The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818. Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Schenck, Elizabeth Hubbell Godfrey, 1832-
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York, The author
Number of Pages: 478


USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818. Vol. I > Part 4


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54


xxviii


CONTENTS


Mary .- Andros imprisoned .- Connecticut magistrates restored to office .- William and Mary proclaimed in New England towns .- Address to the King and Queen .- Major Gold ambassador to New York .- Connecticut troops sent to New York .- French and Indian depredations .- Rev. Increase Mather's success in England .- Preparation for war with the Canadians and Indians.


210


CHAPTER VI


1690-1700


CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, GOVERNMENT


Prosperity of the town .- French and Indian war .- Loss at Schenectady .- Military rule .- Fairfield troops at Albany .- Military tax .- Matthew Sherwood, captain of dragoons .- John Burr, captain of militia .- Embargo on grain and provisions .- Agent to England .- First colonial congress in America -Magistrates of 1690 .- Expedition against Quebec .- Tyranny of Leisler .- Friendship of the Mohawks .- Fugitive slaves .- Fairfield village and school .- Salt manufactories .- Connecticut charter .- Latin schools .- Fairfield village church and members. - Rev. Charles Chauncy .- Death of Rev. Samuel Wakeman .- Rev. Joseph Webb, third pastor of Christ's church .- Grover's hill .- Town acts .- Witchcraft. -Men and Indians sent to defend Maine and Massachusetts .- Military claims of Col. Fletcher .- Major Winthrop sent to England .- Fairfield taxed .- Fairfield village and parish .- Postal laws .- Powder money .- Agents sent to the Five Nations .- Death of Queen Mary .- Parish records of Fairfield and church covenant .- Piracy and Captain Kidd .- Value of Silver .- Maintenance for ministers .- Expedition to New Foundland .- The Earl of Bellomont .- County courts .- Epidemic of 1698 .- The king's highway and postal routes .- College in Connecticut .- Magistrates of 1699 .- Counterfeiting .- Laws for Fairfield village .- Official fees .- Preservation of forests .- Founders of Yale college ..... 255


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Fairfield Bar


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A MAP OF EARLY FAIRFIELD.


Pequonnock River


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River


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quonpock


Aspatuc


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BUILDING LOTS


GREENLEA


Ship Hbr.


Fairweather


SASQUA


Grovers Mm


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Prut's Neck


.


HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD


CHAPTER I


1639-1650


DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT


Discovery of Uncoway .- Its natural advantages .- Roger Ludlow's commission to settle Pequon- nock .- Indians of the country .- First purchase of Indian lands .- Character of the country .- Samp-mortar Rock .- Pequot Swamp .- Named Fairfield .- Ludlow's companions .- First five home lots .- Ludlow fined .- His apology .- Settlements of Stamford and New Haven .- Fear of an English governor .- Connecticut patent .- Indian purchases and privileges .- Laws. -Constables .- State archives .- Courts .- Ludlow lays out the town .- Additional planters .- Ludlow purchases Norwalk .- Spring of 1640 .- Ludlow a judge of the General Court .- Colony prison. - Mere-stones .- Tobacco .- First town and school-house .- Planters of 1640 .- Home industry .- Improvement of lands .- Trade .- Pipe-staves .- Fencing .- Hides .- Flax. -Pequonnock bounds .- Uncoway Indian tribute .- Sumptuary laws .- Imports and exports .- Shipping .- Truthfulness .- Trouble with the Dutch .- Creditors and debtors .- Ludlow deputy-governor .- Indian troubles .- Militia called out .- Condition of the planters in 1642. -Assistants and Deputies of 1643 .- Arms forbidden the Indians .- Jurors .- Confederation of the colonies .- Grand-jurors .- Marriages .- Plantations guarded .- Governor Stuyvesant .- Indians rise at Stamford .- General fast proclaimed .- Fairfield Indians troublesome .- Ludlow's prompt action .- General . combination of the Indians .- General Court laws for town courts, merchandise, liquors, inns, land, fences, town clerks, and trade with the Indians. -Mills .- Long Island Indians -Bequest of William Frost to Christ's Church. - Maintenance of ministers and students at Harvard College .- Herdsmen .- Marks of private cattle, etc .- Magistrates and Deputies of 1645 .- Training days. - Colony fair .- General tax for pur- chasing Saybrook fort .- War between Uncas and the Narragansetts .- War declared against the Narragansetts .- Peace established in August .- Assistants and Deputies of 1645 .- Jury trials .- Criminals not allowed to vote .- Governor Haynes to visit the Indian reservations. -Dutch and Indian troubles .- Tobacco .- Guards for the Sabbath and lecture days at Fairfield .- Seaside annual tax .- Whaling .- Magistrates and Deputies of 1648 .- Salary of governor and deputy-governor .- Bankside farmers .- Stratford ferry .- Uncoway Creek mill .- Military laws .- Indians of Stamford .- Uncas sent to Stamford .- Thomas Newton leaves Fairfield .- Connecticut patent .- Cambridge platform. - Death of Charles I.


