USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 28
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Edward Crafts, Samuel Sanford, Liberty Kimberly.
"December, 1793, Voted that John Humphreys, Esq., Capt. Joseph Riggs, Mr. Samuel Hull, Col. Daniel Holbrook, be a com- mittee to inspect the inoculation of the small-pox, and make further rules and regulations respecting the small-pox as they shall judge necessary for the inhabitants, and to put a stop to the inoculation if they judge best."
No report of this committee has been observed, but a fair conclusion is that the physicians were allowed under very care- ful restrictions to make some experiments, which proved suc- cessful so that the following risk was ventured four years later.
" December 1I, 1797. Liberty is hereby granted to twenty- six persons and no more to receive the small-pox, viz. : Isaac Smith, Elizabeth Smith, Clark Smith, Edward Smith, Joseph Smith, Elizabeth Smith, jun., Susan Smith, Milly Keeney, Sheldon Keeney, Betsey Keeney, Sally Keeney, Isaac Keeney, Linda Keeney, Medad Keeney, Abijah Canfield, Charity Can- field, Sarah Canfield, William Canfield, Joseph Hawkins, Joseph
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
Hawkins, jun., Enos Smith, jun., Joseph Durand, Samuel P. Sanford, Mamerry Sanford, provided they receive it by the evening of the twelfth instant, and give bonds that they receive it at the dwelling house of Mr. Benjamin Davis in Derby and not depart said house until liberty obtained from the authority and selectmen, and that the physicians who inoculate shall also give bonds not to spread the small-pox, and that the bonds be made payable to the selectmen, and that the select- men and civil authority or their committee shall set limits to said house and have the superintendency of the physician and patients ; and that those who receive the small-pox shall pay all expenses and save the town harmless."
This last clause is the only surprising one in this whole rec- ord ; for if anything like the benefit hoped for should result, the town could well afford to pay all expenses and send nurses if needed, to take the care of the patients while ill. There is no excuse for the penuriousness of public bodies in regard to health, while lavish with money on improvements and ornamen- tation.
The strictness of the town in the conditions imposed on the physicians and the patients in this matter, may provoke a smile at the present stage of medical knowledge, but at that time it was the only reasonable course to be followed. Such had been the terrible scourge of the small-pox, that every possible precaution was demanded of physicians and all public authorities, and any other course than that pursued would have been justly chargeable with the heaviest penalties if adverse results had befallen the practice, and it was then as at the present day, no pestilence equaled in frightfulness, the small-pox.
THE RESULT.
In December, 1798, a petition signed by thirty-three persons was presented, requesting the town to give liberty to Doctors Sanford and Crafts, to practice inoculation, assuring the town that they were capable in that practice.
The petition was granted, and each physician was required to inoculate in a separate hospital under the restrictions of the authority and selectmen.
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DEER HUNT AND LAW-SUIT.
THE DEER HUNT.
In the famous deer hunt, which occurred in the western part of this town about seventy-five years ago, while there were no dukes, major-generals nor Spotted Tails such as we read of in the Great West at the present day, joined in the chase, yet there was real fun. A little south of the community known as Quaker Farms, was Wooster's park, an inclosure of between one and two hundred acres, safely surrounded by a high rail- fence. Within this inclosure Jacob Wooster had gathered a large number of valuable deer, and it was a state law at that time, that if any one should kill a deer from this park he should pay a fine not less than eight dollars. During a storm in Janu- ary, the wind blew down the fence, and the largest deer es- caped and wended his way towards the Ousatonic, near Zoar bridge. A posse of men sallied out and made at him several shots, but unharmed at this firing he darted down the river as far as the Red House where he encountered young Leaven- worth, familiarly called Uncle Ned. Some eight or ten men under his lead hotly pursued the panting venison and encoun- tered him on a spot near Alling's factory, in Birmingham. "Now," said our young hunter "stand back, boys, and I will fetch him the first fire." After due and careful preparations, he fired but the deer was still master of the situation. There was a great freshet in the rivers, and the meadows far up were covered with water, and tightly packed over with broken ice. Eluding his pursuers, the deer in triumph cut around the point near where the pin factory now stands, crossed over the mead- ows on the ice, and landed on Parsons Island, nearly opposite the residence of Mr. B. B. Beach. By this time, the quiet den- izens east of the Naugatuck became interested in the chase, and soon the whole neighborhood was in a blaze of excitement. Young Johnson, long known as Uncle Andrew, had just en- tered double blessedness, but forgetting his loving bride, seized his "king's arms," and hastened to the field of conflict. His fire only wounded the affrighted animal in the hind leg, and be- fore he had time to reload Leverett Hotchkiss, the second white male child born in the Narrows, came up, leveled his gun at the deer and shot him dead. The captors then hauled
