The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 69

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 69

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).

In 1757, however, the project was revived and application made to the assembly for a committee to locate the said meeting-house. The committee appointed by the assembly were Colonels Trumble, Hunting- ton, and Jabez Huntington. This important step being accomplished, the society fixed upon the dimensions of the new edifice (viz., length, 60 feet ; width, 45 feet ; height, 27 feet posts ), and appointed (Dec. 10, 1760) Eras- tus Woleott, Ebenezer Grant, and Joel Loomis as building committee. Mr. Grant had the greatest burden of the business, as the records and accounts of this committee sufficiently evidence.' These accounts were duly accepted by the society 11th Jan., 1762.

By a vote of the society, 12th Jan., 1761, liberty was granted " to build a steeple at ye north end of ye Meeting House by subscription," to which the society added $40.

By October, 1761, the new meeting-house was so far advanced that the society chose the seaters to seat it. and instructed them as follows :

" Voted, that the Committee seat men and women apart.

" Voted, furthermore, that if any set of males (of the married people) being so seated, shall agree among themselves to exchange with their wives, they have the liberty.

" Voted, the men to take the south end, the women the north end. Left with the committee, to seat the widows & single people."

" Zebulon Seymour, carp'r began work on meeting house, July 6, 1761, ceased Nov. 7." The " seating " of the new edifice was completed on 15th of October. his bill for services of "self and boy " being £ 29 15s. 67 .; and in the old record of baptisms is the following entry : "November 22, 1761, that was the first sabbath [we] met in our new meeting house, there was four children baptized that day."

At a meeting hell by y. Second Society in Windsor legally warned and assembled at ye New Meeting House this 19 day of Nov., A. D 1761, Erastus Wolcott. Esq .. chosen Moderator :

Voted, to accept ye Report of ye Comint appointed to seat ye New Meeting House.

Voted, y" buikling Com" be Impowerd to Dispose of yr old Meeting House in y' best manner they can.

1 Accounts formerly in possession of his grandson, the late Maj. F. W. Grant of South Windsor.

584

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

(The above is written on the back of a large sheet, endorsed " Seating the Meeting llouse. 161," on the other side of which is the following :)

-- ---

Men's xithe Josiah Wolcott Joseph Phelps Nez' Rock well Dan. Bissel

Will Grant Pelt' Foster Giles Wolcott

Women xide .

Rusha Bissel

Ruth Loomis

Betty Grant

Betty Drake

Sarah Bissell

Eunice Cooly

Rusha Elmor

Hannah Bancroft

FRONT PEW.

Charles Rockwell

Lucy Bissel

Mary Rockwell

Molly Day

Molly Wolcott

Cloe Elmor

2 PEW.

Women. Ilip. Strong

Isaac Grant

Olivr Skinner

Abigail Wolcott Lidea Rockwell

Nath' Higley

Alex' Grant

Lorany Woolcott

Tomas Foster

Betty Rockwell

Imke Lomis

3 PEW.

Women. Rocksi Lomis

Gabriel Burnham

Oliver Chamberlain

Naomi Diggens

Justus Day

Rachel Lomis

Alex. S

Rusha Bancroft

Abn' Bancroft

Molly Wolcot. Jun'

4 PEW SIDE.

Man. Augt Diggens

Min. Eleas Oleutt John Fitch Benj. Wolcott

UPPER SIDE GALLERY.

Mill. Isaac Phelps

Nabby Rockwell

John Skinner

Esther Bissel

Henry Loomis, Jun'

Hannah Lomis

Gideon Drake

Molly Vining

Nath' Drake, hin'

Sarah Skinner

Moses Lomis

Ann Bissel

Dan" Skinner, Jun'

Cloe Webster

Luey Morton

Pad. Carver

Ann Rockwell

Dan! & Elmor

Elijah Rockwell

.los Porter John Porter

FRONT GALLERY.

