USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 30
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William Clark, who resided at this Old Town village, is called in a deed, merchant, in 1742, and shop keeper in 1748, both probably being the same business. He apparently con- tinued here as merchant, initiating his sons to the same work, until his death, after which, during the Revolution, or just before, his son Sheldon removed his store or started a new one at the Landing.
In 1755, when considerable of the trading was transacted at the Old Town, the highway was transferred from the meadow to the side of the hill, near where it now is. About 1754,
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
Ebenezer Keeney built the first dwelling at the Landing, and in 1762, Stephen Whitney bought a piece of land of James Wheeler at this place, built a store and continued to trade as a merchant until 1768, when he surrendered his store to " James Juancy, Samuel Broome and company, with all who were his creditors in New York, and Stephen Demill of Stratford." Hence the first mercantile effort at the Landing was a failure.
In 1769, Captain Gracey (spelled also Grassee) bought land here and built a store on the wharf, and in 1763, he entered partnership with Joseph Hull, and continued his store some years. . From this time onward the Landing was the center of mercantile operations, not only for Derby, but for many adjoin- ing towns. During the Revolution, a large amount of state provisions for the army were bought and packed and shipped at Derby.
About 1790, the celebrated Leman Stone commenced here his energetic and, for some years, prosperous career as a mer- chant. In the language of the old proverb, " he left no stone unturned" which he thought might bring success to himself or the place. He was a man of untiring energy, determined pur- pose, and for some years was successful in nearly everything he attempted as a business man. He came from the town of Litchfield, Conn., which may account somewhat for his great energy for there is not a town in the whole state more celebrated for producing great men than Old Litchfield. And at the pres- ent day there is no man to whom reference is so frequently made in the prosperous times of Derby Narrows as Leman Stone.
The following very just remarks were written not long since by Dr. A. Beardsley :
A few years prior to 1800, Mr. Leman Stone and others set- tled in Derby, and for a long time carried on an extensive com- mercial trade with New York, Boston, and the West Indies. At one time Derby Narrows was nearly blockaded with carts and wagons loaded with all sorts of produce from Waterbury, Woodbury and other towns. Sometimes a string half a mile long would throng our highways, and teamsters would have to wait half a day, or over night for their turn to unload for ship- ping. Importation was also large. A truthful veteran informed
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EARLY COMMERCE.
us that he had counted at one time no less than sixty hogsheads of rum landed on the dock in a day. We would not have our readers suppose for a moment, that this quantity was all con- sumed in Derby. It was carted to various parts of the country whence the produce came. In the hight and glow of his com- mercial prosperity, Mr. Stone entered into the project of the turnpike from Derby to New Haven with a view to draw the business of the latter to this place. The petition was presented to the Legislature for a charter, and after two or three years' hard fighting and as many embarrassments, seemingly, as the Derby and New Haven railroad had in their project, the charter was obtained and the road built at great expense to Mr. Stone, and then the unfortunate man had the pleasure of sitting in his store-house door and seeing all his friends and customers go by him to empty their treasures into New Haven. The building of that turnpike, together with the old Washington bridge at Stratford impeding our navigation, operated against the inter- ests of this town at that time most decidedly.
Derby became a port of delivery by the establishment of the collection district of New Haven on the second of March, 1799, "to comprise the waters and the shores from the west line of the district of Middletown westerly to the Housatonic river, in which New Haven shall be the port of entry, and Guilford, Branford, Milford and Derby ports of delivery."
EARLY COMMERCE OF DERBY.
After the close of the Seven Years' War, from 1755-63, the commercial prosperity of Derby rose rapidly, and as rapidly de- clined on the outbreak of the American Revolution, resuming increased activity after the independence of the Colonies was acknowledged.
Long before this we had an indirect trade with Europe through the Colonies and the West Indies, in which Derby sloops of eighty to one hundred tons, carried live stock and provisions to the leeward and windward islands of the Caribbean sea. In return they brought the products of these islands, also wines, fruits and manufactured goods of France, Spain and Hol- land, to whom these islands then belonged. This prosperity reached its culminating point about the year 1800, and began to
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
decline about 1807 from three distinct causes, although the peo- ple of Derby attributed it solely to the fierce struggle then going on between Napoleon and England, in which the inhabi- tants of all Europe seemed to be breathing nothing but the spirit of war, which then gave sufficient employment to the mariners of the eastern continent. This was an incentive to leave the world's carrying trade open to other powers not en- gaged in war, in which our country with its facilities for ship- building took a most prominent part.
