USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1936 > Part 4
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Most of the articles which they imported were lux- uries, but there were also tools, iron and steel bars, pow- der and shot, oakum and tar, nails, knives of all kinds, scissors, razors, sheepshears, scythes, grindstones and rubstones, fishhooks, pots and kettles, pans and basins, pewter and earthenware, and implements for weaving. Few rugs were mentioned; a "carpet" was a pall for a burial; other importations were hourglasses, warming pans, mirrors, lanterns and candlesticks, platters and mugs, tumblers for the rich, tongs, shovels, and bel- lows. Not much tobacco was transported, and tea and coffee are not mentioned; but sugar, molasses, salt, spices and liquors, salad oil, salt mackerel, figs, raisins, and currants, were brought into the Colony.
The amount of commerce possible to the colonists of New Haven was as nothing compared to what they had hoped for. But when necessity had forced them to turn to agriculture, they had grimly learned to tend their fields and cattle, build houses, and make their own clothing. These were the same kind of purposeful peo- ple as Bradford wrote of in his History of Plymouth Plantation. After enumerating the objections offered
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The History of Hamden
to the proposed migration from England, he said: "It was answered that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome by answerable courages."
Mining was an industry within the Colony at an early date. On the shore of Lake Saltonstall in East Haven, one of the first iron mines in the country was opened, but the output was small. The Blue Hills had figured briefly in a mining mania, first when Mr. Roswell, a sur- veyor, had laid unfulfilled plans to set up a slate quarry, and later in 1721, when there was a widespread belief that all sorts of mineral wealth existed in the mountain. The town authorities appointed a committee to confer with "those who wished to lease the Blue Hills or other unimpropriated property adjacent," for mining. On this committee were Warham Mather, Captain Joseph Whiting, Samuel Bishop, Ensign Isaac Dickerman, and Sergeant John Gilbert. On September 19, 1721, three men of New York-James and Peter Ferris and Cor- nelius Kirsted-leased the copper and other mines (ex- cepting iron) in the Blue Hills and hills adjacent. The wood and stone necessary for the mining operations might be taken there, but wood must not be wasted. The rental was to be one twentieth of the ore for fifty years, the lease to cancel if idle two years. The latter was the case, for on March 9, 1723, the leases in the Blue Hills and Ridge Hill were declared void.
In the full flush of the mining excitement, might not some have recalled the old Indian legend of the Giant's pockets being filled with treasure? But no mining of any kind ever has proved profitable there. Whatever copper was found undoubtedly came there through the action of the great glacier which had plowed it out of
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The Colonial Period
veins in the red sandstone regions above and dropped it here on its way southward. Josiah Todd found a 90-pound lump of copper in Mount Carmel; a mass of 200 pounds was discovered on a farm above East Rock; and other smaller lumps came to light near State Street and at the foot of West Rock. John W. Barber, in his Connecticut Historical Collections (1838), says:
Mount Carmel lies wholly within Hamden. This is one of the most elevated greenstone eminences in the state. The greenstone of these mountains forms an excellent building stone, and is extensively used in New Haven. In the greenstone hills of this town, va- rious minerals have been discovered. Iron pyrites in minute pieces, and sometimes imperfectly crystallized, is found disseminated; and sulphuret of copper is sometimes found, connected with crystallized quartz. Lead in small quantities has also been found.
Dr. Timothy Dwight's Statistical Account of New Haven (18II) says:
Copper is still known to exist in various places in the Hamden Hills, and attempts have been repeatedly made to sink shafts for the purpose of obtaining the copper, but the business has never been prosecuted to effect.
David Tallman mined on Ridge Hill, near Mill River, in the northeastern part of Hamden. An exca- vation of about fifty feet in depth existed there, and an adit was commenced at the foot of the hill, several hundred feet distant, and carried in toward this shaft for one hundred feet. Later the shaft was lowered and the adit extended to connect with it. But not enough ore was found to cover the cost of taking it out. A mint
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The History of Hamden
which was established in New Haven for coining "cop- pers" was said to have obtained some of its copper from the Blue Hills.
