USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Winsted > The Winsted tercentenarian > 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
At the May session of the General Assembly in 1732 the division of the Western Lands as made by Hartford and Windsor proprietors was confirm- ed and each parcel officially named in the one act. Winchester being named for the cathedral town in England.
The first conveyance of Winchester land had been made two and a half
years before on November 28. 1729. when John Kilbourn of Hartford con- veved to Jonathan and David Hills of Hartford all his right in the West- ern Lands. It was not then known in which of the seven towns the land was located. It consisted of 153 acres di- vided into three parcels, two being lo- eated in 1758 and one in 1763.
The Four Pitkins
The first name on the list of Hart- ford proprietors of Winehester and the largest landowners were the heirs of William Pitkin. Esq .. he having died in 1723. the second of that name in a line of four in direct succession, one of the most distinguished families in Connecticut history, who had most to
Toll Gate West of Winsted on fireen Woods Turnpike (Norfolk Roud ) 1880
40
THE WINSTED TERCENTENARIAN
1
Winsted, a Century algo, 1835, Center. First Congregational Church, facing Parade Ground ( Winsted Park): left. Still River Bridge (Rowley Street ) ; top left. Street IIill
do with the plans for the settlement of this town. The first three were ances- tors of Mary Pitkin Hinsdale, belove.l Bible teacher, whose home is now own- ed by the Winchester Historical So- ciety. William Pitkin. the progenitor of the family. highly educated and of "discerning mind." came from Eng- land in 1659. was prosecutor of the Colony in 1662 and two years later was appointed by the king. attorney-gen- eral. He was a member of the Colonial Assembly fifteen years and of the Council from 1790 until his death. com- missioner of the Colony to the United Colonies and, with Major Talcott. ap- pointed to negotiate peace with the Narragansett Indians and other tribes.
William Pitkin. the second. who-e estate became the largest landowner in Winchester. totaling over 600 acres. was born in 1664 and was educated in the law by his father, became Judge of the County Probate Courts and Court of Assistants, 1702 to 1711: Judge of the Superior Court when it was estab- lished in 1711. and was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1713. He was elected annually to the Con- nectient Council from 1697 until his death. April 5. 1723: was Commission- er of War. 1706-07: one of the com- mittee to prepare the manuscript of the laws of the Colony in 1709 and to re- vise them in 1718. Judge Pitkin was a member of the committee to build the first State house in the Colony of Hartford. He was much gifted in repartee. Referring to him in an argu- ment in court the opposing counsel. Mr. Eels, remarked: "The court will perceive that the pipkin is cracked." when Attorney Pitkin shot back: "Not so mmneh cracked. your honor. but he will find it will do to stew cels in vet."
Previous to 1706, he built two full- ing mills at Pitkin Falls near Hart- ford and carried on a large business in "clothing and woolens."
At the first meeting of the propri- etors of Winchester. May 14. 1744. at Hartford. William Pitkin. Esq., the third. later governor, was chosen mod- erator and Thomas Seymour. an emi- nent lawyer. proprietor's clerk and registrar of deeds. Seven days before the meeting. Mr. Seymour had been appointed lieutenant in the Second company of train band. He with John Whiting. Esq .. and Sammel Talcott. E-q .. were appointed agents to proste- ente any persons who trespa-sed or en- rroacbed on the land in Winchester.
Eighteen years after Winchester had been set off to the group of Ilart- ford proprietors, a second meeting was beld October 8. 1750. with Judge Wil- liam Pitkin. the third. moderator, and Thomas Seymour. clerk. It was "Voted. that Capt. Stephen Hosmer. Ephraim Hubbard. William Cole and Jonathan
Olcott be a committee to proceed and view the lands in the Township of Winchester and to make Report to ve Proprietor- of said Township at their next meeting." It was also "voted. that the Committee now chosen give dir warning to the Indians not to set fire on any of the Lands in said Town-hij spon Peril of Suffering the Penalty of the Low in case they so Do. Voted. that those Proprietors who are De -irous to go and Settle on said Land'- as Soon as the same shall be laid Out Do give in their Names at Ve DNY! meeting of said Proprictors."
The third meeting. called in De- cember. 1750, was adjourned to the first Tuesday in January. 1750/51. at the State House in Hartford when it wa- "Voted. that any time hereafter when a number not Less than Twenty of the Proprietors shall apply to ve Clerk. signifying their Desire to proceed in the Settlement of said Township and that a meeting should be called for that purpose. the Clerk of said Proprietors shall then have power and authority to warn such meeting by setting up Noti- fications at three public places in the Town of Ilartford at least Twenty Days beforehand therein Signifying the time. place and Occasion of such Meeting.
