USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut > Part 24
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Singing.
April, 1776. Voted, that "the young men who sing on the tenor be allowed to sit in the north front gallery."
Erastus Wolcott, Jr., chosen chorister, " to set the psalm and lead in singing."
March, 1780. " Question put to this Society whether they were willing to admit the use of the pitch-pipe in setting the psalm in public worship. Voted in the negative."
This little instrument seems to have been the innocent cause of much noise, and disturbance in the society. On the 30th of the same month, a similar vote met with a similar fate, where- upon the singers refused to sing, and a difficulty also arose concerning the choice of a chorister. The emeute was finally allayed by the reappointment of the "Old Committee."
In October, 1791, we find the first mention made of that now popular and necessary institution, singing schools.
" Voted, to raise and use the sum of £8,00 lawful money in hiring a singing master to teach the young people of said society the art or rule of singing psalmody."
After this date, the singing school becomes one of the most regular items of expense on the society's books.
Pews and Seatings, g.c., S.c.
The practice of seating the meeting-house continued, until within the memory of those who are now living. The long seats in the meeting-house were altered to pews in 1785; a clock was voted for in 1810; liberty was granted, in 1821, to certain per- sons to put up "a stove or stoves" at their own expense; and at the same time the plan of selling or leasing seats was adopted.
In 1845, the old meeting-house was taken down, and a new one built on nearly the same ground. The same year, by the division of the old town of East Windsor, this church became the First Church of South Windsor.
Watts's Psalms and Hymns are still in use in this church. The seasons of communion were quarterly till 1852. Since that time once in two months.
The practice of admitting persons into the church on what was called the half-way covenant plan, continued here until
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March 27, 1808, when it was quietly abolished. A relation of Christian experience was required of all candidates for full communion from an early period. This church have repeatedly and solemnly adopted the Cambridge Platform and Westminster Confession, as the foundation of their union in discipline and doctrine, because, in their view, most agreeable to the word of God.
From the year 1786 to 1827, a period of forty-one years (during the ministry of Dr. McClure and Mr. Robbins), a record has been kept by them, in the church book, of all the deaths that have occurred within the bounds of this society, with the ages and diseases of the deceased, which gives decisive proof of the remarkable salubrity of the place.
Ministers.
There have been eight ministers, viz:
Settled. Died.
Rev. TIMOTHY EDWARDS, March, 1695, Jan. 27, 1758.
JOSEPH PERRY, April, 1755, Apl. 21, 1783. DAVID MCCLURE, D. D., June, 1786, June 25, 1820. Dismissed.
THOMAS ROBBINS, May 3, 1808, Sept. 27, 1827.
SAMUEL W. WHELPLEY, Apl. 17, 1828, Dec. 6, 1830.
CHAUNCEY G. LEE, Aug. 8, 1832, Mar. 30, 1836.
LEVI SMITH, May 6, 1840, May 1, 1849.
EDWARD HOOKER, Sept. 4, 1849.
The present pastor is the Rev. JUDSON B. STODDARD, a descend- ant of Timothy Edwards, the first minister of this church.
The following persons are all that the records name as having filled the office of deacon in this church, but the time in which they were appointed is specified only in part of the cases.
JOSEPH SKINNER. MATTHEW ROCKWELL.
DANIEL ROCKWELL. BENONI OLCOTT. AMASA LOOMIS. THOMAS SADD.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
AMASA LOOMIS, Jr., appointed September 27, 1793.
ABNER REED,
DANIEL ROCKWELL, appointed May 22, 1799.
ERASTUS ELLSWORTH, appointed April 4, 1834.
THEODORE ELMER,
JOHN ALLEN,
appointed March 23, 1849.
We must add, or prefix, to these the names of Deacons SAMUEL BAKER and JOB DRAKE, as found in the Edwards Manuscripts, before mentioned. They were probably the first incumbents of the office in this church.
The Old Burial Place.
This graveyard was the first one opened on the east side of the Connecticut River. In December, 1707, the Second Society voted, "that the Committee should purchase a piece of land for a burying place in some convenient place, and the Society would pay the purchase next year."
In April following (1708) it was voted in town meeting " that the townsmen shall have power to agree with Dea. Job Drake, for land for a burying place, on the east side of the river." And in December of the same year, the inhabitants of Windsor, in town meeting assembled, consummated the purchase by grant- ing to Deacon Drake " 30 acres of land for the 2 of an acre assigned up for a burying place." The first person buried in this ground was Thomas Morton, who "fell from a cherry tree, and broke his neck," July 20th, 1708. His monument is now standing.