THE SETTLEMENT OF MOUNT CARMEL
In arranging the Third Division of lands, the authori- ties attempted to set limits to the migration northward, and stipulated that "no one should go out to live on them in settled dwellings, except by particular approval of the town; as they were too remote for attending wor- ship on the Sabbath and were liable to damage from the heathen." Only slowly were the bounds of the Se- questered Lands moved to the north. In 1673, the boundary was the brook above the Shepherd's Plain, where the path crossed it, and a line from there, west or northwest, to a mile above Sackett's. At the time of the Fourth Division, 1704, the line was drawn a mile and a half above Sackett's, from the elbow of the Shep- herd's Brook to West Rock. At this time Lieutenant Abraham Dickerman, John Goodyear, and William Thompson were exchanging lots above the brook. By 1718, the Sequestered Lands were defined as extending from the property of Benjamin Wilmot to Thompson's Gap, or to High Rock [Rocky Top], and including the western half of the Blue Hills also. In 1721 it was decided that the Blue Hills and West Rock should be commons forever, but that brush might be cut on them to permit the pasturing of sheep.
In 1719 there occurs in the town records probably the first allusion to the "Steps." Captain Richard Miles and Joseph Tuttle were granted sixty acres above the Steps, or Blue Hills, east of the old road that went to
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The Colonial Period
Farmington or to Wallingford Farms. The Steps were a natural formation of the Blue Hills trap rock, a sort of terrace, like a flight of stairs. It was possible to climb this flight on foot or on horseback. Cattle could be driven over it in single file. But otherwise it was a definite barrier between those north and south of it. It has been cut through, first by the river, and later by man, when the highway, the canal, and the railroad were built. It is hard to imagine now that such an obstacle once blocked the way just to the south of the Sleeping Giant.
Enos Pardee came to what is now Centerville in 1720, built a house on his sixty-seven acres, and raised a large family. He was himself the oldest in a family of sixteen children. His tombstone stands in the Cen- tral Burying Ground. At the same time Thomas Leek built above the Gilbert Farm, and was succeeded by many generations in the ownership of the property. Daniel Sperry settled above the Steps in 1721. The paucity of established boundary lines made it necessary in a sale of land at this time to Samuel Alling on Mill River, on the way to the Gilbert Farm, to describe the property by stating that it was bounded by a young red oak spire, a white oak spire, a bass pole, a maple pole, a chestnut pole growing out of the root of a chestnut tree, a walnut pole, a red oak tree, a heap of stones, and an old white oak tree.
Families were now encouraged to settle farther northward. In 1721 Samuel Peck was granted twenty- five acres south of Goodyear's Third Division land, above Shepherd's Brook. Those whose land had been laid out in the wrong place were given land above Gil- bert Farm, up to the Ledges near the Steps.
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The History of Hamden
Benjamin Warner settled in what is now West Woods and started a long line of descendants, in a region once known as "Warnertown." His house was mentioned as a landmark in 1725. Descendant Ebenez- er Warner (about 1778) and his wife Ruth had eleven children. One of the boys, Amos, was once asked by a passerby of their home in this lonely, sparcely settled spot, "where is Warnertown?" He replied: "Stranger, you're right in the heart of the city." A verse, often quoted by members of the Warner family, describes in rhyme the rosta of the eleven children:
Amos and Easter, Jonah and Hannah, Ebenezer and Susannah, Isaac and Lydie, (A little she-biddy), Bet, Ruth and Pat Caught the bob-tailed rat.
In 1726 Joseph Cooper (whose Fourth Division property was acquired from Abraham Dickerman in 1713 and was located in what was later known as Auger- ville) public-spiritedly exchanged land so that the Country Road might be improved, giving an acre and a half for an acre. Several others made exchanges in the same ratio, all giving more land than they received. Samuel Alling, John Rowe, Abraham Dickerman, and Joshua Hotchkiss were obtaining land in the same neighborhood. In 1729 Daniel Bradley, 2d, bought Captain Miles's land above the mountain, and his brother Amos and other relatives soon followed him in making their homes there.
Joel Munson, son of Captain John Munson, decided in 1733 to venture out to the swift-flowing Mill River
The Cut in the Mount Carmel Steps
Gift of Arnold G. Dana
Gift of J. Walter Bassett
T
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The Colonial Period
at the Steps and there set up his own mill. Permission to build a dam across the river was obtained from the town, with whom he entered into an agreement which promised him two acres of land if he would make a "feasible" cartway over the Steps within two years. It took him only one year to fulfill his part of the agree- ment, and it was indeed a bargain for him, because his grist and saw mill which he had speedily erected had much business to gain from settlers who lived on the north side of the mountain, and who could now drive teams on the "feasible cartway over said Steps," which the committee reported that he had made. It was no easy task to accomplish in so short a time, for without the use of dynamite, then unknown, all the work was done with hand implements.
