USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Harwinton > The history of Harwinton, Connecticut > Part 13
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
Such a leaden rock itself, could it ONLY have been found (and made accessible to ordinary wights), would surely have proved indefinitely valuable. And then the lead mine, of which the rock, thus far but a hypothetical radix and exponent, should be, if it could be, demonstrated the actual head-piece indeed, yet mere excrescence, -what less for value would this mine be, than an eighth 'wonder of the world ?' Some such thought may have been in the minds of many when, during the war of the American revolution, lead had again come into 'extra demand,' and at Litchfield people were converting into musket-balls the leaden statuc, brought from New York, of George III., of England, late their king. Whatever their reasoning (?) may have been, persons in Harwinton and persons belonging to Towns in its neighborhood determined that, if it. were possible, this wonderful ' depository' and 'excretory ' of lead should be found, and, when found, applied to the uses for which, at that time, it was by patriotism especially required. So there assembled here, on a
17
130
day appointed, as some accounts give the number, five hundred men, as other accounts estimate, one hundred men, with the design, as they ex- pressed it, "to drive the woods," that is, or was, to make a careful and diligent search through the forest in order to ascertain the 'local habita- tion' of the deposit which of lead-mine had so long been endowed with but variations of 'a name.' Among the persons collected on the occa- sion of this 'searching experiment,' were three clergymen ; Rev. Samuel J. Mills, of Torringford, whom the aged among us remember as an old man of a gravity as amazing as his facetiousness combined with it was prodigious, but who was, at the time referred to, quite young; Rev. An- drew Storrs, of Plymouth (, then Northbury), a person at that time in ripe middle age; and Rev. Samuel Newell, of Bristol (, then New Cam- bridge), at that time a pastor who had seen a whole generation grow up under his ministrations. (Harwinton pastorate had been 'taking a va- cation,' or had its first interregnum.) The better to accomplish their design, the company divided themselves into three divisions, each of which took a specified part of the 'suspected territory ' for its peculiar 'field of examination.' The 'central division,' within whose range the discovery was probably deemed the most likely to be made, was, appa- rently as being then more than is usual regarded 'the post of honor,' accorded to the leadership of the venerable pastor from Bristol. Head- ing his 'detach' -me[a]nt, "he carried the bell " which,-with as much forethoughtful wisdom as that, wherewith
.... mistress Gilpin (careful soul) Had two stone-bottles found, To hold the liquor that she loved, And keep it safe and sound, --
had been provided, to give notice, as quickly and as widely as possible, of 'the discovery'-when it should come. Through the whole of that memorable day, each party pushed on, "faint though pursuing"-inquiries. When night came, all the persons went home-wise enough not to en- gage a second time in such 'exploration.' It may be or once might have been learned, however, from the individuals to whom the writer and those who read this veracious chronicle are indebted for the knowl- edge of the matter, that, since that 'expedition,' other parties, consisting, in each instance, of fewer persons, have with the equivocal aid of for- tune-tellers, made similar re-searching land-'voyages of discovery ' in the same territory, for the same purpose, and been, for their pains, reward- ed-with the same 'discouraging success.'
Some time after the great 'expedition ' had, as above narrated, per- formed their redoubtable exploit, a Mr. Tyler, whose house was near the woods in which the aforesaid perfunctory failure was made, did, as he told to the writer's informant and to another person, "come acciden- tally" up to "the great lead rock," when he chanced one day to be hunting Thinking, as he said, " that it would now serve him as good a purpose as it in former times had served other persons," he cut off from it such a piece, regarding weight, as he could conveniently carry, and, bearing the piece on his shoulders, 'took up his line of march ' for home. He had not, so he affirmed, got far onward, when, from an in-
131
visible hand-belonging to an unamiable personage that need not herc be named-" there came pounce on him such a blow " as not only made him relinquish his load, but, in addition to the mental anguish occasioned by the loss of that prize, inflicted on him so great a bodily injury that "a long time passed away, before he regained his [wonted] strength."
