The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 60

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 60

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Between 1776 and 1800 there were eight

By permission of Publislars of Memorial History of Hartford County.

new houses ' built, and three disappeared, leaving fourteen houses, a

' U'ider date of 1781. on an old account book, we find tifty shad charged at 2d. ( cents) each, and ten years later single shad at od. (S cents) each. Indeed, shad were not esteemed a luxury in the olden time. Mrs. Haskell, born 1748, used to tell of a dis- pute between two school girls in Windsor, where one child taunted the other with the poverty of her family, who "eat shad."

" The same Mrs. Haskell, daughter of Dr. Daniel Bissell of Windsor, once said in my hearing that the first potatoes she ever saw were three small ones her father brought home in his saddlebags. My great-grandfather, who died 1803, aged 91, never learned to love potatoes. He Told my father that when they were first introduced it was said that if a person ate freely of potatoes they would not live over two years.

" The first house built here after 1576 was probably the "old Gaylord house, " in 1780, still standing on Elm St., bet. Center and West Sts. The lot was orig. set out to Daniel and Isaac Hayden, and ext. from Center to West Sts. They sold the lot to Ezekiel Thrall, 1265, who built a house where the parsonage now stands, and in 1773

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PINE MEADOW, 1776-1812.

sold the west part of the lot to Eliakim Gaylord. In 1789 Eliakim Gaylord deeded the lot to his son Eleazer, " with the house standing thereon " ; the house had probably been built several years; 1280 he is charged on Jabez Haskell's account book to sawing unk for frames and joist, boards, clapboards, and four summers; probably used in this house.

In 1781 Elijah Higley sold to Alexander Allen " the house, baru, and shop partly built." and " half the grist mill, the other half belonging to Ensign Eliakim Gaylord." The site of the grist-mill is now occupied by

Jacob Rubel

English's Paper Mill. in the south part of the town. This property passed into the hands of Jacob Russell about 1785; thence. about 181. into the hands of Gideon Drake, some members of whose family still occupy the house.

1781 Jabez Haskell and Seth Dexter built a grist mill and store below their saw- mill. The mill now stands east of the canal, and is used as a portion of the stock house for the Dexter Paper Mill. The store or salt house stood a little south of it. It is mentioned on Jabez Haskell's account book as " the store" in 1984 and in 1988. There are some charges in that account book of various articles usually found in country stores, and it is not improbable that an assortment of goods were kept there for a time, besides Turk's Island Salt. After a few years it was known as the " miller's house "; removed 1796 to the west side of the saw-mill yard: and Miss Eliza Denslow says that she heard Mrs. Levi Loomis, the then miller's wife, complain about 1813 be- cause her chamber floor was so wet in rainy weather. Mrs. Haskell told her that when vessels came up in the spring they stored salt there, and the floor took up so much salt that the damp westher melted it. There was a dilapidated building standing. when I was a boy, at. Hayden's shipyard, two and one-half miles below, called the old Turk's Island salt store. Ninety years ago the Matsons kept a famous store at Hayden Station. The building is still standing among the ont-buildings at the Levi Hayden place. One room in it was always called "the sah room," and was very damp Every well-to-do family had a salt-mortar. Tradition brought some of them from Eng- land with the first settlers. I remember my youthful efforts at the salt-mortar, pre- paring " coarse salt " for the table. They were also called samp-mortars, being used by families who lived far from grist-mills to pound their corn in. The old Denslow house, now standing in the rear of E. D. Coogan's store [ pulled down Isyst was origi nally a salt store, and Mr. Horace Birge says that he has been told that a general assort ment of goods was also kept there.

The lot on which it stood was bought of Jabez Haskell in 1752 by Oliver Chap- man and Jas. Steele. " 10 rods square for $10 ($3.33%)." It stood near the north end of the Medlicott Mill, " the same distance from the water as the old ferry house. now standing on the opposite of the river " [since burned]. The land was bought the same year that Jas. Chamberlain petitioned the General Assembly to grant the ferry. 1785 Mr. las. Chamberlain bought the land. " with a store standing thereon." for £60 (8200). 1793 Jas. Chamberlain, Jr., bought the ferry and lot, "with store standing thereon," and the same year sells "the lot and store" to Samuel Denslow for 945 (8150). This was the fourth Sanmel (his father lived on West street) : he had lived in the Miller's house, and " temled " grist-mill for Haskell and Dexter until 1793 Samuel Denslow 's account book, under date of 1994, has a charge against Martin Moses, son in law of Jabez Haskell, for the "rent of his store." Martin Moses, Jr., who is still [1880] living at Peekskill. N. Y., was born in the old Denslow house, Dee. 16. 1793. Miss Eliza Denslow has a tradition that there was a family lived there before her father bought it.

