USA > Connecticut > New London County > Stonington > Old homes in Stonington : with additional chapters and graveyard inscriptions > Part 6
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ELDREDGE HOUSE
A short distance below the Gen. John Gallup house, we turn to the west, and driving along the shaded road, we come to a gate from where we can see a white, sunshiny, low house that has belonged in the Ben- nett family for six generations, and ever since the land was granted to them by Gov. Winthrop. The old house was built in the latter part of 1600, and stood a trifle to the east of the present one, which was erect- ed in 1773. At the rear of the house is the old style lean-to where the wood-colored rafters are in plain sight. The room has an east and west door, through which can be seen the garden with its fruit trees and vines climbing over the walls. Within, the rooms low and large, are full of cheer and warmth. The west one has been enlarged; over the fire-place are broad and deep panellings, while in the opposite corner is the long buffet, with its shelves filled with old-fashioned crockery. For many years four generations have occupied this house at one and the same time. It is still held by the family, and bids fair to remain so for many years more.
The village of Old Mystic, around which so much of historic interest
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centers, lies nestled among the hills, with the Mystic River sparkling in its graceful curves and stretching away to the south. Several hundred- year-old houses are found within its limits. The first Clift house is a little northeast of the old Hyde factory. It is now painted yellow and
GEN. JOHN GALLUP HOUSE
stands somewhat alone upon the old Turnpike road, larger than its neighbors and well preserved, though built about 1790 by Amos Clift, when he came to Stonington from Preston and married Esther Wil-
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THE BENNETT HOUSE
liams. Soon after they moved to Berne, New York state, and his wife dying in a short time, he returned to Stonington, where he married again and had a large family of children.
The old John Hyde homestead a short distance below, was built by
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
Mr. Enoch Burrows in the opening years of 1800, in a more elegant fashion than the ordinary house of those days, large and square, with hipped roof and double porticos at the front door and directly above. Mr. Burrows presented it to his daughter Lucy, who married Mr. John Hyde in 1808. Here, under the same roof and the same shingles, were born their fifteen children, and one grandchild, and as the years rolled on, and the children, and children's children came to the old home, it became a busy hive as well as the center of life and fashion in the vil- lage. Sometimes as many as twenty-eight were in the family during the summer months, when their friends gathered within these hospit- able walls. Among these were two of the Rodgers family, one of whom became Admiral, and the other Commodore, George Rodgers, who lost his life at the bombardment of Fort Champlain; Capt. Ringold of the
CLIFT HOUSE
U. S. Army, who fought in the war with Mexico, also Lieut. A. P. Rod- gers, who was killed in leading the "Forlorn Hope" at Chapultepec, Mexico.
This house was the first in the place to be opened to the Methodist Itinerant, and in one of the front parlors meetings were held. In the east and west rooms were marble mantles and hearths with ornamented cast-iron backs and sides to the fire-places, where blazed the hickory logs, throwing out heat sufficient to warm the room and once to even crack the marble hearth. Mrs. Hyde was very fond of flowers, and the beautiful garden laid out with borders made a fine display for all; even the children delighted in it, as they saw them from the windows of the old schoolhouse near by. Mr. John Hyde was the oldest of fifteen chil- dren and became the father of the same number. It was indeed a proud moment when he came to the Polls, at the Road, with his eight sons and all voted the Whig ticket.
Two of the sons became ministers, and one daughter married Rev. James McDonald, a wonderfully impressive speaker and honored by all who knew him. He preached in New London for a time and was after- wards connected with a college in New Jersey. A son, John Hyde, was editor of "The Parthenon" (a magazine of Union College), and valedic-
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torian of his class, there. He was United States Consul to San Juan, Porto Rico, under President Lincoln, and was once introduced by Daniel Webster as "one of the brightest jewels of the Whig party." He was a graduate of the Harvard Law school and a medical school in New York
HYDE MANSION
City, and was proprietor and editor of the New London Gazette, while he was considered by talented men as mentally qualified for any office in the gift of the people of the United States. This Hyde house has been sold and rented for years, and the family scattered from the At- lantic to the Pacific Ocean, but still pleasant memories cluster about it, and influences emanating from here have made, and will yet make other homes better and happier.
