USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 49
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > East Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 49
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > South Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 49
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bloomfield > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 49
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor Locks > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 49
USA > Connecticut > Tolland County > Ellington > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 49
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Captain Joel Loomis also kept tavern about forty rods south of the Middle School-house, on the west side of the street. After his death his son. Capt. Giles Loomis, succeeded him in the business for many years. The built an addition to the house for a Freemasons' Hall. The tavern was the regular rendezvous for the train band - and on these occasions, says an aged friend, " there would be a great crowd collected, and card- playing and drinking were not neglected."
Of the ancient taverns of Windsor proper we have collected but few facts, and those mostly from the cob-webbed memory of garrulous ol./ folks. More than a hundred years ago Sergeant Samuel Hayden kept a tavern at the house now occupied by the family of the late Levi Hayden. The old oak under which his weary guests found a grateful shade is still a thrifty wide-spreading tree, highly prized by certain individuals whose childhood's home is sheltered by it. Tradition whispers that Chief Jus- tice Ellsworth, before he became known to fame, occasionally cracked jokes and eat apple pie at Sergeant Sam's with the young men of his time.
In later years Pickett's Tavern, which stood a few rods from the former, acquired a wide-spread fame. These taverns were located but a quarter of a mile from Windsor Plains, across which lay the great thor- oughfare between Hartford and the north and east. Here the highway
' There are several notices of licenses granted by the court to variotts persons to sell wine and lignors, but it is uncertain whether they were innkeepers. In 1664 the record says: " This court grants Sam'l Gibbs a license to sell nine or ten quarter casks of wine by the gallon to his neighbors or those that will buy it; and he freely presents the court with an anchor of the best of his wine, which the court desires him to leave with the governor."
In the lease of the country ferry at Windsor to John Bissell, in 1648, is a clans granting him the privilege of entertaining and receiving recompense from such travel ers as may not find it convenient to go to the ordinary.
2 Ile was assessed in 1720, $5 for keeping tavern on the north side of the Rivalet
419
INNS AND INNKEEPERS.
leaves the river, to avoid bridging the streams, and passes between the heads of the brooks which flow on one side into the Connectient, and on the other into the Rivulet. Not a stream crosses the road in the distance of five miles: and, after rising the hill, the road was almost perfectly level and straight, without a house upon it. Midway, at a spring beside the road, stood an oldl oak, known far and wide as the Old Smoking Tree. Here travelers, and especially teamsters.' made a halt in summer to water and feed their cattle and smoke their pipes. Forty years ago an old man, bearing a knapsack marked U. S. A., who had preferred the old familiar track to the New Road. stopped at the house which onee bore Sergeant Sam's sign, to ask a little refreshment before ascending the plain. While partaking of the cheer set before him he asked many questions about the localities he had known long years before. When told that the Old Smoking Tree had been ent down, the ire of the old veteran was ronsed, and the deep curses he uttered against the vandal who cut it witnessed that the fatigues of another revolutionary war would have been cheerfully undergone to bring the author of so grievous an outrage to condien punishment.
All travelers, with one notable exception, whether going north or south, stopped at Sorgrant Sam's, and, after his day, at Pickett's, for refreshment, whether the Plains lay before them or were already passed. The exception to this general rule was Gen. George Washington. On the 21% of October, 1789, Washington, then President of the United States, passed through Windsor on his New England tour, and the follow- ing sentence appears in his journal of that date: " Between Windsor and Suffield you pass through a level, barren, uncultivated plain for several miles."" We think it unfortunate for the Plains that he did not stop at Pickett's as he would then have had a fresher start ; and. we fancy, would have omitted the words barron, uncultivated: and, looking beyond the shrub-oaks which skirted the road, would have seen ( with prophetic eye, at least ). large fields of Indian corn and rye, or might have sweetened the mentirated fields with the mention of strawberries, and the wood with whortlberries. But he had that morning breakfasted with his old friend, Judge Ellsworth, a mile or so below. We would not have the reader inter that we have any doubts about the breakfast: it was a good, substantial one, the best the times afforded, but it is not un- likely that they both discussed the affairs of the nation with more inter-
1 A hundred years ago much of the produce from the north which found a market at Hartford was conveyed over this and other roads by ox teams.
2 Rev. Samuel Davis' Journal of a Tour to Connecticut in autumn of 1749 ( Move. Hist. Sor. Proend. 1863-70, pp. 13, 14), also mentions .. Pickett's Inn, 18 miles from Springfield. . Between Springfield and Windsor there is a long tract of pine woods, through which the road leads, a growth of wood very common to this region, I believe."
