USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Hamden > The history of Hamden, Connecticut, 1786-1959 > Part 12
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When Amasa Tuttle and his wife Sybil moved to Hamden from Derby in 1810, Sybil, who was already a Methodist, joined the New Haven group. Her hus- band was not a member of the church, but he assisted her when she set out to organize a church in Hamden. Many women whose exploits cannot be told for lack of records contributed their share to the important work of building the town of Hamden, but Sybil Tuttle was the first woman who was known to have led an import- ant public undertaking.
She persuaded the New Haven Methodists to hold services in Hamden and for two years they were con- ducted in her home, which was near the northwest corner of the Hamden Plains Cemetery. It was there that the first class was formed on December 27, 1813, and the members were Sybil Tuttle, Amos Benham and his wife Ruth, Isaac Benham, Rebecca Dorman, and Timothy Andrews and his wife Sybil. These last two had been among the founders of the Congregational Society, and a letter from Timothy to the pastor of the
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East Plains church relates his reasons for changing his place of worship:
To Abraham Alling, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Hamden East Plain Society-My reasons for leaving this church are, an unfaithful minister and unfaithful members. I have for several years been fully persuaded that there was a neglect as to that pastoral care that is meted out in the scriptures and pursued by all the faithful ministers of the Lord Jesus. It has been a matter of real grief to me which I have again and again made known to you in Christian plain- ness. Neglecting a proper attention to church discipline has produced a church of unfaithful members. With them I have had cause of grievance and complaint, and faithfully used my influence to have them re- moved; and after mature trial to no essential effect, I have left you for more than a year and eight months. I have been united with the Methodists, where both Doctrine and Discipline is attended to agreeable to apostolic usages, and love and fellowship prevail. TIMOTHY ANDREWS. N.B. Should the asso- ciation require it, I could state the particulars in form.
The records of the East Plains Church show that in 1819 "Timothy Andrews and wife, and Mrs. Amos Benham" were dropped from membership.
In 1814 forty conversions in a revival made roomier quarters necessary. Mrs. Amos Benham, so recently of the other church, proved a valuable benefactor to the Methodists, to whom she deeded in 1819 the land on which the first church building was erected, a structure still standing on Circular Avenue, only 21 by 22 feet in size. The Congregational church was a short dis- tance to the east, and about a mile to the northwest was the meetingplace of Caleb Alling's Strict Congrega- tionalists.
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Reverend Abraham Alling lived in the hills three miles to the northwest, and regularly-always astride his black horse-passed by the Methodist church on the way to his own. One Sunday morning he told his con- gregation that in order to reach them he was obliged to pass "the gates of hell." Despite the intense rivalry that existed between the two churches, they used the same burial ground until 1834. Edward B. Alling com- ments as follows on this situation: "While it is true that they dwelt together in life not always 'in unity,' yet in accordance with what they believed was right, we may also say that 'in death they were not divided.' "
The hearse which was used by the community stood in the sheds adjoining the Methodist meetinghouse. It was a plain vehicle, with a raised platform that was not covered. On this the coffin was placed, and the church bell solemnly tolled the number of years which the deceased had lived, as he was borne to his last rest- ing place.
In both churches keeping order during the services was a problem, as boys from one church group would visit the rival service for the express purpose of making a disturbance, and in this mischievous practice, sad to say, they were encouraged by their parents. Tything- men were appointed in town meetings, and their oft- times unpleasant duties included the enforcement of proper conduct within and without the churches. During worship they had to keep children quiet and adults awake. The tythingman carried a long black rod, tipped on one end with a deer's hoof or a brass knob with which to chastise restless boys, and on the other with a squir- rel's tail for tickling sleeping members into attention.
Sometimes the tythingman sat at the front of the church facing the audience-men on one side of the
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aisle and women on the other; sometimes he sat in the gallery to keep the boys in; but more often he was sta- tioned at the door, so that dogs and swine, which still were allowed to run at large, could not enter. Because he was responsible for church attendance by everyone, he would observe any vacant seats, and then go out to explore the horsesheds for truant members.