Women. Mira Rock well

Augustus Fitch Sam" Tudor Oliver Day Doet' Convess

585

THE SEATING OF THE THIRD MEETING-HOUSE.

LOWER SIDE GALLERY.

Mell.

Women.

Silas Stevenson

Pheby Pomery

Nez' Drake

Pheby Millinton

John Pendal

Eunice Webster

Dan" Eaton

Dolly Coult

Dan" Burr, Jun

Molly Conlt

Gideon Lomis

Boyantons

Silas Drake

2 Elest Girls

Elisha Pendal

UPPER SIDE GALLERY PEW.

Men.

Women. Ellis Bissel

John bower

Bula Rockwell

Hack foster

Sible Rockwell

Tim. Skinner

Martha Elmor

Ep. Wolcott Dan" Bissel

Nancy Burnham

(2)

Men. John Rockwell

Women. Selome Bissel

Nath' Bissel

Nancy Stoughton

Ann Moor

John Foster John Smith, Jun

Ursula Lomis

Charles Bissel

Sarah Rockwell

Benja Rockwell

Betty Foster

3 PEW.

Men.

Oliver Lomis

Prudence Smith

Ezek Lomis

Molly Wells

Isaac Rockwel

Molly Rockwell

Timo. Elmor

Bulla [ Beulah ?] Lomis

Timo. Oleutt

Zuruiah Lomis

Abner Rockwell

The forging is a true acco' of y Doings of y" Com" appointed to Seat y" new meet ing Ilouse in Windsor 2nd Society.

Certifyed by EBEN' GRANT. Clerk of said Society.

Novr, 1761

This edifice, which was paid for mainly by the sale of tobacco,' stood originally in the street, about 60 or 65 feet south, and 50 feet east of the present church. This position was forced on the society in conse- quence of the unwillingness of the owner of a desirable adjoining lot to sell, although offered an extravagant price. Here it stood until about 1845, when it was removed back to the location of the present building by Dea. Abner Reed. Its removal was accomplished, in spite of the predictions of all the wiseacres of the village. without any perceptible

1 Tradition, amply confirmed by the accounts of the buikling committee.

Vol. 1 .- 74

('loe Fitch

Asael Bower

586

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

strain or damage to the church or steeple.1 It was considered in its day as a remarkably fine specimen of church architecture. The steeple especially was the pride of the town, and was built by subscription; except .£40 voted by the society. One influential gentleman remarked, when the subscription paper was handed to him, that he should cheer- Fully add his contribution, for " God had one born in Windsor already, and did not want another." referring to the Wapping meeting-house, which had no steeple. The old negro doctor Primus also had his say in the Following sentiment proposed at the raising:

" Big church, high steeple,

Proud committee, poor people."

1763, June 23d. The society's committee were " empowered to seenre the glass windows of the meeting-house from breaches, by pur- chasing springs or weights," as they should judge best.

In December following, they were ordered to make such changes in the floor seats " as to make room below to bring the new married people down."

December, 1765. A sum of money having been subscribed to obtain a bell, Erastus Wolcott, Ebenezer Grant, and Joel Loomis were appointed a committee " to lay it out." This bell, the first in the society, became broken, and was replaced with a new one in 1791-2.

From 1763 (or earlier) the church seems to have been much dis- turbed by several cases of discipline, mostly those of Stephen Stedman and Martha, his wife, and of Dea. Matthew Rockwell, for long-continued absenting of themselves from publie worship and the sacrament. The proceedings towards these reensants, as evidenced by papers still existing, appear to have been marked by " long-suffering," patient Christian firm- ness, resulting finally in the formal excommunication of the two first- named. Deacon Rockwell, who seems to have been afflicted with a long- continued mental depression, and who endeavored to resign in 1763, finally found relief from his morbid feelings, retracted, and came back into the fold in a humble spirit. These proceedings, which involved the assembling of an Ecclesiastical Council, covered the years 1767 to 1770, inclusive, and the documents regarding them are very interesting, as showing the forms of procedure then obtaining in these matters.