A little farther down on the opposite side of the street, stands the old home of Elijah Williams, always called the Case Bottle House. Recent- ly verandahs have been added to the upper and lower stories, somewhat changing its appearance. Here dwelt Elijah Williams in 1796, who married Mehitable Rossiter, granddaughter of our Rev. Ebenezer Ros- siter, who preached at the Road Church in 1722; she was known to all the villagers as Aunt Hetty.
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
The oldest house in the village is a little farther down, nearly opposite where the old schoolhouse used to stand. A little low, wood-colored house, called the Chester house, or more familiarly, the Washington house, as it is said that George Washington once dined here when pass- ing through the place. It has the east and west sides covered with the old time shingles, three feet long, and as you enter the front door the little square hall invitingly receives you; the high shelf, built out from the rear of this wall, was used in days of yore, to place the band-boxes upon, containing the Sunday bonnets, which could be taken out of the box and put on the head the last thing as one left the house. The rooms on either side of the door are pleasant and the sun streams in through the small panes of glass which are in the windows. It is now
ELIJAH WILLIAMS HOUSE
being renovated by Mr. Brenton Copp and will add much of new style architecture to this street in. the village.
The Leonard Williams house is virtually unchanged, located opposite the old Hyde store, now owned by Mr. Horace Williams; it is known to the older inhabitants as the Amos Williams' hotel or the Old Wayside Inn, where once stopped the four-horse stages that ran from New London to Providence. The stages and horses were owned by Mr. Frank Amy, and Mr. Giles Hallam, Jr., drove one for a time. At this tavern, travellers were fed and regaled at the bar; it was also made famous at one time by the arrival of Daniel Webster, who was on his way from Boston to Washington, and reached Stonington the day the Lexington was burned; as there was no means of transportation to New York from there, except to go to New London, Mr. Capron, who kept the Steamboat Hotel, where Mr. Webster put up, employed Mr. Russell Wheeler, who was in his service there, to procure a sleigh, as snow was on the ground, and take Mr. Webster to the Ferry at Groton
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
Bank, but finding themselves chilled, they stopped at the Inn at Mystic to warm both the outer and the inner man, after which they proceeded on their way to Groton, where they made a call upon Mother Bailey of Revolutionary fame. This house is still in the Williams family, stand ing firm and secure under its protection of fine old shade trees, close to the road-side. After Mr. Amos Williams' death, his son, Leonard Wil- liams and family occupied it, and the beautiful flowers about the yard and in the rooms, with all the old-time garments stored away in the chambers above, will long be remembered as well as those who made this home so delightful.
The large white house, with three tiers of bay windows, standing near the center of the village, with its gardens in the rear and a de- lightful view of the Mystic River winding among its green islands just
CHESTER HOUSE
before the door, is the Enoch Burrows house, built in 1790. One of his daughters married Esquire Elias Brown, and lived there for a time. The long fflight of marble steps which leads up to the front door came from Mr. Burrows' marble quarry, located in western Massachusetts near Pittsfield. From the same quarry was brought the marble to build the new City Hall in Philadelphia, which occupies four blocks. The house also contains a marble sink and a large stirring dish, all from the same quarry, which was brought down the Connecticut river in some kind of a water craft, and landed at the dock before the door.
Mr. Burrows was a large landholder, owning many beautiful farms and Mystic Island, originally called Ram's Island. He married Esther Denison, daughter of Grandmother Jane; she was a very energetic woman, a housekeeper and homemaker of New England's best type, large-hearted, generous, sociable and entertaining, an excellent cook, and gave much attention to all appetizing things which please the eye and appeal to the palate. She had a good force of domestics to execute her commands, and when her table was seen covered with china, glass and silver, and loaded with choice viands, one needed no second invita- tion to partake of her hospitality. Her husband was a man of com-
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manding figure, six feet two inches in his stockings; genial, kind-heart- ed and capable, and in his later years, in his home in West Troy, New York, was called Judge Burrows. Their son, Silas, afterwards lived here; he was interested in ship-building, and engaged in commercial pursuits in New York, and was also in the whaling and sealing business. He made several trips to Brazil and Hong Kong, China, where he estab- lished a commercial house; he left there in 1859 for the last time and made his home in this village, where he died in 1870. Mr. Burrows was the most wonderful business man that Stonington ever raised. He was possessed of a powerful will, untiring energy, and industry, and overcame all obstacles that confronted him. He served in the defense of Stonington Borough in the war with England in 1814 and later in life was a personal friend of three of the Presidents, and was at the
AMOS WILLIAMS HOTEL
death-bed of one. His children occupied the house as a summer home at various times, and it now belongs to his grandchildren. It is built in a grander style than most houses of its age; the long hall and side ver- andah, large rooms and windows protected by their iron balconies, make it noticeable as a fine old residence. In the September gale of 1815, the tide swept high up on the steps. In front of this house once stood a gambrel-roofed store, where John Hyde began his business edu- cation with Mr. Enoch Burrows.
