USA > Connecticut > New London County > Stonington > Old homes in Stonington : with additional chapters and graveyard inscriptions > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Mr. Isaac Denison's son, Ebenezer, married for his second wife Mrs. Phebe Moore (Wickham Smith); she was a woman of remarkable worth, born in 1769, and at nineteen years united with the Cong. Church. At the age of twenty-four she organized the first Sunday School on Long Island and the second in America. Her husband, Mr. Joseph Wickham, died in 1808, and three years later she married Ed- ward Smith of Stonington and soon after started the first Sunday School in Eastern Connecticut. This was afterwards connected with
HENRY M. PALMER RESIDENCE
the Road Church. After Mr. Smith's death, she went back to Long Island and there organized her third Sunday School; returning to Ston- ington in 1815, she married Mr. Denison and began a Sunday School in Mystic which was the first in that vicinity; and it was attended by large numbers of people, who came from all around the town. She had decided views on temperance, and the following story is told of her: a traveller who stopped at her door said "Madam, can you give me some cider?" to which she replied, that they did not keep cider for travellers. "Well, can't I stay over night here?" "No, sir, we don't keep a public house." "But, madam, you may not know who I am, and the Bible says we must not forget to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." "Very true, sir," she said, "but angels don't ask for cider."
Mr. John Denison's granddaughter, Prudence, lived in this house also, and was a very attractive young lady. She had many admirers and
-
74
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
suitors, chief among them being Mr. William Denison, a distant cousin called Wicked Will. One day the minister ,who was also charmed with Miss Denison, was stopping to dinner with the family, and while asking a blessing at the table (which according to custom was more the length of a prayer) wicked Will passed the window, and by some trick of the eye, conveyed to Miss Prudence's mind, that he particularly wished to see her. It is quite evident that Miss Denison was not much impressed by the minister or his words, for slipping quietly from her seat at the table, she met Mr. Denison at the front door and stealthily they entered the best room, where they enjoyed each other's society for a good part of the afternoon. The minister, of course, upon lifting his eyes, missed the bewitching face of Miss Prudence, and later was informed of the cause of her absence; meeting Mr. Denison the next day he expostu-
JUDGE GILBERT COLLINS RESIDENCE
lated with him, complaining that he had deprived him of Miss Denison's society and taken her from the table during his prayer. He was an- swered by Mr. Denison in Scriptural language: "Sir, you must watch as well as pray." It is needless to say that Mr. Denison married Miss Prudence and they lived in the Prentice Denison house which used to stand just east of the present schoolhouse in Quiambaug, where Mr. Henry Baldwin now lives; he also owned land which extended over Montauk Avenue.
His son, Jonathan Denison, built the present house in 1745, which stands there today, so renovated and well preserved that one could scarcely believe that any part of it could be reckoned by centuries. This house originally stood on the opposite side of the road, a two story, gambrel roof, half house, but later Mr. Noyes Palmer, who mar- ried Miss Dorothy Stanton in 1784, bought this land of Col. Oliver Smith, who lived there, and enlarged it by adding a half to the west
.
75
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
side, making it a double house; his son, Dea. Noyes Palmer, also lived here, and still later it was moved across the road and reconstructed into its now modern style, by its present owner, Mr. Henry M. Palmer. The view from this hill can scarcely be described, but anyone who takes the drive towards the Sound, seeing the blue water of the great ocean glistening in the distance and the beauties of distant hill and near-by valley, where Quiambaug Cove gracefully curves, now in, now out, be- tween its green banks, can but think, perhaps, living among all this God-given beauty may have had an uplifting influence upon wicked
utH
JAMES NOYES HOUSE
Will, for when about 60 years old, he became a religious man and abandoned his evil habits. His property, which had been put into the hands of a conservator, was restored to him, and he became prudent and exemplary, and was respected by his neighbors. No higher eulogy need any man desire.
The drive down Mistuxet Avenue shows us the Old Borough of Ston- ington, so situated reaching out into Fisher's Island Sound, with Paw- catuck Bay stretching up into the east and Stonington Harbor on the west, that we can understand why it is called by the older inhabitants "The Point," for it seems only a point of land reaching into the water which flows far back upon either side of the village. At the foot of the eastern slope of Palmer's Hill, in what is now called Umphrey's Or- chard, was once a hut built and occupied by two freed slaves, Umphrey and his wife, who lived and died there. They formerly belonged to Mr. Thomas Noyes, who lived at the Harbor.