Such possession of mineral treasures is, by no means, the monopoly of Harwinton ; as the statements subjoined may show.
" Lead is said to have been found" "about a mile south-east of the Northford Church on Tetoket [Totoket] mountain [in North Branford]." "A mass of it be- ing [having been] discovered by a person who was hunting at the time of the first settlement of the parish, he hung up a pair of buck's horns to designate the spot, but the place could not be found afterwards."-Barber's Connecticut Historical Col- lections.
"The following account is taken from Mrs. Doolittle [, ominous], of this town, the daughter of the person who discovered it [, not the account, not the town, but the mineral, to wit]. She relates that her father, Mr. Josiah Todd, of North Haven, when gathering fruit on the Hamden hills [, query, did they reach into Bristol ?]. discovered a mass of native copper, weighing about 90 pounds, which he obtained and preserved. It was lying [, in at least one sense, ] on the surface of a flat rock. at some places adhering to it, and even running into its crevices. [Had aboriginal smelters wrought there ?] He, with several other persons, afterwards sought for more, but as they, by their own confession, had superstitious fears respecting it [, poor fellows !], they probably did not make a very minute investigation, and no more was found. This mass passed through several hands, and was finally obtained by the son-in-law of the discoverer, a coppersmith [, which was he?], who consid- ered it as very free from alloy, and used it in the course of his business. It existed and was used within the remembrance of Mrs. Doolittle and her son, of this town, and a part of it even 10 or 15 years since. Unfortunately [, INDEED so], no part of this interesting natural production can now be obtained, nor is the precise [, so, ] place of its discovery known."-Statistical Account of the City of New-Haven. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Vol. I. No. I. New-Haven, 1811.
Our older historian of Connecticut said, in 1818, what is well worth attention, that the riches of this country "lie near its surface or in its soil. The skilful laborious husbandman will derive greater profits from a good farm than he would obtain from a rich mine." Certainly, riches from that source are more accessible and, in the aggregate, greater. " Lead-rock " hunters, hearken.
NOTE V., PAGE 38. Health and Longevity.
There have in Harwinton, as elsewhere, been seasons in which there was less healthfulness than is usual. Scarlet fever and dysentery, with other diseases ever more known than welcomed, have sometimes oc- curred here. They however, so far as appears, have never had an ex- tensive range among us, nor been peculiarly fatal. No accounts are found. of any distemper raging here with special virulence. In his "List of funerals, 1818," Rev. Mr. Williams noted five persons as having " died with malignat pleurisy or fever, Peripneumony [-nia] Notha, an epidemic very extensive ;" yet the number who deceased here did not in that year exceed the ordinary annual number.
Mortuary statistics for some part of the time are not obtainable ; for
132
certain years they can be accurately given. The degree of mortality has probably varied but little in different seasons. In the Church Rec- ords, Books II. and III., are enumerated and named, as having died in the years 1790-1837 inclusive, forty-eight years, 909 persons. This total embraces, among those who deceased between 1790-1823 inclu- sive, four deaths of "strangers" in Harwinton and nine of Harwinton people "at a distance." All who died here in 1790-1837 inclusive, were therefore 900. Of these there were persons, from 70 to 80 years of age, 91; from 90 years and upwards, 10. Benjamin Catlin died in 1767, aged 88 years; John Wilson died, 1799, aged 88 years; Reuben Barber died, 1815, aged 86 years ; widow Margaret (Kellogg) Catlin, relict of Benjamin above-mentioned, died in 1786, aged 97 years; wid- ow Sarah Phelps died in 1799, aged 98 years; widow- -Rogers, in 1803, aged 92 years ; widow Thankful Bartholomew, in 1836, aged 92 years. These persons, as may be noticed, deceased before the later 'spirit of emigration ' had invaded the Town, to leave in it thereafter a disproportionate number of individuals extremely old. The average population through the period specified having been 1479, the average number per annum of deaths was, of persons of all ages, (a percentage of 1,267+, i. e.) 18.75; of persons between 70 and 80 years of age, 1.895+; of persons between 80 and 90 years of age, 1.470+.