The "Jefferson flood." 1801. the highest then known (though exceeded by the flood of 1851), come into the chamber of the Denslow house, and the family moved ont, but Mrs. Chamberlain, who lived in the ferry house on the opposite side of

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

saw-mill, a grist-mill, and a clothier's works. A ferry"across the Con- nectient had been established, and two highways from Center street to it had been opened.

In 1811 a gin-distillery was established here by H. & H. Haskell, and was financially a success. It was then esteemed a landable enter- prise, and a public benefit : but the revival of 1833 convinced the owners

the river, thought there had been a higher flood, because she remembered when her andirons fioated out of the fire-place, and they did not in 1801. In the spring of 1811, or 1812, the ice crushed in the basement story of this house, the family flying in the night to the Miller's house, or Mr. Haskell's, the only houses then east of Center street. The upper story of the house was then moved back to the present east end of the canal bridge. When the canal was dug it was removed to the northwest, on the ferry road, and was again removed to its present position.

There were two other houses or cabins, temporary structures-one built before the Revolution; the other during that period, or soon after. The first was on Kettle Brook, west of the farm of the late Capt. S. S. Hayden; the cellar hole re- mains.

The other (built by the Samuel Denslow who lived on West street for his hired man, Hendrick Roddemore, a Hessian soldier) stood on the S. W. corner of S. Me Anley's farm, about fifteen rods north of Spring street, and ninety rods W. of West street. Roddemore continued to live in it until his wife died, Dec. 25, 1790. He then removed to Windsor, south of the little river, where he married again, and, with his wife, united with the church, 1792. The brook, on the north bank of which his cabin stood, is still called Hendrick's brook. He belonged to a Hessian Regiment which was captured at Bennington, Vt., 1177. a little before the surrender of Burgoyne.

A charter for a ferry was granted by the Gen. Assembly, 1783, to James Chamberlain: title passed 1793 to his son James; and 1801 it was sold to Samuel Denslow. At the same time Ebenezer Collins, who had " improved the ferry, " relinquished his claim to it; in 1806 it was sold to Jabez Heath for $50; in 1815 to Solomon Terry, with two scows. mortgaged, for $300; in 1816 to Erastus Reed and Daniel Stocking for $300, with boat mortgaged; in 1819 to Epraphas and Charles Phelps for $325. Then for many years Mr. Chapin owned and ran it; then B. M. Douglass took it. In 1788 Jabez Haskell deeded land for a road, "to begin for the S. E. cor. at the N. E. cor. of Capt. Chamber- lain's store, at his ferry. on the W. side of Conn. River": it crossed Spring near the head of Chestont St., and entered Center a little N. of Oak St .; a trespass road was continued from Center to West St., opp. the farmhouse of S. McAuley. The same year the road from the parsonage to the Haskell house, and a pent way from there to the river, was made a public highway, and prob, a road opened to connect it with the Terry, though not recorded. When the road from Hayden's Station to Suthield was laid through, 24 years after, but one rod width of land was bought from the mill down to the ferry, proving a public road there.

When the saw mill was built (1742, or before) the bed of Kettle Brook was so deep that it was not practicable to draw the timber growing on the north side of it to the south side. The mill was built on the south side, and an earth-dam built, doubtless broad enough to drive a team across it. When a public road from the ferry became necessary, it was laid along the river bank - say three-fourths of the distance to the brook - when, to save the cost of an expensive bridge, they were allowed to cross on the mill-dam.

On this ferry, except when they had a favoring wind, the ferrymen propelled their boat by poling, or rowing, About 1838 a pier was built above the ferry, about midway of the river, from which a wire connected with the boat, by which the latter was swung from side to side of the stream.

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FUNERALS AND SCHOOLS IN PINE MEADOW.

that it was not so, and they abandoned it. On the completion of the canal ( 1829) water-power (the first taken from the canal) was furnished their works. After distilling had been abandoned, and in 1838, Haskell & Hayden commenced the manufacture of silk, and the business is still continued on the same ground by Mr. Dwight Allen. The original buildings were burned in 1848, and immediately rebuilt on its site.

