USA > Connecticut > New London County > Stonington > Old homes in Stonington : with additional chapters and graveyard inscriptions > Part 11
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Just a short distance below, where till recently has been a gate to a private way and quite near the old turnpike was an old house, built by Jonathan Wheeler; the old stepping stones now show where they used to come to the brook for water. Mr. Wheeler gave it to his son Joshua
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(who married Molly Turner), during his life, and after him to his son Joshua (the hunter), who never married, but built the present house standing just below on the new road lately opened, called Wheeler Avenue.
The Amariah Stanton house and ell, now known as the Hyde place, was erected in 1750, and during the year 1796 the main body of this house was removed and the present frontal was built by Judge Cod- dington Billings sufficiently far away to place the old schoolhouse, built in 1767, between the old ell and new house as it is now seen. The old schoolhouse originally stood upon the Hyde farm, quite a distance to the west of this house, and in 1780 the father of the late Governor Mor- gan of New York was the teacher there. When the new school system superceded in 1795 the building was removed and became part of this
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PAUL WHEELER HOMESEAD
house. This farm has passed from Stantons to Hulls and Billings, and then to Gen. William Williams, who left it to his daughter, afterwards Mrs. William Hyde Jr., who rented it for years till it was recently pur- chased by Mr. Henry M. Palmer.
A little east on the corner which turns to go to the village of North Stonington is the finely preserved house built by Esq. Paul Wheeler in 1750. He was given his title from being one of the Committee of Safe- ty at home to furnish fuel and clothing for the army during the Revo- lutionary war. The house scarcely looks its age, standing beautifully located upon a knoll and is reached by a long flight of stone steps, from which height it commands a grand view of land and water. After Esq. Paul's death in 1787 his son Paul lived here for several years, and then Mr. Isaac Williams bought it and his descendants have owned and lived in it for more than a hundred years. Here used to occur officers' drills, when Col. Joseph Mason, a descendant of Major John, command-
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ed. Here Col. William Randall Esq., Joseph Noyes and Mr. Stephen Avery married their wives, who were all great-grandchildren of the brave Susannah Eastman, who married John Swan in 1699.
They lived in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and she had lost her first husband, Thomas Wood, and child, Susannah, who were killed by the Indians a few years before, and again her house was attacked by them, but they determined that they would save their lives and their chil- dren's alsq; so they placed themselves against the narrow door, but the Indians rushed upon it, and Mr Swan, seeing resistance was useless,
PEREZ WHEELER HOUSE
told his wife that it would be better to let them in, but this courageous woman nothing daunted and fired with superhuman strength from the remembrance of the sorrow they had occasioned her before seized her bake spit (which was a long sharpened rod of iron used to pierce meat when roasting before the fire) and as the first Indian shoved himself through the door she collected all her strength and drove it through the body of the man, which frightened them so that the rest turned and fled; thus by her strength and determination she saved her family from a bloody grave. They soon after moved to Stonington and settled on Swan Town Hill, now North Stonington, where she lived to be a hun- dred years old. This old Wheeler house is now in the Williams family, being ocupied by the granddaughters of Mr. Isaac Williams.
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A short distance east of the Perez Wheeler house, stood a hundred years ago an old, half one story house. Here Perez Wheeler and Desire Randall began housekeeping, on the farm given to him by his uncle, Cyrus Wheeler, who died unmarried. They lived here till 1796 when they built the present house, one story, double, the east side being fin- ished at once for them to occupy, but he died before it was quite com- pleted and his widow and children lived there and later one son, Perez Wheeler, and wife, Desire Wheeler, lived in part of the house. After- wards their son Nathan raised it and made it the fine dwelling which is still owned by the family to the fifth generation.
On the highway but a little way below the Esq. Paul Wheeler house used to stand the combined house and variety shop of Isaac Wheeler and his wife, Madam Mary Shepard, on land given him by his grandfa-
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WILLIAMS HOUSE
ther, Thomas the first. This house was built in 1680; it was two stories on the south and one on the north, with show windows on the west. She was the first shop or store keeper in town and bought the products of the neighboring farms, which she marketed in Boston and the West Indies, exchanging them for articles for the planters here. She rode alone on horseback to Boston, where she bought her dry goods and her house was not only the delight of the neighboring families, but her store became a political center. She accumulated much property for those days and was considered very rich, and at her death was the wealthiest woman in the county.