29
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
their booty up to the old blacksmith shop near by and com- menced the work of dissection. Before they were through Uncle Ned with his companions arrived, and claimed that as he had fairly bagged the game, he was justly entitled to a share of the venison. A warm dispute arose. Hotchkiss having made the dead shot wanted the whole, but he finally awarded to young Johnson the hide and one hind quarter, but Uncle Ned, less lucky than Alexis, could not get so much as the tail as a trophy for his day's pursuit. Chagrined at this treatment, he stirred up a lawsuit against the parties for violating the maj- esty of the Connecticut laws. Finding that the deer was from Wooster's park, Uncle Andrew, fearing the law, entered a com- plaint against Hotchkiss, although he had himself lugged off the hide and one quarter of the deer. The case was tried be- fore Justice Humphreys. After a two days' trial in which the Blackstones of the town exhausted all their wits, the court found a true verdict against Hotchkiss and fined him eight dol- lars and costs.
The affair created quite a sensation, which lasted a long time, for at a town meeting subsequently held for the purpose, the people sympathizing with the defendant, voted to relieve him by paying from the treasury, at least the costs of the prosecu- tion. So much for that hunt. B.
THE RED HOUSE.
The long red house now standing at Leavenworth Landing, on the west side of the Ousatonic lake, is among our Derby rec- ollections. It was once a favorite stopping place between the two counties, when the place was lively with ship-building, and thousands flocked thither on a day when a vessel was to be launched. After the Leavenworth bridge, which spanned the river a few rods above, became rickety and unsafe for travel, a public ferry was kept up opposite this red house. A blunt, sensible, burly Yankee, familiar in his old age by the name of Uncle Ed., officiated as ferry-man. On one occasion he was aroused from his midnight slumbers by a signal to ferry over a friend from the opposite side. The river was high, the night dark and rainy, and the wind blowing a gale. With great effort, Uncle Ed. reached the Derby shore, when his tallow candle
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THE RED HOUSE.
went out, leaving him in bad humor, and he exclaimed, " Who are you, out this time of night, when honest men should be abed and asleep? It is enough to make a minister swear to turn out for a friend such a time as this!" The traveler said not a word, but carefully placed himself, horse and wagon on board, when he was told, "Now take hold of this rope and pull with all your might, or we shall all go down stream," accom- panying his orders with language not polite nor very decorous. The order was rigorously obeyed, while the ferry-man continued his strain of epithets, clothed not in the choicest English. Safely over, Uncle Ed. demanded an extra ninepence if his friend refused to give his name. "Why," said the stran- ger, " the man toward whom you have been using such abusive language, is your reverend minister from Huntington Center." "Oh! yes, parson, I've heard you preach many times, but I guess I won't take back anything I've said." B.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE TOWN OF OXFORD.
HE Oxford ecclesiastical society was established in 174I, and in 1742 a burying-ground was laid out, and from that time until 1798 they exercised the rights of such a society, but remained a part of the township of Derby. The effort to make the parish of Oxford a town began in 1789, and was continued with intervals until that object was attained. In 1793 an agreement with Derby was effected and the boundaries fixed by a committee, but the Assembly did not confirm the agreement.
In December, 1796, the parish of Oxford having previously petitioned the General Assembly to be made a town, the town of Derby voted that "We will not oppose the incorporation of Oxford as a separate town on account of representation, but will consent to divide the representation and each district have only one member, and that we will as a town unite with Oxford in a petition for the purpose, and the lines to divide said town shall remain as agreed by a committee of said town about three years ago, and if the inhabitants of the respective districts cannot agree on a division of the burdens of said town, we will submit a division thereof to a disinterested committee who shall adjust and divide said burdens which shall be binding on each party."