1 The house was so well built that, to quote the words of Deacon Abner Reed, in a letter to the author: " At the time it was taken down (1845) the timbers of the frame were perfectly sound, and the builder of the new house told me that after he had stripped off all the covering he examined the frame, and could not find a spot of rot in whole that he could stick the point of his knife in : except one in the sill where the double front door lapped together, and that not enough to injure. . ! // the posts of the old house, and all the beams and other parts that for size and length would answer, were worked into the new. The contractor told me that he could not have got timber for the posts that would have answered so well as the old ones."

587

CHURCH MATTERS, 1763-1768.

In 1778 the relations between pastor and people seemed to have been somewhat strained owing to the insufficiency of Mr. Perry's salary (then £75 per annum) to meet his necessities under the changed values of money, consequent upon the war; and there is still extant a letter from him asking his charge to mite with him in calling a council for the dissolution of the connection between them, together with sundry records of votes, etc. The matter was finally amicably arranged.

In 1768 that portion of Windsor east of the Connecticut River was incorporated as a distinet town, and this church and society became the First Church of East Windsor.

It will be remembered, also, that before the town of East Windsor itself thus came into being there were four ecclesiastical parishes exist- ing upon the east side of the Connecticut River, within the limits of the ancient town of Windsor, viz. :

1. The Second Church or Society, whose history we have been tracing in this chapter, organized 1698.

2. The North, Third, or Scantie Church, organized 1752, see the following Chapter.

3. The Windsor, Goshen, or Great Marsh Parish, which in 1735 became the parish (and subsequently the separate town) of Ellington. See Chapter IX, East Windsor division of this History.

4. The Winter Parish of Wapping, organized about 1761, the fore- rummer of the present Wapping (So. Windsor) Congregational Church. See Chapter IV, East Windsor division of this History.

Society of North Bolton. In regard to the setting off, in the year 1760, of a part of the Second Society in Windsor to help form the Society of North Bolton, Mr. ALLYN S. KELLOGG says: "Something respecting this may be found in the Records of the Colony, vols. viii. and ix .; but most of the papers are in Ecclesiastical, vol. xii., State Archives, State Library, under the title North Bolton. The assembly, in May, 1750, appointed a committee upon the memorials of Benjamin Stoughton and others, of Windsor, for an Ecclesiastical Society, with certain limits: and of Isaac Jones and others, part of them living in Bolton, and part of them living in Windsor, for an Ecele- siastical Society, with certain other limits. In each case it was reported that they were "too few." February 12, 1754, Isaac Jones, Moses Thrall, and John Hills, of Bolton, David Smith, John Searl, and Joseph Steadman, of the South [or Second ] Society of Windsor, and John Craw and Samuel Hills, of the Parish of Ellington, petitioned for an Ecclesi- astical Society that should include a district about two miles in width, lying in Windsor. Another petition for a new Society was presented in

588

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

May, 1757. A final petition, dated April 23, 1760, was granted, and in October, 1760, North Bolton was made a Society, its north and west boundaries being thus defined in the resolution : (starting from the N.E. cor. of Bolton), "thence turning westward in the line betwixt Bolton and Ellington, to Bolton N. W. corner, and still continuing the same course into Ellington about a mile and a half and forty rods [line N on map] : thenee turning and running southwardly at the west end of the second tier of lots to Hartford line; thence turning eastward in said line to Bolton or the T ditch; thence turning southwardly one mile in the line betwixt the towns of Hartford and Bolton : thence "eastward to the east line of Bolton." That part of Ellington which was. in 1760, included in North Bolton Society was about half a mile in width, as may be seen in the act incorporating Ellington Society.

Equivalent

West Line of

Ellington Society Norty Society

Rockville

North Bolton,1760

1810.

Vernon, 1808.

Tolland

Seccional Society

of Vernon,

Annexed.