The name of Jacob Hotchkiss appears in the Proprie- tor's Records as a lessee of land in this vicinity in 1733. In 1735 a document labeled "Munson & Hotchkiss Covenant" was signed. Excerpts from this agreement read:
This indenture made this 9th day of Dec. 1735, WITNESSETH that whereas Joel Munson of the town and county of NH in the Colonie of Ct. in New England, have erected and built a Sawmill on the River called NH Mill River, att or near a place called the Steps in NH aforesaid,
It is agreed between the sd Joel Munson on the one part and Jacob Hotchkiss of sd. NH on the other part, that the sd Munson shall keep and maintain a good and sufficient sawmill . . . at or near the place that the a foresaid mill now standeth as long as said Munson . or the Selectmen of the town of NH shall think and judge that a sawmill shall be accounted advanta- geous & profitable in sd place; and as long as said saw- mill shall so remain, I, the sd Munson do bind myself
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The History of Hamden
. , to saw the one half of said term that the mill can run, for the said Jacob Hotchkiss, att any and all times when he shall have any logs at the sd mill . .. saw- ing such loggs as the sd Hotchkiss shall direct, either into board, plank, slit oak &c, which by the judgment of two Lawyors (if difference arise ) shall be good and merchantable .
The said Hotchkiss doth bind himself . . . to Ren- dor unto the sd Munson, the one half of the load plank, slit work &c that shall be sawed out of loggs that are 12 ft. long and 15 inches Diameter at the smallest end; that did belong to sd Hotchkiss . . . , and for loggs of shorter dimentions as they, (the parties con- cerned) can agree, or as two indifferent persons may think just, . . .
We have hereunto Interchangeably sett our hands and seals, and do by these presents bind ourselves . . . faithfully to keep and perform every clause and article of the foregoing Covenant and agreement according to the true intent and meaning . . . on the forfeiture of fioo money payable by the party nott complying therewith to the party wronged or suffering thereby, upon demand or upon the breach of any part or arti- cles thereof.
In 1735 Joel Munson's father, Captain John, bought one third of Todd's mill and one third of the bolting mill, dam, and stream, and the rights to the "bake house." Christopher Todd had been, among other things, a baker, and the bake house was probably built by him.
In 1729 Daniel, the son of Abraham Bradley, con- tinued the family tradition as millers by building a saw mill on what is now West Todd Street. Many years later, in 1762, he deeded to his son Joel two acres, "on ye hill west of ye hill where he hath set an orchard."
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The Colonial Period
In 1779 Joel Bradley deeded one half of his saw mill to Joel Munson, the son of Captain John Munson, both already mill builders.
The Munson and Bradley families had so much in common in their association as millers that it is not surprising to note that a little later Joel Bradley ac- quired the Joel Munson mill, and Job Munson the Bradley mill. In the Sleeping Giant State Park, the Joel Munson dam across Mill River is one of the his- torical landmarks of Hamden.
The establishment of Joel Munson's mill in 1735 was the beginning of the settlement of Mount Carmel. It was the natural center for people to meet as they brought their corn to be ground and their logs to be sawed. Roads wide enough for the accommodation of oxteams carrying loads of lumber, began to ray from it in several directions.
Ithamar Todd built a house a mile east of the river in 1734. Young people seeking Christmas greens in this locality nearly two hundred years later were in- trigued by a large round gray stone marked with the initials I. T., which may have been one of Ithamar Todd's boundary stones.
From the very beginning of Mount Carmel through- out its history, there have been families named Dicker- man and Ives. Abram Dickerman of New Haven Colony died in 1711, leaving a son Isaac who was born in 1677. Isaac was a deacon in the New Haven church "First Society," and had the titles of captain and es- quire. He took active part in New Haven town affairs. He began to acquire land in the Sixth Division of Sequestered Lands, from those to whom they were originally assigned, as early as 1727, continuing such
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The History of Hamden
purchases until 1745. By that time his two older sons Jonathan and Samuel were married and, in their desire to establish homes of their own, they were willing to brave the hardships of settlement in the wilderness of Mount Carmel. The old folks said that the two young men blazed their way through the woods by hatchet marks on the trees; and that when, tired and thirsty, they came upon a sparkling brook, they decided upon that spot for their home. This was about a half mile south of the Steps where Joel Munson was, and the Bradleys were a mile and a half beyond that, while to the south was the thick forest that lay between them and New Haven. The brook has been nearly obliter- ated in the changes of the years-all that now remains is the spring which was its source on the Orrin Dicker- man property.