When Ezra Alling, 2d, was tythingman, he made complaint to the justice of the peace
that on the evening of the 30th day of July last [1825], at the meetinghouse of the society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Hamden, a number of people having then and there assembled for the public worship of God, and while they were engaged in such worship, Joel Dorman of said Hamden did wilfully interrupt and disturb said assembly and the worship thereof, and did then and there at said assembly and during the solemnity of their religious worship, speak various words with an audible voice, and did also whis- per and laugh, and in a contemptuous and disorderly manner walk on and over the benches and seats in said meeting house and across the said house, and talk and laugh out at the doors of said meeting house and with- in the hearing of said assembly with intent to interrupt and disturb the said assembly during the public wor- ship as aforesaid, against the peace, of evil example, and contrary to the statute in such case made and provided; wherefore the said tythingman prays the advice of your worship in the premises.
Mr. Alling also complained of Henry Woodin (both boys were from Congregationalist families). A colonial member of the Woodin family was also of a mischievous disposition, as the records showed!
This church, according to the customs of the times, had no stoves, and the worshipers were dependent for warmth on the fires of the spirit.
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THE SECOND BUILDING OF GRACE CHURCH
By 1818 Grace Episcopal Church was dissatisfied with its location in Mount Carmel. As steps were being taken to have the parish include all of Hamden, the church building was sold and a new one erected near the crossroads corner in Centerville, on land purchased of Uriah Foote "for the consideration of $16.871/2." The new building measured 48 by 35 feet. An architect described the interior as having beautiful Ionic columns, with carved scroll capitals embellished with Grecian border and elaborate dentil work (small rectangular blocks in a series projecting like teeth). The Church- man's Magazine spoke of the church as "a chaste and commodious edifice." In April, 1820, application was made to the General Assembly "for the privilege of a Lottery for the benefit of the Episcopal Society in Ham- den, for the purpose of completing and defraying the expenses which have arisen in consequence of the church which is building by said Society." Although it may today appear to have been a credit to the church that this lottery was never held, yet in those days it was a com- mon and respected method of raising money.
MEETINGS IN WEST WOODS
Little is known of the Baptist group in West Woods, except that Jesse Dickerman (1752-1821) of Mount Carmel bequeathed to it $100, the interest from which was to be used toward the support of a minister! Al- though ministers in general were accustomed to salaries that were too small to support them, this bequest sug- gests a meager minimum. Some ministers of the Ham- den Plains Church received yearly salaries of from
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$ 100 to $300. In later years Ezra Dickerman of Mount Carmel taught a Sunday School in West Woods before attending services in his own church, and then went in the afternoon to Quinnipiac to conduct a Sunday School there.
THE STATE CONSTITUTION
Though the people of the state had long acquiesced under the form of government derived from the Char- ter and sanctioned by the legislature; yet it was consid- ered by many that we had no constitution, as our government under the Charter had never received the explicit approbation of the people subsequent to the Declaration of Independence. It was also considered to be inconsistent with the dignity of a free nation to hold their rights even nominally by the tenure of a Royal Grant, and that it was proper if the government should be divided into separate departments, and indi- vidual rights be secured by a constitution that should control the legislature itself. It was therefore thought advisable to call a convention for that object .*
Amasa Bradley was moderator of the Hamden town meeting on January 5, 1818, which voted:
Resolved, that the representative of this town in the next General Assembly be, and he is hereby requested, to use his influence that measures be immediately taken for forming a written constitution of civil government for the State of Connecticut, and that the town clerk furnish said representative with a certified copy of the foregoing resolution.
In July, "at a meeting of the qualified voters in town and freemen's meeting," Russell Pierpont was chosen delegate to the convention at the State House in
* Connecticut State Manual.
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Hartford August 4, 1818, meeting for the purpose of forming a state constitution. The vote in the convention was 134 to 61, and when the Constitution was submitted to the vote of the people, it was approved by a state vote of 13,918 in its favor and 12,364 against.
Of special interest to Hamden people was the pro- vision for all forms of religious worship without dis- crimination, no preference being given by law to any Christian sect of any mode of worship.
