Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 44

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne.
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: The author,
Number of Pages: 553

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The passage by sail to the metropolis, sometimes accomplished in twenty-four hours and often requiring a considerably longer time for its performance, was an event in gone days. At first the greater part of the " hull " was " berthed off" as the passenger list ran at times to over fifty, but as the Captains Selleck and Merritt era neared, more space was appropriated to freight. Market day was a busy one at the " bridge," and there was a stir when the " wagoners" arrived. James Wilkes drove from New Fairfield, Nathan Benedict from Ridgebury, John Knowles from New Milford, Benedict Dunning from Brookfield, Hull from Danbury, Myram Dikeman from Redding, Samuel Seymour from North Wilton, Russel Mead from Ridgefield, and Nathaniel Close from North Salem. The produce was stored below deck, excepting the crates of live fowl and barrels of vegetables and fruit which stood in the front of the " quarter deck." The cabin, divided into two parts by slid- ing doors, was appropriated to the captain and passengers. There were no " state rooms" but "curtained berths " (on the Orion " five lengths") lined both sides of both cabins. In a Hudson River cabin Alexander Hamilton, in 1787, penned the opening chapter of The Federalist, "undoubtedly the most profound treatise on government that has ever been written." No Norwalk sloop cabin, it is true, was ever thus distinguished, nevertheless it may well be believed that the time there spent by our merchant and professional men of the same era was not entirely misimproved. Our business men of more recent years, such as George Bishop, Charles Isaacs and Thomas Warner, patronized the route, the latter of whom when intending to make the trip was wont after bank hours to go to the dock and interrogate the captain as to "the prospect." If the reply came "fine weather and fair wind," the cashier was sure to be aboard at the hour of sailing, and almost as certain to

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find himself at James Slip in the morning. Upon the down passage the boat was con- sidered well under way when "Sheffield Island " was cleared, between which and " Sand's Point" lay the long Sound stretch, the route leading from thence through the Lower Sound, East River, "the Gate," the east and west channels (Blackwell Island), and round the "Hook" to the finish. Capt. Jacob Nash, born in Ridgefield in 1772, but a resident afterward of Norwalk, was a master mariner, and so was his son Capt. Daniel K. Nash. The latter and his neighbor Capt. William H. Ferris are to-day well-remembered Norwalk sea and sailing masters, and their business was large.

Sloop and schooner passsenger traffic gradually fell off when steam superceded the wind as a motive power. John Fitch's great-grandfather resided for a short time (1652) in Norwalk, but the great inventor himself launched the original steam-propelled vessel in the world on "Collect Pond," Smith's Valley, now Center Street, New York. Some thirty-six years after Fulton's CLERMONT, Henry Betts of Norwalk, assisted by two or three citizens of means, constructed a small engine, and planting it in a modest craft, prepared for the " trial." The start upon the maiden trip was made and "Oyster Shell Point" arrived at when the vessel was blown up, thus putting a period to Norwalk river steam navigation until the appearance in the harbor, in the spring of 1824, of the pioneer steamboat GEN. LAFAYETTE, which plied between Norwalk and New York until supple- mented later in the season by the JOHN MASHALL, Capt. Pennoyer, afterward Capt. John Brooks, an enterprise for which Henry Belden, first president of the Fairfield County Bank, stood responsible. The MARSHALL made three trips each way every week, and lay, in Norwalk, at Uriah Selleck's dock (neighborhood of Charles T. Leonard's present coal yard), whatever shore " office" the boat had being in the same Selleck's country store on the dock. In the spring of 1829 the BALTIMORE was put upon the route by Cornelius Vanderbilt' as an " opposition boat." This gave place in 1830-I to the CITIZEN, which succeeded in "running off" the JOHN MARSHALL. The Flushing Peck's now appeared upon the scene, who being associated with Charles Hoyt and having purchased the CITIZEN from Vanderbilt, ran the same while the FAIRFIELD was building by Lawrence & Smeeden near Eighth Street, New York. When the FAIRFIELD was completed and had proven a success the NIMROD? was started, and when finished, put in commission in about 1836. Previous to the latter's arrival the WESTCHESTER3 ran for a brief period, in opposition. The NIMROD being ready, the two distinguished Sound commanders,

'Called at that time "the proprietor of Long Island Sound."