At the foot of Quaquataug's western slope stands the Dr. Manning house on a little eminence with ample grounds before the door. It was built about 1797 by a Mr. Eldredge, and owned by Stephen Avery, of whom it was purchased by Dr. Mason Manning about 1825, when he came here from Windham, Ct. Here he lived when he married his sec- ond wife, Miss Harriet Chesebrough Leeds, in 1829. Mr. George Green- man occupied the house with him at the time as it was arranged for
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two families; there was also a store kept in a little building just at the entrance to the present driveway near the street. This house is large and double, the sides are covered with shingles which were placed there
ENOCH BURROWS HOUSE
when it was erected, though the roof has been covered three times. Dr. Manning was a physician of the old school, able and trustworthy, and resided here till his death.
On November 15th, 1815, a tract of land was bought in Old Mystic of Stephen Avery, by Thomas and Christopher Leeds, where the quaint
DR. MANNING HOUSE
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
house which stands high up on the east bank of the Mystic River is now seen; the style of the house with its gambrel roof and "overhang" with its little lean-to at the rear shows that it must have been built be- fore the sale of this land. Mr. Christopher Leeds married Mercy Ho- bart, and lived there in the early part of 1800. Just below here was a shipyard where vessels were built. Enoch Burrows, John Hyde and Christopher Leeds were partners in this business. One of the vessels built here in 1812 was the Flambeaux; she was designed by Mr. Leeds himself, and was a brigantine of 300 tons, and was sold to the United States government. Thus we see that in those days this quiet valley was a busy place and the scene of active operations.
On the road that leads to the village of Mystic, stands a house, large and square, painted white, situated on a side hill, commanding a fine
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CHRISTOPHER LEEDS HOUSE
view of the surrounding country. It looks like a modern house, but the original foundations are of the house built by Capt. Joseph Gallup in 1720. It has been improved and kept up by the different families, who have made it their abiding place, among whom were Dea. Samuel Longworthy, his son, George, Dea. B. F. Lewis and others, till now it belongs to Mr. James Norman.
At the east of the village rises the grand old Quaquataug Hill which commands an extensive view of the surrounding country and Long Island Sound, while nearer flows the Mystic River. At its very summit, a road turns and winds away among the pleasant meadows for a quar- ter of a mile, till you reach a typical old New England home, built by Nehemiah Williams in 1719. It is a large, two-story, double house painted white, and it seems almost impossible that it is so old, till you enter the ell which is evidently the oldest part and remains the same as it was originally built, with the various rooms out of the large kitchen;
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
sink room, buttery, cheese room, press room, milk room and meal room, all with the bare floors kept clean and sweet.