The Federalist political party, staunch supports of the established church, had been long in power; but after the War of 1812 great gains were made by the Republican party (called the Toleration party) through not only their demands for tax relief and extension of suffrage, but through the support given them by other than Congregationalist groups. Hamden was in a sec- tion of the state where Episcopalians and Methodists in particular were strong supporters of the Toleration party who favored the new Constitution.
In the Constitution the qualifications for voting were made really democratic, the franchise being extended to those admitted as freemen, white male citizens of twenty-one and over "having a freehold estate of the yearly value of $7.00," and those also who had per- formed a prescribed amount of military service.
Like other New England politically minded people, Hamden citizens may have been still smarting from the chagrin of the Hartford Convention of 1815, where plans to secede from the nation had failed to material- ize only because the war and the embargo ended. To be associated with the Federalist party was now distinct- ly unpopular.
The new Constitution reaffirmed the inviolability of the School Fund in its perpetual use for public schools.
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Other changes of interest were the division of gov- ernmental functions into three departments-executive, legislative, and judicial; judges were given life tenure; the Senate was no longer adviser to the governor. A strong governor was not wanted; the Constitution sanc- tioned an omnipotent legislature-President Timothy Dwight of Yale said that it could do anything but change the result of an election!
The last year in which freemen were made in Ham- den was 1834. In the year 1800 there were fifty-one admitted, among them Isaac Woodin and Roger Dor- man-old familiar Hamden names, and Sackett Ben- ham who was probably a descendant of the original Sackett. Russell Leek became a freeman in 1821 and his brother Horace in 1826; Harvey Bradley, Hamden Plains storekeeper, in 1830; and Willis Churchill who founded the Auger Shop, in 1834.
Of particular interest was Giles Dunbar, who was made a freeman in 1813, served as a town hayward in 1827, and was a member of the Mount Carmel church. When horseback was the only means of travel, he staked his claim to a lovely spot in the place which has since been called by his name. His house stood on the brow of the hill near Main Street on Building Brook, which he used as water power to run a small woolen mill. This mill stood west of the site of the most recent Dunbar school.
HAMDEN'S OLD HOUSES
On Todd Street, Mount Carmel, stands a house built in 1745 by Lazarus Ives, which is now the property of William Todd. It stands on Third Division Sequestered Land that was first assigned to Richard Miles. There
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is a low colonial roof, a massive chimney, and the rooms have fine paneling.
"In the twelfth year of the reign of our sovereign Lady Anne" Queen of Great Britain, in 1713, Abraham and Isaac Dickerman deeded to Joseph Cooper the tract where in 1746 he built a house of the same style as the one built by Lazarus Ives. The rooms were built around a huge chimney, and there were four fireplaces. Two of the mantels are very beautiful, one being of the rising-sun pattern and the other consisting of a row of arches. The house stands on Whitney Avenue opposite Hartley Street, and is best known as the Hartley home- stead.
A Hamden landmark is the Peck homestead. Origi- nally it stood on the main road, but Wilbur Case moved it to its present location on Todd Street, restored it, and added it to another Peck house, said to have been built in 1740. Almost all of the original window panes are intact, and most of the interior hand-carved paneling. There are five fireplaces leading into the chimney, whose base is 12 feet square, tapering to 4 feet in the attic. An old slaughter house, said to be as old as the house, stands near it, containing equipment used by co- lonial butchers nearly two hundred years ago.
The house built by Reverend Nathaniel Sherman south of Mount Carmel Congregational Church was begun in 1769 and finished in 1772.
The Ford house, on the corner of Waite Street and Ford Street, was built in 1769 by Moses Ford (1714- 1822). Minotte Chatfield, whose mother was Cornelia Ford, says that both his grandfather and great-grand- father were born in this house; yet one of the latter was listed as born in New Haven (about 1784) and the other as born in Hamden (about 1809). When the Eli
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Whitney boarding-house on Armory Street was wrecked to make way for the row of stone houses for factory workers, two of its bull's-eye-windowed doors were removed to the Ford house. These doors are now in the possession of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
The Jonathan Dickerman house, leased by the Ham- den Historical Society from the Sleeping Giant Park Association, was built in 1770. It has an overhanging roof and double front doors, and its color is responsible for its name of the Old Red House.