In the next April, Capt. John Riggs was appointed to carry the petition to the Assembly and urge the request of the people ; but it was not agreeable some way to that body, and another committee was sent in December, 1797. At the same time they appointed a committee to adjust the burdens of the town, who made their final report April 23, 1798, recommending that " Said parish of Oxford, in consequence of the extraordinary burthens and public expense to be incurred by the old town in bridges and roads, etc., in said division lines shall pay as a com- pensation to said old town one hundred and seventy pounds lawful money in three yearly installments." This report was
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OXFORD TOWNSHIP.
accepted and passed in a lawful town meeting, and Oxford was made a town in October, 1798.
The territory now included in the township of Oxford, which was originally included in Derby, was obtained of the Indians by some twelve to fifteen deeds, the principal of which were the Wesquantuck and Rockhouse hill, Camp's mortgage, Moss's pur- chase, North purchase, Quaker's farm, Tobie's grant, and sev- eral others of smaller quantities in the north-eastern part of the township. The first of these, Wesquantuck and Rockhouse hill, was made in 1678, and the last in 1710.
Major Ebenezer Johnson, Ens. Samuel Riggs, Jeremiah Johnson and two or three others purchased small tracts of land at Rock Rimmon, or in the vicinity of what is now Pine's bridge, in 1678 and in 1680, where the first permanent settlement was made within the present township of Oxford. In 1692-3, Thomas Wooster and David Wooster made purchases south of Major Johnson's land on the west side of the Naugatuck, being a little above Seymour, but precisely when they or any of their descendants began to reside on these lands has not been ascer- tained. In 1708 Ens. Samuel Riggs gave to his son, Ebenezer Riggs, two hundred acres of land with houses and other im- provements in this vicinity, and he at that time or soon after made his home here.
The first permanent settler at Quaker's farm was some time after 1707, and it is quite certain there were settlers in the vicinity of Pine's bridge and Rimmon some years before this date.
At the meeting of the Oxford society, October 6, 17411, it was voted " to build a meeting-house, and to meet the Assembly in the next session at New Haven, to pray for a commission to appoint, order and fix the place whereon their meeting-house shall be erected and built."
No report of that committee is to be found.
The society meetings were held at private houses until the
1Much of the following account of Oxford and Oxford people is taken from an historical paper read by Judge N. J. Wilcoxson at the centennial celebration on the fourth of July, 1876, in Oxford. The paper was prepared by considerable research and great carefulness, and is worthy of high commendation. The matter of nearly the whole paper is incorporated in this book.
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
3Ist day of March, 1743. The meeting next after that was held at the meeting-house on the 21st of June, 1743.
The next important step after the building of the meeting- house in those days was the settlement of a minister, but in the present day the first move would be to obtain a minister in order to the building of a meeting-house. Mr. Joseph Adams was called. to settle, being offered £500 settlement, and a yearly salary of £150 old tenor, which brought to the silver standard meant £145 settlement and £45 salary.2 The call was not accepted, and at a society meeting held in June, 1745, it was voted to give to Mr. Jonathan Lyman a call to preach on pro- bation. A committee consisting of Capt. Timothy Russell, Capt. John Lumm and Ensign John Chatfield, was appointed to hire Mr. Lyman on probation for the space of four Sabbaths. At the end of this time, in July, "it was voted to give Jonathan Lyman a call to settle over the parish in the work of the gospel ministry," with a settlement of £500, and a salary of £125, until the settlement should be paid, and then to be raised to £150. Subsequently it was voted to add ten pounds yearly to the salary for five years.
Mr. Lyman accepted the call and was regularly ordained over the parish Wednesday Oct. 4, 1745, and continued in this office with usual success eighteen years, when, as he was riding in the western part of the town on a visit to a sick person, he fell from his horse, and, it is supposed, instantly died.
Mr. Lyman was a brother to General Phineas Lyman, and was baptized at Durham, April 21, 1717 ; was a graduate of Yale College in 1742; preached in Middlefield, Conn., six Sab- baths in 1745, and ordained as above the first minister of the parish. The following records show somewhat of the esteem in which he was held :
" To all persons to whom these presents shall come, I Samuel Wheeler send greeting. Know ye that I ye said Samuel Wheeler, of Oxford, in Derby, in the county of New Haven and colony of Connec- ticut in New England, do for, and in consideration of love, good will and respect which I have, and do bear towards the Rev. Mr. Jonathan Lyman, pastor of the church of Oxford, in Derby, in the county and
2New Haven Hist. Papers, I. 74.
.