IN the subjugation of the powerful tribe of Indians known as the Pequots, in the great fight at Sasqua or Pequot-swamp, the pioneers of Connecticut achieved an important victory, one which in its results has scarcely a parallel in the history of warfare. Peace with the much-dreaded savages who roamed at will about the feeble settlements, and in fact throughout all New England, was thereby secured. Prosperity followed quickly after days of great adversity ; and the planters found themselves not only in position to extend their own borders, but to enlarge the juris-


I


2


HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD


[1639


diction of the colony by beginning plantations along the coast of Long Island Sound.


In noting the many providences of God which overshadowed them during this war, one of special interest to the sons and daughters of Fair- field, was the discovery of the fair fields of Uncoway .* For want of pas- ture for their cattle, good land for cultivation, and a bountiful supply of water, many of the planters of Plymouth and Massachusetts had emigrated to the banks of the Connecticut : but here at Uncoway they found the long sought for country, beautiful beyond all other spots which they had yet discovered. Here were meadow lands rich with the deposits of ages ; grand old forests and majestic hills overlooking some of the most pictur- esque scenes in New England. Here, too, were fresh springs, rivers, ponds and streamlets of pure sweet waters; and sweeping as far as the eye could reach from east to west rolled the blue waters of Long Island Sound, across which, against the southern horizon, lay Sewanhacky, the Island of Shells or Long Island.


To return to this beautiful country, and to rear on the scene of the great Pequot victory an English town, became the aim of the deputy- governor, Roger Ludlow. He succeeded in obtaining a commission from the General Court of Connecticut to begin a plantation at Pequonnock, during the summer or carly autumn of 1639 ; and with four others set out on his journey thither. Upon his arrival he entered into a treaty with the chief sachems of Pequonnock, of whom he purchased " all the lands lying west of the Stratford bounds to the Sasqua or Mill river, and from the Mill river south-westward to the east bounds of the Maxumux Indian lands; and from the Sound, seven or eight miles into the wilderness," all of which lands were claimed by the Pequonnock Indians.t


The Indians of this region were no doubt glad to enter into a friendly alliance with the English, whom, since their remarkable victory over the Pequots, they must have regarded as beings endowed with super- natural power. In order to secure protection from their deadly enemies the Mohawks, who yearly made a descent upon them to collect a tribute which was rigidly exacted, they agreed to give Governor Ludlow an annual tribute of furs, wampum and corn.


* In the town records the Indian name of Fairfield is almost invariably spelled Uncoway : in the colonial Records Uncoa and Uncowaye. Unquowa, while a more modern style of orthography, is not as soft in its pronounciation as that of Uncoa. The author has adopted that found in the Town Records, as the one most familiar to the ear of the early settlers. There is but little doubt, however, that the accent should fall on the second syllable, and that Uncowa and Uncowaye were accented alike.


+ Unfortunately, the deed of this purchase has been lost ; but is happily supplied in the deed dated 20 March, 1656. Letter A, Fairfield Town Deeds, p. 437.


3


DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT


1639]


There were several hundred Indians divided into clans who claimed the lands of Pequonnock, Uncoway and Sasqua. The Pequonnock Indians appear to have been a branch of the Paugusetts, living on the east side of the Housatonic, and the Wepawags on the west side of the river. They were at one time supposed to be two distinct tribes ; but it has been decided by students of the aborigines of Connecticut, that they were one and the same, as the names of their chief sachems are found attached to deeds of lands, both of Milford and Stratford. The territories of this clan stretched several miles along the coast and included the Nor- walke Indians. After the Indians of Pequonnock made a formal sale of their lands to Roger Ludlow, they settled upon Golden Hill-so named from the mica found in the soil-and were ever afterwards called the Golden Hill tribe.