The next meeting. called for Au- gust. 1753. at the State House with John Ledyard as moderator. was ad- journed to the first Tuesday of Octo- ber. 1753. when it was "Voted. that William Pitkin. Thomas Hosmer and John Ledyard. Esqs., or any two of them. be a committee to take into Con. sideration and form a plan for the most advantageons dividing and set- tling of the Township of Winchester. who shall have power to take proper Obligations for settling Twenty Rights
上找7
.A.
Clark de Wetmore Store building on site of Hotel Winchester, burned down in 1856: Home of the Mountain County Herald and St. Andrew's Lodge of Masons and Union Lodge of Odd Fellous
--
41
THE WINSTED TERCENTENARIAN
of such as shall first offer to settle in said Township. Voted, as soon as I'wenty of the Proprietors shall be- come Obliged or give their security to Enter on and Settle their Rights in Such Form and npon Such Terms as the Committee for that purpose shall Direet, that then sd. Committee (first having ye approbation of the Proprs. ) shall proceed to lay out and Divide said Township to and among the sd. Proprietors."
Caleb Beach First Settler
In the meantime, the settlement of the township had already begun. Caleb Beach of Goshen, who had secured oue of the undivided rights by deed May 21, 1750, built the first house on the east side of the Hall Meadow (Torrington- Norfolk) road near the southwest cor- ner of the town. This house did not stand long for it was soon replaced on the same site by a one-story frame honse with a stone chimney which is still standing and has a bronze tablet placed there by vote of the town. Caleb Beach, the first settler, was an ancestor of Frank W. and George Beach, now of Winsted and Winchester, respective-
ly. He died in Goshen, January 13, 1160/61, aged sixty-one. His third son, Joel, six feet, four inches, tall, inherited his father's traps and shav- ing knife. He was "a mighty hunter" and "also a fish-faneier," and his wife was also "a dead shot."
There were four other settlers in the next few years, Ebenezer Preston ot Wallingford and Joseph Preston of Farmington, near the Torrington line oft from Blue Street, and Landlord Adam Mott of Windsor with his son, Jonathan, who built a log tavern m 1754 on the "Old Sonth Koad," oppo- site the Hurlbut cemetery, where Les- ter Ilurlbut now lives.
The next meeting of the proprietors was held Jan. 22, 1756, when Col. Sam- uel Taleott was chosen moderator. Wil- liam Pitkin, the third, who had been moderator and was a member of the committee to plan the division of the town, was then Lientenant-Governor. He was born April 30, 1694. He mar- ried Mary Woodbridge, daughter of Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, sixth min- Ister of Ilartford. He was town col- lector at twenty-one, representative in the Colonial Assembly, 1728-34, Speak-
er in 1732, member of the Council in 1734. captain of the train band in 1780, colonel in 1739, Judge of the County Court. 1785-52. JJudge of the Superior Court in 1741, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for twelve years, an:l Lieutenant - Governor, 1754-1766. He was "a strong advocate of Colonial rights" and the first in the colouy to resist the "Stamp Act" in 1765. Hle "indignantly rebelled" at the action of Governor Fitch, and. with Jonathan Trumbull. left the council chamber when the Governor and others were taking the oath to support the Act.
William Pitkin Elected Governor
At the next election, Pitkin was elected Governor over Fitch by a ma- jority "so great that the votes were not counted." Trumbull was elected Lieutenant-Governor under him. Gov- ernor Pitkin "took a leading part" in the first movement made towards the formation of this government and nation. At the first meeting of the Colonies to form a plan of union in 1754. Lieutenant-Governor Pitkin and five others, with Benjamin Franklin as chairman, were chosen a committee by
-
4.
-----
-
S. :
Hotel Beardsley corner in 1847, from Water Color presented to the Winchester Historical Society in 1934. In Hotel are located Beardsley de Acord's private bank. store of Elliot Beardsley, owner of the Hotel. I. Park's Store. Right. livery stable, showing Hartford-Albany Stage Coach; left. across Lake Street. two-story building created by Bissell Hinsdale in 1800. year after Green Woods Turnpike was opened. He did "a large business, selling goods, buying and selling cattle for the West India trade. making potash and buying cheese for the New York and Southern mar- ket." The building was razed in 1848 to make room for Camp's Hall. Over the bridge, shop built in 1823 by James Boyd and James M. Boyd for manufacture of will cranks and spindles, later coach axles and mill screws, removed in 1851. On the corner, old Mile Stone, now in front of the Methodist Church, "26 1/2 Mi. to II., 67 Mi. to Albany."
