north end of the town, the town voted "that a school house might be built near the house of Abraham Bennitt provided it be built at their own expense," which was done and the same was where the North Center school house now stands and was known as the North school. At the same meeting it was voted "that the south end of the town should have liberty to remove the town or school house towards the south end where it shall be thought most convenient for the neighborhood, at their own expense," which was done, and
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it was located where the Middle district school house now stands and was known as the south school.
The school districts of the town were formed as the needs of different sections required. North Center and Middle district were organized in 1733, Taunton in 1739, Land's End and Zoar in 1745, Palestine in 1749, Hanover in 1755, South Center in 1761, Huntingtown in 1794, Pootatuck in 1765, Lake George in 1768, Flat Swamp in 1769, Sandy Hook in 1779, Bear Hills in 1783, Head of Meadow in 1784, Gray's Plain in 1784, Toddy Hill in 1788, Gregory's Orchard, Hopewell and Half Way River date unknown, Walnut Tree Hill in 1866.
With few exceptions the districts retain the name given at their formation. The exceptions are that Sandy Hook was first called Poodertook Brook district, Land's End was known as Wiskenere, Hanover was at the first Two Mile Brook district, and South Center was first called Kettletown, then Tinkerfield, and Bear Hills is now Middle Gate.
In 1767 a district was organized known as Deep Brook district and the school house stood east of and near the home of Hermon H. Peck. It was called the Federal school house. In 1768 Slut's Hill district was organized and in 1770 Currituck district. These two districts were organized to relieve the condition of the North school, which had overflowed its capacity. These three last named districts became absorbed by other districts in a few years, thus losing their identity.
Until about the year 1800 the several district committees were appointed at the annual town meeting and the laying of a tax on the rateable estates of the town to meet the expense of the schools was kept up until the management of the schools was given over to practically the present district system, each district paying its own school expenses until by state law the schools become free. The town still has its 21 school districts and schools are maintained 40 6
*
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weeks in the year. Three years ago the town voted to estab- lish and maintain a High School. It commenced on its fourth year in September with three teachers and eighty pupils. Every taxpayer in the town should feel a just pride in the record it is making for itself.
School districts existed for the convenience of the larger towns as early as 1725, but were not recognized by law until 1766 and had no semblance of corporate existence until I794.
The meetings held by the free holders of Newtown for calling the first minister who accepted, were under date of April 29 and May 21, 1713, as follows :
At a lawful town meeting of ye Inhabitants of Newtown Voted & agreed for Ebenezer Smith to go to Weathersfield to treat with Mr Tousy of Weathersfield & request him to come and Give us a visit & Preach a Sabbath or two with us that we May Have Opor- tunity to Discorce him in Order to carry on ye work of ye ministry Amongst us. test John Glover Recorder
May ye 21st 1713-
Voted & Mad Choyce of John Glover Mr Ebenezer Smith & Mr Benjamin Sherman A Committee to discorse & treat with Mr. Thomas Towsee of Weathersfield in order to settle Amongst us to carry on ye work of ye Ministry in this Place This meeting is a journed until to morrow night sun half Anour high from ye date Above.
At ye said ajoyrned meeting ye Inhabitants aforesaid Voted to sow all ye Ministers home lott with wheat that is suitable Mr Towsee to have ye Crop Provided ye sd Mr Thomas Towsee preach ye Gospel Amongst us a Yeare. The Inhabitants aforesaid at sd meet- ing further voted and agreed and Made Choice of Mr Thomas Towsee for to preach ye gospel Amongst us for ye space of a year upon Probation in order to settlement
John Glover Recorder.
As to the way in which the town provided its minister with his fire wood the following recorded vote will show :
Agreed and voted by ye Inhabitants aforesaid to get Mr Toucey his fire wood the year 1721 by a Rate Leavied out of ye List of ye Estates
THE NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL.