NOTE W., PAGE 38, 39. Trading and Traders.
Mercantile business, for the greater part of the last fifty of sixty years, has in Harwinton been transacted at from three to five stores under the care of four or more owners, among which are named :
Christopher Johnson.
Catlin & Williams,
David Smith,
Kellogg & Hoadley,
Joel Bradley,
Abijah Catlin,
Clark & Abernethy,
Kellogg & Smith,
Noble & Kellogg,
Julius Catlin & Co.,
Asahel Hooker,
Kellogg & Woodward,
Phinehas W. Noble,
Truman Kellogg,
Sanford & Hungerford.
Chester N. Case,
E. & F. W. Burwell.
Gay R. Sanford, Abijah Catlin,
A. S. Beardsley,
Kellogg & Hungerford,
L. Catlin & Co.,
David W. Catlin,
Hoadley & Catlin,
Kellogg and Burwell,
Lewis Catlin, Jr.
Two stores are at present kept in Harwinton, one by Lewis Catlin, Jr., one by Capt. Phinehas W. Noble; while, as for many years past, various persons here resident are partners in commercial establishments set up elsewhere, chiefly in Georgia and Alabama.
Since the present century opened, a disposition to 'engage in traffic,' probably more dominant than among the other Yankees even of Con- necticut, has characterized this community. Commenced, it is believed, by a few individuals who, at first, sold 'tin ware' nearer home, and, after- wards, along with that article, various other 'notions' and valuable com-
133
modities at the South; 'speculation ' became, in a short time, 'all the rage.' In imitation of the example of their seniors, young lads, not so well seeing or caring for the unfortunate as the fortunate in that avoca- tion, regarded trading, and especially that form of it termed 'travelling with goods,' as the shortest way to wealth and so to a desired 'respecta- bility.' They were, of course, eager to engage in that method of cha- sing 'golden visions,' so soon as they had, in their own judgment, reached age enough for the pursuit. Our young men cannot now be seen, as twenty-five years ago they were, going by scores at a time, each one with his own horse and loaded vehicle, to the region where winter is mild ; yet some of them still go hence in that direction, manifestly moved by the same impulse toward the same end. This disposition has been thought to have affected the agricultural and educational interests here unfavorably, and it has added strength to the proneness here developed for emigration.
NOTE X., PAGE 39. Manufactures and Manufacturers.
From the outset there have been made in Harwinton such articles, for domestic use, as carpeting, mats, brushes, brooms, baskets, chairs (, for- merly domestic cloth, woollen and linen); and, for farmers' purposes. wagons or carts, as also pitch-forks, dung-forks, rakes, ox-buttons, ox- bows, yokes, ax·helves, beetles, wedges, chains, rub-stones, shingles, boards, planks, scantlings. Within a recent period have been made here, for exportation, fur hats, silk hats, palm-leaf hats, clocks, clock- dials, flutes, fifes, tin-plate ware, bricks, cloth-garments, woollen cloth, saddlery, cabinet furniture, veneering stuff, pleasure carriages, saddles, har- nesses. Most of these manufactures, following the fate (in this last case a desirable one) of cider-brandy, which thing was, thirty years ago, made here quite too extensively for any one's welfare ; are now discou- tinued. Twenty-eight years ago an establishment was set up here for making cutlery, especially penknives. It turned out work of high fin- ish, and in other respects of excellence, and was pecuniarily a success. The death of the proprietor occasioned its termination. Cloth and warp- ing for satinet were manufactured here for a few years only. Some stock in factories at Wolcottville and elsewhere has occasionally had owners here.
