The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 18

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West of the main road, and extending from Hayden's home-lot to John Stiles's place on the south, was an eminence (less than 100 feet at its highest point ) known then and now as Rocky Hill, which was. according to the old records, a common land of about 54 acres. at the upper end of which was " William Hayden's stone-pit," or quarry, from which Rev. Mr. Huit's and most of the early Windsor gravestones were quarried : and on the west side of this hill, near where the road crossed it, was another stone quarry, called from its first owner, Thrall's Quarry. Feb. 16, 1651 2, " it was granted by the Town that William Thrall shall have liberty to dig for a Quarry of stone in the Common hill, and shall have it to his own property for seven years, and no man shall molest him by digging within a rod of his pit, his limits are within 3 rods square." ( Town dets, i. 8.)

1 In the inventory of Henry Stiles, who died a bachelor in 1631, his house is called a " cellar." It was on the lot here designated. Most of the first houses were of this order. "It was the mode of building at that time." They were built in the brow of the meadow hill, the ground at the sides reaching to the caves, the front end composed of hewn timber set in the ground, as here described. It is not improbable that Henry Stiles' cellar may have been occupied about 1704 by the neighbor, to whose house Dea. Hayden's mother went for company and greater safety, some night when it was known that hostile Indians were prowling about. Possibly it was a place of general resort for the neighborhood.

.1. H. HAYDEN.

: The road from Hayden's northwesterly to N. was not the road to Springfield before N. was settled (1651). It ran through " Mr. Stoughton lot," proving that it was not open in 1640. Probably it was at first a trespass road to the Common to get pipe-

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Pine Meadow

Northampton.

Samuel 1708

Gunns

Brook.

1812-14

New River.

Highway

Wm. Hayden

Stone Pit.

[ William 1708.

Watson

Old House 1740-50

Daniel 1108) Hayden.

Wm.Hayden.

Nicholas.

Gilbert.

1844

Drake.

Nicholas

RAIL /ROAD Bissell.

. Drake

Bancroft.

Bissell.

Stiles

Bancroft 1658.

* TEARY

Map of Haydens WINDSOR Gonn. 1645.

by Jabez H. Hayden. Sept. 2nd 1885.

CONNECTICUT RIVER.

Ebénézer 1708.

Sequester Meadow.

Rocky Hill

Gunn

Wm,Hayden

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

EXPLANATORY KEY TO THE MAP OF " HAYDEN'S."

(This map was prepared for and used in The Hoyden Genealogy: and its author. Jabez Il. Hayden, has reluctantly consented to my using it in this History, in defer ence to my earnestly expressed opinion that it possessed interest to a much wider circle of readers than those of the work named. - H. R. S.)

The fire black balls mark the sites of houses in 1645, viz. : ST. JOHN NICHOLAS, "a person of note," sent over funds, had lands taken up in his name, and this house built, but never came to occupy it. It was sold soon after by his attorneys to JOIN DRAKE: was evidently a temporary structure, and is not heard of again. THOMAS GILBERT also sold to Drake, and thenceforth (probably before 1650) BISSELL, DRAKE, and IlAYDEN owned all of Sequestered Meadow, and (with exception of Bancroft) appear to have been the only families in the neighborhood during the first two generations.

The three hollow squares mark the homes of three of the grandsons of William Hayden; and about the date of their erection, the fourth grandson occupied the origi- nal homestead; and there were no other families between or beyond them during that generation.

Commencing at the upper left hand corner of the map :

The first star designates the site of the late Levi G. Hayden's house. Beyond this, westward - until recently - there were but three houses; thence the road runs across The Plains, 5 miles to Suffield.

The second star: flouse built 1737 by Samuel llayden; once a famous tavern; the white oak which overshadows it was doubtless of respectable age when the forest was ent away around the (then) new house. Its present owner, Lucinda HI. (daughter uf Levi) Hayden, celebrated here her 90th birthday, 26th September, 1891. When she was 2 years old she saw ber great-grandfather, Deacon Nath'l Hayden, æ. 94; and he, when 4 years old, saw his grandfather Daniel, born 1640, wbo saw the beginnings of the settlement!

The third star: Site of the onee famous Pickett's Tavern, now tenantless.

The fourth star: House built about 1770. by John Hayden ; now a tenant-house.

The fifth star, near the angle of the road : A brick house built by Capt. Nath'l Hayden before the Revolution; now occupied by his grandson, Samuel B. Hayden.

The xirth (double) star, Haydens' Chapel, owned by the First Congregational Church of Windsor, erected by the residents of this locality.