2The NIMROD was at first a disappointment. The boat's stern lines had been imperfectly drawn and the vessel "dragged water." A false stern was added which remedied the trouble.

3This boat was put upon the route during the cholera season. As so many fled the city at that time the fare to and from Norwalk had been raised to

seventy-five cents. The Vanderbilt owner of the WESTCHESTER lowered the fare to twelve and one-half cents, which created fierce opposition and aroused an intense interest. The first boats came to "the bridge" and their arrival was the signal for the discharge of a cannon from Town House Hill and the gathering of multitudes at that point and at Bessey's Hill.

The WESTCHESTER was withdrawn from the Nor- walk route to be placed on the Hudson river as one of

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John Brooks and Curtis Peck, confronted each other. The Pecks disposed of the CITIZEN to the Hoyts, who ran the same to Norwalk " bridge" as a steam packet, commanded by Captain Munson Hoyt. Not long after this it was sold for excursion and then towing pur- poses, and finally came to an end by a boiler explosion. The FAIRFIELD and NIMROD did a prosperous business, and stages from as far north as Danbury and east as Bridgeport, connected with them.

At this juncture of Norwalk steamboat success the NAPOLEON was put upon the route, and the climax of enthusiasm was reached. The boat was denominated "Peck's get-up" and the evening of its arrival at "Old Well" was a memorable one. At the close of the trip the captain appeared and made a five minutes' bright speech, ending with " be true to the NAPOLEON and she will be true to you." The multitude was then invited aboard and taken up to the "bridge ; " the people still clung to the boat and were carried back to "Old Well" (where the vessel was to remain over night) and walked home again. A good business season followed.

Eventually Captains Peck and Brooks came to an agreement, that the boats, one week the FAIRFIELD and the next the NIMROD, should run through to Bridgeport. This arrangement continued until the building of the Housatonic Railroad, when Captain Brooks gave up the Norwalk route altogether, leaving everything in Peck's hands. The CROTON was now put on the line, then the CRICKET, CATALINE, CURTIS PECK and HERO. The ST. NICHOLAS, a tentative boat, from time to time ran in opposition, but the Peck's were masters of the position, and they so continued until the opening of the N. Y. and N. H. R. R. Lawrence M. Stevens, in 1849, put the NORWALK in service, and in 1852 Stephen Olmstead, Stiles Curtis and Edward C. Bissell adventured the PACIFIC, Capt. Jos- eph Byxbee (largely freight), which boat's passage through the "draw " at South Norwalk, on May 6, 1853, was followed by the terrible railway calamity of that date. The JOHN HART ( CONFIDENCE ), GEORGE LAW, AMERICUS, NELLY WHITE, JOHN ROMER, PE- GASUS, CAPE CHARLES and the ADELPHI (CITY OF ALBANY) are the names of the Nor- walk steam craft of modern times.'

the maiden boats of the thereafter famous "People's Line." This line was, it is possible, actually born in Norwalk. Alanson P. and Edward St. John, Philip C'annon and Gordon Coles were, largely, the inaugu- rators of the new enterprise.

The EMERALD and the FANNY, also the SUN and OLIVER WOLCOTT were names of boats which seem to have been at times in the Norwalk service.

thirty dollars per acre of Blackwell's Island's one hundred acres, little dreaming that the bushy and somewhat larger Ward's Island, which they as often steamed by, would in 1892 be sold to the same city at between ten and twelve thousand dollars per acre. The dangerous rocks of " Heldt Gate" and the per- turbed current beneath which the sunken Huzzar and its "rich chest" of treasures have since the Revolution had a grave were, at prodigious outlay, to be shattered and quieted by dynamite and electricity. Avenues bordered by pretentious villas were destined to course the craggy beach and rear-country above Hallett's Cove, and splendid private mansions to adorn that same wild spot, (now Astoria) purchased. in 1640, for a barrel of beef and a few trinkets. Rik-

'Wonderful changes have taken place along the East River since the earliest days of Norwalk steam- boating. There was but little shipping at that time above Grand Street. The city hospital at the foot of Twenty-seventh Street was quite out of town and the old shot tower still further remote. The young Captains Brooks and Richard and Curtis Peck might, as they passed it, have told of the city purchase at | er's and "the Brother's" lonely islands were to be-

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LOCKWOOD-DEFOREST SUPPLEMENT.