The Derby Fishing Company was then fully organized, and in seeking a market for their fish prosecuted an extensive trade upon the northern shores of the Mediterranean. By simplifying a trade that had been somewhat complicated and very expen- sive, this project gave fair promise of success, which would have undoubtedly been realized had not events transpired which no human foresight could have anticipated. The cod fishery on the banks of Newfoundland and its vicinity by New Englanders was carried on in small schooners, which brought their cargoes to our ports, where they changed owners, and after supplying the home demand the surplus was shipped to the south of Europe. The Derby company abbreviated this process by send- ing their ships to their fishing stations during the fishing season, taking in their cargoes directly from their drying grounds and proceeding thence to southern Spain, France and Italy, return- ing to Derby with the products of those countries, thus saving the import profits on their goods, since then swallowed up by New York and other places. The entire circle of this trade, thus pursued without changing hands, must have resulted ad- vantageously to the fishing company had times continued pros- perous as they were in the first few years' operations, but Eng- land disliked our feeding her enemy, the French, and issued her orders of prohibition, while Napoleon intent on starving the proud islanders issued his Berlin and Milan decrees, aimed alike at our trade, but both transcending international law.
As our company's vessels carried nothing contraband of war, they continued their trade until they were seized and confiscated wherever found, in plain violation of national right and manifest justice. Nor was this all that worked commercial ruin to the Derby Fishing Company. Flushed with their early prosperity
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DISASTER AT SEA.
they had engaged in a species of marine insurance against dis- asters from ary cause, and their risks in common with others of being captured on the high seas, encountered of necessity untold losses. Thus was the company's capital swept away be- yond the remotest hope of recovery. An incident may be re- lated in this connection. The crews of a fleet of merchantmen that was confiscated by order of Napoleon, were sent home in an old unseaworthy vessel which foundered on the passage and nearly all perished. A few were saved by their only boat, which was taken possession of by as many as could safely be accommo- dated and held at some distance from the wreck to prevent others from overloading her. In their haste to gain this posi- tion they had neglected to supply themselves with provisions or nautical instruments, when Samuel Crafts of Derby, chief mate of the schooner Naugatuck, one of the Fishing Company's ves- sels, volunteered to procure them from the wreck, which he ac- complished by swimming with great exertion and hazard, no one offering in the excitement the needed assistance. The boat was put off while he was on the wreck for the last time, leaving him to go down with it. He was the son of Dr. Edward Crafts and brother of Dr. Pearl Crafts, a young man of great promise, uni- versally esteemed, and in his death deeply lamented by the peo- ple of Derby. Another version of this painful story, better authenticated by Miss Rachel Smith, still living in serene old age, is, that Crafts with fourteen others perished from the pangs of hunger and exposure, while striving to save themselves from a watery grave.
Although this piracy of France and England was sufficient in itself to crush the enterprise of Derby, yet other causes com- bined might have produced a similar result. Our farmers in the interior where the line of trade began, in their eagerness to accumulate, sent off the products of their soil without sufficiently compensating the ground for the loss of its fertilizing elements, as our wheat growers at the West are now doing, until their naturally thin soil became exhausted, and finally refused to yield to their demands. Another cause was the jealousy of New Haven and Bridgeport. These places cast an eye of envy and desire at the prosperity of their neighbor on the Ousatonic. New Haven contrived and executed the plan to tap the Derby
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
traffic, by cutting a road south of Woodbridge hills to Derby, and by offering the facilities of a harbor unobstructed by ice, and willing to accept a diminished rate of profit, drew the long line of loaded wagons directly past Wheeler's tavern at the Nar- rows to their Long Wharf in New Haven. Judge Isaac Mills of the latter, formerly a Huntington man, and brother of the late Samuel Mills, was the prime mover in this new turnpike, and singularly enough some of the Derby people favored the project, hoping in this way to invite increased trade from New Haven to Derby. Leman Stone was one of these, and he saw the disastrous results.