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OXFORD MINISTERS.
colony aforesaid in New England, have given and granted and by these presents do fully and clearly and absolutely give and grant unto the said Rev. Mr. Jonathan Lyman his heirs and assigns forever a certain parcel of land lying in Derby, parish of Oxford, near the meeting-house
Sept. 10, 1746." April 21, 1747, John Lumm gives him a piece of land " For and in consideration of the good will and respect that I have and do bear to the Rev. Jonathan Lyman, for encourage- ment to him in his settlement, in ye work of the ministry with us, which consideration is to my good and full satisfaction."
The next minister settled in the parish was the Rev. David Bronson, of Milford. The call is dated Monday, March 3, 1764 ; settlement £200, and a salary of £60, to be increased to £70, after four years. Dea, Ebenezer Riggs, Mr. John Twitchell, Mr. Thomas Clark, Capt. Russell, Capt. Hawkins, Lieut. Wheeler, Joseph Osborn, were the committee for treating with Mr. Bronson regarding his settlement. The 25th of April, 1764, was appointed for the ordination. Mr. Bronson lived to serve the parish until the year 1806, a period of forty years, when he departed to his future reward.
The next settled minister of the parish was the Rev. Nathaniel Freeman. His continuance was from June, 1809, to Septem- ber, 1814. The society was without a settled minister from Sept., 1814, to the settlement of Rev. Abraham Brown, June 2, 1830. During these sixteen years of vacancy, the people were variously supplied with preaching, principally by Rev. Zephaniah Swift, a man of much personal worth and highly respected. Mr. Brown was dismissed, Oct. 16, 1838.
A call was next extended to Rev. Stephen Topliff, on the 21st day of April, 1841, on a salary of $500 annually so long as he should continue with the church and society as their minister, which call he accepted and was installed the following Septem- ber. He served them nearly twenty years and was dismissed in 1860. He was esteemed for his integrity, faithfulness in the discharge of his professional duty, kindness as a neighbor and the wisdom of his actions as a citizen.
Following Mr. Topliff the pulpit was supplied by Rev. Mr. Barton one year ; by Rev. Mr. Strong, who was installed, two and a half years; Rev. Mr. Chamberlin two and a half years, and after that by Rev. John Churchill, of Woodbury, seven
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
years. It is remarked of Mr. Churchill that, faithful to his call- ing as a preacher he deservedly ranks with the ablest, as a friend the kindest, as a neighbor unselfishly loving, and as a citizen discreet, just and true.
THE NEW MEETING-HOUSE.
Not long before the close of the year 1792, the people began to talk of building a new meeting-house, and on the third day of January, 1793, voted so to build on the meeting-house acre, near the old one, a house 56 feet by 40. Thomas Clark, Esq., Capt. John Riggs and Mr. Josiah Strong, were appointed a com- mittee to apply to the Hon. County Court to establish a place for the site for the same. In the meeting on the 23d day of December, 1793, Mr. Timothy Candee was appointed to build the meeting-house, the same vote agreeing to give him therefor the sum of six hundred and seventy-five pounds. It has been said that the stipulated sum did not pay Mr. Candee the expenses of the building, and to meet which so embarrassed him pecuniarily, that he gave up what of estate he had and removed to Pompey, N. Y., where he spent the remainder of his days. The house then built, the present Congregational church, was raised in the year 1795 as entered upon public records by Dr. Hosea Dutton. The same year the Oxford turnpike, said to have been the second in the state, 'was chartered.
The same year the hotel building, now styled the Oxford House, was erected by Daniel and Job Candee. It was first and for many years occupied by Daniel Candee as innkeeper. He was succeeded by his nephew, David Candee, who con- tinued in the position a space of forty years.
The first post-office was kept in the same building, Daniel Candee, post-master. David Candee, upon taking the position of landlord, took also that of postmaster, which he held for a great number of years, and then it passed to his son, George N. Candee, by whom it was taken into a merchant store.
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OXFORD EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
This parish was gathered and established by the labors of Rev. Richard Mansfield, D. D., in 1764, who was located at Derby as a minister of the gospel.
The following deed shows that the church was already organ- ized ; and although it says, "for a valuable consideration," it is probable that the land was mostly a gift.