420
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
est and solicitude than they did the catables which the Judge's accom plished lady had set before them.
" Capt. Pout [Jonathan] Ellsworth." kept for many years a famous tavern, half a mile north of the meeting-house, on the spot now owned by the heirs of the late JJoel Thrall.
In later days taverns have been at various times kept at the places now occupied by Mr. Thaddeus Mather, Mr. Hayden Filles, Judge Il. Sill, and Me. Lemuel Welch. There was also a Bissell's Stage House aby .. Major Ellsworth's place, and a half-way house on the road between Windsor ard Hartford, kept by the father of the present mayor of the latter place.
The subject of taverns is suggestive of the following anecdote, illus- trative of the men and manners of days gone by. There was a custom among the young people. in the early days of Connecticut, of stealing the bride, as it was termed. When a young couple were to be married, those of their acquaintance who were not invited to the wedding would some. times combine, go stealthily to the house where the ceremony was cele- brating, and, watching for a favorable opportunity, rush in, seize the bride, carry her out, and playing her upon a horse behind one of the party, gallop off with her to some neighboring tavern, where music, sup- per, etc., had been bespoken. If the capture and flight were successful. and the raptors sneceeded in reaching their rendezvous at the tavern without being overtaken by the wedding party, the night was spent in dancing and feasting at the expense of the bridegroom. Mr. Elisha Gris- wold, of Simsbury, a descendant of Old Windsor, used, in his later years. to relate with much glee, the particulars of one of these bride-stealings. in which he was a principal actor. It seems that a certain couple were to be married in Simsbury, and Mr. Griswold, with others of their acquaintance who had not been honored with an invitation, resolved upon retaliation by stealing the bride. Accordingly, on the evening of the wedding, having first ordered a nice supper and engaged the music. ete., very privately, at a tavern at Turkey Hills, himself with two or three others went into the neighborhood of the bride's residence. Hope they reconnoitered, but, as the party was large and the rooms crowded, they were obliged to watch for some time before the favorable opportu- nity presented itself. At length, however, the evening being warm and beautiful, the company gradually withdrew from the house and dispersed through the grounds and garden which surrounded it. Through a win- dow they could see the bride, distinguished by her bridal dress, almost alone in the parlor. Now was their chance. One or two of the surprise party quietly entered the dwelling by a back door. To seize the bride and bear her out to where their confederates were holding the horses. and to place her behind one of the party on horseback, was but the work
421
OLD WEDDING CUSTOMS-TREES.
of an instant. In another moment they were speeding over the road to Turkey Hills with a swiftness which almost defied pursuit. But to their surprise, the whole wedding party seemed also to have sprung to their saddles, and were alnost immediately in pursuit, as their loud voices and the clear ring of their horses hoots too plainly told. The race was es- eiting : their laboring horses seemed not to gain one inch on their pur- suers ; but at last they reached the tavern, dismounted, carried their fair prize into the hall, and had just time to arrange the dance when the wedding party arrived. The music struck up, the dance began, but the astonish ment of the gallant captors can scarcely be imagined when they discovered for the first time that the supposed bride wore men's boots, and that her stops and movements were altogether too masculine and antic to comport with the dress and known refinement of the real bride. It then flashed upon them that they had been awfully soll ; the whole wedding party now came rushing into the hall, laughing and ex- ulting with the greatest glee. It seems that the friends of the bride had suspected or learned of the attempt to be made upon her, and had pur- posely dressed upone of the young men and left him exposed in the parlor. having their horses also in instant readiness for pursuit. The hilarious scene that followed the denouement was amusing. The whole thing was taken in perfect good humor, the dancing and supper were very highly enjoyed, and the company broke up and dispersed at a very late hour - the kidnappers paying all expenses. And for years after they had to bear the laughs and jokes of the neighborhood for having the - lobby turned upon them."
We have heard of another instance in which the joker unexpectedly became the victim. The bride in this case was the heroine of the story. Mrs. C., of East Windsor, ou her wedding night was stolen from her husband and friends, placed in a sleigh ( for it was winter season ), and driven by her abductors to a distant tavern. While they were at table she contrived in some manner to elude their observation for a few moments, let herself ont of a back window, went to the barn, helped her- self to a horse and cutter, and was far on her homeward road before her captors even dreamed that she was absent.