A record of all the burials in this yard was commenced by Doctor Matthew Rockwell, or his father, and afterwards passed into the hands of the Cook family, by whom it has been care- fully preserved, and additions made to it, down to the present day.1 The latest interment, according to a copy of this record
1 This interesting and valuable record, opens with the following introduc- tion :
" Burials in the Yard by Amasa Drake's, from the Book owned by Mr. Oli- ver Cook.
" Death is a terror unto Kings The King of Terrors too, Both old and young, both rich and poor When summoned, they must go."
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in the author's possession, was in 1833. No spot in South Windsor is so full of interest as this ancient " God's acre," thick set with the quaint tombstones which mark the last rest- ing places of the fathers and mothers of the town. No one who has spent a leisure moment in bending over these crumbling memorials of departed worth, or who has surveyed the beautiful expanse of scenery which it commands, will ever for- get the Old Burial Ground of South Windsor.
The new burying ground, near the present South Windsor Church, was purchased in 1803. And a committee to superin- tend funerals was first appointed in 1820.
CHAPTER XIV.
WINDSOR, EAST OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER .- CONTINUED.
The Parish (now the Town) of Ellington. 1717-1768.
The earliest purchase of land in the present town of Elling- ton, was made in September 1671, by Thomas and Nathaniel Bissell, of one Nearowanocke, a Namerick Indian.1 It is then described as " without the bounds of Windsor." Shortly after, the town itself became the purchaser of a larger tract, including that bought by the Bissells.2 And the court at its October session, 1672, upon the application of Messrs. Joseph Fitch, Samuel Marshall and Jacob Drake, in behalf of Windsor, granted that the limits of said town should be extended five miles to the eastward.3 The bounds of Ancient Windsor, as thus enlarged,
1 See chapter on Indian purchases.
2 " Voted, that Nathaniel Bissell's and Thomas Bissell's heirs have 200 acres of land on the north side of the land formerly purchased by the town, and within the purchase of said Bissells of Arowonuck the Indian, provided the said Bissells make over to the town all the right to the purchase made of Arowanuck or Will." Town Acts of Windsor, I, 102. Time, Dec., 1708.
3 " Whereas, Mr. Joseph Fitch, Corporal Samuel Marshall and Jacob Drake, by the appointment of the town of Windsor, September 9th, 1672, moved this Court to grant them some enlargement on the East side the River of Connecticut, by reason of a purchase they have made of the Indians, they having an eye that in convenient time it will be fit for a plantation : This court upon the said motion, for the encouragement of such as shall plant
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PARISH OF ELLINGTON.
extended east to the road as it now runs from Jesse Meacham's by Mr. Oliver W. Steel's. South of the latter it passed on the side-hill east of that road as it now runs to Vernon. That part of Ellington east of this, known as " the Equivalent," was subsequently granted to the town of Windsor, as indem- nity for certain lands of which they had been deprived in the settlement of the boundaries between Connecticut and Massa- chusetts. The following summary of its history is gleaned from papers in the State Archives.
1715, Sept. The petition of Windsor, by their selectmen, stated that, by a recent arrangement of the bounding line with Massachusetts, several thousand acres had been taken from that town and annexed to the other colony ; that the assembly had agreed that a suitable equivalent, in public lands elsewhere, should be rendered to Windsor ; they therefore requested the assembly forthwith to assign them an equivalent in some place convenient for the town and with due allowance for the dis- tance. They feelingly reminded the assembly of the extra hardships and expenses they had borne by being a frontier town ; followed by the grievance of having such a quantity of land, purchased many years previously by that "ancient town," " taken out of the bosom of the Town, and forced " to receive an indemnity " in a remote place." The petition was signed by John Elliot, Israel Stoughton, Nathaniel Loomis, Jonathan Ells- worth and Henry Wolcott. It was granted in the upper house and negatived in the lower. A committee of conference was appointed, but no result appears on the record.