42
THE WINSTED TERCENTENARIAN
Residence of Mrs. Ruth C. Il. Reidy
the Colonies to meet at Albany. N. Y .. and prepare a Constitution. The plan then presented was the germ of the Articles of Confederation, rearranged by Franklin in 1775 and adopted in 1777. under which the Colonies lived till the adoption of the Federal Con- stitution."
After being Governor three and a half years, Governor Pitkin died sud- denly October 1. 1769. aged 76. His great popularity and "his policy in resisting the Stamp Act and his sud- den removal by death while in oftien probably gave to his deputy. Trumbull ('Brother JJonathan'). the governorship at the following election." Ilis tomb- stone records he was "cheerful. humble and temporate. zealous and boll for the truth. faithful in distributing just- ice, scattering away evil with his eye : an example of Christian virtue, a pa- tron of his country. a benefactor of the poor. a tender parent and faith- ful friend."
His second son. Timothy Pitkin. graduated from Yale in 1747 and wa- installed pastor in 1752 of the Congre. gational Church in Farmington and was one of the "half-century ministers of New England." llis eighth child. Temperance Pitkin. married Bissell Hinsdale of Colebrook and Winsted. the grandfather of Mary Pitkin Ilins- dale, who built a store in 1800 on the south corner of Main and Lake Street- the year following the opening of the Green Woods turnpike ( Main Street ).
Dividing the Township
January 22. 1755. it was voted to "proceed as soon as conveniently may be to lay out and divide the township or so much as may be necessary to promote and encourage the speedy set- tlement thereof," and a committee Was appointed to view the lands and to survey and renew the bounds and cor- ners. At the next meeting. November. 1757, the plan was adopted to lay out two aeres on the pound to each of the proprietors in two divisions, and Capt. Thomas Seymour, William Pitkin, Jr.,
and John Robins, Jr., were appointed a committee to make up the interests of each proprietor.
William Pitkin. Jr .. the fourth in line. son of the governor and elder brother of Timothy, a member of the committee to divide the land in Win- chester, was born in 1724. He was ap- pointed in 1758 major of the Connecti- cut forces raised for the expedition against Canada; served through the campaign under Gen. Abercrombie and proved "a faithful and gallant officer." He was appointed colonel in 1762; was a member of the Connecticut Council. 1766-1785, embracing the period of the Revolution; a Judge of the Superior Court for ninteen years; elected to Con- gress in 1784, and was a delegate to the couvention to ratify the Constitution of the United States in 1788. In 1775, with others of his family. he began the man- ufacture of gunpowder in the same mills owned by his father. "the first powder mill in the state if not in the country. being previous to Panl Revere's near Boston." Ile took an active part in some of the most important events in the history of the country and died December 12. 1789.
The township was divided into five and one-half tiers running northerly and southerly. five of them approxi- mately a mile wide, about six rods be- ing reserved in each tier for a high- way. Then the lots were laid out at right angles to the tier lines beginning for the first division at the southwest corner, one aere to the pound of the proprietors' lists of 1720, proceeding northward three and a half miles, then beginning in the second tier and so on. The order of precedence was decided by drawing lots. The second division was laid out in the same manner, be- ginning at the northeast corner.
The third tier in the second divi- sion from the north overlapped by a half mile the third tier in the first division from the south. In the first division the rights of Caleb Beach. the Motts and the Prestons inelud- ed their houses. Two mill rights of six aeres each, at Still River falls (Gilbert Clock factory) and on the Lake Stream, were reserved. The al- lotments were ordered recorded in May. 1758. The last division, one aere on the pound, was made in November, 1763, dividing Danbury Quarter in five one- half mile tiers and around Highland Lake. Some lots were a mile long and half a rod wide. What is now the city of Winsted was owned by about twenty-eight proprietors. James En- sign had as one of his tracts eighty- seven acres east of the first bay of Highland Lake and the whole of what is now the center of Winsted to the first tier line east of Case Avenue.