The next two stars, on the hill, west, and two stars on east side of the road, mark houses built by parties who located here because of the railroad facilities between Hay- dens' and Hartford.

The next two stars, on the hill, on west side of road, belong to the family of the late Moses Allen, and are of older date.

Below them a circle marks the Stone-pit, or Hayden quarry. from which was taken the gravestone of Rev. Ephraim Huit, 1644 - probably the first gravestone put up in New England, any bearing earlier dates having been more recently erected.

The three xfare opposite mark the present railroad station.

The next star designates a house on the site (designated by a square) of house oe- cupied, 1709, by one of the grandsons of William Hayden: this was built by Bildad Phelps, 1740, and now owned by Henry Osborn.

The star further east of Osborn's marks a house built about 1830 by James Drake, which has had frequent changes of occupants; and

The xfar at extreme upper right hand corner of the map, on the same road, marks a house built about 1840 by the late Nath'] L. Hayden, and still occupied by his family.

Just at the junction of the two roads, a small back spot shows the site of the " William Hayden Memorial Boulder." (Engraving. p. 532.)

The large black ball, on east side of road, below the junction of the roads, marks

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

the site of the original William Hayden house; occupied after 1664 by his son Daniel; from about 1703 by his grandson Daniel; from about 1736 by his great-grandson Isaac; and from about 1786 by his great-great-grandson Ezra, from whose descendants it passed, about 1840, to its present owners, George P. Hayden and son. It is now oe- cupied by a tenant.

Opposite the old house, and on the west side of the road, is a house built by Al- pheus Munsell, about 1783; now occupied by his grandson, A. A. Munsell.

Next south of the old house, on same side of road, a modern house, owned and oc- cupied by James L. Hayden.

Next below, same side of road, owned and occupied by George P. Hayden since 1841. This was formerly the home of Capt. Ebenezer Fitch Bissell who was captured at the battle of Long Island, August, 1776, and barely survived his sufferings from starvation while a prisoner in the hands of the British. Later on and down to about 1830, his son Ebenezer Fitch Bissell kept the well-known Bissell Stage Tavern here.

The house opposite to G. P. Ilayden's, on the St. Nicholas lot, was burned after this map was made, and rebuilt further north; also one south of George P. Hayden's; both small, and occupied by tenants.

The house on the Drake lot, west of the road, built about 1773 by Isaac Hayden, and occupied now by his grandson, I. L. Hayden.

The house on the Drake fot, east of the road, occupied by the heirs of the late lliram Bissell.

The house on the Bissell lot, built by Esq. Josiah Bissell, grandfather of the late Col. Geo. P. Bissell of Hartford; has been occupied by the Hills family about 80 years, the Hills Brothers being its present occupants.

The house on the Bancroft lot is a tenant house of the Hills Brothers.

Opposite the Ferry Road (with the index finger pointing to it) is the site of the Model Schoolhouse, the first one built on this plan, under the supervision of Hon. Henry Barnard, then secretary of the State Board of Commissioners for Connecticut Common Schools, and has since been widely copied (with variations) throughout this and other States, and to some extent in Europe. Hle delivered here a historical address on the fiftieth anniversary of its erection, October 9, 1891.

Sequester Meudorr had been under cultivation by the Indians who were now all dead of small pox (or had joined other communities). It contained about 75 acres and was all the "land fit for immediate cultivation " in this vieinity.

Rocky Hill containing 54 acres, remained in " commons" more than a hundred years after the land around it had been divided in severalty. Stone in this hill were free to any inhabitant for cellar walls, chimneys, wells, etc. When Rocky Ilill was divided, a lot at the extreme south end was set to the Ellsworth family, who did not put it under cultivation, and only cut out the dead wood and from time to time a stick of timber as they had use for it; so that this lot remained much the same primeval forest as that which covered all the land (except the meadows) when the whites first settled here. In 1887, that branch of the Ellsworth family which last owned it being dead, the lot was sold, a steam saw mill set up on it, and it was soon shorn of its glory. The annual rings were counted on white oak logs, which showed them to be more than 200 years old.

The Ferry roud led to Bissell's Ferry, which was early established for the accommo- dation of " the three towns " in their journeys to and fro between Connecticut and the Bay, and also Springfield.

New River is an artificial channel leading the brooks directly to the river instead of following under the meadow hill nearly a mile before their waters enter the river.

The road to Pine Meadow was opened very early by the owners of that meadow, extending from " the upper side of William Haydens' lot," and was very crooked to avoid swamps.