76
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
There were many slaves here in various families during the first half of 1700, and many stories have been related of them, one of which was told by Thomas Noyes (father of the Thomas above referred to, who married Mary Thompson in 1731) of a slave named Jumbo, who be- longed to him. One moonlight night he brought his coat to his mistress and asked her to mend it for him, saying, "If you will, I will tell you when Marsa Tom will come home." Marsa Tom was Captain of a vessel gone on a voyage to the West Indies, which was considerably overdue, and they were all feeling very anxious about him. She told him that she would mend the coat, so Jumbo went out into the lot north of the house, and went through all kinds of antics; finally he came in and said
NAT. NOYES HOUSE
to her, "Tomorrow, at one o'clock, you look off, and you will see Marsa Tom's vessel coming." Sure enough, the next day at one o'clock, she looked off and saw the vessel coming outside the reef, beyond the har- bor at Stonington.
Leaving Montauk Avenue, we turn to the left into a comparatively new road, and come to another new old house, now owned by Judge Gilbert Collins of New Jersey, who comes with his family every summer to enjoy the beauty and health-giving vigor of hill and vale, cove and glen. This original structure was built by John Hallam, soon after his marriage to Miss Prudence Richardson, in 1683, the land having be- longed to her brother, by gift from their father, and purchased by Mr. Hallam. It was afterwards sold by them to Mr. Charles Phelps, whose sister married Mr. James Noyes, and the property was held in that name till sold to the present owner, who has improved it and the grounds about the place. Within the front hall a glance above shows the winding staircase, even to the third floor, and in the long dining room the large fire-place and mantel testify of age. Though remodelled
77
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
and seemingly almost built anew, the old Hallam house underlies the present structure, making this the oldest house in town.
If one loves the water and enjoys the sight and sound of breaking waves and billows, let him visit the old house on Wamphassett Point just west of the village of Stonington, which faces the harbor, and so near to the water that with closed eyes one can easily imagine himself "rocked in the cradle of the deep." It is an ideal home for a sea cap- tain and his family, of whom there have been many in this house to sail away over the ocean blue, and one of them, Captain Ben Noyes, born in 1780, commanded a ship running between New York and Italy for many years.
This house was built by Mr. John Whiting in the early part of 1700, who lived here when he was deacon of the Road Church in 1739. It is
SAMUEL DOUGHTY HOUSE
built a story and a half, with gambrel roof. The ground in front of the door used to be laid out in terraces of green banks which extended to the water's edge, while stone steps reached from one to the other, and old-fashioned roses bordered the walks. The interior is almost new, having been renovated by the present owner, Mr. Nat. P. Noyes. The cupboard in the north room, which was over the fire-place, with the little glass doors, has been taken away, also the panels and fluted col- umns on either side, which were there when it was built. When the whitewashed plaster had been removed, some pieces of dark, rich, figured paper was discovered on the dark plastered room, which had evidently been brought from England, as no paper so elegant as this was found here in those early days. When the cupboard was removed, among the debris was found an Indian moccasin made of some kind of leather, with the sole turned up and over to form the upper covering, and then gathered with a leather throng over the instep. In the attic,
78
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
securely driven into the plates of the house, was found an iron ring, supposed to have been placed there to fasten some person, slave or free, who was insane, as no asylums were then known where those thus afflicted could be protected.
But a few feet north of this house used to stand another similarly built house, where the great-grandparents of the present owner lived in 1760, but it is not known who built it. Mr. and Mrs. Noyes died there at the great age of 92 and 94, and lie buried near the water in a grave- yard where also lie the Hallams and Whitings. This old house was ac- cidentally burned, taking fire from live coals in a pan of ashes which had been taken from the stove and set upon a chest while the occupant Aunt Betsey, was out of the room, and in a few moments an old land- mark had disappeared. The old farm house owned by the Hallams
GRANDISON BARN
once stood a little above here, but has long since passed away, and al- most all knowledge of it also. The town records tell us that "in April, 1751, Mr. John Whiting paid John Hallam £90 in old tenor bills for a quarter of an acre of land on the west side of the harbor, being part of the land which Mr. Thomas Noyes, Jr., now improves."