Trees. The oldest tree in Windsor, perhaps, is the old cedar, the stump of which now stands in the door-yard of the Chief Justice Ells- worth place. Tradition says that it was one of the original forest trees ;' and that, for several of the first generations of settlers, it was the rally- ing spot for the hunters when they made a general hunt. High in its branches hung an immense pair of deer's antlers, which disappeared some fifty years since. Lient. Joseph Stiles's house stood a little north of this
' See also, page 145, for reference to original forest trees on Rocky Hill.
422
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
tree, and its foundations were dug up by the plow in the summer of 1858. This tree was blown down in November, 1877, and its available wood was carefully husbanded and manufactured into chairs and other articles of use and ornament, to be distributed among the members of the Ellsworth family.
The beautiful elms in Broad Street were set out in 1765' by a respectable citizen of Windsor, who afterwards fell from grace by reason of dissipation, and was publicly whipped. on two several occasions, at two ot his own trees. The peculiar indignity of the punishment rankled dopp in his memory, and subsequently, when in want of wood, he threatened to ent down the trees at which he had been punished. Afterwards, in his drunken moods, he used to threaten the destruction of the remain- ing trees, but was always bought off by old Squire Allyn with a cord of wood and some cider.
The "Old Smoking Tree " and the " Hayden Oak," both relies of the primeval forest, have already been alluded to. While on the topie of trees, we cannot refrain from presenting an extremely interesting article by J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., of Hartford, which was first published in the Hartford Press, entitled :
Early Apples and Off Cider- A Windsor Orchard in 1650. - Josselyn, on his first visit to New England in 1638-9, found " not one apple-tree nor pear planted yet, in no part of the country, except on Governor's Island in Boston Harbor, where he procured half a score of very fair pippins." In the account of his second voyage, some thirty years later, he says that "our fruit trees prosper abundantly, apple trees, quince trees, cherry trees, plum trees, barberry trees," and he "observed with admiration that the kernels sown or the snekers planted produce as fair and good fruit, without grafling, a> the tree from whence they were taken; the country is replenished with fair and large orchards." On bis return to England in 1671 he was told by Mr. Henry Wolcott, of Windsor (who was a fellow passenger), that " be mad. five hundred hogsheads of Sydler out of his own orchard in one year." "Syder," adds Josselyn, "is very plentiful in the country, ordinarily sold for ten shillings a hogshead."
Mr. Wolcott's apple orchard was one of the first, and, for many years, was proba- bly the largest in the Connecticut Valley. It was in bearing before 1649, and his cider presses were at work in 1650. For twenty years afterwards he supplied young tres. summer and winter apples, and cider by the hogshead, gallon or pint, not only to his neighbors at Windsor, but to other town- in the vicinity, and occasionally for exporta tion to other colonies. The account book in which he entered, year by year, the product of his orchard, the sales of trees and grafts, the times of making cider &e., is still extant To save paper, or to conceal his protit> from the eyes of prying neighbors, these accounts were kept in short hand. From this book are derived the following particulars, which may not be without interest to our agricultural and horticultural readers.
The first entry is :
"A note of several sorts of apples I had grown, 1649." under which the quantity gathered from each tree of the old and new orchard is carefully entered : " Of the earliest apples, 1 bushel; of 2 early sorts of sour apples in the new orchard, 1 bushel; of
' The date of erection was cut on a small iron plate and affixed to one of the trees. which was afterwards in its old age blown over, and the plate was then placed on an- other in front of the residence of H. S. Hayden.
423
TREES AND FRUIT CULTURE.
the sununer pippin, by well. 4 bushel; of the Holland pippin, 11 bushel; of the Pear- main. 15 bushel; of the 4 trees of winter apples (of the tree next John Loomis's 24 bushel, the next 69): 19 bushel: of the 4 trees of Bellybonds fas Mr. Wolcott spelled the name of an old favorite, Bollitore was the English form of the French fall et bonne], 6 bushel and 1 peck; of the London pippin, 13 bushel, of Mr Allen's green apples, in the lower side of the orchard, 2 bush 4," &c. Total, for 1619, 91 bushel.
In 1659, the orchard yielded 212 bushel, the greater part of which was made into cider, which was sold at 1s &d per gallon, and $4 4x per hogshead. the apples bringing from his to 8% per bushel. Three bushels were "add at the Faire," for Et. 31 gallons of boiled cider sold at 2x 67. This year, a half bushel of quinces is charged at &.