The Leman Stone building as it has long been called, over- hanging the mouth of the Naugatuck, defying the fury of ice floods and water freshets, for nearly a hundred years, at first a vast store-house, then the receptacle of wholesale garden seeds, next a seat of learning, long the domicile of its enterprising builder, Mr. Stone, and still longer a part of it the residence of one of the most gifted and estimable women of Derby, Mrs. Ellen Stone, still stands out in bold relief, through all its vicissi- tudes, without occupancy, a commercial landmark and relic of better days. This building, now in venerable decay, was once the head-quarters of commerce in Derby. Here Capt. Henry Whitney, a bitter opponent of the encroachments of England to destroy our commerce, father of the New York millionaire, Stephen Whitney, and Archibald Whitney, late of Derby, and one of the ancient worthies who assisted in laying the corner- stone of old King Hiram Lodge, for years carried on an exten- sive and profitable business of shipping horses to the West Indies, which gave him rather an enviable reputation.
Grain of all kinds, pork, butter and cheese were brought here for export from Woodbury, Waterbury, New Milford and towns around in great abundance. Within the fading memory of the oldest inhabitant, the old road now called Derby avenue has been seen lined and crowded with loaded teams by the hundred, waiting turns to deliver their goods for shipping and return to their homes. Imports were correspondingly large, hogsheads of rum, brandies, sugar, molasses, were brought here in large quantities, and either carried into the interior or transported over the hills to supply the business of New Haven.
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CAUSES ADVERSE TO DERBY.
At this period, sailing vessels in number from the docks of Derby and Huntington Landing were more than equal to those plying between New Haven and other places. An extensive business was also carried on at Hull's mills in the manufacture of linseed oil, situated at the head of the present Birmingham reservoir. Flaxseed in large quantities was imported and ground into oil and exported to New York and- Boston. In addition to this they manufactured kiln-dried meal, which when packed in hogsheads was shipped to the West Indies. The two brothers Hull, sons of Samuel, senior, and Richard, son of Dr. Mansfield, were the proprietors through the most prosper- ous times, and were from the nature of the case so connected with merchants and the shipping interests of Derby as to be in- volved in their ruin from the same causes.
The Hitchcock mill built during this period at Turkey Hill, now occupied by De Witt C. Lockwood as a turning shop, added much to the commerce of Derby in the manufacture of linseed oil.
Bridgeport having absorbed Black Rock turned a wistful eye to Derby, and by great effort constructed the Bridgeport and Newtown turnpike in 1801, which immediately drew off the trade from Newtown, Brookfield, and ultimately New Milford and adjacent places. Bridgeport harbor being open at all seasons of the year, the millers in neighborhoods above, fre- quently having pressing orders, paid cash for grain instead of barter, and the regularity of their market boats at Bridgeport gave a better sale for the products of the farm at New York than when shipped from Derby. Besides, the roads away from Derby were less sandy and better adapted to loaded wagons, many a day no less than a hundred being counted passing over the Bridgeport and Newtown turnpike to empty their cargoes at Bridgeport, instead of going mostly as formerly to Derby.