Near here, on Darling Hill, most beautifully situated, overlooking Long Island Sound, stands the house now owned by Mr. Samuel Doughty of New York, who has remodelled the Langworthy house into a fine summer residence. This land originally belonged to the Hallams, and it is not known whether Dea. Samuel Langworthy bought or built the old house which stood here when he moved to it from the Lewis place at Old Mystic, but he lived here with his wife, who was Ethelinda Davis of Hopkinton, and the daughter of Joseph and Mary, whom he married in 1796. Afterwards he moved to Stonington and married, second, Lydia, daughter of Dea. Fellows. His son Henry took down the old house and built about it, living in various parts of it at the same time, until he had made a fine country house called the "Farmer's Palace."
79
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
On our way to Stonington, we pass the Grandison Chesebrough place, standing in a most beautiful spot overlooking the water, at a corner of the road near the Catholic Cemetery. It is now a most commodious barn, but the large gambrel roofed building was once a comfortable home with a busy household. It was built by Mr. Nathaniel Chese- brough about 1758; he married Hannah Wheeler and second Mary Hallam; they had a large family of children. Their son Enoch married Sally Sheffield and lived here, and their son, Rev. Amos Chesebro, is now living at West Hartford, Ct. Mr. Nathaniel Chesebrough's young- est child was Grandison, who later owned this place where he lived till his death in 1855, and the name of the Grandison house has ever since clung to the place.
CHAPTER SIXTH
Often I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea,
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town.
Strange to me now are the forms I meet
When I visit the dear old town,
But the native air is pure and sweet,
And the trees that o'ershadow each well known street,
Are singing their beautiful song.
-Longfellow.
I am indebted to Miss Emma W. Palmer for much of the following chapter.
In the village of Stonington, we find many houses a hundred years old and more. On the west side of Water Street we see the Capt. Nathaniel Palmer or Peleg Brown house, as Capt. Palmer married the daughter of Mr. Brown in 1798, and came into possession of this house; he also owned the adjoining property on the north and the dock. At the time of the great September gale, this large house was lifted from its foundation by the force of the waves, and one end of it dropped into
the cellar. It was replaced by Mr. Samuel Chesebro's father and as there were no jackscrews or modern implements in those days, he lifted it gradually back into place by wedges. What an undertaking it must have been with such appliances. Peleg Brown was a ship build- er and also a merchant, for in 1816 he was in Augusta, Georgia, and wrote to C. Billings, Esquire, as to the price of cotton and tobacco.
On the corner of Water and Harmony Streets, we see the long, low house known as Dr. Wm. Hyde place, built by Rev. John Rathbone, the first Baptist minister of the Stonington Church in 1775. Later he sold it to Dr. Hyde who married Rhoda Palmer in 1808, who lived and died here. He was the good docter for every household and was sent for, no matter who was sick or what was the cause for wanting him. The Docter would come in with a good deal of bluster and fuss, and sometimes with some good-natured profanity, and before he saw the patient or investigated the trouble, he would call Nancy Brown to get the bowl and bandages necessary for blood letting, and then would follow the examination of the tongue and the operation of phlebotomy to the amount of a bowl full of the fluid of which it is now considered so necessary to have a good supply. If the invalid had consumptive tendences, this was considered a most importent step, to get relieved of a surplus of bad blood from which the patient was suffering; this was followed by copious portions of calomel and julup, and if the person had a good strong constitution, there was perhaps an even chance of recovery. Many stories are told of old Dr. Hyde and his wife, who was almost as good a docter as her husband, but his brusque way covered a warm and tender heart, and though he scolded and scowled outwardly, the patient was sure of his help and sympathy.
This house has been altered but little, and the small office on the
81
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
south side so long used by the old Docter and his son is still there.
This son, William, married, first, a daughter of Capt. Ephraim Wil- liams, and second, Ellen Williams, daughter of Gen. William Williams, and she long survived him.
The Polly Breed house is an old gambrel roofed house standing at the west end of Church St. facing east. The front door was originally on the south side, but in the great gale these were lifted and carried some distance away. The house itself came very near being swept away, and after the gale had subsided the bowsprit of a large vessel lay on the west side of the roof, where it had been driven by the force of the wind. Some say it was forced through the side of the house; how they
CAPT. ALEX. PALMER PLACE
got it off, history saith not. There is not much known about this house except that it is one of the oldest in the Borough, being built by Samuel Stanton and son Nathan, who came over from Pawcatuck and went into business here. Polly was daughter of Mercy Stanton and Prentice Breed, born 1781, and lived here many years. Her uncle, Nathan Stan- ton, was killed by falling from a haymow in the barn on the farm now owned by Mr. Sanford N. Billings.