The DeForest blood, which is Norwalk Lockwood vein-communicated, proceeds from David DeForest2d. and his brother Samuel, Ist. who were sons (see page 278) of David'st. and Martha (Blagge) DeForest, of Stratford. Lemuel, son of David DeForest, 2d. had a daughter Abigail, who married, Nov. 9, 1774, James, son of Job and Rachel Lock- wood, while Samuel DeForest"st. had a son Nehemiah, who married Dec. 20, 1769, Mary, daughter of Peter and Abigail Lockwood. Both Davidzd. and Samuel'st. DeForest had a brother Benjamin, Ist. who married Esther Beardsley, of Stratford. Benjamin1st. and Esther DeForest had a son Benjamin, d. born Dec. 28, 1749, who married Mehitable, daughter of Benjamin Curtis, of Stratford. Benj.2d. and Mehitable DeForest had a son David DeFor- est, who was the noted New Haven " DON DEFOREST" of some seventy or so years ago. "Don DeForest " lived handsomely on the New Haven Green. His Spanish name-prefix "Don," was a title. He was Consul-general, 1818 to 1822, from the Republic of La Plata to this country. In early life he had been a military man, but quitting the U. S. Army service he became a merchantman, and established himself at Buenos Ayres, where he re- mained until 1818. He then came back, as Consul, to this country, and resided, facing the College Green, finally in New Haven. He had one son Carlos, and several daughters.

Mrs. Nehemiah DeForest (daughter of Peter and Abigail Lockwood, of Norwalk,) died at the age of forty-five, and was buried at Monroe, Conn. Her son William, who was a youth of seventeen when he lost his Norwalk mother, married twice. He lived about where the present Main Street, Bridgeport, makes a turn towards Fairfield. The spot at that time was in the town of Fairfield, and the DeForest homestead was a portion of that ancient level-sweep of which the estate of John Burr (the founder of the Burr family) was a part. It is to-day a beautiful part of the Park City. Here William De- Forest brought up his daughter Mary A., the future second wife of Deacon George St.

come valuable corporation sites and Hunt's Point, Throgg's Neck, Willett's Point, Cow Neck and Kidd's Rock summer homes and thronged summer haunts.

City Island still retains its pilot reputation, and its Hortons of Norwalk relationship if not pedigree, and some of them of Norwalk education, still live, but from the time of the primitive UNITED STATES to that of the palatial PURITAN and PILGRIM, these old East river guides have witnessed marvelous surprises. The UNITED STATES plied (1825) between New York and New Haven. So timid were some, at that early day of steam navigation, that one family having arrived in New York en route to leave a young member at school in New Haven sent beforehand a messenger to ascertain whether the Elm City boat had copper or iron boilers.

The full name of the barque Polly, referred to on page 303, a vessel which carried large quantities

of freight to and from the West Indies, seems to have been the Polly and Esther, and it is argued that the craft was named for Mrs. John Cannonist. ( Esther ) and her aunt Mary (Polly) Perry. In the court action in relation to the estate of Captain Samuel Cluck- stone-an uncle of Mrs. Cannon who evidently was attached to said niece-one fifth of the vessel (Polly and Esther) was court prized at £201 and 16s. Were it not for the ledger, still in good preservation, of Eliakim Raymond (grandfather of Mrs. Hon. Charles R. Sherman and great-grandfather of Maj. Gen. Sher- man) the Norwalk-West India business transactions, per the ancient Polly and Esther, might possibly seem incredible. This book shows that on Oct. 4, 1776, an agent of the W. I. line received $4200 to be laid out in West India goods, and twelve days there- after $5400, and one month (Nov. 4) thereafter $1800 in addition.