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of ye Inhabitants afore sd, at one penny per pound; ye price of a load of wood, walnut wood is to be 28-6d. A load of Oak or other good wood is 28 a load, ye aforesaid Wood is to be Carted or sledded by ye Last of jan'y or ye first of February Next, and If any man Shall neglect to Give in his A Count of his wood unto ye Collector of ye Wood Rate Shall by Virtue of this Vote be as Lyable to be strained upon for his wood rate as he yt has Got no wood for ye aforesaid Mr Tousey.
Voted that Dan]] Foott Shall be & is a pointed Colector for to Tak Care of & Colect ye above sd wood rate according to vote, or as the Law Directs for ye Gathering other town Rates.
test Joseph Peck Town Clerk.
Rev. Thomas Toucey was the first minister Newtown had. He was born at Wethersfield, Conn., in 1688, gradua- ted at Yale College in 1707 and settled in Newtown in 1709. He was ordained minister by the ecclesiastical council in October, 1715, was married to Hannah Clark of Milford November 12, 1717, and became the father of nine children. He resigned his ministry in 1724, having become disturbed by dissatisfaction among the members, went to England and received a captain's commission from the British Crown. On his return from England he took up the practice of med- icine, filled many town offices, was a sound business adviser, and died March 14, 1761. A blue slate slab marks his grave in the old part of our village cemetery, on which is this inscription.
Here lies interred the Body of Thomas Tousey Esq™ who Died March 14 1761 in the 74th Year of his Age. Down to an impartial Grave's devouring shade Sink Human Honors and the Hoary Head Protract your years, acquire what mortals can Here see with deep Concern the End of Man.
Religious meetings were held in dwelling houses until the building of the meeting house the location for which was fixed by vote of the town, January 18, 1719, to be where the
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lane that runs easterly and westerly intersects the main town street that runs northerly and southerly. That loca- tion was near where the flag staff in the village now stands. The building was 50 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth and 20 feet between joints. The cost of it was to be 45 pounds. The meeting house remained there until 1792, when it was removed to another foundation on which the Congregational church now stands. In 1803 the General Court allowed the society to raise 3000 dollars by a lottery to be used in building a new meeting house, the frame work of which is . that of the remodeled building of to-day.
At a Proprietors meeting held December 30, 1740, it was voted
"that for ye futur and until ye proprietors of ye Common and un divided land of said Newtown by their major vote shall order otherwise that a warning under ye hands of the proprietors' clark for ye time being and five of ye proprietors of said common and undivided lands in writing set up, one on a tree on ye highway near Jonathan Booth's house and one on ye sign post near ye meeting house and one on a tree on ye highway near James Bots- ford's house in sd. Newtown at least six days before sd. meeting shall be Deemed a good warning to all intents & purposes.
Test Job Sherman, Clark.
Public gatherings were assembled by the beat of the drum until the year 1745, when a bell was purchased and hung in the meeting house to be used on all public occasions. The first house built in which to hold the Church of England services was on the plain south of Newtown village and was erected in 1732.
In 1746 the town voted that they might build a house in which to worship, on the highway 25 rods south of the Presbyterian meeting house. That location was nearly opposite the Newtown Inn. In 1790 the town gave liberty by vote in town meeting for the Church of England people to put a new church on the plot where Trinity church now stands.
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A Sandemanian society was organized in 1740. The building in which to hold their services stood midway be- tween Mrs. Marcus Hawley's and the Middle district school house. The society disbanded in the early years of the last century.