1716, May. Matthew Allyn and Roger Wolcott, agents for Windsor, in a petition reminded the assembly of the loss to that town of seven thousand two hundred and fifty-nine acres of land by the settlement of the north line of the colony, and requested the appointment of a committee to lay out an equiva- lent from the public lands. "We beg leave to express our con- cernment to see this ancient town, which has cheerfully borne her part in the charge of this colony from the infancy thereof, a particular instance in thus suffering so great a loss which we could not have expected from this assembly."
there, grant the bounds of Windsor shall extend eastward 5 miles from their former bounds, provided all former grants made of any parts of those lands, are excepted in this Grant." Trumbull's Col. Rec., 11, 185. A copy of this record among the papers in the State Archives, was endorsed by the person who arranged them, a few years ago, as relative to Tolland. It undoubtedly, however, refers to Ellington, and the north part of Vernon, which last was also a part of the ancient town of Windsor.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
This memorial was accompanied with the affidavit of Thomas Stoughton, who testified that in about 1702, Caleb Stanley, county surveyor, was employed by Windsor to ascertain the east bounds of the town : " who began at the Great River and measured eastwardly eight miles, which eight miles extended half a mile east of the marsh known by the name of the Great Marsh ;" also a statement from Wm. Thompson, New Haven county surveyor, who, under the employment of Mathew Allyn and Roger Wolcott, had ascertained that six thousand two hundred and forty acres from Windsor had been assigned to Enfield ; and one thousand and nineteen to Suffield-in all seven thousand two hundred and fifty-nine.
Upon this application the assembly appointed Joseph Tal- cott, Esq., and Mr. Thomas Kimberly, to survey and set to Windsor, as an equivalent to the lands taken from that, a traet "lying between the towns of Windsor and Tolland, north of the claim of Joshua's legatees ; and if in that place there shall not be found land sufficient to make the equivalent (consideration being had to the distance of the place and the quality of the land) the remainder shall be laid out to the town of Windsor, in the ungranted lands of this colony, above Tolland."
1722, May. Mr. Israel Stoughton, select man of Windsor, in the name of the town reminded the assembly of the above resolution, and stated that the committee, though often re- quested, " have hitherto refused to lay out said equivalent lands to the town of Windsor," and petitions for the appoint- ment of a new committee or the addition of one to the former, and to give full power to any two of them. The assembly, upon the motion of the representatives of Windsor, appointed " Capt. James Wadworth and John Hall, Esq's, with the assist- ance of Mr. Thomas Kimberly, country surveyor, to lay out to said town their equivalent lands."
1723, May. James Wadsworth and John Hall made report, that, in April previous, they had laid out to Windsor, on the east side of the town, about eight thousand acres of land as an equivalent for the lands taken from that town; which report was adopted, ordered to be put on record and that a patent be issued, "under the seal of the colony, and signed by the governor to the inhabitants, 'proprietors of said town' " of Windsor. In this patent, signed by Gov. Saltonstall, the bounds of the tracts are described as follows: "Bounded west upon a right line down from the northeast to the southeast corner bound walks of said town; and east partly by Wil- lamantick River, partly by Stafford bounds, and partly by Tol- land township; north wardly partly by Enfield bounds, and partly by Stafford bounds; and southwardly partly by said Tolland bounds, and, in part, by Bolton bounds, which is a line drawn from the south end of Mesbenups pond to the afore-mentioned line from Windsor northeast to the southeast corner,"
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PARISH OF ELLINGTON.
Twenty years, however, passed away before any division of this tract was made among the proprietors. During thus inter- val, yearly meetings were held, at which the division of these and other common lands was the principal subject of discussion; but the lapse of time had so complicated the claims of proprietors, and intensified their differences of opinion, as to embarrass their proceedings and prevent them from coming to any mutual agreement. Finally in 1743, as a desperate attempt to extricate themselves, they accepted the report of a committee appointed many years before, and under their direction, the allotments were made. Beginning east of where the present road from Rock- ville to Ellington Centre, leaves Vernon or Rockville, they laid out the lots in half mile ranges, to Somers and then back again. Be- yond this second tier, the lots were laid north and south in two tiers; all the south range bounded south by Tolland, and all the north on the north by Stafford. Beyond this a number of lots were laid out the whole breadth from Tolland to Staf- ford, and thus till the last lot was bounded by the Willimantic. In all these surveys and allotments, the pond between Elling- ton and Tolland was uniformly written Messhanips-for the north pond bordering upon Stafford no other name is known than Square Pond. 1
Yet for nearly fifty years after the settlements began on the east side of the Connecticut River, this fine tract remained unsettled and unimproved. The traveler of the present day, who passes through the town of Ellington, and witnesses the high degree of cultivation and the pleasing scenery for which it is now distinguished, will wonder that it was ever under- valued or neglected. Still more will he be surprised to learn, that in the olden time, a very general opinion prevailed, that " the soil on the plain, near the present centre of the town, and all the western section of it, was far inferior to the elevated tracts in the towns east."