The old cheese press still stands in its accustomed place, while the kitchen has the old hooks in the ceiling, the old-style half doors at the
LEWIS HOUSE
west and east, through which a view of the garden makes a pretty pic- ture. A little bedroom off this kitchen seemingly just large enough to take in a cot, was the sleeping room used in those early days. In the dining room stands the grandfather's clock, still evenly ticking away
PRENTICE WILLIAMS HOUSE
the hours, as in the days of yore. In the west room is the panelling to be seen on the entire east side, and over the fire-place is a little cup- board, while in the southwest corner is the tall corner buffet which was built into nearly all the old houses. This is filled with ancient crockery
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
in the usual colors of pink, blue and pencil ware. The summer beams and cornices are in plain sight in all the rooms, lower and upper. Best of all is the children's play-room (for there are many little Williams children yet in this old home). In the long north room above, the rafters are exposed and the bare floor, with its broad oak boards divid- ed off, is the play-room of each child; the girls have houses and dolls in theirs, and the boys have barns with cattle and horses. In the corner stands the very same little old narrow bedstead which used to stand in the tiny bedroom below, and is now occupied by one of the present gen- erations of little Williamses. This house and farm have belonged in this same family since the house was built, having been left from one
DEACON ELEAZER WILLIAMS HOUSE
generation to the next, till now it is possession of the eighth, Mr. Pren- tice Williams and family. Mr. Nehemiah Williams son, Park, who was the great-grandfather, was in the Revolution in 1776, and again as drummer in Capt. William Stanton's Company in 1780.
There were several other Williams houses about this hill; the one down the road but a short distance just back of where Mr. Erastus Holmes now lives, was the Joshua Williams house, which has been taken down within the last fifty years. This Mr. Williams was married three times, and his descendants are worthy men and women, who are located in different states. Mr. Sanford Williams lived south of here a few rods, in a one story brown house which was recently burned, only a heap of ruins now marking the spot. The old schoolhouse stood on the south side of the road, but that, too, has been removed within the last half century. There were two other old houses very near here, but time has removed the traces; in one of them, which was built by Sam- uel Mason, the son of Capt. John, lived John Reynolds in 1669, and in
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OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
the other Mr. Elias Stanton was born, who afterwards moved to New York state.
At the very summit of Quaquataug, on the site of the first Williams house on this hill, stands a double mansion house set amid its white enclosure, which was built in 1775. The first house which stood here before this was erected in 1712 but was burned down. It happened on this wise: Dea. Eleazor Williams' twelve year old daughter, Martha, or Patty, as she was called, was sent upstairs towards night to get something from a small closet where flax was kept, and as she carried a lighted candle, a spark flew from it, which quickly ignited the flax; child-like, frightened at the mischief wrought, she hurriedly closed the door, and ran down stairs, telling no one; soon the flames were seen, but as there was no adequate means of extinguishing them, the house was reduced to ashes in a very short time. Patty grew up and married the great-great-grandson of the famous Capt. George Denison, and lived in the present old Denison house, near Mystic.
CHAPTER FIFTH
"We sat within the farm house old, Whose windows looking o'er the bay Gave to the sea-breeze, damp and cold, An easy entrance night and day.
Not far away we see the port, The strange, old-fashioned, silent town,
The lighthouse, the dismantled fort, The wooden houses, quaint and brown."
On a high hill which commands a beautiful view just east of the vil- lage of Mystic, Ct., stands the Stanton Williams house, formerly owned by Capt. John Stanton, son of Thomas the first, who married Rev. Wil- liam Thompson's daughter. He was educated to be a teacher of the Gospel to the Indians, but afterwards was engaged in other work. He was in the Narragansett fight in 1675. His home was near the village of Mystic, bounded by lands of Capt. John Gallup and Capt. George Den- ison. The house which he built was near the entrance to Mr. Elias Williams' present residence, and must have been a large one, as the cellar yet indicates. His son Joseph lived there till 1712, when he built a new house on the brow of the hill, very near the present one, and his son Joseph was carried there as a baby; he grew up and married, and still remained there until he divided his land, and gave this house to his son William, and his land to the south to his son Nathan, who built the present house, now occupied by Mr. Stanton Williams, in 1777.
It was at first a one-story house with no ell till 1798 when Mr. Na- than Stanton moved to New York state, and his brother William rented the old homestead and came to live at this place, when he raised it to two stories, and since then it has been somewhat improved and renovat- ed. A short distance from here, down the hill, at the north and quite near the present ice houses, used to stand the old, old schoolhouse, built in the middle of 1700, which was so close to the great rock, still there by the roadside, that the children used to reach out of the win- dows after a rain-fall, and dip their slates in the pools of water which had filled the little hollows in the rock.