The Miller homestead on the main road in Mount Carmel, a short distance above the Mount Carmel Church, was built in 1778 and moved across the street from its original location in 1822. There is a black band around the chimney, of the type used in the Revolution to indicate that the owner was a Tory and loyal to King George III.
The Justus Humiston house on Whitney Avenue across from Elihu Street was built in 1789, and is still owned by a descendant, Elihu Turner. The front door facing the south is particularly beautiful, flanked by strips of glass panes and topped by a dentiled cornice.
Miss Alice Peck's house on Hillfield Road, West Woods, was erected in 1794 by Joseph Peck, her great- grandfather, who hammered out the nails for it on his own anvil. Joseph was the son of Amos Peck, a founder of the North or United Church in New Haven, who moved to Mount Carmel in 1754 and was one of the first deacons in the Mount Carmel Congregational Church, serving from 1768 to 1783. Joseph's grand- father was Henry Peck, an original settler in New Haven. The house in which Amos and Joseph first lived was across the street. Besides nails, Amos made
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needles with which his wife Lois sewed home made cloth. They rode on horseback nine miles to attend ser- vices at the North Church, sometimes taking their chil- dren on pillions.
In the earlier days much of the long rough road to church was through the forest, and it was many times traveled in storm and cold under great difficulties. Their attendance was, at least part of the time, voluntary; and trained as they were in the stern ways of the church, they felt the need of the Word of God. Lois, who used to tell of picking huckleberries on New Haven Green, lived to be one hundred years old.
The first Eli Whitney's model barn, on the west side of Whitney Avenue near Armory Street, was built in 1816. It has the prominent feature of arcades applied as decorations against the front, and a patterned slate roof. The barn enjoyed national fame. When Presi- dent James Madison came to Hamden to give Mr. Whitney the first government contract for firearms to be awarded a private armory, he stopped the carriage as he was leaving, and said, "There! I have not looked at that barn!"
In 1819, Jared Bassett built a beautiful house on Dixwell Avenue near where the trolley line now ends. It has since been moved up to the old Dixwell Road above Skiff Street. It is one of the finest examples of the Adam period of colonial architecture, and has den- tiled bands over the door, above the windows, and around the eaves.
These are by no means all of Hamden's beautiful landmarks. Some others are of uncertain date, and their stories are probably not so colorful. Among them are the Hezekiah Bassett house on Cannon Street, dating from 1806; the old James Ives house on Ives Street,
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and the Alfred Dickerman house in Mount Carmel, now occupied by Mrs. Eli Ives.
"Some of the dear old homes are abiding still,
By the northern mount and the western hill."
The Mckeon house, known as the toll-gate house, on Whitney Avenue in Mount Carmel is not impressive as to exterior architecture, but is unique because it was built by Orrin Todd with hand labor throughout, having careful work on such details as the fine moldings and window sash. It was built across the turnpike and moved when the Farmington Canal was built. Orrin's father, Simeon Todd (1769-1834), had a forge on which he made nails and oxen-and-horseshoes. He burned his charcoal on the top of the mountain, repelling bears by firebrands from the burning pit. He made his own buildings and some for his neighbors, hauling the tim- ber and framing it by the old scribe rule. Simeon's brother Obed set up a water power on the brook south of his house, where he made carts and wagons. Three generations before these brothers was Ithamar Todd, who built his house in 1734 a mile east of the river on the south side of the mountain. Ithamar, in 1760, was paid £5 by the town of New Haven to build a bridge which the road viewers deemed necessary "on the road past Joel Munson's house." Five generations lived on the original Todd property, and all were builders.
ITHIEL TOWN'S COVERED BRIDGE
In 1821, the Hartford Turnpike Company was plan- ning to replace the bridge over Mill River beside Whit- ney's armory, and Simeon Baldwin wrote for advice to Ithiel Town, the architect. Town was well known for
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The History of Hamden
having built Center and Trinity Churches on the New Haven Green in 1814 and 1815. Great engineering skill had been employed in erecting the lovely spire of Center Church, 210 feet high, which was constructed within the brick part of the tower. It was raised into position with an ingenious windlass and tackle, in two and one half hours. A few years later Mr. Town built the Old State House behind Center Church, a well- proportioned Doric building imitative of the Temple of Theseus in Athens. In 1820 he patented a new type of bridge, of pure truss construction, self-contained and supported only by the piers.