It is thought that the natural facilities of Harwinton, for manufactur- ers' purposes, have not been fully appreciated. The Naugatuc River, as within our boundaries, has, as yet, never becy employed to do more than, at four or five mill-sites, to give motion to three grist-and-flouring mills, four saw-mills, and one musical instrument manufactory. At Mat- tatuc (, West Harwinton), one of the flouring mills has given place to a paper-factory. Our water courses when put to the greatest use that, thus far, has ever been required of them, have carried four grist mills, at some of which were bolting machines, twelve saw-mills, one clock facto- ry, one cutlery factory, afterward converted into a warp-making estab
134
lishment, and two clothieries. The opinion has by some been held that our portion of the Naugatuc might be made nearly as serviceable as is that portion of it which, above our Town, flows through Wolcottville, and, below our Town, flows through Plymouth Hollow. But we have, besides those water-privileges, others available for manufacturing purpo- ses. The Lead-mine Brook, flowing southwardly and bisecting the town- ship into nearly equal divisions, has,-on the forks that form its western branch, the one coming from Torringford, the other from New Hartford, as well as on its eastern branch, coming from New Hartford, and on its course below where those branches unite,-more mill-sites than now are or have ever been put to use for moving machinery. The Pequabuck or Poland River has,-on its main stream upon our side of the Plymouth line, and on that branch of it which flows in from Burlington,-been put to some service for mills; and this stream, which beyond our limits is of such importance to the business prosperity of Terryville and of Bris- tol, might also, some have judged, be, within our bounds, turned to profit- able account by manufacturers.
NOTE Y., PAGE 45. Education. Professional Men.
In Harwinton are twelve School Districts, in each of which is kept a public School. For increasing the efficiency of their Schools, some of the Districts, though rarely, have added to the monies drawn by them from the School Fund of the State, sums raised by a levy of 2 or 1 per cent on the Grand List or by a tax on polls. For many years private Schools have, for portions of the Winter especially, been kept in ' A cad- emy' buildings.
Public Schools here as elsewhere deserve and, in the benefits they impart, will more than repay a much greater interest and more expenditure in their behalf, than in any Town they have ever received. The point to be aimed at is, to have enough of them, conveniently situated, made so efficient in discipline and so thorough in the training they give, that no private Schools in a Town will be needed. So long as, that point not being gained, private Schools cannot be dispensed with, the thing, as next best to be sought for, is, to have in a Town its own private Schools such for number and so excellent in character, that no parent will have necessity of send- ing his children out of the Town, in order to have them well instructed in such branches of study as are pursued in seminaries of grades lower than Colleges. Good citizens will with regard for their Town show their patriotism by doing what they can do towards effecting a consummation so desirable.
Graduates of Colleges who were natives of Harwinton are, so far as they have come to the writer's knowledge, as follows:
At Yale College, Phinehas Bartholomew, 1778, Jonathan Brace, 1779, Daniel Catlin, 1779, Jacob Catlin, 1784, Russel Catlin, 1784, Norris Bull, 1813, Jared Pardee, 1816, Norman Bull, 1819, Elias Wil- liam Williams, 1819, John Jay Abernethy, 1825, Abijalı Catlin, 1825 ; at Williams College, David Lord Perry, 1798, Alfred Perry, 1803; at Amherst College, Henry North Peck, 1849; at Western Reserve Col- lege, Walter Sessions Barber, 1841, George Carmi Bristol, 1841, Charles Rockwell Pierce, 1844, John Pierce, 1850. (Joshua Lewis Williams,
135
from early childhood a resident of Harwinton, graduated at Yale Col- lege, 1805.)
Professional gentlemen born in Harwinton have been, as follows :
Attornies-at-law; Jonathan Brace, Daniel Catlin, Jr., Grove Catlin, Abijah Catlin, George Smith Catlin, William Kellogg Peck, Jr., Jolm S. Wilson .- JONATHAN BRACE was, in Vermont, State's Attorney and a Member of the Council of Censors; in this State, Member of the House of Representatives, Member of the Senate, Member of the Com- mon Council and of the Board of Aldermen of Hartford, Mayor of that City, State's Attorney for Hartford County, Judge of the Hartford County Court, Judge of Probate, Assistant, and Member of Congress. He was born 12 Nov., 1754. He died in Hartford, 26 Aug., 1837.