In 1812 the highway from Hayden's Station to Suffichl was laid out through Main street to the top of Clay Hill; thence to Sulfield line. The cost to the town was to be so great that but one man in the whole town advocated the building of it. The road from Pine Meadow Brook was laid along the river bank, except at a single point to and beyond the ferry, when it turned westerly and on a single course ran to the top of Clay Hill. The road as laid and traveled twelve to fifteen years did not pass over the hill where Mr. Jabez Il. Hayden now lives, but ran between the river and the distillery ( then standing where the silk-mill now does ) leaving this lower terrace and gaining the higher ground at the east end of the canal bridge. The direet course was to run east of the saw-mill, where the canal now runs; but, for the same reason that the ferry road already crossed the mill-dam, the new road also made a detour around the saw-mill to save expense, the committee making a reserve of the mill-dam, which, if they had condemned for public use, would probably have been more expensive than a bridge east of the saw- mill: " reserve to the said Haskell and Dexter the right to alter or repair the tume in their mill-dam." Mr. Herlehigh Haskell, who was an advocate for the road, related me that the opponents of the road used that reserve argument against the acceptance of the committee's report "because the road ran over private property, and the travel would be Hable at any time to be obstructed." The canal was opened 1829.

Pine Meadow was a quiet neighborhood ; the people were scattered and few : industrious and frugal.'

Funerals in those days arrested the serious attention of all the com- munity. Mr. Seth Dexter died in 1797. The distance from the burying- ground was so great that the remains were placed in a wagon and carried down Center street two miles below Mrs. Webb's to Pickett's, where the procession was met by men from Windsor, who took the remains on their shoulders ; and, by frequent changes, the carriers bore him to his grave the remaining three miles. Less than twenty years later Herlehigh Has- kell shocked the people of Windsor by proposing in the School Society meeting to have the Society's committee procure a hearse. It was pre-

' Twelve and a half cents for " cutting and basting " was alt that it cost a girl foi the making of a calico dress less than sixty years'ngo. VOL. 1 .- 61

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

dieted that with the use of a hearse men would come to feel that they could render no assistance at funerals, and by degrees negleet them and their lessons, and fail to pay proper respect to the dead. In time the people became reconciled to the proposition, and the bearse was procured. The remains of Peletiah Birge, in 1815, were the first ever carried on it. The results anticipated have certainly followed, but the use of the hearse has been only one of the causes.

It was also a matter of common remark in those days that the Pine Meadow families were more regular in their attendance upon church than those from other parts of Windsor. Peletiah Birge, after he became an old man, retained his habit of attending church often on foot, although the meeting-house was, after 1794, about six miles distant.1

Schools. - The first school here was kept by the widow Samuel Wing, on corner of Spring and West streets. About 1776, Jabez Haskell and Seth Dexter built a school-house on their own land. and largely at their own cost, on the ground where Mrs. Talcott Mather now lives; and, in 1777, we find in Jabez Haskell's account book a charge of Td. to Samuel Wing " for schooling your children." Before 1800 there were children enough to make a school of respectable numbers. An incident which oc- enrred in this school in the winter of 1799-1800, shows the outside esti- mate of the wealth of this community at that time. Old Mr. Warner, of Windsor, rode post, bringing a few copies of the Weekly Courant to this place, and continuing on to Suffield. Ou a cold day he stopped at the school-house to leave his papers for Pine Meadow and warm himself ; and, on looking over the school with some surprise, he asked : " Where do all these children come from ?" On being told that they all belonged in the distriet, he exclaimed, " Well, I always noticed that poor people had the most children,"-a remark he thought best to qualify when he saw its effect on the children - "or, I notice that is the case in our part of the

1 Horace Birge, born 1781, still remembers secing his father and mother set out for meeting on horseback - his father in the saddle, and his mother on the pillion behind him. Previous to 1794 they went ria Center street, Hayden Station, and Main street, Windsor. After the present meeting-house in Windsor was built they usually went down along the plains, past Powell's marsh, Gunsturn; down Sandy Hill, not entering Main street until they reached Palisado Green. But Mr. Birge often went the whole distance on foot, accompanied by his hoys. His youngest and surviving son. Horace, says he remembers walking to the oldl meeting-house to attend public worship, though he was but ten years old when the present house was built, and afterwards he attended at the present house of worship. Previous to the organization of the church in Sutlie ld, 1698, several persons living there united with the Windsor church, and tradition tells of one Suffield woman who was a regular attendant af Windsor, and sometimes walked the whole distance.