The Uncoway Indians occupied the territory lying west of Pequon- nock, to the eastern borders of Sasqua or Mill river. The name of Sas- quannock appears to have been applied to all the lands lying west of this river, as far as the Sasco river. The name of Munchunchoser Sasqug * appears to have been given to the lands and small islands in Pine creek and on Sasco hill, lying on the east side of Mill river bordering the Sound. The Maxumux Indians claimed the lands west of the small stream called Sasco river, about a mile along the coast to the Compang or Compaw lands, and extending into the wilderness to the borders of the Aspetuck river. The Compangs or Compaws occupied the land west of Maxumux as far as the Saugatuck river. North of these, scattered along the borders of the Aspetuck river, lived the Aspetucks.} The sachem of this tribe was called the chief sachem of Aspetuck and Sasquannock or Sasquaugh. }


The principal fort of the Pequonnock and Uncoway Indians was at the head of the stream or cove which runs from Black Rock harbor, a de- scription of which, and the number of Indians living in it, has happily been preserved by Thomas Wheeler, sr., a descendant of one of the first settlers at Black Rock. It is as follows :


"Captain Thomas Wheeler (the first settler of Black creek village in 1640) came to Black Rock, and at the old lot built a stone house with a flat roof of plank, on which he


* Will of William Frost, Col. Rec. of Conn., i., 465. Will of Thomas Wheeler, sr., Fair- field Probate Records, 1648-56.


There seems to be no good reason for this name being attached to the Maxumux lands.


t The Aspetuck is a branch of the Saugatuck, and forms part of the boundary line between Weston and Greenfield, flows through Redding and has its source in Danbury.


A branch of the Aspetuck Indians also lived on the borders of a small river of the same name at New Milford, which empties into the Housatonic.


# Col. Rec. Conn., iii., 282.


4


HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD


[1639


mounted two four pounders, one pointed towards the mouth of the harbor, the other at an Indian fort situated at the head of the harbor, now known by the name of Old Fort. This place the Fairfield Indians had built for their defense against some of the interior tribes with whom they were perpetually at war. It was composed of palisades joined to- gether, and at each corner a room was built out with port holes. It contained about an acre of ground, and was garrisoned by about two hundred Indians."


The almost impregnable, natural fortress at Pequot swamp, was sur- rounded on all sides by a wide ditch of bogs and water, thickly grown trees and a dense under-growth of alder and birch.


As the English purchased lands of the Indians, reservations of suffi- cient numbers of acres for their use were set apart to satisfy them. Besides the Golden Hill reservation, the Uncoways retained several acres near Old Fort, on the east side of the Uncoway river, upon which they lived for many years after the town was settled. They also reserved a number of acres of samp-mortar rock and mill plain. "In the rich valley south of the rock was a large Indian town; and at the very foot of the precipice there appears to have been a burying ground."* The Sasqua Indians reserved lands at Sasco, a little west of Pequot swamp. The Maxumux Indian reservation lay east of Frost point and on Clapboard hill.


The tract of land purchased by Roger Ludlow for the town of Fair- field embraced within its boundaries the Uncoway and Sasqua rivers, the fine harbors of Pequonnock and Black Rock, and a good harbor at Sasqua. The Black Rock harbor is one of the finest on the New England coast, vessels of large size being able to enter at any time of the tide. The principal islands in 1639 were Fairweather, which forms the east chop of Black Rock harbor, and Thompson's island, now called Penfield reef, and the Fairfield bar. The latter island, except at unusual high tides, in early days, was reached from the main land by a small strip of land. It is de- scribed by some of the oldest and most intelligent gentlemen of Fairfield as having been an island about a mile or more in length and covered with meadows, upon which cattle grazed and a few trees and berries were found.+ There was also Flat and several small inland islands, particularly in Sasco neck, now called Pine creek.


* Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island, by John E. Pease and John M. Niles, p. 171.


+ Testimony of Capt. Anson Bibbins, Mrs. Abram Benson and Mr. Edmund Hobart, of Fairfield.


The east end of this island was protected from the action of the waves and storms by a high, strong breastwork of rocks and cobble-stones. Several years after the settlement of the town, vessels from Boston, New York and other places carried away cargoes of these cobble-stones for paving purposes, until the town passed a vote prohibiting their removal. Meanwhile, the loss of those already carried away caused the waves and tides to sweep over the island, washing away the


5


DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT


1639]


The surface of the country on the Sound, while moderately even, grad- ually rises in a succession of fine rolling hills and gentle declivities. Large quantities of peat were found by the early settlers in the swamps, of which they made considerable use for fuel. By many it was thought val- uable for manure, which, when laid upon the ground in heaps, soon crum- bled and improved fields under cultivation. The sea-weed of the Sound also proved a valuable fertilizer.