PI to Bolton ;

1789

To Manchester, 1842

Coventry

Manchester

Bolton

"North Bolton took also a part of the North (or Seantic) Society, on which there were no inhabitants in 1760. Later (1802) Solomon Loomis and Samuel Andrews, being in the Society in East Windsor, were annexed to the Society of North Bolion -see Private Lawx. In the plan filed with their petition, the line adjoining North Bolton is marked as SO rods in length. Whether that part of the North Society included in North Bolton was of uniform width is not made clear from the act establishing that North Society in May, 1752, and the act incorporating Ellington.

" In May, 1810, the tract B V O S was annexed to the Vernon Ecclesiastical Society ( Private Lares, i. 554). It thus became a part of

---

EMing ton

Ko Ecclesiastical Society

Fnon Line

HOCKANUM

589

A SET-OFF TO NORTH BOLTON.

Vernon School Society, and so continned until May, 1831, when it was annexed to Wapping. - Private Laws, ii. 1095.

"In the absence of any accurate maps of Vernon, or of South Windsor, it is somewhat difficult to define these oldler landmarks. The "Hartford lines " were, until 1842, the boundaries of Manchester, and the "T ditch " is at the northeast corner of Manchester. The part taken from Windsor seems to have been a rhomboid, its longer sides being the present west line of Vernon, and a parallel line running from the re-entrant angle in the southwest corner of the town. The line of Windsor (afterwards East Windsor) used to pass within sixty or eighty rods of the site of the present meeting-honse at Vernon Center.

"I have not satisfactorily ascertained the place of N, the original northwest corner of the town of Bolton, and probably it could not be determined without a re-survey. It appears to be, however, in the line west of the road leading into Vernon from Ellington.

" But I think the foregoing will make clear the ecclesiastical ro- lations of that part of Old Windsor which is now (or has been) included in the Ecclesiastical Society of North Bolton (or Vernon), or in the Town of Vernon."'

1 Some of the persons mentioned in the Windsor Genealogies resided in the North Bolton part of Windsor, and for some of these items we are indebted to Mr. Allyn S. Kellogg's kindly help.

CHAPTER HI.

THE NORTHI, OR SCANTIC. PARISH (NOW THE FIRST SOCIETY IN TOWN OF EAST WINDSOR).

1754-1890.

(This Society, when organized, in 1754, was the Sixth Society in Windsor, and so remained until 1468, when, by the division of the ancient town, it became the Third Society in East Windsor, the Ellington Church being the Second. After the incorpora- tion of Ellington, in 1986, this Society became the Second of East Windsor; and in 1846. by the incorporation of South Windsor, it became the First Society in East Windsor.)

T THE late Deacon AZEL S. ROE wrote so thorough and excellent a history of this parish,1 that any attempt to rewrite it, for the mere sake of originality would be a work of supererogation. We content our- selves, therefore, with simply abridging the substance of his little vohunne and adding a few things of our own collating.

As before mentioned. the first settlement of Windsor, east of the Connectient River, was along the river from Seantie to Podunk. and inehided the whole of the present town of South Windsor. At a subse- quent period (1696-1700) a few families began to locate themselves north of the Seantie. Thomas Ellsworth, the Osborns, and the Stileses were among these northernmost settlers, all of whom were near the Con- nectient River. But the gradual increase of numbers, and a necessity of larger accommodations, drove them, in the course of a few years, back into the higher forest lands of the interior.

"As early as 1736 settlers began to select favorable spots for loca- tion amid the forests- some choosing their position where the land was favorable for grain, some where the large pines afforded means for the manufacture of tar, and others amid marshy places where the grass grew rank, for the purpose of gathering hay to winter stock. the sowing of grass-seed being an improvement in agriculture not then known to them."

I HISTORY OF THE FIRST ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETY IN EAST WINDSOR, from its formation in 1752, to the death of its second pastor, Rev. Shubael Bartlett, in 1851. With a sketch of the life of Rev. Mr. Bartlett, and his farewell discourse, prepared for the fiftieth anniversary of his settlement. Hartford, 1857.