The only mark now left of this once prosperous home is a short piece of double faced wall on the east side of the highway, nearly opposite the present residence of Miss Mary Wheeler, their great-great-great- grandchild. Isaac and Mary Wheeler had but two children, Margaret and Thomas. Margaret married Samuel Frink, grand-son of the emi- grant John, and a few rods below her parents' house, they built, in
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1714 the famous Frink tavern on land given them by her parents. The site is now known by what is called the old Frink garden, a small lot near the roadside, just south of Miss Caroline Wheeler's home. The tavern was a large two-story, double house painted red, with a projecting roof at the front, having its arched ceiling lathed and plas- tered. The front door was in the middle of the house, with a large room on either side of the chimney. It was a rendezvous for military training, which in those days was an event of much importance, bring- ing together, besides the regular company and officers, a large number of people to witness the military tactics, and to enjoy the good cheer always on hand at a training.
I quote from Mr. Benjamin Fish, the following: "Before Post offices were established, letters were addressed; "To be left at the Frink Tavern." There the Williams, Wheelers, Denisons, Stantons and Noyes were often to be encountered talking over the business and politics of the day. Although the temperance crusade had not then begun, there was little if any indulgence by these sturdy and substantial citizens, and the old Sazetac and fragrant St. Croix furnished at the tavern, were unblended, pure and undefiled. It has even been imagined that the grapevines, which had taken root in this abandoned cellar, where these liquors were once stored, have imbibed some of the old flavor of the soil, and that it can be recognized in their fruit, a delicious white grape. The following lines were placed over the mantelpiece in Frink's Tavern.
"Our life is nothing but a winter's day, Some only break their fast and so away, Others stay to dinner and depart full fed, The deepest age but sups and goes to bed. He most in dept who lingers out the day,
Who dies betimes has less and less to pay."
Between here. and the next Wheeler house, still stands the old red house, built by Samuel Miner in 1739. Some years afterwards Gen. William Williams bought this place and lived here with his family, but later on he bought land of Mr. Charles Phelps and built the present house occupied by Mr. Theodore Palmer. In his will, he left the Miner farm to his son Calvin; whose brother's widow, Mrs. Gen. Wm. Williams of Norwich, afterwards purchased and gave it to the Williams Memorial Institute of New London (a High School for girls, which she founded in memory of her only son, who died in early manhood.) This old house has been inhabited by very many different families during all these 160 years that it has been rented. At one time to Thomas Randall and la- ter to Denison Stewart. Now it is owned by Mr. Arthur G. Wheeler, who has recently purchased it.
One of the oldest Miner houses in town belonged to Ephraim, who married Hannah, daughter of the first Capt. James Avery, who built it and lived here in 1666. It was situated about halfway between the red house and Mr. Sanford Billings' residence, where now is an orchard, in the northwest corner of which stood this two-story half house, with
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pointed roof, which faced the south. Here lived the ancestors of Rear Admiral Stanton of the United States Navy.
Where Mr. Sanford Billings now lives, was once the home of Joseph Miner, brother of Ephraim, who married Mary Avery, sister of Hannah, in 1668. They had large families of children and both fathers served in King Philip's war, and were buried in the old Miner burying ground at Taugwauk. After him, his son lived here, who married Capt. Joseph Saxton's daughter Mary, and their son Clement married Abigail, daugh- ter of Joshua Hempstead, Sept. 1st, 1731, and here her father came with the Rev. George Whitefield and stayed the night before he preached under the tree at the Center Farm, July 19, 1747.