"I, Joseph Davis, of Derby, in the parish of Oxford, . . for a valuable consideration of current money, . . received by Abel Gunn and William Bunnell, church wardens of the parish of Oxford, .. do give, grant and confirm unto them, and to others of the parishioners of the Church of England, in said Oxford, one certain tract of land known by the name of Meet- ing-house Lot, lying near Oxford meeting house, being by esti- mate five acres, . . to have and to hold to the said Abel Gunn, Benjamin Bunnell, and to all the rest of the professors of the Church of England, in said Oxford." December 22, 1766.
A like deed was executed by John Twitchell, June 21, 1770, for "near eighteen acres of a certain piece of land in the parish of Oxford, lying on Govenror's Hill, so called, lying near the church."
Information of the regular succession of ministers in this St. Peter's Church ha's not been obtained. The Rev. Chauncey Prindle, a native born citizen of Oxford, a graduate of Yale College, after a twelve years ministerial service at Watertown, Conn., was pastor at St. Peter's for several years. He was noted for a sound and forcible intellect and stern integrity, and was orthodox and firm in principles. He was a useful minister. His last residence for many years was on a farm in the north- ern part of Oxford, where he died at a great age about the year 1832.
After Mr. Prindle, the Rev. Aaron Humphreys was pastor, but how long he continued is not ascertaincd, possibly ten years or more. The Rev. W. A. Curtiss, a native of Coventry, Conn., came here in April, 1829, from New York. His pastorate continued a little more than two years, being a preacher of con- siderable ability, but such was his imprudence and indiscretion that he was ever upsetting his own dish. After him, Rev. 30
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
Ashbel Baldwin, Rev. Dr. Burhans, Revs. Messrs. Todd, San- ford, Marvin, Nichols, Eastman, Loop, Gray, Smith, Clark, Pierce, Anketel, and Burk, were in turn in charge of the parish and church.
The church first erected stood on the hill adjacent to the cemetery. It was taken down and removed, and the one now standing on the green was erected in the year 1834, and was dedicated by Bishop Brownell in the year following, the Rev. Charles Smith then being the minister.
OXFORD CENTER AND GREEN.
"To the year 1798, Oxford was part and parcel of the town of Derby. About the year 1791, the people aspired to become a town, and year after year to the seventh they presented their petition, when on the seventh they were successful, and Oxford was incorporated a town. But this was not obtained without extra effort, for the people at last resorted to strategy, and thereby succeeded. The election of the town at Derby was at hand. The town-meeting was warned to be held at nine o'clock in the forenoon, but the custom was not to open it until one o'clock in the afternoon. The people of Oxford agreed to go together in a body, ready to open the meeting at nine o'clock. The hour of meeting in Oxford was known to every voter, and prompt at the time they were all assembled and formed in pro- cession on the main street, and at a given signal the procession moved in stately order toward its destination, the town house of Derby. It was so much the custom then to open the town meeting with prayer, that such proceedings without prayer were hardly regarded as legitimate, and therefore to save trouble in that direction the Rev. William Bronson, the minis- ter at Oxford, was taken along to offer the opening prayer. It was not the first time nor the last that religion has been called in to help carry out mischief, but this seems to have been that kind of mischief over which it is legitimate to pray. The pro- cession reached the place of meeting ; it was nine o'clock ; they set about the business of the hour with a diligence that told what was meant. The Derby people were in consternation, and started out, running their horses in various directions, calling on persons to hasten to the meeting ; but before enough of the
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PUBLIC ENTERPRISE.
voters had reached the place to outnumber the Oxford voters, Nathan Stiles, who resided in what is now Seymour, was chosen town clerk, and they had voted that the town-meetings should be held one-half the time in Oxford. It is said that from that day, Derby no longer opposed the effort of Oxford to become a town. It is certain, however, that Derby consented to Oxford becoming a town some three or four years before the General Assembly made the grant. But the above account is doubtless true as to matter of fact, and was given by Capt. David McEwin, a prominent citizen, one every way competent to remember such an occurrence, a man of laudable character, active in public enterprise, a farmer by vocation, and when in the prime of life was one of the most thorough, flourishing and successful operators. He is said to have been marshal of the day in that grand Oxford descent upon old Derby, leading the procession to complete triumph, being assisted by the parson.
In and by the act of incorporation, it was ordered that the first town meeting should be held on the third Tuesday of November, 1798, that Thomas Clark, Esq., should warn the meeting, and that John Riggs, Esq., should serve the meeting as moderator, and in accordance with these arrangements the meeting was held. It was a very stormy day ; the snow fell deeper than is often seen, yet the meeting was fully attended and the organization completed.
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