So the wave of emigration, scorning to remain upon the plains, rolled onward over the crest of the eastern hills, and boldly courted toil in the more mountainous districts beyond. Willington, Bolton and Stafford were surveyed earlier than any
1 Barber's Hist. Coll. of Conn.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
part of this town. Tolland and Coventry were settled towns, enjoying regular "gospel ministrations," long before any one was located here.
The following is the first known record of land surveyed in the present town of Ellington :
" Land surveyed to Daniel and John Ellsworth, sons of Lieu- tenant John Ellsworth, of Windsor, by Thomas Kimberly, sur- veyor of land in the county of Hartford, 16th of March, 1720, five hundred and forty acres of land between the mountains east of Windsor and Connecticut River, at a place called by the English The Great Marsh, and by the Indians Weaxskas- huck- 340 acres bought of Capt. Joseph Wadsworth, and 200 acres bought of the Bissell's, 1 by said Lieut. John Ellsworth, began at a pine tree marked and having two mere-stones by it, standing on the plain, near the northwest corner of the said marsh - [then all the bounds are described] Samuel Pinney and Daniel Grant, being under oath, assisted in carrying the chain."2
It has been generally supposed that Ellsworth was the first settler in Ellington. It seems probable to us however, that he was preceded by Samuel Pinney, as early as the year 1717. This supposition is, to our mind, very strongly corroborated by the following entry, or addition, made by some person to Mat- thew Grant's list of deaths, &c., in the Old Church Record.
" The year 1717. I set down all that have died in Elenton [Ellington] to the year 1740."3
This we may consider, as establishing the earliest date of set- tlement in the town. Samuel Pinney had, for some years pre- vious, been much employed by the town of Windsor, in survey- ing the lands east of the Connecticut River. He thus had an excellent opportunity of selecting, and probably purchased of the town the land on which he settled. This was a tract about 1} miles in length from east to west, and about 1 mile broad from north to south, comprising some of the best land in Ellington.4
1 See first part of this chapter.
2 Barber's Hist. Coll. Conn. p. 547.
3 The first name on the list is that of Lt. Ellsworth, and the second "Isibe[1] Pinye."
4 It was afterwards divided to his three sons, as follows : Samuel, Jr. had his share on the northern side of the tract, now owned by Martin Beebe, Henry Lawrence and Albert Pinney. His house was near Mr. Martin Beebe's present
PARISHI OF ELLINGTON. 265
On this he built a log house, about twenty rods southeast of the square-roof brick dwelling lately occupied by Lt. Eleazer Pinney, and at present by his son Nelson Pinney.
In the spring of 1720, John Ellsworth came from (East) Windsor, and made a clearing on the east side of the Great Marsh, and built a shanty near the present residence of Mr. Chester Chapman. Tradition says that he and his two sons were accustomed to come out to this place on Monday morning, with their oxen and cart, and return again to their homes on Saturday afternoon. On the clearing which they made they raised corn, peas and turneps. One Saturday afternoon, in Oc- tober, 1720, the father ordered the boys to pull some turneps and put them in the cart, while he would go down to the Marsh and fell a tree. Having done as they were told, and finding that their father did not return as soon as they expected, they went to look after him. They found that the tree had fallen upon and killed him. Taking their oxen and stone-boat, they drew their father's dead body to the shanty; where one remained to guard it during the night while the other returned to the settlement on the river for assistance. Who can imagine the feelings of that faith- ful son as he watched by the dead through the long hours of night, far away from all human aid and sympathy; or the horrors which surrounded the other youth, as, with "mind affright" by the sad spectacle of a father's mangled corpse, he anxiously picked his way through the dense forest and darkness to his home on the river's side ?1
On a stone by the roadside, on the farm of Mr. Noah Pease, Jr., is the following inscription : "Lieut. John Ellsworth was
dwelling. Joseph, the second son, took his share on the south side, now owned by Andrew and William Pinney. His house was 15 rods east of William Pinney's brick house, the ancient well is still to be seen there. The central portion of this property fell to the third son Benjamin, and it was truly a Ben- jamin's portion. On this reside Nelson Pinney, Amos Jacques and Stedman Nash; on it also is the Ellington Carpet Mill, Flouring and Saw Mill, and a whole manufacturing village, dwellings, stores, etc.
1 This son was afterwards the first Captain of Militia in Ellington.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
killed here by the fall of a tree, Oct. 26th, 1720, aged 49 years and 15 days."1
The tract which he purchased is now owned by Mr. McKin- stry, Asaph Mckinney, Austin Tilden, Chester Chapman, Noah Pease, Jr., and others, and together with the Pinney tract, em- brace the best land in Ellington.