The present Wilkinson home was once the William Terrett house, which will be seen by the picture to have the old-fashioned gambrel roof, and stood on Main St. a little north of Capt. Amos Palmer's, and on the old map of the village houses now owned by Dr. Geo. D. Stanton, it is designated as the Terrett house. It was bought by Col. Joseph Smith and moved to Church St. between Main and Water on the north side, where it now stands. The family lived in it for many years till it was finally sold and passed out of the name.
In 1795 Samuel Trumbull, son of John Trumbull, printer, of Norwich, came to this village and issued the first number of a newspaper entitled
82
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
"The Journel of the Times." The motto of the paper was "Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide, Firm as the hills to stem oppres- sion's tide." He probobly built his house soon after coming here, as most of his children were born there, so it was one of the oldest in the Borough, and stood on the southeast corner of Broad Street and Main, on rising ground, fully six feet above the level of the street. In front
DR. WILLIAM HYDE HOUSE
was a space of fifteen feet, or more, to the edge of the bank, which sloped very sharply to the roadbed on Main Street. The large elm tree was not enclosed. It was a two-story frame building, with an ell on the east, having a shed roof which sloped almost to the earth, so that anyone standing on the ground could touch the eaves. In the year 1850 it showed no paint, but was just the old wood-color, and had a large, rough, stone chimney in the center, and was a "Relic of ye olden time .. " The house was taken down about 1860.
Directly east and back of this Trumbull house, stood the old Meet- ing house; for years it was there in a pitible condition, with its sash and windows broken out, its days of usefulness over. It was moved from Putnam's Corners, and put on this lot, presented to the Society by Charles Phelps, Esq., in 1785 or 1786. It was built by a lottery and by subscription, amounting in all to £400. It was a good sized two- story, frame building, and fronted to the west; the space near the front was small, and there were two large boulders but a few feet from the
83
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
door. It is said that its spire or tower was the mark used as a target during the bombardment, the British thinking it stood in the center of the village, which accounted in a measure for their shot going over
POLLY BREED HOUSE
and doing so little damage; many shot are even now picked up in the swamps beyond. It was taken down in 1860, and the work of "The White Meeting House" was finished.
The old house standing opposite the Congregational Church belonged to Captain Lodowick Niles, who married Elizabeth Stanton, Nov. 5th,
WM. TERRETT HOUSE
1797; in February of that same year, he bought land at Long Point of Joshua Swan, with mention of a barn thereon standing, for £100 (now more than $300), containing about 36 rods. It was bounded by mear stones and walls and the southeast corner of Mr. Peter Crary's dwelling house, this being the only mark which might now be known, as the Crary's lived about this section of the town. Again in 1807 Captain Niles purchased another lot of land of Bartholomew Hedding
84
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
with a dwelling house thereon, among the boundaries of which is mentioned land lately owned by John Jeffords, Robert Palmer, "and the salt water."
He seemed to be a large landholder, for many are the records show- ing land purchased from various people. In 1809 another deed from Joseph and Nancy Smith of Oxford, Shenango Co., New York, for $275
SAMUEL TRUMBULL HOUSE As it looked in 1850.
sells one-half of an undivided lot of land and half of house, bounded west by Robert Palmer's land. enist by Stiles Phelp's land, it being Joseph's and Nancy's share in the estate of Captain Joseph Eells, deceased, the other half belonging to Betsey Eells; and again we find a deed from Jonathan Phelps to Captain Niles of land bounded thus; begining at southeast corner of sd. Niles land, thence east and north by land belonging to the heirs of Jonathan Palmer, north and west by
DEACON FELLOWS HOUSE
land of Captain Amos Palmer's, west and south by Joseph Smith's land, and south and east by Coddington Billings and Lodowick Niles," this deed being in 1811. This Captain Niles had a daughter Charlotte, who, while attending school at the old Academy was killed by a stroke of lightning, as she was sitting between her two sisters during a severe thunder tempest. Another daughter, Eliza, married Mr. John F. Trum- bull,and came to this old Niles house to live, but she died in a few years, and some time after Mr. Trumbull married the daughter of Joseph
85
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
Smith, and still remained in this house, which is yet owned by his children.