The Sandemanians were the followers of one Robert Sandeman of New Haven Colony and were looked upon with mistrust, so much so, that the General Court of Con- necticut at its October session, 1777, passed a "Bill granting Liberty to Sandemanian Disciples to abide in the State upon Parol, or depart with their Families." The preamble reads-
"Whereas it appears to this Assembly that Daniel Humphreys, Titus Smith, Richard Woodhul,. Thomas Goold, Joseph Pyncheon, Theophilus Chamberlain Benjamin Smith and William Richmond disciples of the late Robert Sandeman residing in New Haven have imbibed the opinion that they owe an allegiance to the king of Great Britain and that they are bound in conscience to yield obedience to his authority, and have signified their desire if they may not continue at New Haven to remove to some place under the dominion of said King-
Resolved by this Assembly-That the said persons and each of them may be at liberty to continue in this State upon giving their parole of honor that they will not do anything injurious to this State or the United States of America or give any intelligence, aid or assistance to the British officers or forces at war with this and the other United States, or if they decline giving such parole, they, with their families household goods apparel and provisions sufficient for their passage may remove to any place subject to the government of the King of Great Britain, or to New York now occupied by the said King's troops."
Passed in the upper House 1 Geo. Willys Sec. Concurred in the lower House ) Benja. Payne Clerk.
The Baptist church and society took its organic form in 1794, its numerical strength lying largely in the eastern part of the town. The church building was located in Zoar near the house now owned by Charles Pratt.
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Whenever the history of Newtown shall be written the ecclesiastical history will form a chapter of more than com- mon interest. The General Court of the colony made it obligatory upon all landed proprietors to raise a yearly amount by tax levied upon all rateable property for its ministers' support, and one of the first duties required when a new town was organized was to provide a minister. Salaries paid ranged from 100 pounds down, but never less than 50, which might be paid in money, or part in grain, wood, or provisions, the money value of which was fixed from time to time by the General Court. The Congre- gational order of church government was the approved order of the General Court, expressed in the Colonial Records as follows :
"We can doe no less than still approve and countenance the same to be without disturbance until better light in an orderly way doth appear; but yet, forasmuch as sundry persons of worth, prudence and piety amongst us are otherwise persuaded (whose welfare and peaceable satisfaction we desire to accommodate.) This Court doth declare that all such persons being also approved according to law as orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of Christian religion may have allowance of their persuasion and profession in church ways or assemblies without disturbance."
Attendance at public worship was compulsory, the General Court ordering that
"if any person shall prophane the Sabbath by unnecessary travel or playing thereon in the time of public worship, or before, or after, or shall keep out of the meeting house during the public worship unnecessarily, there being convenient room in the house, he shall pay five shillings for every such offense or sit in the stocks one hour."
It was also provided that if there was more than one religious assembly in a town all persons should contribute to one or both of the societies in the township.
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At the annual town meeting held December 24, 1733, it was voted-
"Whereas the Worshipfull Mr Thomas Toucey and ye Reverend Mr Elisha Kent have petitioned for Liberty to build upon their own Charge each of them a pew in ye meeting house in Newtown for ye use of themselves and families as they shall have occasion, the one on ye one side of ye Great or South Door, and ye other on ye other side thereof, at ye above said meeting voted in ye Affirmative that their petition Be Granted, and it is hereby Granted.
Entered ye date above Per Joseph Peck Town Clerk
The first meeting house was put to use before being com- pleted, and in 1745 after having been in use for about twenty years was made more comfortable by an expenditure of two hundred and twenty pounds, some glass windows were put in, a bell was procured and hung, thus dispensing with the drum that had been used up to that time, to call the people together on all public occasions, or in case of an alarm being sounded.
With no way of heating the building in cold weather unless with open fireplace it was an uncongenial place either as a place of worship or social converse at the luncheon hour. It was the uncomfortableness of the first meeting houses that made necessary the putting up of what are called in the town records "Sabbath Day houses."
Cothren in his history of Ancient Woodbury says,
"the Sabbath Day house was a place in which to take refreshments between the two church services, and for social and religious worship as the occupants might be inclined. It was built in two divisions, one for males and the other for females. Some families would have houses of their own for private use. These houses were necessary because the meeting houses were not warmed."
From Vol. I of Newtown Records we find there were no less than seven Sabbath Day houses on Newtown street in
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