This old house had been burned a short time before. on April 18th, 1747, and Hempstead's Diary says that on June 10th, same year, "Son
CLEMENT MINER HOUSE
Miner raised his house and about 200 people were there," and on Oct. 24th, 1748, Mr. Hempstead records that he was at son Clement Miner's, placing his Middletown large stepstone before his front door. A hun- dred years later Mr. Rufus Wheeler was living in this new house, and his widow married Judge Coddington Billings, whose son, Hon. William Billings, took down the then old house, being careful to retain the framework of the east room, the front hall with its hand-made balus- trade and a portion of the old roof, which had been one of the deep sloping ones at the north, and a portion of this is still to be seen on this side over the outside door. These he built about and made the present new residence, with the many commodious farm buildings, which he la- ter gave to his cousin, the present occupant.
Across the lots, at the west from here, on a new road which has but recently laid out, stands a house, ancient, yet so renovated within a score of years, that one scarcely realizes that it was built in 1735, and
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was once a pest house, like many others in town at that day. At one time forty five men were quarantined here, not being allowed to go further away from the house than the alarm lot (called so because in 1781, when Arnold attacked New London the men belonging to the household were at work in this field). These quarantined men were vaccinated for the small pox and during the four weeks that they were obliged to stay here they organized a military company and had regular drills every day. Dr. Grey attended them and upon reaching the place, would go into the crib and change his clothes, before entering the house where he diagnosed the patients' condition. None were so sick, but that every good day they could all go out of doors, and when the time came to go away, great was the rejoicing, that now they were free to come in contact with the real smallpox, and yet be safe from its dread results.
This house was originally built as a half, two-story, gambrelled roof, but enlarged in 1787 by adding the west side; the huge chimney in the center fills a space at the base sixteen feet square (just as large as the great east room) and four feet square at the roof. Among the timbers constituting the frame of the house are two white oak plates, upon which rest the rafters, that are forty-four feet long and eight inch- es square; some of them are still in position and sound, and since it was renovated about twenty-five years ago, it bids fair to endure for another century. The Judge (Richard A. Wheeler) whose home it is and has always been, and to whose ancestors the farm has belonged for over two hundred years. is a great lover of history and genealogy. He enjoys a good story, whether told to him or by him, and is good company for young or old. He was High Sheriff for twelve years, and Judge of Probate for twenty-three years, has written 653 wills. none of which have ever been set aside. He has also published the history of the church and town, with genealogies of the early settlers. He has served acceptably in many public positions of trust, and helped to make peace in all conditions in which he has been placed.
He renovated this house, put in new windows and entirely made over the great room. The old kitchen was made into a dining room, and the cheese room and long entries, with the half door at the west and the heavy oak door at the north, with their strong wooden latches, where the string was always out, have all been removed. The large rooms. upstairs were plastered and large figures in red and green were painted on the walls with border at the top, of the same figures; the ground work of one chamber was white and the other yellow. At the foot of the stairs in the front hall was also painted a life size portrait of a girl with her low-necked dress and dainty slipper peeping out from the short and narrow skirt. Her hair was done in little curls about her face, which although painted as an artistic picture, still it is said to re- semble one of the family.
In our mind's eye we see that kitchen of long ago, with its wide fire- place and stone hearth, where resting comfortably on the high iron andirons are the eight foot logs, sending up their shower of sparks and roaring flame. On the iron crane, hanging across, are the pot hooks, from which is suspended various messes in pots and kettles,
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
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HOME OF JUDGE RICHARD A. WHEELER
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while before the fire rests the baker full of toothsome viands. The brick oven at the left, now storing the household canned sweetmeats, then held the deep iron dish of brown bread, and on Saturday, the skil- let of baked beans and pork, the pies of mince, pumpkin and apple, which could all be baked at one time, after the oven was heated to a sufficient degree by red hot coals. In the summer time the fireplace would allow a person to sit in it in a comfortable chair and when games of blind man's buff were played, the older ones would gather in its spacious precinct, while the children scampered about the roomy old kitchen, which is long enough for a modern hotel, being 13 feet by 27.