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John, of Norwalk, who was a correct, reliable citizen and a Norwalk methodical merchant- man. The trustee of his father (Stephen Buckingham St. John) was wont to relate that he never settled an estate in which matters were found in better shape; that even in the house bureaus, cupboards and closets, everything was in order. The son's store was an exhibition of the same old time system. Deacon St. John's father and mother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. DeForest, were of fine appearance, and were no strangers in Norwalk. The 1896 DeForests of New Canaan and the Oblong are said to have descended, considerably so, from John and Ann DeForest of the same Stratford and Norwalk stock. The blood, under other than the DeForest name, is found in different sections of South- western Connecticut and its adjacent New York parts. The daughters by their Burlock, Comstock, Lockwood, Olmstead and Sterling marriages have widely scattered it.

LOCKWOOD-COLT DESCENT.

Ephraim and Mercie Lockwood, the foreparents of a long Lockwood line, peace- fully dwelt on a summit (Earle's Hill of 1896) which commanded a land and water scape of quiet beauty. Their daughter Sarah, who was born in the autumn (Nov. 3) of 1670, left the paternal roof and became, at twenty-five years of age, (May, 1695,) the wife of John Platt, Jr. Mr. Platt was six years older than his Lockwood bride, and the happy father, on March 30, 1697, of his wife's namesake, Sarah, who at the age of eighteen, found a partner in a grandson of Henry Whitney, Sr., a man evidently of brain, brawn and breadth. Sarah Platt gave her hand in marriage to the young Nathan, son of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Whitney, which John, born shortly after Ludlow's purchase of Nor- walk, was a son of Henry Whitney. Ist. Nathan and Sarah Whitney had a son, Eliasaph, born Feb. 3, 1716-17. who married at the age of twenty-seven into the Bishop' family of Stamford. Here was the Union of two ancient households, and a daughter, destined to become an ancestress of note, crowned the marriage. This daughter of Eliasaph and Mary (Bishop) Whitney was to quit the green Middlesex meadows and to marry, Dec. 13, 1778, (her second bridal) a well known Norwalk man of thirty-two, Hezekiah, son of Samuel and brother of Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis, second bishop of Connecticut. Hezekiah

'Rev. John Bishop, "one John Bishop," a Puri- tan divine of Boston, whom Lieut. Francis Bell and George Slauson, of Stamford, (see Huntington's His- tory of Stamford) were sent on foot to Bo-ton to con- verse and agree with, was in Taunton in 1630 and in Stamford in 1643-4. By his first wife, Rebecca, he had Stephen, Joseph, Ebenezer, Benjamin and daugh- ter Whitinge (so will states), who died young, and Mary, who died "25, 5, 1658." Rev. Mr. Bishop married, second, Joanna Boyce, who had been the widow of Rev. Peter Prudden, of Milford, and after that of Capt. Thomas Willet, of Swanzey, Mass., and of the family of the first mayoralty of New York.

Stephen Bishop, son of Reverend John and Rebecca Bishop, had a son John (his oldest, see will of Stephen Bishop, probated July 23, 1723). This son John mar- ried about 1704, Mary Talmadge, and had ten child- ren. John and Mary Bishop's ninth child Mary, mar- ried May 10, 1744, Eliasaph Whitney, the father of Mrs. Hezekiah Jarvis, of Norwalk, which venerable woman, the grandmother of Mrs. Elizabeth II. Colt, was great great-grand-daughter of Rev. John Bishop, whose great-great Stamford grandson was Alfred, father of the Rev. E. Ferris and Hon. W. D). Bishop, of Bridgeport. A. Bishop and his son Hon. Wm. D., have been connected with the N Y., N. II. & H. R. R.

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Jarvis and his new (second) wife became the parents on the last day of the winter of 1796, of a son William (Rev.), who on Dec. 22, 1825, married Elizabeth Miller, born June 22, 1798, daughter of Richard W. and Elizabeth M. Hart. Rev. William and Elizabeth Jar- vis were the parents of the present Mrs. Elizabeth H. Colt of the city of Hartford. Heze- kiah Jarvis' first wife seems to have been a sister of the first husband of his second wife. There were five children by the earliest marriage, viz., Noah, Abraham, Elijah, Stephen and James, who were the only Hezekiah Jarvis children of Nash blood. The remaining son and daughters William, Sarah, Lavinia, Amelia and Mary were of Jarvis-Whitney blood.