GEORGE SMITH CATLIN was State's Attorney for Windham County, in 1842-43. Representing the Third District of Connecticut, he was a Member of the 28th Congress, 1843-45. He was a candidate for Gover- nor of Connecticut, 1848. He died, in Windham, 1851, aged 43 years. Referring to him it was said: " As a public speaker, he had few equals in the nation. Possessing a brilliant imagination, great reasoning pow- ers, and an almost unlimited command of language, he enchained an au- dience with the beautiful and the sublime; excited them to laughter or roused their indignation. His early death has deprived his State of the rich treasure which a mind like his would have dispensed in the ri- · pening of old age."
Civil Engineers ; John Pierce, George Edmond Pierce, Jr. ; both res- ident at Hudson, O.
Physicians ; Hon. Andrew Abernethy, George Haskell Abernethy, M. D., John Jay Abernethy, M. D., U. S. N., Roswell Abernethy, M. D., Caleb Austin, Phinehas Bartholomew, Norman Bull, Joel Gillet Candee, M. D., Benjamin Hopkins Catlin, M. D., Conant Catlin, M. D., Elijah Catlin, Lyman Catlin, M. D., Eliphalet Colt, Royal Cook, George Griswold, Jared Pardee, M. D., Alfred Perry, M. D., Charles Rockwell Pierce, M. D., Elias William Williams.
Clergymen ; Henry C. Abernethy, Cong., Oneida, Ill., Richard Ches- ter Bristol, Cong., De Kalb Center, Ill., Norris Bull, D. D., Cong. and Pres., Clarkson, N. Y., David Butler, D. D., Epis., Litchfield, Ct., and Troy, N. Y., Jacob Catlin, D.D., Cong., New Marlborough, Ms., Russel Catlin, Epis., Arlington, Vt., Simeon Catlin, Meth. Epis., Susquehanna Co., Pa., Clement Merriam, Epis., Providence, R. I., Henry North Peck, Cong., Batavia, N. Y., Kalamazoo, Mich., David Lord Perry, Cong., Sharon, Ct., Rodney Rossiter, Epis., Waterbury, Ct., and Monroe, Ct. In this list, of those surnamed Catlin the first, in his day a man dis- tinguished for intellectual and moral qualities of excellence, prepared a valuable Compendium of Theology, one of the standard works now is- sued by the Congregational Publication Society, Boston, Ms. ; the third had been, in the civil service ('conductor of teams') of the army, in the war of the American Revolution.
Gentlemen resident in Harwinton, of professions other than the clerical, have been as follows :
136
Attornies-at-Law ; (Frederick ?) Beers, Maj. Abijah Catlin (, 1st), Hon. Abijah Catlin (, 4th), Dea. Daniel Catlin, Jr., Capt. Pelatiah Mills, Sen. Of these the first was here but a short time, the third is now resi- dent here; that the fifth resided here appears only from what is presented herein at p. 50 with (Appendix, Note M.,) p. 109; the third and fourth were born here.
Physicians ; Hon. Andrew Abernethy, Roswell Abernethy, M. D., William Abernethy, Peter B. Beardslee, M. D., Joel Gillet Candee, M. D., Timothy Clark, Jr., J. H. T. Cockey, M. D., Isaac Cowles,-Hooker, Benjamin Judd, Gaylord B. Miller, M. D., Gaylord Wells, M. D., E. A. Woodward. Of these, the first, now residing but not practising here, and the second, with, as is believed, the fifth, were born in Harwinton. Dr. Miller is the present practitioner.
NOTE Z., PAGE 51. ' Raising the Meeting-house.'