The embargoes and non-intercourse acts of our government in aid of the downward tug left little in Derby for the war of 1812 to prey upon, and that little was effectually wiped out. The commerce of Derby then disappeared as does the wave along the shore. A few families, having reserved a portion of the earnings of their better days, remained to spend it, but many of the young and enterprising, discouraged at the outlook, emi-
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
grated to New York or further west. Busy streets became lonely, buildings decayed beyond repairs, property offered for sale found no purchasers, the docks along the shores of New Boston were thinned of their thickly crowded vessels, the Nau- gatuck rolled its waters by the old oil mill without turning its wheels, the toll gate on the New Milford turnpike rotted down, the green grass once more carpeted the barren roadway. These indeed were gloomy times for the prospects of Derby. Manu- facturing had not then been established, and there was nothing comparatively left to stimulate industry in the town. Mr. Abijah Hull, part owner of the mill and a leading man in soci- ety, took his family to the wilds of Ohio, after having enjoyed the comforts of wealth until advanced age among his ancestors. This allusion is made merely to show the type of a class. Sea captains and seafaring men once so plenty and frolicsome in Derby, generally cultivated, from necessity, small plots of ground in their neighborhoods, or became tillers of the soil in the west- ern country. We give only one example : Capt. Frederick Hopkins purchased a tract of wild land at a place called Somer- set Hill, in Oxford, Chenango county, N. Y. In going into the wilderness he carried all his effects with his family in an ox cart, and left the last house and road on his way twenty miles before reaching his place of destination. Mrs. Hopkins, whose cour- age had been buoyant thus far, in viewing the dense entangled forest before her, away from home and friendship, away from the endearing associations of her youth, and bereft of all the pleas- ing hopes she had formed under her once cloudless sky, began to despair and refused to proceed further. Captain Hopkins though kind and sympathetic as a husband and father, was firm and resolute as a man. He had expended nearly the last rem- nant of his former competency in this enterprise, which he could not now recall. By adverse fortune his occupation was gone, and this was his dernier resort. He took his wife tenderly in his arms and placed her in the cart, she almost unconscious, and with a heavy heart, ax in hand, proceeded to cut his way through the woods, which after great fatigue and privation he accomplished, sleeping in the cart as best he could while acting the part of guard, sentinel and pioneer. With ax and saw he built his first house and furnished it. His table was made of
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DERBY LANDING.
the largest log he could saw off, his chairs of smaller ones, and all other things correspondingly rude. His gun and faithful dog furnished most of his food until his crops matured. Blessed with good health and an iron constitution, he cleared his lands of timber, and soon found market for his crops. With new adventurers who settled around him, in a few years he found himself surrounded with agreeable society, mostly of Connecti- cut people. His family became contented and happy, himself highly respected and often consulted in public affairs, and his neighbors styled him the Duke of Somerset. He passed the evening of a well spent life in comfort and repose, and left his children in affluent circumstances. Often visiting the scenes of his youthful prosperity, Hopkins delighted to entertain his old friends with a recital of his adventures.
DERBY LANDING IN 1836.
" The above engraving1 shows the appearance of the village at Derby Landing, or Narrows, as you enter it on the New Haven road, descending the hill, looking towards the north-west. The village is on the east side of the Ousatonic, immediately below
1The illustrations, Derby Landing, Birmingham, Oxford and Humphreysville, rep- resenting these places in 1836, were drawn and engraved by Mr. J. W. Barber of New Haven, author of the " Connecticut Historical Collections," and numerous other works of large circulation. He drew his pictures by visiting the places in person, and standing so as to obtain the views represented. Hence their great accuracy respecting the scenery, architecture and surroundings, they being represented pre-
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
its junction with Naugatuck. It consists of about fifty dwelling houses, four or five mercantile stores, and a number of mechan- ics' shops. These buildings stand mostly on three short streets running parallel with the river and on the side of a hill, which from its summit descends with considerable abruptness to the water, and of course the easternmost street is considerably ele- vated above the others. There are two churches in Derby proper, one for Congregationalists and one for Episcopalians, both situated about a mile north of the Landing. On the left of the engraving, in the distance, is seen the Leavenworth bridge leading to Huntington, crossing the Ousatonic river. The pres- ent bridge was erected in 1831, at an expense of about fourteen thousand dollars. Part of Birmingham is seen in the distance, situated on the elevated point of land between the Naugatuck and Ousatonic rivers.
"There are two packets which ply weekly between this place and New York. Considerable quantities of wood and ship timber are exported, and ship building to some extent is carried on at the Landing. Derby Landing is about fifteen miles from the mouth of the river where it empties into Long Island Sound and eight and a half miles north-west from New Haven. The river is navigable to the Landing for vessels of eighty tons, there being about ten feet of water2."
Sea captains and seafaring men were for many years very plenty about Derby. Those recollected and here named were residents of Derby : Ebenezer Gracie, James Humphreys, Fred- erick Hopkins, Ethel Keeney, James Lewis, Silas Nichols, Eugene Olmstead, who sailed to all points of the world, William Clark, Thomas Horsey, William Whiting and his two sons- Henry and William Whiting, - Gibbs and his son William, and William Sheffield. All these were residents in Derby Nar- rows, and most of them came here after the Revolution. Those
cisely as seen upwards of forty years ago. The value of his work on Connecticut, in this respect alone, is beyond estimate.