The late Charles Edwin Whitney, of Darien, who was a grandson of Eliasaph Whitney, left a widow and children who still occupy the ancestral Whitney home site. These tell of the pleasing visits in gone days of the Norwalk cousins (Hezekiah Jarvis' children) to the Middlesex cradle. At the foreparent, Eliasaph's, one hundredth birth an- niversary in Feb., 1817, the Norwalk grand-children, Sarah Jarvis, then aged thirty-four, and her younger sisters Lavinia, Amelia and Mary, formed a sleighing party and rode to the ancient hearthstone on the present Darien and New Canaan rural avenue, and there greeted their venerable sire. Their grandmother, who had died three years previous to this celebration, was wont in her devotion to her Church to ride, with horse under saddle, five lonely miles to St. John's, Stamford, or St. Paul's, Norwalk. In pew No. 29 of this last named Church sat her quiet-faced and quiet-minded, godly son-in-law Heze- kiah Jarvis, with his well-demeanored household beside him. The picture of Hezekiah Jar- vis,' prayer-book in hand, leading his family on the Lord's Day to the sanctuary, recalls the custom of the English "Squire" of a former period carrying the same large sized volume in one hand, as, emerging from " the house " he early started on Sunday morning for the par- ish Church.

So devoted to the memory of her cousin Hannah (Mrs. Nathaniel Slauson) was the late Miss Sarah, oldest daughter of Hezekiah Jarvis, that she in later life made her way, in winter, to said cousin's distant funeral in 1851.

Mrs. Hezekiah Jarvis' father was present in the Middlesex sanctuary, a few fur- longs south of his home, when, on Sunday afternoon, July 22, 1781, he was captured by the enemy and marched to the beach, near Five Mile River, and taken thence to Long Island. Some of his younger neighbors jumped out of the window and escaped, but he was taken prisoner. After reaching Long Island, however, he fortunately fell in with a friend through whose intervention he was permitted to return to his family. Mrs. Jarvis was buried at the age of eighty-two in St. Paul's Church yard, Norwalk, on Jan. 15, 1834.2

'See portrait in vestry room of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk.

2For verification of foregoing Jarvis, Lockwood, Platt and Whitney lineages see Norwalk land and

Fairfield probate records, Hall's Norwalk, Jarvis and Whitney family genealogies, and register of St. Paul's Parish, Norwalk, Conn. The Jarvis father came from Long Island to Norwalk.

NORWALK.

312

OF JOSEPH LOCKWOODIst. DESCENT.

Joseph,1st. son of Ephraim Lockwood, the settler, had, as has been previously noted, one of the ample and arable home properties of ancient times. It embraced the entire south front on the present Westport road from the Cameron corner (N. E. corner of New- town Avenue and the Westport road) to the Fairfield County Children's Home, and the lot extended north quite towards the North Centre School house of to-day. The early Lockwoods made sage lands-choice, and some of the later members of the family have acted as wisely. The fine W. B. E. Lockwood North Avenue and France Street home, garden and meadow grounds is convincing proof of the statement. On the prominent Newtown Avenue site, now occupied by the old Cameron building, was, it is probable, born, Joseph, 2d. son of Joseph1st. and Mary Wood Lockwood. His Norwalk father and Stamford mother brought up the lad to diligence and until he became of age to choose a wife, whom he found in Huntington, Long Island. The young Joseph2d. was obliged to make a home for himself as his father's house fell to his (Joseph Lockwood2d.) brother Isaac, and from Isaac it went to Isaac's soldier son, Hezekiah (see note page 291). Jos- ephad. consequently went to "Sticky Plain," since " Pudding Lane," now Main Street, and was the owner of a large slice of that level and well laying land, through a portion of which the Centre Avenue of 1896 has been cut. Joseph?d. and his Rogers wife had ten children, the oldest of whom Ebenezer,' married May 22, 1776, Mary, baptized Aug. 20, 1758, daughter of Lieutenant Nathan and Martha2 (Couch) Godfrey, of Fairfield, and had twelve children, the oldest of whom, Benjamin, born Sept. 18, 1777, married Feb. 9, 1803, Elizabeth, daughter of Jarvis and Hannah (Meeker) Kellogg, and had five children, the youngest of whom, LeGrand, (see page 188 and note page 213) born Aug. 14, 1820, mar- ried Anna Louisa, born Aug. 17. 1823, daughter of Seth Williston and Fanny (Benedict) Benedict, which Seth W. Benedict, a lineal descendant of Thomas, Ist. founder and father of all the Benedicts of this town, was a Norwalk and New York City resident of intelli- gence, integrity and influence. He was at one time proprietor of the old and honored Norwalk Gazette, and his ancestral home, which it was his pleasure often to visit, and which his Lockwood son-in-law elected for the erection of his elegant country seat (see page 213) holds his name in esteem.