The amount of fiery liquid procured for the occasion of erecting the edifice referred to, was a supply quite ample for furnishing each person present with a quantity sufficiently large to 'raise' himself enough for his good; especially as the tradition is that all the persons, living in the township at that time, found seats upon the sills of the building. On a similar occasion which, nine years later, occurred in Salisbury, sixteen gallons of rum were provided, though the inhabitants in that place at that time were only about one third part as many as there were in Har- winton, when the Harwinton first Church structure was raised. Regard- ing a custom always 'more honored in the breach than in the observance,' the fathers should, however, be judged by the rules rather of their own day than of ours. Those persons had certainly less to answer for, as to a misuse of strong drink, than either their descendants who a generation ago had in use here twenty 'stills' as they called them, (facetiously ?- for they were kept in proximately 'perpetual motion,') by which cider was tortured into a terrific species of 'brandy ;' or the people of New York city who, as a statement current in the newspapers averred, paid, in 1858, $672 for 'drinks' of intoxicating liquor taken "on the road to and from the cemetery " by those who attended the funeral of one Mur- ray, alderman defunct of that city. The 'stills' have, happily, now for years better deserved the name they bore, being quite among the things here unknown, except through memory of the evils they wrought.
The tradition which Harwinton has, of all the persons or all the adult males in the township sitting on the sills of the Church building, after said building was raised, is found also, with reference to raising the first Church structures in many other townships, as Danbury, Litchfield, New Milford, Waterbury, &c. Such stories told of places in Ms. are, in South- ampton, Ms., so varied as to relate that, "when the meetings were first held on the Sabbath, the people sat on the sills of the house."-Edwards'. Centen. Address at Southampton. Such stories, like most traditional ones, had a natural origin. After the 'raising of the frame' was accom
-
137
plished, a repast inevitably followed. In the circumstances attending a 'raising,' no other scats for the 'raisers' were so accessible as ' the sills.'
NOTE AA., PAGE 51, 82. ' Seating the Meeting-house.'
The practice of assigning to each worshipper the seat to be by him or her occupied in the Sabbathday services, seems to have been not univer- sal, though it was adopted extensively in New England. Thus, at New- bury, Ms., 1651, "in consequence of complaints having been made, from time to time, of disorder in the meeting house," and in consideration that "the abuses in the youth cannot be so easily reformed, unlesse every house- holder knows his seat in the meeting house," the selectmen " hereby or- der that every house-houlder both men and women shall sit in those seats that are appointed for them during their lives, and not to presse into scats where they are full already." Said officers at the same time de- clared, that they had " drawne a list of the names of the inhabitants and appointed them their places in the meeting house," and had "set their names in cach particular seat where they shall sit, and the young men shall sit in the four backer seats in the gallery, and in the two lower seats at the west door."* At Ipswich, Ms., "in December, A. D. 1700, a new meeting-house having been built, the town chose a committee " to appoint all persons where they should sitt in ye new meetinghouse- and also to grant pues in ye places reserved joining to ye walls and sides of ye meeting house-not to extend aboue 5 foot & ¿ from ye sides of ye house into ye allies" .... Twenty-five of the pews against the walls were assigned to thirty-five of the principal inhabitants ; "for the use of their wives and families," while to themselves were appointed seats in the body of the house. The men were scated on one side of 'the broad aisle,' the women on the other. There were on each side, one seat be- hind the pulpit and three short seats on each side of the pulpit and com- munion table. On these were seated the more elderly people, without much distinction of rank; the most elderly appear to have been placed on the seat [s] behind the pulpit. About the table were seated ten of the more elderly of the upper class in society. On thirteen long seats, on each side of the house, were placed the rest of the inhabitants, accord- ing to their rank and station in society." On the five seats most forward were placed those who had the titles, M', Deac, Corp1, Serjt, Lt., Capt., Q' M' (Quarter Master), Maj', Coll" (Colonel), Doct". The six seats be- hind were assigned to free-holders and commoners who had no title. " The thirteenth seat was assigned to the "Boyes." '+ At Framingham, Ms., 1715, after nine persons had been chosen for the purpose indicated, it was " Voted, that their rule for seating be, according to every man's rate or proportion in the £70 granted for the repairing of the meeting house." (As ' sharp' that as it was equitable.) The committee were
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.