Jonathan Ives settled in Mount Carmel on Mill River in 1735, later building a house on the Cheshire Road in what became known in time as Ivesville (oppo- site Ives Street). He married Thankful Cooper and they had eight children.
Ebenezer Ives (1692-1759) had a son Lazarus,* who bought from the Treasurer of New Haven in 1733 the Third Division Sequestered Lands above the Steps originally laid out to Richard Miles, who died without heirs, his property thus reverting to the town. His brother, James Ives (1718-1804), was an early Ham- den settler whose sons, Eber, b. 1756, and Elam, b. 1762, were later of importance.
Families who were among the first to settle in Mount Carmel, and whose descendants carried the names down through the years, were Peck, Bassett, Andrews, Doo-
* Jonathan and Lazarus Ives were cousins.
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The Colonial Period
little, Brockett, Hitchcock, Kimberly, Tuttle, and Bradley.
The Chatterton mill, next to the Bradley mill on the present West Todd Street, is still standing, having in recent years been restored and used as a home by the late Malcolm Harris. The land on which the mill was built was originally granted to Joseph Kirby in the Fourth Division of land in 1704, and repeated in the Fifth Division of 1710; but Kirby did not choose to take up his wilderness property, and in the Sixth Divi- sion in 1726 it became a part of the acreage set aside for the "pious use" of the First Society in New Haven. Reverend James Pierpont was the pastor of the First Church, and he received the property and willed it to the church. Waite Chatterton bought it in 1747, and built the mill sometime before 1760. In 1764 he deeded a piece of land to his son Abraham, bounding it on one side by "land bought of the Church's Com- mittee." For 175 years the Chatterton mill sawed tim- ber, always owned and operated by the same family. Four generations of Chattertons-Waite, Abraham, Daniel and Aaron-carried on the ancient industry.
Meanwhile, the grist mills were not prospering, and in 1761 the millers of New Haven joined in sending petitions to the General Assembly protesting the recent legislative enactment which had limited the millers' toll to one pint of grain for bolting each bushel. They begged leave to take a quart as toll, claiming that many of them had at great cost erected grist mills and sup- plied bolting mills for the convenience and accommoda- tion of the inhabitants with flour, and they asked, "Will your Honors be pleased to consider that in the Province of New York there is 1/10 part of wheat taken by the
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The History of Hamden
miller for grinding only, and we 1/16 part and no more; and that unless Your Honors grant some relief we cannot maintain our bolting mills; and must pray Your Honors to grant relief in the matter aforesaid, and as in duty bound shall ever pray." At least two of the millers who signed the plaintive petition were local men-Joel Munson and Robert Talmadge.
MOUNT CARMEL PARISH
When the Sixth Division was made in 1726 (largely in the northern lands about the Blue Hills) provision was made "for public and pious uses as has been done before." This included support of a grammar school, and 20 acres of land for the minister of each church then in existence; and 50 acres were set aside in anticipation of a potential new parish near the Blue Hills. This property was to be used for the sup- port of a parish and minister when they should be constituted. For the support of the First Society, 100 acres north of Dorman's, and 75 acres more, were set aside. In 1741 the town farm, already spoken of as a landmark, is thus disposed of: "located near Walling- ford Plain, and held by John Morris, to be sold for the benefit of the First Society, part of the proceeds are to go to Cheshire and North Societies when they shall be organized." In 1742 there is record of a highway through First Society land, north of Benjamin War- ner's.
The Congregational church, being the established church, was supported by the Colony. Previous to 1667, while township and parish were identical, every minister's salary was voted in town meeting, and he was granted an amount of land and a house, and some-
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The Colonial Period
times firewood also. The tax levied by the Colony for the support of the Gospel had been collected with the regular taxes, but in 1667 payment of taxes for the support of the established church from members of dis- senting religious groups became the source of consider- able friction among the people, and town and parish began to separate.