There were three other own brothers (Samuel, Abraham and Charles) of Rev. William Jarvis and his four sisters.

1Sarah. sister of Ebenezer Lockwood, married Ozias, Ist. (Capt.) born Jan. 29, 1737, son of Matthew and Elizabeth (Clark) Marvin. Mrs. Ozias Marvinist. was a daughter of Geo. and Deborah (Gold) Clark. Deborah Gold was a daughter of Nathan Gold, of Fairfield. She married Ensign Geo., son of Geo. Ist. and Mary Clark, of Milford, 1639. Matthew Marvin

was the son of Samnel, who was the son of Mat- thew, 2d. who was the son of Matthew Marvin, the set- tier. Joseph Lockwood Marvin, born Dec. 31, 1772, was the son of Capt. Ozias and Sarah ( Lockwood ) Marvin. His son William, born Nov. 20, 1804, (see page 152) was the father of Josiah R. and William E. Marvin, of East Norwalk, 1896.

2This mother-in-law of Ebenezer Lockwood and grandmother of Legrand Lockwood, of Norwalk, died May 31, 1761, and her husband married, second, the

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From " A Brief Book of Family Chronicles" issued by intimate friends in honor of the silver anniversary' of the Lockwood-Benedict nuptials, June 9, 1867, extract is here made:

"At the head of the column of days sacred in the family register stands the ninth of June, A.D., 1842, when LeGrand Lockwood and Ann Louisa Benedict,

both of the City of New York, and aged, respectively, twenty-two and nineteen years, were, by Rev. George B. Cheever, solemnly joined in marriage.

"During the quarter of a century which followed eight children, of whom six were sons and two were daughters, were born to them, blessing and hallowing these nuptial ties.

" LeGrand, Jr., was born January 5, 1844. Williston Benedict, born March 19, 1846. Roswell Ebenezer, born August 31, 1847. Henry Benedict, born April 23, 1852. Arthur Augustus, born January 6, 1856. Anna Louise, born June 21, 1858. Florence Isabel, born February 23, 1860. Edwin Eugene, born October 23, 1862.

Roswell Ebenezer, died May 6, 1849. Anna Louise, died November 12, 1858."

Mr. and Mrs. LeGrand Lockwood were of old Norwalk stock. They were gener- ous almoners of this world's goods, were of noble natures and their Norwalk home, which both of them adorned, was of finished elegance.

LeGrand, Jr., son of LeGrand and Ann Louisa Lockwood, married May 10, 1865, Kate Havens, daughter of Rev. Samuel B. S. and Frances M. (Havens) Bissell, and had :

Fanny Havens, born Dec. 31, 1867. (Died Feb. 20, 1875.) Katherine Bissell, born July 5, 1872. Louise Benedict, born Oct. 31, 1873. Hilda LeGrand, born Oct. 29, 1881.

widow Sarah Nash, whose daughter Sarah Nash, born Jan. 17, 1755, was the great-grandmother of Maj. Gen. Darius Nash Couch, of Norwalk, 1896.

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Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 44

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne. Publication date: 1896 Publisher: The author, Number of Pages: 553

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne.
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: The author,
Number of Pages: 553