From the plastering were many hooks from which hung apples threaded on a stout string, pork and beef hams, various seeds done up in packages, and ears of corn which when well dried would prove a pleasure during the winter evenings, when over the bright red coals, the kernels would pop out into crisp white mouthfuls. On the round, uncovered wooden table, are two tallow candles in their iron candle- sticks, with the snuffers on the tray beside them, the pan of Rhode Isl- and Greenings, Chesebro and Prentice russets, Jilly flowers, Spicings and Denison redding apples, with the pitcher of sweet cider and dish of walnuts and butternuts, all these were companions in that hospit- able room of long ago.
On one side of the table was the great spinning wheel, and on the other side, the little linen wheel, for making the family garments was then, as now, a matter of time and strength, from the first sowing of the flax seed by hand in May, when it was scattered broadcast over the ground, until two and a half feet was the full growth in September, when it was pulled up by hand and gathered into small bundles, taken to the barn and when thoroughly cured and dried, they were separated into smaller ones and the seed was whipped out and pressed for lin- seed oil, while some was used to feed quails for trapping, also enough was saved for seed another year, these bundles were opened and spread on dry ground, and kept till about the middle of October, when the stalks would be dry and easily broken. Then it was broken up and bound anew, in little bundles, and was put in the barn for the winter, and by a machine called a Brake it was swingled, hetcheled and put through a series of setchels (a board filled with long sharp, steel need les) which removed the swingle tow (or stalk) leaving the linen fibre prepared for spinning on the little linen wheel, which was used for the thread and the finer articles of clothing. The tow was spun on the large, woolen wheel and made the coarser goods. In the Fall after harvesting the flax, a farmer gave a Flax party. Each young girl car- ried her own flax wheel, and each young man there was given a hank of flax, and asked one of the girls to spin it for him. Later he gave her a flax present, refreshments were served and followed by games and dancing. Now the process is nearly forgotten and garments made of homespun cloth are carefully preserved, and the wheels gone except where they have been kept as heirlooms and now occupy a place of hon- or in the hall or library.
As early as 1760, the cellar of this house was the weave shop where
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the loom used to stand, to weave carpets or cloth; tanning leather was also engaged in, using vats made of chestnut logs, dug out and embed- ded in the ground near Stoney Brook; here was also a weaver's shop, where apprentices were received at an early age and regularly inden- tured, by written contract, to learn the trade, and at twenty-one their "time was up" and they departed, taking with them the knowledge of the business, a suit of new clothes throughout, and a good horse which was always given them for their service during the time. Many a youth and maiden have gone from here to other fields of usefulness and their descendants have returned to visit in this house and look around from garret to cellar, where their ancestor lived so many years before, while one of these preached in the Road Church a few years ago.
One of the mothers in this household, long ago, held somewhat de- cided views in favor of fore-ordination, a doctrine which was much discussed in early times. One day, seated at her work, she heard a knock at the door and upon opening it found a niece of hers, who was a widow; she thought her countenance looked rather troubled and after ordinary greeting had been exchanged, she enquired to know what was the matter. "Well," responded she, "Aunt Polly, I have had an offer of marriage from a certain widower," naming him, and after telling her all the circumstances, she asked, "What shall I do?" "Well," said Aunt Polly, "have you given this man any encouragement?" "No," was the quick reply. "Well then, Harriet, as you have children and he has also, and neither of you have any too much of this world's goods, I would advise you not to except his offer." Receiving no reply, she glanced up into Harriet's face and saw there a look of disappointment. At last she spoke. "Aunt Polly, I thought you believed in fore-ordin- ation ?" "Well, I do somewhat," was the answer. "Well then, I believe it was fore-ordained that I am to marry this man and I should like to know how I can get rid of it?" The conclusion of the whole matter was, that Harriet accepted the widower's offer and lived happy ever after. Also in this house once lived a maiden whose name was Esther Wheeler; she was engaged to marry Daniel Stanton, who lived not far from her home. During the Revolutionary War he had enlisted and gone to sea on the Privateer, Minerva, which had captured the British merchant ship, Hannah, and among his share of the prize was a beaut- iful brocaded silk dress, which on his return, he presented to his af- fianced as a wedding gift, for they were expecting to be married within a short time. He had been home but a few days, filled with joy and hope for their future happiness, when the call came for battle at Grot- on Heights, which he responded to at once, feeling that duty called and he must obey. What could have been the feelings of this young girl, only eighteen years old, when on the morning after the battle at Fort Griswold, his lifeless body and that of his brother, Enoch, who was killed at the same time and place, was brought to his father's house from where they were carried and placed in one grave, in the Stanton family burying ground. The funeral was an event long remembered in this locality and attended by an immense crowd of people. These two young men, twenty-six and thirty-six years old, left, the one a wid-
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ow with seven children, while the other was mourned by a promised bride. When their father, who was over sixty years old, looked upon their silent bodies lying in their coffins, side by side, in the very room in which they were born, he exclaimed, "Father in Heaven! This is a fearful sacrifice to make for liberty and my country, but it is cheerfully given."