He has also very kindly consented to engrave the cuts for this work, which repre- sent the three first houses of worship erected in the town, having had the precise dimensions furnished him from the records, and being familiar with the old style of architecture. From these facts great accuracy has been secured. This last work he has done being in his eighty-second year.
2 Barber's Conn. Hist. Coll. 197.
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LOST AT SEA.
residing at Up Town and who sailed to all parts of the world, were : Harry Curtiss, Carleton White, Thomas Vose, Jared Bartholomew, - Morris, Joseph Prindle and Mordecai Prin- dle, brothers, Elijah Humphreys, Francis M. French, Stephen Mansfield, son of Dr. Mansfield, James Thompson and his two sons-William and Sheldon, and George Gorham. Upon the Huntington side of the river were Captain Hart and his two sons, Clark Elliot, -- Tomlinson, -- Moore and others, who sailed to the West Indies.
One of the above captains, Mordecai Prindle, made a sad record on his last voyage. With seven men from Derby, in a vessel heavily laden with live stock, with his scuppers under water, he sailed for the West Indies, and after a few days out at sea a September gale came on, endangering many vessels off Cape Hatteras. Among the dying embers of superstition, more rife then than now, it is mentioned that a kildeer out of season perched upon the window sill of Mrs. Prindle's house, which stood near Dr. Mansfield's, and was heard to sing distinctly several times, in plaintive notes, and then disappear. Mrs. Prindle was deeply affected, and declared that her husband was that moment sinking beneath the merciless waves. From that day to this Captain Prindle, his seven men and vessel have not been heard from.
After the commercial downfall of Derby its northern portion, Humphreysville, became a more lively and flourishing part of the town. The zeal, enterprise and noble heartedness of Gen- eral Humphreys had already set in motion various kinds of machinery. Skilled mechanics were brought from Europe, and many were attracted here through the influence of General Humphreys, and this gave employment to and increased the population of the place.
For a series of years Derby, with its diminished ship build- ing, was enlivened by the shoe-making business and cooperage. Captain Lewis Remer, his brother Abram Remer, George Blackman and others were manufacturers, and sold their stock mostly in New York. These men became celebrated in their business, and employed many hands, and a shoe-maker in Derby was thought to be of some consequence. A large proportion of their work was on women's shoes.
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
In the line of cooperage, Willis Hotchkiss, Levi Hotchkiss and Isaac Thompson at the Narrows, and Capt. Alva Bunnell and Dea. John Carrington at Sugar Street, carried on extensive operations in the manufacture of casks. In one season Capt. Bunnel made one thousand casks and shipped them to New Orleans. When more important manufacturing interests en- gaged the attention of the people of Derby, these employments dwindled into insignificance, until shoe-making and cooperage have about disappeared from the town.
H
CONFLUENCE OF THE NAUGATUCK WITH THE OUSATONIC AT DERBY.
The illustration of the confluence of the Naugatuck with the Ousatonic was sketched in 1857, from near the bridge over the Naugatuck at Derby. The Naugatuck appears on the left, the Ousatonic on the right. The picturesque edifice which is the most prominent in this cut, called "The Castle, the Leman Stone Building," was built about 1785, by Leman Stone, and was occupied by him as a residence and a store more than twenty years. It has been a landmark, both by sea and land about ninety-five years, and has outlived its builder and all his children and all his grandchildren except one. The walls of its founda-
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OLD PARKS.
tion on the water side were laid deep and five feet in width, and no mighty tide or ice floods of old Naugatuck have as yet stir- red a stone. But time begins to make his mark on its outside appearance, and he is the great conqueror of all except the ever- lasting hills. B.
THE DERBY FERRY-MAN.
Connected with Derby Landing was the ferry and the turnpike toll bridge of which it may be pleasing to record some remi- niscences. It would be difficult to picture to the fancy a more pleasing view than meets the eye at the confluence of these two rivers when enlivened by vessels and little sail boats, with charm- ing meadows here and there, beautiful islands environed east and west with green-wooded hills dotted with farm-houses and cultivated fields, and with all the necessary wants of life suffi- ciently supplied so as to bring serenity of mind and happiness.
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