Bush
In 1651.
" 1652, -
- - 452
" 1653.
- 112:
19.10
** 1654,
-
1588 producing £117:12 92:18
including O'nier. 510. 5 72.10
The price of apples had gradually fallen from Se, in 1650. to 2x 67, and 3x in 1654; and of cider from 1x ad, to 1x 47 per gallon. or $1 10x per barrel. [In October, 1674. the General Court ordered that no iunbolder should ask more than 4d a quart for cider; so the retail price seems to have remained nearly constant, from 1650, though Josselyn tells us it was sold, in 1671, at 10s a hogshead.]
In 1653, wheat sold at 4x, rye at 3x, and Indian corn at 2x per bushel. By these standards, it is easy to compare the prices of apples and cider, or other luxuries, of that day with this. Occasional credits on Mr. Wolcott's book show that he exchanged a part of the produce of his orchard for sack [Spanish wine] at 6s per gallon, white wine at 18x, strong water at 3x per quart, &c. Venison at 1x 6d for a quarter, of 9 lbs. and 3× 100 for one of 16 1bs : 32 lh>. Sugar (a rare luxury), at @ per lb. " The forbearance of £24 for one year" is charged at 1 18x, or at the rate of 1s Wo per pound (72 per cent).
Here are a few entries of sales from the nursery and orchard. showing that Mr. Wolcott was doing a tolerably large business in trees and fruit at this early perio.i.
1650. July. To Mr. Gisbert [Gysbert op Dyck perhaps - who had formerly been commander of the Dutch Fort, in Hartford], 50 bush. apples. $11 17> 64.
Ort. 18. To the same, 100 proc trees, 55.
1651. Aug. 22. "George Phelps bought halfe my thou and of young trees for which be is to pay me two peut . per free to be paide halle in wheate and halfe in pease, in March' &c., 54. 3x 4d.
July 17. "Sold Joseph Magget [Mygatt, of Hartford] a parcel of young trees," 922 10%.
Sept. To the same, 500 trees, 94.
1632. Sept. 14. Sold to Mr. Goodyeare [the deputy governor of New Haven], 100 bushels of apples, to be delivered presently, $20.
20 hlls. cider, to be delivered the 10th of October next. 540.
1653. Win Edwards "owes, for o com, 32 cider barrels to be delivered at the land- ing place, by Sept. 12th."
For aught we know, some of Mr. Wolcott's apple or pear trees are yet bearing fruit in their season.
From ians we naturally glide into the cognate subject of
4:24
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
Stores, Truly, Commeres, etc. -- For, in those early days. as now. tavern-Looping and trading were often carried on by the same persons. The notes which we have gathered relative to this subject are exceedingly scanty, yet sufficient to show us conclusively that Windsor, in the early colonial days, was a leading commercial town and port of entry. This position it hold until subsequent to the revolution, when its neighbor. Hartford. " took a start " and left poor Windsor quite in the background. The WOLCOTTS were probably the first and most extensive merchants here, especially HENRY WOLCOTT, JR. JOSIAH WOLCOTT was a large merchant in 1681. He had land "laid out by Sammel Grant, Town Measurer. 20 feet square, on which to set a warehouse, on the hillside adjoining Wid. Marshall's fence, being on the North end at the West side of the grant - where an old cellar stands that was built by Gien. Phelps los [i. e. near ] the Wid. Marshall, her warehouse."
MICHAEL HUMPHREY was quite a merchant as early as 1662. Among the papers in the State Archives are many inventories, etc., of goods shipped by his brothers Samuel and Henry Rose, merchants of St. Malo.
Captain NEWBERRY and GEORGE GRISWOLD had warehouses here in 1679 on the north side of the Rivulet, near the ferry : and, about the same time, GEORGE and CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS were traders to England and the West Indies.
In 1720 MATTHEW GRANT, on the east side of the river, was assessed €40 " faculty and vessell": Captain Timothy Thrall was assessed 640. and Captain Daniel White $20 for " trading." Both resided north of the Little River.
TIMOTHY LOOMIS makes the following entry in his Common Pher Book: "1739, I sent 221 weight of tobacco to Barbadoes in the shop. The Windsor, whereof 20 pounds was my son Timothy's." Half a mile below Hayden's Station was Master John Hayden's ship-yard : aml another at the Rivalet ferry.