The next Wheeler house now owned and occupied by J. Duane Wheel- er, stands one half mile to the south and this farm has been in this Wheeler family since 1687 and for seven generations, the name of Jon- athan has succeeded itself. The east half of the house was built a-
JONATHAN WHEELER HOUSE
bout 1720, by Isaac Wheeler, for his nephew Jonathan, with the child's money, as his father Richard had died when he was only four years old, after which he went to live with his uncle Isaac, whose wife, Madam Mary, kept the store near the Frink Tavern. He was taught this busi- ness and the cooper's trade, and later built for himself a store and shop a little southeast of this present house where now can be seen the hollow in the ground, where it stood. In the shop he made casks, but- ter firkins, keelers (to put milk into), barrels and hogsheads. He sold his goods to his aunt Mary Wheeler for use in her store and to Mr. John Denison, who built the first house at Stonington village in 1752, just east of the present National Bank, where he also kept a store.
This Wheeler house was enlarged later by adding the west half and still later other improvements and additions were made. The wood-
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work in the east rooms, above and below, clearly show that for the early days in which it was built it was of much finer style than the or- dinary house. The cornice, wainscoting and the hand work about the fire-place in the upper chamber, are scarcely excelled in any ancient house in town. The son Jonathan Wheeler, who married Priscilla Les- ter, was a man of unusual strength; he could easily lift and drink from a full barrel. In those days, trials of physical strength were among the excitements of the times, and men tested their strength one against another. A man from Rhode Island who was noted for his great powers of muscle and sinew came to Mr. Wheeler's to measure his strength against him, but when Mr. Wheeler politely invited him to drink from a full barrel which he easily lifted for his guest, the man departed rath- er hurriedly.
HIGH BARN
All through Taugwonk, the high barn is well known, which is the very oldest barn in town. It was built a little east of the Jonathan Wheeler house about 1730, by him, for a wheat barn, and stands upon a stone foundation, over a ledge, which was blown out, leaving an un- derground room with a southern exposure, where sheep and lambs find agreeable shelter from the winds and storms of winter. During the summer months in those early times, when the barn was empty, a school was kept here by Master Niles. Quiltings were also held there and Esther Denison, wife of Jonathan, had a large petticoat quilted there, which was preserved for many years, and finally divided among her great-great-grandchildren. A piece can now be seen at the histori- cal home in Stonington Borough. It was of dark brown stuff made from homespun cloth, dyed and woven by hand, and quilted in patterns of trees with squirrels perched among its branches, and many another garment whose history is not told, no doubt found its way from these quilting frames in this old building to the owner's home. Ah! many a
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story of youth and maiden's school days could be recorded were these brown hard beams and rafters able to impart the knowledge once stored within them, but alas! we go our way none the wiser except as our im- agination may unfold for us a dreamy fairy tale of bygone times.
Adown the road at the east where the two old gates used to swing so close together, as almost to hit each other (when there were also seven others on the way between there and the Road Meeting-house) and only a short distance below here on the south side of the road, used to stand a shop, over the bubbling spring which still gurgles cheerfully under the road and through the wall, where potash and saltpeter were made and where, during the Revolutionary War, gunpowder was also made. The old ruins of the cellar of this shop, can yet be traced. Up this hill and still up another called Cherry Hill, is a house built long ago by a Mr. Randall, who afterwards moved with his family into the west, as New
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