Timis Edwards. 1696 to death, 1768.

Joseph Parry

Colleague, 1755 ; pastor until death, 1783.

David 71; Cture_

1786, until death, 1820.

Tho Robbins Colleague pastor, 1809 to 1829 ; pastor until 1827.

Facsimile AUTOGRAPHS OF THE FIRST FOUR PASTORS OF FIRST CHURCH OF EAST (NOW SOUTH) WINDSOR, 1696-1827.

Those Fortune 1753, to death, 1802.

Subael Barlett.

1804, to death, 1854.

Pucsimile AUTOGRAPHS OF THE FIRST TWO PASTORS OF SCANTIC (OR NORTH) PARISHI, EAST WINDSOR, 1753-1854.

Dea.

Historian of the North Parish. See p. 690.

691

NORTH (SCANTIC) SOCIETY.

At what time the Ketch Mills' settlement was commenced is uncer- tain. As early as March, 1663-4, the court allowed Mr. Matthew Al- lyn " to take up that meadow at Catch, beyond Goodman Bissell's, on the cast side of the River, and what upland he pleaseth, so he exceeds not his former grant." And Feb. 2, 1687-8, the town voted that

" Samuel Grant, Senior, and Nathaniel Bissell shall have liberty to set up a sawmill with the use of ten acres of land upon the brook that is known by the name of Ketch, and the town is to have the boards for 4s per 100 at the mill, or Ss at the Great River, they to have no right to the land any longer than they maintain a mill upon the place."

We think the settlement in that neighborhood, however, began at a meh later date - and subsequently to that on the river. The first set- tlers there, or among the first, were JJOHN, ROGER, and LUKE, sons of John Loomis.

Ireland Street, in the northeast part of Seantie Parish, was settled about the middle of the last century (one date 1718, another 1720) by a number of families of Scotch-Irish, who came from the north of Ire- land with the Rev. Mr. Mckinstry, and others, who settled at Ellington. The names of Thompson, MeKnight, Harper, Gowdy, Cohoon, and oth- ers, have been long and honorably connected with the history of this parish.

"From all," says Mr. Roe. " that can now be learned of the charac- ter of those who first settled the north parish of East Windsor, we must judge them to have been men of strong resolution, untiring industry, and of religious habits. They were not mere speculators, who sought to make the most out of the land they ocenpied in the shortest possible time, and then to remove and try their luck upon some other uneulti- vated spot; but they seem to have settled with a design to make a life-

1 It is related that once, " in the oldlen time." the men engaged at the old saw mill here were suddenly alarmed while at dinner by the unceremonious appearance of a huge bear. Unprepared for such an honor, they sought their safety in flight, while their un- welcome visitor, snufling around in search of something to eat, espied the luncheon which one of the men had left on the huge log that was set for the saw. Mounting the log, Bruin began, with his back to the saw, quietly to dispose of the luncheon. Mean- while the owner thereof, taking courage to reconnoitre, found his four-footed adversary thus busily employed, and started the war. Away it went, steadily sliding along the timber, on which unconscious Bruin was seated, in happy enjoyment of his stolen feast, until he was awakened from his " sweet dream of peace" by a savage scratch on his shaggy back. Quick as thought he faced around, and instinctively grasped the shining blade in a death-like hug -but still, up and down, the relentless saw held on its way - and a mangled carcase testified to the exultant settlers that Bruin had " cought a Tartar."

This incident has been assigned as the origin of the name Ketch Millx, but this is an evident mistake. The name is a corruption of catch, by which the brook was known at a very early date in the history of Windsor. The low wet lands on its borders were then covered with a large quantity of coarse grass, of which each of the surrounding inhabitants had liberty to gather in what he couldl ; hence the name of Catch Brook.