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THE CANAL AND MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES.

town." Mr. Seth Dexter was, at that time, reputed the richest man, his estate (1797) being appraised at £1,600 - $5,833.

Fifty or sixty years ago the school-house was moved from the south corner of Ehm and Center streets to the north corner, where it stood until about 1844, when the village was divided into two districts, and so remained until 1868, when they were again consolidated, and the present school-house was built at a cost of $32,000, accommodating six schools.' The South school-house continues to be used as a primary school. The emmeration of scholars is about 650 children between the ages of fonr and sixteen : about 550 of these attend at least three months in the year. Our annual expenses for the support of our schools is abont $4,000.

The Canal. - In 1824 the Connecticut River Company was char- tered to build a canal at Enfield Falls. The promoters of this enterprise were principally business men of Hartford, who were engaged in trade with the up-river towns. Previous to the introduction of railroads freight could be delivered at any of the river towns by water cheaper than by land carriage, even from Boston. When the up-river merchants bought their goods in Boston, they were shipped rid Hartford and Ware- honse Point, where the goods were transferred to scows or flat boats, and thus delivered at Springfield, Northampton, and other towns above. Barnet, Vt., being the highest point. The capacity of the boats used was about 18 tons, and they were of light draft, to pass the sand bars below in time of low water, and not so large as to be unmanageable on the rapids. But 10 or 12 tons could be carried over the falls, and the excess of freight was carted around by ox-teams and reshipped at Thompsonville, more than five miles above. Except with a favoring wind from the south, it required as many men to "pole" a boat over Enfield Falls as there were tons of freight on board, and the time requi- site was about one day. At the time the canal was built there were probably 60 or more boats which had occasion to pass and repass these rapids several times in each season: and a number of men residing at this point made it their business to join the crews here, to help them work the boats over the falls. The stated price for this service was one dollar.

The charter of the Connecticut River Company contemplated not only a canal at Enfield Falls, but the consolidation of the improvements already made at South Hadley, Bellows Falls, etc .. and the improvement

1 In 1868 this Windsor Locks school, by request of the manufacturers, began the system of giving certificates of attendance to those scholars under 14 years of age who had complied with the requirements of the law respecting the employment of children in factories. Since then the State has incorporated this feature into its school laws.

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

of all the rapids and shoals to Barnet, Vt., provided the States of Ver- mont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts acquiesced. Vermont con- sented, but the other States failed to ratify the project, and the company confined its operations to the building of the Enfield Falls Canal, on the west side of the river, at Windsor Locks. This was opened with a pub- lic celebration Nov. 11, 1829. Though the improvement of navigation was the primary object of the projectors, yet they considered the water- power thus created to be a valuable part of their franchise. When the canal was opened the capacity of many of the boats was increased two. three, and even fourfold. A daily line (and a part of the time two lines ) of passenger steamboats ran between Hartford and Springfield, and many of our readers will remember these queer looking " stern-wheelers," the Agawam and Phurmir, which, however, soon gave way to rail- roads. The Hartford & Springfield Railroad began to run its trains over a completed road Dec. 1, 1844, and boats gradually disappeared from the river. Three or four freight boats and a steam-tug now ply between Hartford and Holyoke, and about the same number of large scows which bring coal and heavy freight to the Locks.

The manufacturing establishments now (1881) receiving their water- power from the canal at Windsor Locks are, The Seymour Compuiny (paper): The Windsor Locks Machine Company : Converse Iron Foundry: The E. Horton & Son Company (lathe chucks); J. R. Montgomery & Co. Mill. Nos. 1 and 2 (cotton warps): Dwight & Co. (wool scouring); The Medlicott Mill, Nos. 1 and 2 (knit goods); C. H. Derter & Sous (paper): C. II. Derter . Nous grist and sur-mills : The Haskell & Haydon Mill (silk): Whittlesey Will (paper): The Farist & Windsor Company (steel rolling) Mill.

Manufacturing Interests.