Town Incorporated 1771
The western part of the town was the first to be settled probably because of the smoother land, but the settle- ment was very slow. By 1768 there were twenty-one families and 110 peo- ple. In May of that year the Win- chester (Old) Ecclesiastical Society
Residence of Dudley L. Vaill
-----------
43
THE WINSTED TERCENTENARIAN
Residence of Dwight B. Tiffany
was incorporated by the General As- sembly, comprising the township west and south of Highland Lake and fol- lowing up Mad River to the line north of the lake to Colebrook (two miles from the Barkhamsted line). The first meeting of the Society was held nnder the act of incorporation. June 29. 1768. Three years later on the first Monday in March. 1771, the Society voted to petition the Assembly to incorporate the town. which was done by an act passed at the May session and the first town meeting was held July 22. 1771. when Warham Gibbs was chosen moderator. Eliphaz Alvord. clerk, and Jonathan Alvord. Seth Hills and Sam- nel Wetmore, Jr., townsmen (select- men). :
Lieutenant John Wright
The first settler in Winsted in the "New" Society. as distinguished from the "Old." or Winchester Society. was Lient. John Wright. a hardy pioneer and gallant soldier, and the first set- tlement in ancient Winsted was in the north part of the town near the Colo- brook line on the Old North road. east of Rowley Pond. on the site of the homestead of Edwin C. and Miss Anna Rowley. Lieutenant Wright, who later was appointed moderator of the first meeting of the Winsted Society, was the great-grandfather of Hon. John T. Rockwell, who gave the Winchester Soldiers' Memorial Park to Winsted. which lends added significance to this beautiful memorial.
It Was an important day in the history of Winsted when Lieutenant Wright. a prominent citizen of Goshen. having sold his farm in that town. seventeen days later on April 10, 1769. with his son. Jabez, bought of Capt. Joseph Rockwell of Colebrook. a tract of 121 acres on the Old North road south of the Colebrook town line and
long known as the Rowley Pond dis- trict. Captain Rockwell from Windsor. the second settler in Colebrook. had built his house four years before np on the hill north of the pond. He had had a deed of the 121-acre tract only four days. He was naturally interest- ed in getting new settlers in his neigh- borhood. a little hamlet having already been established about him in Cole- brook.
Lieutenant Wright had a wife. three daughters and five sturdy sons then living so that when he began building his new house in the summer of 1769 or the next spring on the post road. the first to be erected in Winsted. he had plenty of help. The Colony road. the first in Winsted. had been built abont eight years. The lieutenant was used to pioneer work for he had gone through the same experience twice be- fore in the course of thirty years and had endured the hardships of a soldier's life in the campaign against the French
and Indians in the expedition to Can- ada.
The members of the Wright family established an interesting little settle- ment in this historic district where the son. C'apt. Freedom Wright. a few years later built his tavern northeast of his father's honse. There was a schoolhouse just over the line in Cole- brook. Later there were to be brick vards and a tannery nearby.
Whence Came the Wrights
Who this pioneer settler of Wilt sted was and from whence he came is an interesting chapter in the history of the town. Lieutenant Wright was born in Wethersfield. May 31. 1709. and was approaching his 60th birth- day when he purchased his land in Winsted. Lieutenant Wright's great- grandfather. Thomas Wright. Esq .. emigrated to America and settled in Wethersfield about 1639. He was a deputy in the general court of Con- necticut in 1645 and was "a man of influence and high social standing in the colony." He owned what was known as Wright's Island in the Connectiont River. called by the Indians "Man- bannock." "Great Laughing Place." The island no longer exists as the river ent a new channel and in 1792 the Gen- eral Assembly annexed the land to Glastonbury.
Lientenant Wright moved to Goshen when he was abont thirty-two years of age. having bought land on West Street in that town in August. 1740. and soon after built a house there. The next voar he was chosen surveyor of high- ways. Seven years later. in July. 1747. be bought fifty acres of land in West Goshen. then known as Canada Vil- lage, and erected a house. and was the owner of a mill and other buildings.
In March. 1759, this hardy pioneer was appointed a second lieutenant by the General Assembly in the Tenthi
--
Residence of Edward B. Gaylord
44
THE WINSTED TERCENTENARIAN
Residence of Curl S.Moore
Company under Capt. Tarball Whit- ney in the Third Connecticut Regiment under Col. David Wooster and was in service in the French and Indian war. By order of the colonel he was on de- tached service "to keep the garrison at Fort Miller" from June 17 until early in November while the company was at Lake George. Ticonderoga and Crown Point. He was credited with being in service the longest of any member in the company. thirty-six weeks. and it is said that some of the silver buttons on his uniform are still preserved by his descendants. His eldest son. "Drumr" Asaph Wright. was in the same company and had to pay 3S 4d for "1 bayonet not return - ed."
Lientenant Wright married Pru- dence Deming. daughter of Benjamin Deming of Middletown and Goshen. a descendant of John Deming and Rich- . ard Treat. Sr .. both patentees named in the charter of Connecticut from King Charles IT.