The road to Northampton was opened after the settlement of that place (1654). It leaves the river to avoid the necessity of bridges, and in its first five miles crosses a level plain, not yet settled.

145

ROCKY-HILL, POUND CLOSE, ETC.

" Rocky Hill," says Mr. Jabez Il. Hayden, in a letter to the author, dated March, 1885, " was common land down to 1752, or later. The south end of it ( against which Win. Gaylord, Jr., Francis and John Stiles, and two or three lots south of them, butted) and which was owned by the Ellsworths, is now (1885) being cut off for the first time. Trees have been cut out while it lay in common, and since, and the dead wood carried away : but it has always been original forest. I have counted fully 200 annular rings (one man says 230) on several oak logs. How is that for progress ?- an original forest within forty rods of Francis Stiles' house, after a lapse of 250 years ?"

Retracing our steps to just above the Palisado, we find that on the same side of the road, also bounded north by a highway going westward between Stephen Terry's and Jeffrey Baker's home-lots (same as now passes between JJoel Thrall's and W. A. House's residences), east by the common street, south by the north line of the Palisado, and east by a back street running parallel with the main street, was a parallelogram of land, which seems to have been called Pound Close, and at its north end the home-lot of JEFFREY BAKER. Mr. Henry Clarke seems, at a later date, to have purchased the whole of this " close."

Along the highway hounding the west side of Pound Close were the residences of ELIAS PARKMAN, BEGAT EGGLESTON, JOHN TAYLOR, WIL- LIAM HUBBARD, GILES GIBBS; and back of their lots was Brick Hill Swamp.

Continuing south we come to the road which turned westward out of the Palisado, by the present Pierson residence, south of which and between which and the brow of the rivulet hill were home lots of JOHN WILLIAMS, HENRY FOUKES, OWEN, and HOYT. North of this road was Jeffrey Baker Hollow. Hosford's Lane, in this vicinity, was a highway on the east side of John Owen's home lot, extending from the road by the present Pierson place, south to Wm. Hosford's house which stood on the brow of the meadow hill in rear of Owen's lot.

staves (to be sent to the West Indies for rum and molasses), but may have been the trail used from the first to go to Waranoke (Westfield), Mass. Mr. Pyncheon settled Springfield the year after the settlement of Windsor. His supplies brought around from Boston by water could not ascend the river above Windsor Locks, but landing on the east side he proceeded thence by land carriage. At this point, which continued to be his landing-place, he built his warehouse, which gave it the name of Warehouse Point. Bissell's Ferry, below Hayden's, was established chiefly to accommodate those making the journey between Connecticut and the Bay (Boston and vicinity), and it only required a road three miles from the ferry, along the east side of the river, to connect with Pyncheon's road to Springfield. Later on, the road to Northampton became the great thoroughfare to Springfield and Boston, as well as North and West. J. 11. 11.

VOL. 1. - 19

146

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

South of the Rivulet.

From the Rivulet ferry the old road passed west, through the " Lit- tle Meadow " ( Mr. Warham's on the north and Messrs. Benj. Newberry and Robert Howard's on the south), till it came to a meadow gate, on about the site of the Widow Alvah Rowland's residence, from which point it turned south to the south corner of Dr. Bray Rossiter's home- lot, and then turned abruptly west -being, in fact, as will be seen, the original of the present road running from the causeway in front of the Rowland house, and up past the factory to Broad Street. On this road, and nearly in a line, stood the homes of Rev. Mr. WARHAM, Mr. Jos. NEWBERRY, JOHN DORCHESTER, WILLIAM PHELPS, and Dr. BRAY ROS- SITER, and which undoubtedly were the houses which were "drowned very deep" in the Great Flood of 1638-9. Back of them, on the emi- nenee between the Rowland place and the present railroad track, was a small pulisado, mentioned in Mr. Joseph Newberry's deed to Rev. Warham, and which was undoubtedly erected as a ready refuge for the inhabitants on the south side of the Rivulet in times of Indian alarms.

Continning on the Island Road from Mr. Rossiter's, we come to the lots (as they stand on the record, 1640) of RICHARD VORE, ROGER WIL- LIAMS, THOMAS MARSHFIELD, JOHN HURD, Mr. JOHN BRANKER, THOMAS and his son Dea. JOHN MOORE, and Elder JOHN WITCHFIELD.