After Ellsworth and Pinney, the first settlers were probably Capt. Daniel Eaton, Nath'l Tayler, Simon Chapman, Isaac Davis, John Burroughs, Nath'l Davis, and the McCrea family.
The early settlers of Windsor Goshen, as the little collec- tion of farms at the Great Marsh was called, for many years attended the ministry of Mr. Edwards in East (now South) Windsor. The distance, however, to the Street, which they were obliged to travel every sabbath, was a very severe tax upon even their weather-proof fidelity; and it is not strange, that they should have been anxious to secure gospel privileges for themselves, at the very earliest moment warranted by their ability. It is probable that some attempt of this kind was made in 1725, as in December of that year, the Second (Mr. Edwards's) Society passed a vote, "that the inhabitants at the Great Marsh shall be freed from their parts of Mr. Edwards's salary for the year past, provided they do on their own cost provide themselves a minister to preach the Gospel to them from this present time till the first day of April next." And in February following the town, "considering there is likely to be a society on the land laid out on the east side the River," granted, " 30 acres to be laid out for a [ministerial] home-lot in the ancient town patent, and 40 acres in the equivalent."2 Two or three years elapsed before the inhabitants of Great Marsh were able to effect their desire, owing probably to a want of ability, for in 1730, the settlement numbered only eleven families, most of whom were poor: In 1731 they hired
1 A few years since a man who purchased a part of the old Ellsworth farm, took up the stone which marked the spot where Lieut. Ellsworth was killed. He was designing to use it for a door step. Mr. Miller, a neighbor, hearing of his proposed vandalism, purchased it from him, and set it up where it now stands.
2 Town Acts of Windsor, Bk. II, 48.
1
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PARISH OF ELLINGTON.
a minister, and in 1733 settled him with a salary of forty pounds a year, and his fire wood; yet in 1734 the precinct contained but one hundred and ten persons. Their first pastor was the Rev. John Mckinstry, a native of Brode, county of Antrim, Ireland, his Scottish parents having removed to that place from the vicinity of Edinburgh, to escape the persecution in the reign of Charles Second. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated as M. A., in 1712, and in 1718, was one of a large company who emigrated to New England from the North of Ireland. After preaching in Sutton, Mass., several years, he set out with his family for New York, but resting in East Windsor on account of the illness of one of them, he was invited to Ellington, where he remained until his decease in 1754, at the age of seventy-seven.1 He preached on the Sunday before his death. He was sensible, pious, a sound Calvinist, plain in manners and spoke a broad Scotch dialect. His widow, originally a Miss Fairfield, of Worcester county, died in 1762, aged eighty-one. On account of disagreements between Mr. Mckinstry and his people, arising from discordant views of church discipline, their connection was dissolved in 1749. A branch of his family yet remains in Ellington - his descendants in various parts of the country are numerous and respectable. 2
According to usage in those days, the aid of the general assembly was frequently requested in the management of paro- chial affairs. The early ecclesiastical annals of Ellington are fully given in the following summary from papers in the archives of the state.
May, 1732. They petitioned for exemption from ministerial
1 He purchased a small place of Andrew McKee, a little east of the place where Judge Hall's High School is located, by deed April 27th, 1736. He built here an elegant house, for those days, where before the meeting-house was built the first settlers used to assemble for worship. Three years after he bought about thirty acres of land adjoining his first purchase, of Simon Par- sons; his deed witnessed by Daniel Ellsworth, John Fairfield and Samuel Thompson, as appears from Windsor records. (Barber's Hist. Coll., Conn.)
2 See Genealogical portion of this work.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
taxes in East Windsor. They stated the number of persons in the settlement was one hundred and ten.
May, 1734. In a second memorial they desire a continuance of the same exemption. They stated that it had been granted them by a vote of the town, two years of the three in which they had supported a minister of their own, but on the preced- ing year ministerial taxes had again been laid upon them. They desired freedom from all taxes whatever. The assembly freed them from ministerial taxes in East Windsor, so long as they maintained an orthodox minister of their own. There were thirty-five signatures on the petition, and on it was endorsed, " There are one hundred and ten souls in the parish."1 A paper accompanying this memorial is as follows; "Windsor, May 13, 1734. We the subscribers are perfectly willing that our neighbors that live at the Great Marsh shall be excused from paying rates to Mr. Edwards, so long as they hire a min- ister among themselves: we live on the street and are the Rev. Mr. Edwards's constant hearers." Signed by fifty-nine persons.
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