In 1708 everyone could worship as he saw fit, yet not be excused from paying taxes toward the support of the Congregational church. In 1726, members of other religious denominations having become numerous, the General Court allowed the formation of other than Congregational churches, and also ceased to hold town meetings as part of the church meetings. In 1727 mem- bers of the Anglican church (later the Episcopal church) were freed from paying taxes for the estab- lished church, and were given the liberty to tax them- selves. Supporters of this faith were increasing, and the Congregational powers at Yale College sustained a major shock when, in 1722, eleven of the college faculty turned from Congregationalism to embrace it. This was a sign of the times, indicating that there was good reason for politic concessions to be made to the Episcopal church; even more strength was gained by it in the period (1735-42) of the "Great Awakening," when revival services in some of the Congregational churches were disapproved and deemed undignified by conservative members who thereupon deserted to the Episcopal fold. Release from paying taxes to the estab- lished church was in 1729 extended to Baptists and Quakers.
The people living above the Todd mill up to the Blue Hills, as well as those beyond the mountain, felt
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The History of Hamden
that church attendance from such a distance was a hard- ship. So they asked and received permission, in 1739, to attend services elsewhere than in New Haven, those above the mountain to go to Cheshire, where Reverend Samuel Hall was pastor, and those below it to North Haven, under the leadership of Reverend Isaac Stiles. Familiar names on the North Haven petition were those of Enos Pardee, Joel Munson, and Nathaniel, Andrew, and Theophilus Goodyear. Among those going to Cheshire were Daniel and Amos Brad- ley, Lazarus Ives, Daniel Sperry, and Nathaniel and Enos Tuttle. In the History of Cheshire Joseph Beach says: "The advent of Pastor Hall, and the enjoyment of religious privileges, brought to the new society ten or more heads of families from Hamden who worshipped at the West Society at first by tolerance and afterward by permission of an act of the Assembly passed at one of the sessions held in New Haven."
The Goodyears mentioned as going to North Haven to church were grandsons of Magistrate Stephen Good- year, one of the first settlers of New Haven Colony. Their father's name was John, and the family mansion once stood about opposite the present town hall in Cen- terville.
The next step in the growth of a settlement in Mount Carmel occurred in 1743, when Samuel Bellamy, Sr., of Cheshire, shrewdly saw the wisdom of establishing a tavern at the northern end of the common. He built it close to the present Mount Carmel depot, where it stood until 1880. For well over a century the tavern was a magnetic center of activity and hospitality. Joel Munson's mill near-by was already a focal point for settlers from all directions who came there regularly
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Amos Bradley House, 1766, North of the Mountain
Gift of Arnold G. Dana
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Hamden's First Schoolhouse, 1770, in Its Second Position "On the Brow of the Hill"
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The Colonial Period
for the grinding of their corn and the sawing of their boards. The tavern helped to attract others to come to the region to live. Traders, driving their ox teams with loads of produce for the New Haven markets, broke their journey by stopping overnight there on their way down; then with an early start the next morning they might reach New Haven, dispose of their produce, make their purchases, and get back to the tavern at night. Twelve miles a day was considered a fair day's journey over colonial roads. An amusing story was told of a guest named Dr. Jones who was stopping at the Bellamy tavern. He came back from a business trip to New Haven, somewhat late for the chicken dinner which he had ordered. Upon arrival at the tavern he discovered that a group of young people had eaten his dinner, and he composed this rhymed lament about it:
Curse those owls Who ate the fowls, And left the bones For Dr. Jones .*
The sort of roads which in the early days had sufficed for local use were not adequate for commerce between the towns. Back in 1726 there had been a town vote to look after the local highways, and husbandmen were ordered to make the axletrees of their carts five or six inches wider by April 1. Probably there was some rela- tion between the width of the carts and the width of the roads. A New Haven town meeting held in 1747, with Isaac Dickerman acting as moderator, voted: "The town will give 9 lbs. money toward the making and fin- ishing of a bridge on the road to Cheshire; and Ralph
* John H. Dickerman.
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The History of Hamden
Lines shall maintain a good fence across said bridge; so long as the plank on said bridge last for said money." This sounds somewhat ambiguous, but it indicates the difficulty which New Haven was beginning to feel in the burden of her roads. In 1767 a special tax was levied to pay for rebuilding bridges carried away by a flood.
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