These lots extended from the Rivulet to the east side of the present Broad Street. After the flood of 1638-9 the houses on some, or all, of these lots, which at first were built on the Island Road, were rebuilt on the high ground west of the Railroad, and access to them was from Broad Street after that was opened.

The next houses below Mr. WITCHFIELD'S were those of JAMES MARSHALL, SAMUEL ALLEN, and ROGER LUDLOW. Ilere the road made a bend to the west to avoid the swampy ground where the present cause- way is, crossing " the two brooks," thenee easterly to the present Island Road.

A road runs southerly through the length of The Island (so called because in floods and high waters it is generally more or less cut off from the surrounding country by water), on the east side of which dwelt some of Windsor's aristocracy, viz .: Dea. LooMis and his sons : Dea. WM. PORTER, Mr. HENRY WOLCOTT, Sr., Mr. HENRY WOLCOTT, Jr., Mr. GEORGE PHELPS,' GOODMAN WHITEHEAD, Mr. MATTHEW ALLYN, successor of the Plymouth people, JOHN WYATT, AMBROSE FOWLER. Just north of Mr. Whitehead's a road turned westward to the wood lots, and north of this road. bounded cast by the meadow road and west by the " upland road "

1 Henry Wolcott's short-hand MSS, records that on Oct. 11, 1640. while Mr. Huit was preaching to the people of Windsor from Romans xii. 17. "at this lecture. Geo. Phelps' house was burnt so that it [ the house] went over."

147

BROAD STREET, THE OLD MILL, ETC.

to Hartford, and extending up to Mr. Samuel Allen's land, was a large tract owned by Mr. ROGER LUDLOW.

This upland road to Hartford was constructed in April, 1638, by order of the General Court. Commencing at Goodman John Witch- field's corner it passed westward and southwest (around the corner now occupied by Mr. Thaddeus Mather. at the lower end of Broad Street) and to Hartford in the line of the present road.'

Bowfield was the ancient name applied to the country west of the present Broad Street, which is of comparatively modern origin and was laid out along the back ends of the lots of the first settlers. As to the beginnings of this Broad Street. we find that when Mr. Warham and his wife Abigail (April 1, 1664) made over the dwelling-house and land of Mr. John Branker, deceased (Mrs. Warham's first husband ). it - bounded east by the highway on the bank against the Little Meadow, on westerly against or by the highway. as it is appointed to range," proving that. at that date, the highway on the east had not been changed to its present place; and one would infer that what is now Broad Street was then only " appointed." or set out and not in use. Broad Street was at first but six rods wide where the present traveled road is, and was probably widened by the owners on the east side, when the highway on the up- land against Little Meadow (on which they built) was removed to its present location, that they might bring the street nearer their houses. When they rebuilt, they of course placed their houses behind their barns and facing the new Broad Street.

Coming, then, to the road leading westward " to the Commons," we find that at about the northwest corner of the present Broad Street, it sent off a branch road to the Old Mill. Northeast of this road, which is still in use, and between it and the Mill Brook, laid the land of JASPER RAWLINS, Southwest of the Mill road, running south to the "road to the Commons," were the lots of Mr. DANIEL CLARKE, JOB DRAKE and JOHN DRAKE, Sgt. BENEDICTUS ALVORD, RICHARD BIRGE, and AARTHUR WILLIAMS.

Following this Mill Road we come upon " the old mill." sometimes called the "old Warham Mill," because of its first owner, Rev. Mr. War- ham, who had it probably by gift from the town, and calls it, in a deed of gift to his wife (1664), his "corn mill." It was in existence as early as 1640, as per the following record : " Mr. John Warham has by Gift of ye Town one acre of land more or less Lying by his Mill, as it bounds north beginning at ye fall of ye water out of ye Trough upon ye Wheel d' So goes downward by y" Running of ye Mill water till it comes to y' water in ye Brook and there then it bounds easterly by y' land of lob Drake along in ye loo bottom, and riseth ye side of ye bank, going to a

1 Col. Rec., i. 17, 51, 56, 125. Also second chapter of this work.

148

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

tree near ye way where Job goeth down into his swamp, and there turns from that tree straight six rods to the highway, and then bounds by ye way to ye mill afore exprest." Tradition claims that it was the first grist mill in Connecticut, and was resorted to by the people of all the neighbor- ing towns, even from Middletown. Be this as it may, it is evidently one of the oldest of Windsor institutions : affording us, as Stoughton happily remarks, "the pleasing incident of Mr. Warham's thorough identification, not only with the church which prospered so signally during his min- istry, in spite of dissenting elements in its midst, but also with its only material counterpart. From the one he preached the nuquestioned law . of God and broke to his little flock the bread of Eternal Life. From the other he practiced for their example the 'measure that should be mete' 'pressed down and well shaken together,' and dispensed the wholesome elements of that daily bread by which his people were wont to symbolize their faith in spiritual things." 1 It seems to have had sey- eral proprietors at one time, and has always been considered, even to the present day, as good stock.