592

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

stay of it, contenting themselves with a bare living for the first few years, and enlarging their incomes as they extended their clearings and brought more land into a state of cultivation. The houses which they erected were not log-houses, such as have formed the first houses of set- tlers in the far West, but they were frame buildings of small size. made comfortable without any pretention to ornament. Many of the original settlers purchased large traets of land, which have sufficed even to the present day for division among their descendants, so that in very many locations among us the present owners can sit beneath the shadow of the trees that sheltered their forefathers, and cultivate the soil where their great-great-grandfathers labored.

They were a church-going people, and in the habit of attending reg- ularly those places of worship nearest to their different locations. Those who lived in the north visited the old church in Enfield, and those in the middle and southern portions of the parish attended the church of Mr. Edwards, situated near the oldl burying ground at East Windsor. Sab- bath after Sabbath they traversed the footpaths through the woods to that place of worship; and in death they were carried through the same paths for many miles on the shoulders of neighbors and acquaintances, to the depository of the dead near the house of God.1

The gradual growth of population for a period of seventy years, in the territory between the Scantic River on the south and Enfield on the north, had rendered the necessity of a new parish north of the Scantic so apparent, that in December, 1749, the Second Society petitioned the assembly therefor.

Several committees were appointed, the last of whom reported. Sept. 1751, favorably to a division of the society by a line running due cast from the mouth of the Scantic River; with the proviso, that as the list of the south side exereded that of the north side,2 a part of the former should pay rates to the latter for six years. This report was finally adopted, not without some remonstrance from the south-siders; and, by an act of the assembly, in May, 1752, that part of the Second Society north of the Scantie became the Second, or North Society of Windsor, east of the Connecticut River.3

The first meeting of the new society, of which we have any record, was held on the 25th of June, 1752. From this point we follow Mr. Roe's book. "A meeting legally warned convened on that day at the

" One of our oldest inhabitants remembers that at the death of a young lady, whose relatives had been buried in the old cemetery on East Windsor Hill, the corpse was car- ried from the house he now occupies in Ireland Street, upon the shoulders of the bear- ers to the place of interment, a distance of seven miles ; several sets of bearers relieving each other.

2 South side list, 99. 716s. North side list, $5. 165s.

9 State Archirex, Herlexiuxtical.

----

593

NORTH (SCANTIC) SOCIETY.

house of Mr. John Prior. Captain John Ellsworth was chosen moder- ator, and the following votes were passed :

" Voted, That Captain John Ellsworth, David Skinner, and Joseph Harper be soci- ety's committee.

" Foted. By more than two-thirds of the inhabitants of the North Society, entitled by law to vote, to build a meeting-house in and for said society.

" Voted, That they would apply themselves to the county court to see where the meeting-house should be.

" Yoted. That Samuel Watson, an inhabitant of said society, be the agent for said society to apply to the county court for a committee to affix a place where the meeting- house shall be."

Oct. 30, 1752, at an adjourned meeting of the society, the following resolution passed :

" L'oted, That they would raise five hundred pounds, old tenor currency, for the building of a meeting-house, to be put into the hands of the committee for that pur- pose."

The county court, according to request, appointed a committee, and said committee made report, but it appears not to have been satisfactory, for. on the 10th of Dec., 1752, at a meeting then held, in which Captain John Ellsworth was moderator, and Ammi Trumbull clerk. we find the following resolution passed by a vote of ten majority :

" Voted, That they would apply to the county court to laying objections against the report of second committee of said court ordered by said court to affix a place for a meeting house, and to apply to said court for another committee; and that Erastus Wolcott be employed to find the center of society, and to make a new place if neces- sarv.

" T'oled, That Benjamin Osborne be an agent for said society in laying their objec- tions before the county court."

During the delay necessary to fix upon a suitable spot for the erec- tion of their place of worship, the inhabitants of the parish were not willing to be without the preaching of the gospel within the bounds al- lotted to them, and we find the following resolution on record :

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 69

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