The Dea. Elnathan Fellows house was situated just across the present railroad track from the Niles house, and was a quaint-shaped, gambrel- roofed building with an underground room and leanto at the back, built against a little rise of land. It was occupied for years by Dea. Elnathan Fellows, whose carpenter shop was located where the Charles Brewster house stands. His daughter Lydia also lived here, and mar- riad first, Mr. Samuel Langworthy, and second, Mr. Samuel B. Chese- brough. Mrs. Lydia was an earnest Christian worker and eloquent
CAPT. LODOWICK NILES HOUSE
in prayer and praise in the house of God. When she died her funeral was held in the old Baptist church, and upon that occasion Mr. George S. Brewster rose to speak in praise of the departed when he suddenly fell back and expired immediately. This old house was taken down some years ago, and a modern one now stands upon its site.
The large, old-fashioned, double house standing on Water Street, with the store of Mr. Frank Trumbull within, is the Jabish Holmes house, the large chimney in the center, with the stairs going up against it, as was the custom in these double houses. It received many a scar in the attack of 1814, and there is yet shown a large cannon ball imbed- ded in the chimney. Jabish Holmes married Lydia Clift of Groton, and left three sons, of whom Jabish, the eldest, married Emmeline Williams.
The old Cobb house stands near the head of the breakwater on
86
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
Water Street, and remains very much as it was in 1814. It is low, with gambrel roof and sloping leanto in the rear, and was shingled in- stead of clapboarded. It stood in the thick of the fight near the bat- tery, and so has many scars recieved during the bombardment. At that time it was owned by Elkanah Cobb, but has since passed out of the family name and possession.
Captain Thomas Swan married Fanny Palmer, daughter of Captain Amos Palmer; she was born July 4th, 1776, and was very proud of the fact. They kept tavern, as it was then called, in a large house on the south side of the town landing for many years In a little book entitled
JABISH HOLMES HOUSE
"The tour of James Monroe, President, June 28th, 1817," it is recorded as follows by S. Putnum Waldo: "I am indepted to the politeness of George Hubbard, Esq. for this account. The revenue cutter "Active" came to anchor with the sloop of war, "Enterprise,"the Newport and New Haven cutters, about 3.30 p. m. A committee consisting of Messrs. Enoch Burrows, Paul Babcock and George Hubbard were appointed to go out to meet him and in about fifteen minutes after, this committee preceded the barge of the Chief Magistrate and his suite, Gen. Swift and Mr. Mason, and attended by Com. Bainbridge and Gen. Miller, under a national salute from the cutter, landed; they were received with acclamations. Col. Randall and the committee, followed by his suite, escorted him through a double row of citizens, uncovered, to Captain Thomas Swan's hotel; a salute was fired from the old eighteen pounder, that sent such terror and dismay to the squadron of Sir Thomas Hardy, on the ever memorable 10th of August, 1814, and a very large concourse of citizens from this and adjoining towns uttered their spontaneous welcome by three hearty cheers, which the President reciprocated by coming to the door and bowing
87
OLD HOMES IN STONINGTON
right and left. Several volunteers who served at the bombardment were presented and warmly greeted by the President, who congrat- ulated them on their brave resistance. He afterwards visited the Bat- tery or redoubt, then standing and also the arsenal. In the evening the President received the visits of a number of citizens and compli- mented them for their spirited defence of the town, and seemed much pleased with the town and its people. Upon the morning of the 28th of June, he embarked on his favorite vessel, the Enterprise (that has compelled a barbarian Corsair to strike her colors),and left our shores for Rhode Island."
This house was remodeled about 1832 or 1833, owned and occupied as a dwelling house by Gurden Trumbull, who married the daughter
COBB HOUSE
of Capt. Swan. It was during this occupancy that it was burned down. My mother often showed me the room which President Monroe occupied and the high post bedstead, with its formal hangings, in which he slept, was preserved there until the fire. This house was burned in the large conflagration that destroyed all that part of the town. Mrs. Swan used to love to tell about the attack and of her burying a large crock of June butter (rather than let it fall into the hands of the British) in her asparagus bed, and on her return, looking for it in vain; for she had forgotten just where she put it, or some one had spirited it away, she never knew exactly which. It was from Capt. Swan that the powder used in his vessel, the "Halka", was obtained, when all other ammunition had given out and the guns were about to be spiked; this probobly saved the place from destruction, as soon afterwards more was brought from New London.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.