The soil, which is mainly of gravelly loam, is described in the early history of the settlement as generally rich and very productive. There are also sections of primitive argillaceous loam and some tracts of allu- vial soil. No minerals of value exist. A copper mine is mentioned in the will of Lieutenant Richard Hubbell of Stratfield, as situated " a little above ye Pine swamp at ye upper end of Stratfield bounds."* At Pequon- nock and at Greenfield there are quarries of freestone. A whetstone quarry is mentioned in the early records of the town. The most impor- tant one, however, is the Bluestone Hill quarry, about a mile north of Greenfield centre, which the first settlers used for grave-stones and build- ing purposes.


Fine oaks of all kinds abounded in early days, as well as chestnut, hickory, cherry, several kinds of maples, beech, birch, white and red ash, elm, butternut, white wood, buttonwood, basswood, poplar, sassafras, hemlock, spruce, cedar and pine. The white wood, notable for its height and magnitude, made excellent boards and clapboards. Beech trees of considerable height extended along the beach from the Uncoway river to Kenzie's point, the roots of which, with those of the beach-grass, formed a strong breastwork against the encroachment of the tides and storms. Noble pines covered the islands of Pine creek, from which it derived its name.


Wild fruits were abundant, and a great variety of wild flowers of ex- quisite texture and tints adorned the woods, meadows and hill-sides. The Sound furnished some of the most exquisite sea-mosses to be found on the New England coast. The deer, bear, wolf, fox, otter, mink, muskrat, and an endless number of squirrels afforded furs valuable for barter. Wild cats, bears, wolves and other ferocious animals were discovered in large numbers at " Devil's-den," which took its name from that fact. A descrip-


sand and soil, and making a new current for the tide, which rushed between the Cows and Penfield reef with great force, throwing, in high winds and storms, rocks, stones, sand and gravel from the east and west-forming in the course of time the natural causeway, upon the south-east end of which the government has erected a light-house. Edmund Hobart states that many of the stones on this causeway have been thrown up in cakes of ice in the winter by the wind and waves."


# Fairfield Probate Records, 1734.


6


HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD


[1639


tion of the sources of wealth at Fairfield in those days is given in William Wheeler's journal. "Land was cheap and produced large crops. Labor was cheap-there were many Indians who would work for small wages. In those golden times there was plenty of game-ducks of which there were twenty species of black ducks and broadbills, hundreds if not thousands in a flock, which were very tame-wild geese very fat in large numbers but more shy. Pigeons in Autumn so wonderfully plenty that forty dozen have been caught in a net in one morning at one spot. Black Rock beach was the place to take them, where the pigeon houses were situated at short distances apart. Pigeons flew so thick one year that at noon, it is said, the sun could not be seen for two hours-prodigious numbers were seen-being The waters tired alighting in the sound, and perishing in the water.


brought forth abundantly ' various kinds of fish-shad in prodigious quan- tities, but bass were the fish they caught most plentifully, taking in at Black Rock sixty or eighty in a night ; occasionally some of them weighing as heavy as twenty-eight pounds. Clams, oysters and escallops more than could be eaten.' Eels and smelt swarmed in the waters. White-fish were so plentiful that they were drawn in by nets, and distributed for manure upon the lands. Beside these, lobsters, crabs, mussels and other inferior shell-fish were found in great quantities. The fresh water streams afforded trout, lamper-eels and turtles of considerable size. Occasionally whales made their appearance in the Sound ; and the porpoise was a frequent spectacle, measuring his length in the air and then disappearing beneath the waters."


Among the natural curiosities of the town is a spot called samp-mortar rock. This rock forms a distinct feature in the geographical history of Fairfield. It occupies a central position on the west side of Mill river, about two miles from the Sound, between Fairfield and Greenfield. Ledge upon ledge of huge rocks project from the side of a hill, forming a preci- pice of about eighty feet in height. A granitic ridge runs northerly for some distance. A gradual and easy ascent leads to the summit of the hill, upon which is to be found a large flat rock, on which patches of lichens and mosses abound ; and in which, almost on the very brink of this preci- pice, is a round opening in the form of a mortar, capable of holding about half a bushel of corn. At a convenient distance is an indenture which the Indians are said to have used for a seat while pulverizing corn in the mortar ; and just below it is another smaller indenture for supporting the fect. This novel corn mill gave the name of samp-mortar to the place.