Five Sons in the Revolution
It is a very notable fact that Lien- tenant Wright's five sons and his son- in-law. Ebenezer Shepard. husband of Mercy Wright, who built a house just west of Rowley Pond. all served in the War of the Revolution. Jabez was a member of Capt. Stephen Good- win's company which went in defense of New York and also served as a cap- tain of a company of Connecticut mili- tia in Col. Epaphras Sheldon's regi- ment, which went to repel the enemy in New Haven in 1779. Charles went as a private in Capt. Seth Smith's com- pany from New Hartford for the re- lief of Boston in the "Lexington alarm" in April. 1775; was a sergeant in Capt. John Sedgwick's company. Col. Benja- min Hlimman. in 1775 at Crown Point. Ticonderoga and other places in the Northern campaign. and was a captain of Connecticut militia. John. Jr .. serv- ed as a private five months in Col. Charles Webb's Connecticut Continen-
tal regiment in 1775. in Col. Sammel Wylly's regiment four year -. from 1777 to 1781. and in Col. Durkee's regiment in 1781. and after the Revolution was ronemissioned a captain of Connectiont. militia.
David Wright served as a private in Capt. John Sedgwick's company. Colonel Hinman. in 1775 in the North- ern campaign and died in service in April. 1776. Freedom Wright, the tar- ern keeper, also marched in Captain Smith's company for the relief of Bos- ton in the "Lexington alarm" in April. 1775. served as a private in Captain Sedgwick's company. Colonel Hinman. in the Northern campaign and as a fientenant of Connecticut militia. Ehe- nezer Shepard. the son-in-law. also marched for the relief of Boston in the "Lexington alarm" and served in Captain Sedgwick's company in the Northern campaign. It is said that on the march through the wilderness. they suffered severely. having been compel- led to roast old shoes. leather breeches. etc .. for food.
Capt. JJohn Wright had not moved to Winsted long before a romance sprang up between his daughter. Encia or Lucy, then fourteen years old. and
Captain Rockwell's son. Elijah, who became the first justice of peace and town clerk of Colebrook, resulting in their marriage. Their son. Theron, was the father of the tanner -. James S .. of Colebrook and Brooklyn, N. Y .. and Hon. John T. Rockwell. of Winsted. and of Annie, wife of the Hon. Freder- ick M. Shepard. Norfolk's great bene- factor. Lient. John Wright's will was admitted to probate in Norfolk, which was then in the same probate district as Winsted. December 24. 1781.
Richard Smith, Ironmaster
Between the time the town was divided and the Wrights moved to Winsted. a settlement had sprung up around Winchester Center and Platt Mountain. Among the-e settlers. Thom- as Hosmer. Jr., son of Thomas Hosmer. Fsa .. one of the original Hartford pro- prietors, settled in 1761 on his father's estate. now Mrs. Willis Wetmore's farm, which has been in the Wetmore family's name since 1771. David All -- tin. from Suffield. bought Cornelius Merry's house on the Old South road near the Hurtbut cemetery in 1764 and lived there seven years. It is stated that there was no road in what is now the City of Winsted until he made one through the forests from Platt Monn- tain in 1771 to the outlet of THighland Lake. having purchased the Ensign lot east and south from the lake outlet two years before. But there must have been some kind of a road or traveled nath from the northeast to Highland Lake for Richard Smith. the Boston mer- chant and iron master. had purchased his Salisbury mine and furnace in 17GS and had built his iron forge in Rob. ertsville in 1770 and the next year. in .June. 1771. secured from the Hartford proprietors of Winchester the right to draw off or lower Long Pond ( High- land Lake) one and a half feet for the benefit of his iron works, so that he minst have traveled from his Roberts- ville forge to the lake, and the Wrights
Residence of Ralph W. Holmes
t
45
THE WINSTED TERCENTENARIAN
had been going back and forth from Goshen to Rowley Pond by some route. probably by way of Winchester C'en- ter. As it turned out, Mr. Austin, hav- ing about the same time bought the land on the Lake Stream. he and Mr. Smith together lowered the channel at the lake and erected a log dam and bulkhead, raising the lake four feet. giving them six feet of water in the lake to draw from.
In the same year Mr. Austin brought lumber and materials for a grist mill which he built on Lake Street and he erected a log cabin near the outlet of the lake and thus in 1771 became the first resident within the present city limits of Winsted. Some time later, it is not stated how long, he built what has long been known as the Mill house, which was nearly destroyed by fire a few years ago and was remodelled into a story and a half house, now the resi- dence of Oscar and Hildur Johnson. Mr. Austin also had a sawmill and store on the Lake Stream.
In the same year, 1771, John Bal- com, Jr., built a log cabin on the hill east of Winsted, near the Barkhamsted line, and the following year his father and brother began the settlement on Wallen's Hill.
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.