Mr. Baldwin knew Town to be an expert, yet after describing the turnpike company's difficulties, he wrote:
We have turned our attention to your plan, of which we think very favorably, provided it can be accom- plished without too much expense.
The fact is, the Company are really poor. The road never yielded one per cent, frequently nothing, and on an average not a half of 1% on the capital. Under these circumstances we are induced to hope and believe you will not claim much, if anything, for your patent rights, especially as your bridges have not been intro- duced into this state, and if this shall succeed, it may be useful to you and the public.
Your opinions, with your consent or terms, will enable us to decide. Will you have the goodness to write me immediately, as the season is advancing and we must soon engage our timber for some kind or other. We have proposed chestnut for the braces, string pieces, etc.
I am, with respect and esteem, your friend, SIMEON BALDWIN
Whether or not Mr. Town was paid for the use of his patent, the Whitneyville bridge was built according
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to it in 1823, and had the distinction of being the first truss bridge in the United States. It had 100 feet clear span, and side bracings of 3-inch planks crossing each other at an angle of 80 degrees and spaced 4 feet, cen- ter to center. These were securely pinned together and held top and bottom by stringers on each side, measur- ing 12 by 51/2 inches. There was no mortising of the timber anywhere; pin connections only were relied upon. The bridge was symmetrical vertically and would have been equally strong if turned upside down. Professor Joseph Roe of Yale says:
Town's truss bridge was widely used for highways and the early railway bridges. There were long ones across the Susquehanna, the Hudson, and other streams throughout this country, Canada and Europe. One of the reasons for its wide use was the fact that it con- tained little or no iron work, called for ordinary plank- ing, had no mortises and tenons in the construction, and therefore could be erected from materials available everywhere by ordinary carpenters. One bridge of 200 ft. span, which was 120 ft. above a river bed, is said to have been erected by local labor in two weeks. While the design was especially well adapted for timber con- struction, it was utilized also in the early iron bridges. Aside from his standing as an architect, Town became the best known bridge builder in the country at that time, and his royalties of $1.00 per foot span gave him a comfortable income for life.
Among the several books which Mr. Town wrote was one called Improvement in the Construction of Wood and Iron Bridges, containing plates and a frontispiece engraved by S. S. Jocelyn showing "Town's Bridge." This picture was doubtless the old covered bridge over Lake Whitney.
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The History of Hamden THE FARMINGTON CANAL
Travel facilities in Connecticut in 1822 were poor enough, the ordinary highways being muddy in spring, sandy and dusty in summer, and deep with snow through the winter. Toll was charged on the turnpike, and stagecoach travel was limited. In May of 1822, the Post-Coach Line Dispatch advertised that the line left Hartford at eleven o'clock every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning, making the trip to New Haven in six hours, "running through Farmington, Southing- ton and Cheshire, arriving at New Haven at five o'clock in time for the steamboat. .. . The above line of Post Coaches are new and in modern style, horses selected with great care and are first-rate, drivers are experi- enced, careful and steady."
Steamboat travel on the Connecticut River had begun a few years earlier (1815). Rivalry for trade was in- tense between Hartford and New Haven, and after 260 miles of the Erie Canal had been completed in New York State, prominent men in New Haven began to dream of a similar trade route to the north, running from tidewater at New Haven to the Massachusetts border and beyond. This waterway would divert to New Haven much of the trade that was going through Hartford, and would provide means of transportation for inland towns, which could then be both agricultur- ally and industrially important. The difficulties of the Connecticut River route were stressed-the falls at Hadley, the rapids at Enfield. Railroads had not come into existence yet, and in addition to better traveling accommodations, a better way of moving freight was needed.
In the first excited enthusiasm for a canal, there was talk of branches which might later extend by way of
The Jonathan Dickerman "Old Red House"
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