From the mill, the road turns northward, following the general course of the Rivulet or Farmington River. On its east side and run- ning back to the Rivulet we find the lots of SAMUEL POND, WILLIAM BUELL, JOIIN IHILLIER, NICH. PALMER, WILLIAM THRALL, THOMAS BAS- COMB, Wid. MARY COLLINS, RICHARD WELLER, JOHN TILLEY, THOS. ORTON.

Out of this road turns a way to the cast and runs down to Mr. WILLIAN PHELPS' who lived on the brow of the hill overlooking " Mr. Phelps meadow " (the cellar hole of his house still remains) on this road were WILLIAM PHELPS, Jr., and THOMAS ORTON.

Directly north of this, and on the easterly side of the Rivulet which divided them, was SIMON HOYTE's meadow, and following up the Poquon- Hoe road we come, opposite Indian Neck on the Rivulet, to EDWARD, GEORGE, and FRANCIS GRISWOLD. THOMAS HOLCOMB, and JOHN BARTLETT, the pioneer settlers (as early as 1649) of the Poquonnoe village.

Upon an ancient road which running about south westerly from the Rivulet (near where the present road from P'alisado Green comes in) in- terseeted the Poquonnoe road above the Old Mill, were the residences, on the north, of HUMPHREY IFYDE, THOMAS BARBER, and ALEX. AALVORD; on the south side, those of JONATHAN and NATHAN GILLETT. To the west of these and the Old Mill district generally, were the lots belonging to the children of THOMAS NEWBERRY and to Mr. WARHAM.

1 Windsor Farmes, 1694-1750. By John A. Stoughton, p. 16.

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By permission of the Publishers of Hartford County Memorial History.

149

FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR HOME-LOTS.

DISTRIBUTION OF HOME-LOTS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

We here present a list of early Windsor settlers and the location of their home-lots, by Mr. JABEZ H. HAYDEN, comprising his full notes of the article upon this subject, which he prepared for the Hartford County Memorial History (1883), and containing a large amount of detail necessarily omitted in that work. It contains the matured results of his thirty years' investigation of the subject, since the publication of our original history; and forms a reliable list of all those persons who can be traced to Windsor before 1650. Most of these names appear upon the Windsor Lund Records, in Matthew Grant's Old Church Record, Colonial Records, etc., etc. Removals are taken from land records. town histories, and a hundred incidental sources of information. The History of Dorchester is voucher for those "who came up hence," and who are designated in the following list by the letter D. The dates given do not absolutely mark the coming of the families to Wind- sor, but give the time of their first appearing upon the records. Doubt- less some who were among the very first settlers bear date later than 1640, through their neglect to " bring in " a description of their lands to the recorder at that time. The map shows the position of each person's home-lot; the list gives its breadth. whether set off by original grant or by purchase, its transfer to successive owners, etc. All genealogical details have been referred to the genealogies in another part of the work, which should be carefully studied in connection with this list.

(The grants made to these settlers of lands on the East side of the Great River, and at Pine Meadow, will be noted in another portion of this volume.)

ALEXANDER, George, in 1644, bo't Jasper Rawlins' place, S. E. fm the Old Mill: res. there until 1655; then sold to William Filley; and name disappears from records.

ALFORD (Alvord), Alexander, 1645, bo't lot, W. of Thos. Barber; length 66 r., 18 r. wide; sold, 1654, to Josiah Ellsworth, who sold to Cornelius Gillett, 1658 (known, 1859, as the Oliver S. Gillett pl.). Jonathan G. (formerly Warham) had a lot W. of Alvord on the W. side where A. was 52 r, S. S. W. by the Mill Brook. "Alexander Alford hath granted by virtue of purchase his home Lott six acres, more or Less, ye bredth is Eighteen rods, bound West and norwest by John Warham & there is in length fifty Two rod, bounds E.S. E. by Thomas Barber, and is there in length Sixty-six rods on N.N. E. bdd by John Helier." "Also, six acres of Swamp on the Mill Brook in length by ye bank (threscore): [ ] rods, in bredth at the S- Twelve rods in ye midst twenty rod, bds S. by John Drake."

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038