For many years tourists believed that this excavation was a work of art hewn out by the Indians ; but as in many of the rocks beneath it are


7


DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT


1639]


found like holes of smaller size, modern scientists are induced to believe it the result of the action of water at some glacial period. Calm reasoning, however, naturally inclines to the hypothesis, that whatever effect the floods of time produced, the Indians had much to do with the depth and size of this mortar ; and that if " the constant dropping of water will wear away a stone," certainly the action of an Indian chisel or stone hatchet against stone, will in a much shorter time make like progress. It has been remarked that "this mortar, which may be considered as a primitive grain- mill, is not more important as a monument of the aboriginal inhabitants than as an illustration of the origin and progress of the arts. It was a great improvement upon the more simple and rude method of pulverizing corn which preceded it -- that of pounding the kernels between two stones. To such rude and simple discoveries as this, can the most noble and useful inventions in the arts be traced." *


Pequot swamp was until 1835 another natural curiosity of the town. It was so named from the famous swamp fight between the New England- ers and the Pequots, which will ever make it remarkable in the annals of local history. The rise of ground in its centre, which had the appearance of an artificial mound, was a natural hill. For a long time it was supposed to be the work of the Indians, and filled with their graves; but when Pequot Avenue was opened in 1835, it became necessary to make a passage through it. This was done by tunneling through the centre, as the ground above was frozen hard. Most of the men of the place were sea captains, who employed their leisure hours in the winter in making this excavation. They found but one Indian skeleton, and to their surprise discovered, by the different strata of earth, that the supposed mound was a natural hill. + The open hill for many years formed walls on either side of the road, which are now leveled, so that only a faint vestige of the hill is to be seen. This historic swamp lies northwest of the residence of the late Hon. Jonathan Godfrey, of Southport, and only a few rods west of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which crosses Pequot Avenue.


Supplied with everything which opens avenues of comfort and wealth, the pioneers of Uncoway could scarcely fail to look forward with happy anticipations for the prosperity of their town. Others were soon induced to join them from Massachusetts and the Connecticut river settlements.


* Gazetteer of Connecticut, p. 171.


+ Testimony of Messrs. Jonathan Godfrey, Francis D. Perry, and Paul Sheffield of Southport, who witnessed the excavation. This highway, which was also the old stage-road from the village to the King's highway, is the only street which rightly should bear the name of Pequot Avenue ; but by some singular misunderstanding the name has been attached to one of the main streets of Southport.


8


HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD


[1639


The Indian name of Uncoway, signifying go further, gave place to that of Fairfield, which was happily applied to the fair fields and rich meadows of the town.


Unfortunately, Fairfield, like Windsor and the other carly settlements, was not supplied with proper record books until 1648, at which date the town and probate records still extant commenced. The statement that Roger Ludlow carried away the early town records was a traditional one, and without foundation. The town and probate records, which began in 1648, were continued without interruption for many years after he left the country. He was not the town clerk when he left Fairfield. That office was occupied by William Hill, jr. More than a hundred years after Roger Ludlow left America, Letter A of Town Deeds was missing, and not found until within the present century, when it was restored to its place in the record office. It contains over six hundred pages of fine and close writing in the English court hand. The volume is now over two hundred years old, and this and the probate records and Letter B of Town Votes are the oldest relics of the pen tracings and autographs of our fore- fathers. The first notice of the recovery of this volume is due to the Rev. Thomas Davis of Green's Farms, who refers to it in his admirable bi-cen- tennial address delivered at Green's Farms, March 29, 1839 .*


The work which the pioneers of Connecticut accomplished within the space of four years was wonderful. They had but little time for aught beyond the protection of their homes and firesides, and the labor neces- sary for the well-being of the colony. All documents of value were by an order of the General Court recorded at Hartford. Town deeds of lands and records were kept in a fragmentary manner. Twelve of the first pages of the first alphabetical book, entitled, Letter A, Town Deeds of Fairfield, and also several pages from Letter B, of Town Votes, which were begun as early as the town and probate records (1648) have been lost. Fortunately, however, in the latter part of Book A of Town Deeds is to be found the following valuable record, which at once supplies, not only the names of those who first accompanied Governor




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