The system of mamifactures has been entirely changed within the last sixty or seventy years. Previous to that time most families raised their own wool and tax, and spun and wove the material for their own clothing. Girls were ambitions to learn to spin wool, linen, and tow. and to attain sneh proficiency in the art that they could do what was accounted "a day's work before the middle of the afternoon." To acquire the skill to put in a warp and weave difficult patterns required signal ability. The flax was prepared by spreading it on the pasture and leaving it to " rot " in the rain and sunshine. When the woody part had become brittle and the fibre easily separated from it. it was gathered again and subjected to the process of breaking, -done on a somewhat ponderous implement, worked by a strong man. The next process was " swingling." after that " hatcheling." What remained after this latter

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i 1

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WINDSOR LOCKS MANUFACTURES.

process was then ready for the distaff, the tow, the tangled mass made by the hatchel was carded and spun on the great wheel (used also for wool ) and made into tow-cloth for the men and boys, " every-day " sim- mer wear. It was nearly 150 years after the settlement of the country before the woolen cloths manufactured in families were subjected to another process after coming from the loom.

The first mill here for cloth dressing was set up, 1770, on Kettle Sith Dexter Brook (where the C. W. Holbrook mill now stands ) by Seth Dexter, who brought the art from the eastern part of Massachusetts; and the clothier's art added much to the quality of the home-made woolens. Wool carding by machinery was probably introduced somewhat later, -- relieving by so much the labor of the women, and giving them better rolls to spin than could be made by hand-carding. The Dexter clothier works were run more than half a century ; and young men who learned the trade here were instrumental in establishing other mills elsewhere, as the tide of emigration rolled on, and long after the trade here had been superseded by the factory.

Water power was first used to run a saw-mill on Kettle Brook, the mill being built, or rebuilt, on the site of the present saw-mill of C. II. Dexter & Sons, in 1742. It had been owned by Samuel (grandson of Henry ) Denslow, who, at above date, sold half of it to Daniel Hayden. of Hayden Station. Later on Denslow sold the remaining half, and Hayden with another partner extended his business up the river, was unsuccessful, and the mill passed into other hands in 1761. In 1769 it was purchased by Haskell & Dexter, who ran it jointly for seventy years, since which it has been run by the Dexter family, and is now [1875] run almost exclusively on spruce logs, brought from the head waters of the Concetient River, the prodnet being largely converted into paper pulp.

As early as 1781 a small grist-mill was set up on Pine Meadow Brook, at the extreme south end of the town, two miles from the present village. After twenty or thirty years it was converted into a wool-carding mill, and finally became a paper-mill, now owned and run by William English.

In 1784 Haskell & Dexter built a grist-mill below their saw-mill, which was operated until the building of the canal destroyed the water- power. They also built, 1819, the grist-mill which is still run by the Dexter family. Formerly the grist-mills were supported by the farmers. who brought in " grists" of rye, corn, and a little wheat, which the mil- ler " tolled " to get his pay for grinding. Though still called a grist- mill. the "grists " are wanting at this mill, the supply coming mostly by the car-load from Western States.

1831. Jonathan Danforth, from New York, built a factory, the

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

first one erected on the canal (and afterwards used by 11. A. Converse as a foundry from 1814-1860), where he manufactured door-butts, but. after two years, struck his flag to a cheaper imported article which came into the market. The building was afterwards occupied a few years in the manufacture of cotton batting. by Griswold & Co., of Hartford; Elisha Jenks, of Warehouse Point : also Saxton, Woodward & Co., of the same place. In 1844 Slate & Brown, from Stafford, Conn., erected on the site of the finishing-building the present machine shop, for the manufacture of cotton and other machinery. The building (1859) was owned by L. B. Chapman and used by A. G. West in manufacturing sew- ing and other kinds of machines : and, during the war, by Denslow & Chase as an armory.

1833. Samuel Williams, of Hartford, built a six-engine paper-mill just north of the ferry-way, which failed during the panic of 1837. In 1838 the mill was again operated by a joint stock company as The Wind- sor Mills, but failed in about two years, and finally came into the hands of Persse & Brooks, of New York, in 1844. By them it was operated until burned, in 1856, when they rebuilt it as an eight-engine paper-mill, and it was, in 1857, transferred, with two others, to the Persse & Brooks Paper Works Company.

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 60

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