Major John Mason, whose military career is well known and appre- ciated in Stonington, where he had much land given him by the Colony of Connecticut, bequeathed to his son Samuel that part between Pe- quetsepos Brook and the land of the emigrant Thomas Miner, and to his son Lieut. Daniel Mason all that part west of Thomas Miner's to Blackmore's Head (a rock which was the eastern bound of Capt. George Denison's second grant of land in Stonington and is located on the east side of the present farm of Henry M. Palmer).
This youngest son of Major John's became Captain and occupied in Stonington an ample domain confirmed by the Colony to his father near the borders of Long Island Sound. This estate comprised "Chip- pechaug Island in Mystic Bay," since then called "Mason's Island," and a large tract of upland and meadow. He was commissioned quarter- master of the New London Co. Troop of Dragoons, Oct. 17th, 1673, in
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the 21st year of his age, was Lieut. Oct. 7th, 1701, and promoted to the rank of Captain. He was for a time instructor of the newly estab- lished school on the Plain in Norwich in 1679. This was after the death of his first wife, Miss Margaret, daughter of Edward Denison, of Roxbury, Mass. He married again in 1769, Rebecca Hobart, and re- turned to Stonington as his permanent residence; he was closely iden- tified with the interests of the town, representing it at times as Deputy to the General Court, and was influential in the affairs of the Colony. His descendants have ever since made this Island their home ,and there is yet standing an old Mason house which is now occupied by those who are in direct line from Lieut. Daniel Mason.
"The Riding Way," which is now crossed by the bridge between the Island and the mainland was once crossed by boats, and at low water
STANTON WILLIAMS HOUSE
by those on horseback, and a story is told of the old negro boatman who carried travellers across, having been warned against taking a certain young man over who was known to be very partial to one of the young ladies on the Island, but whose relatives were very much opposed to his choice; they tried in various ways to coax and bribe the old negro to prevent his being carried across, but to no avail, for he was never able to decide upon the right man, consequently never knew when he was carrying him over; so this love story worked out its own gracious fulfillment.
In the village of Mystic only one house remains over 100 years old, and that is the one now owned by Mr. Frank Dickinson on Denison St. It was called the Beebe Denison house. He married Hannah Chese- brough, half sister of Mr. Grandison Chesebrough, in 1784, and they lived there until her death in 1800. At that time only three houses were standing in the present village of Mystic, this one, the John Deni-
.
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son house, and the one on Pistol Point; both of these are now gone. The latter was destroyed by fire, and the Denison house was taken down, the timbers and boards that were not too badly decayed being used to make mementos, or stored for future use. The large doorstep was placed in front of the new residence of Mr. Frederick Denison, where it can now be seen. There are several other houses in the village which approach the century mark, the one of Capt. Simeon Haley and his two brothers, George and Jeremiah, who built, one the steamboat hotel near his brother Simeon, and the other the present house now occupied by Mr. John Manning. The house in which Capt. Jerry Holmes used to live was built about 1813, and two years later during the September gale, September 23, 1815, the water came to the upper cellar stair before they left the house. For many years Capt. Holmes'
BEEBE DENISON HOUSE
family lived on one side of the house and Mr. Charles Mallory's on the other. The two women occupied the same kitchen and cooked at the same fireplace. Capt. Holmes and wife were both very patriotic, he being active in the defense of Stonington. He also had command of the Hornet which was used to carry torpedoes, some of which were buried in their cellar for some time before they were used in an at- tempt to blow up the British fleet. It is told of his wife that she fired the first cannon on the shores of Mystic in celebration of the peace be- tween England and America in February, 1815, and was always ready to asist her husband in time of need.
Capt. George Denison's oldest son, John, lived in the old Denison house situated at the foot of Mystic Hill, across the road west of the present blacksmith shop. It was the first house built in the village about 1669, and became a well known land-mark. It always remained in the Denison family till it was taken down in 1883, and so is remem- bered by many yet living. Aunt Lavinia Denison also lived there and was a remarkable woman. Her Thanksgiving gatherings were a not- able event in the village and everybody loved to meet and greet her on
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JOHN DENISON HOMESTEAD
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these occasions. She lived to a ripe old age and will be long remem- bered. John Denison's great-grandson Isaac, being in poor health, was not able to go into the Revolutionary war, but opened this mansion house, in which he lived, for the shelter and care of many refugees from Long Island, when the British held the same, during the war.
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