Mr. JAMES MACKMAN was a very considerable merchant from about 1690 to 1698, when he died ; and, about same time, and later, Mr. Jons ELIOT, who married his widow.
Still later, Capt. ROGER NEWBERRY was a prosperous merchant in Windsor, on the place now owned by Dr. Preston, of Hartford. After his death in the Cuba Expedition, in 1740, his widow received a pension from the English government, which she had transmitted to her in cons instead of money, and so continued the store many years after her hu -- band's deccase. Her account books are yet preserved in Bloomfield.
Prior to and during the revolution - or in other words during Windsor's palmiest mercantile days-the Palisado Green was the " commercial center " of Windsor. Here was the great firm of lookt .:
CAPTAIN JAMES HOOKER.
425
STORES, TRADE, COMMERCE.
& CHAFFEE, known through the length and breadth of the country for its extensive dealings and its high mercantile honor. The following sketch of this Windsor firm has been furnished for our pages by EDWARD HOOKER, Esq .. Commander. V. S. N. See also the Hooker Genealogy in the genealogical portion of this work.
" James and H race Hocker, sons of Nathaniel Hooker, of Hartford, received their early mercantile training in their father's business house ; and at an early age they com- meneed business at Windsor, very probably at first as an extension of their father's busi- ness, in which they always retained an interest. After his death they alternated in the superintendence of the Hartford house, and went back and forth with such regularity that some way gave them name of the " Two Buckets, " alluding to the custom of put- ting the well-rope over a wheel and attaching a bucket at each end, so that when one bucket was coming up the other was going down.
"Soon after coming to Windsor they associated with them Mr. John Chaffee, and the firm of . Hookers & Cledfee became an exceedingly prosperous one, and widely known through all the region around for its prompt and energetic business habits, its high moral standing, and its strict and unswerving integrity.
" Their ships - principally in the West Iulia trade, but some of them going to other commercial points, -discharged their cargoes upon the Windsor wharves, and made commercial life and activity upon the water front. It was largely through the influ- euce of Mr. James Hooker that Windsor was made a port of entry.1
" Previous to the revolutionary war this firm was one of the greatest and most exten- sively connected of all the business houses in this part of the country, and its members. all courtrons and genial gentlemen, and highly esteemed by all who knew them. were renowned for their ardent patriotism. Mr. James Hooker sold out his interest to the other partners, though his fortune still remained largely in the hands of the firm.
.. When the Boston Port Bill " was passed they opened their stores for the reception of provisions and material in aid of the Boston people; and Mr. James Hooker was appointed by the town one of a committee for collecting aid for the distressed city. When the war commenced their stores were made a depot for collection of supplies for the army. Mr. James Hooker was commissioned a captam in recognition of his active services They promptly responded to the calls for financial assistance, and freely advanced their money to help the government in its hour of need, while the families of these who had -undered the masker found ever helpful friends at the great store.
" When the war came to a close these patriotic men found their business almost ruined, their funds gone. and the fact forcibly presented to them that they minst com- mence life over again, and build up their frade anew. Cheerfully and with prompt energy they set about the task. which, from the impoverished condition of the country, was rendered a much more difficult one than it had been in their younger days. Their high character and mercantile integrity were greatly to their advantage, and their prospects for success were bright and cheering, when the ' French spoliations ' fell with remorseless weight upon them. Their ships were swept away, and the great firm. crushed by the weight of adversity, succumbed to overpowering misfortune and passed out of existence.
"The settlement was entrusted to Mr. Chaffee, and Mr. Horace Hooker removed to western New York, and finally found a home at Sackett's Harbor. Without doubt Mr. James Hooker aided Mr. Chaffee in the settlement and the work of honorably closing the business affairs, and saving what could be saved from the wreck; and, though even to this day the money advanced to the government, and the losses by the French
1 Windsor by the Arts of U. S. Congress (viz .: 1 August, 1290, and 2 March, 1799), was made a Port of Entry. - F. E. Mather.
VOL. I .- 54
426
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
spoliations has never been repaid, the affairs of the great firm were honorably and suit isfactorily adjusted.
"Mr. James Hooker settled down to quiet but active participation in puldi. duties. To the needy and unfortunate he was ever ready to give counsel and wolvie in their troubles, and such more substantial aid as he could bestow : and thus. in peace and quiet. with love and respect from all, his years sped along nutil December 10 1805, when he quietly passed away, sincerely mourned by all, but by none more so that by the great army of the poor to whom he inut been su truly a friend."
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