USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 31
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In delineating the character of society in by-gone days, even- handed justice seems to require an occasional portrait from the lower strata by way of contrast, and therefore the following character is presented, he having been the Derby ferry-man, well known in his day by the name of Old Parks. He was for years the toll gatherer on the river turnpike when the toll-gate was located at the east end of the Naugatuck bridge. Faithful to his trust no man could get through his gate without first answer- ing to the demand, "Your toll, sir." On one occasion he was over faithful. An ox team with a load of flaxseed from Bridge- port was being driven over the ice and broke through in deep water near the causeway. The team belonged at Up Town, and a messenger was dispatched to the owner for assistance. Captain Bartemy came down in great haste, prepared to rescue the drowning cattle, and coming to the toll-gate without any change in his pocket, Mr. Parks demanded his toll before turn- ing the key. Captain Bartemy having once cut his way through Washington bridge, said no petty toll-gate should foil him on an errand of mercy. He seized a new ax from Willis Hotchkiss's wood-pile and cut loose the iron fastenings of the gate, dumped it over the wall and drove on and saved the team and a part of the load of flaxseed. The gate and the ax were completely de- molished and the toll gatherer acknowledged himself beaten.
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
Mr. Parks was sui generis in his way, and at the head of his class among the sinners of olden times. A more uncouth, boisterous, fearfully profane and vulgar man could scarcely be found in a day's journey. He was a terror to the school boys, offensive to the refined and shunned by all. In vain did the good parson expostulate with him. Independent in his sayings and doings, he was not, however, without his troubles. Attracted by an outcry from his house, a neighbor on a certain day ven- tured in and found him beating his wife most unmercifully, a not unfrequent occurrence when divorce laws were more strin- gent than at present. The neighbor remonstrated and inquired the cause of such brutal treatment. The husband replied in anger, charging his wife with such abusive use of his tongue that no mortal man could stand it. The neighbor having ex- hausted all his wits to allay excited passion, finally said, "Why Mr. Parks, you should consider that your wife is the weaker vessel." "I know it," said he, "and let her then carry less sail." Mrs. Parks was often seized in a fit of what the doctor called violent hysterics. Driven to the wall, there was no relief for old Parks, in the dead of night, in a pitiless storm, in one of these attacks, until he brought to his wife old Dr. Kimberly, whose frequent visits told upon his purse. On one occasion he demanded of the doctor the cause of hysterics. He replied very gravely, "There are many causes for this disease ; in the case of your wife, Mr. Parks, I think the cause is mostly hard work and trouble." "I don't agree with you, doctor," said Parks, "all the hysterics she's got comes from wind, will and the devil, and if you have got any medicine for these, unload your saddle-bags."
For a long time old Parks discharged the duties of ferry-man across the Ousatonic from near Huntington Landing to the Narrows. He usually sculled over his ferry boat without the aid of rope moorings .. Many a weary traveler, more frightened at his rounded profanity than the swollen current of the river, while crossing the river rebuked him without let or hindrance, though to no good result. But as the strongest will is often broken by a little matter, so is the hardest heart sometimes softened by "trifles light as air."
Returning one night from the opposite shore, having ferried over a passenger from New Haven, a turning point in his life
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A GHOST STORY.
occurred, which imparts a lesson unparalleled in all we have heard or read among the legends of demonology. Sudden re- formations, even though brought about by the power of gospel preaching, are seldom permanent, but this is an instance of a man turning from the errors of his ways almost instantly and with lasting effect, on seeing a ghost. We do not tax credulity beyond what is real and full of traditionary proof.
Mr. Parks was alone at an hour favorable for deep and sober contemplation. The night was dark, still and foreboding. His thoughts turned upon himself and he fell into a reverie, which Addison tells us sometimes occupies the minds of fools as well as wise men. The usually dormant imagination of our hero was worked to an extent that fitted him for seeing objects not otherwise apparent. As he was sculling his boat in the stream, looking intently forward for some object for which to steer, an apparition suddenly met his eye a short distance ahead of him, directly in his course. Unused to fear, he said to himself, come on, nobody is frightened at ghosts. Yet the figure vanished not, but grew upon his imagination, and as he frequently and uni- formly described it afterwards, it was a column of fire in the shape of a human skeleton of colossal size, apparently resting upon the surface of the water, and slowly advancing towards him, giving him ample time for examination and reflection. He saw the outstretched arms, the fiery eyeballs, the ribs, the heart, and the shriveled tissues of this skeleton, which was perfectly transparent, enabling him to see through it objects on the oppo- site shore, which the previous darkness had rendered invisible. Finally the figure, approaching nearer and nearer, rested upon the bow of the boat, and he was conscious of its movements until within five or six feet of him. At this instant Mr. Parks recollected a strange feeling coming over him, and then his judg- ment failing, he dropped his oar, fainted and fell on the bottom of his boat, which at falling tide floated down stream and lodged on Graven Rocks, just below Hallock's ship yard. A party re- turning from an excursion down the Ousatonic found him early next morning and believed him dead, but they restored him to consciousness and brought him with his boat up to the ferry- house.
The persistent uniformity and self-reliant relation of this story
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
so often reiterated by him, induced a general belief at the time that this affair was not the mere creation of an overwrought imagination. He might have seen a distant meteor, or a nearer ignis fatuus, but whatever it might have been it was no goblin to him, for it brought "fruits meet for repentance," and from that hour the Derby ferry-man was a new man, reformed in all his habits. Everybody remarked, "What a change in Old Parks." He read his bible and attended church ; was respected and beloved, prospered and became conscientious in his daily walk. As proof of his better heart, when he married his second wife he supposed her a widow, but it appeared that her husband, whose name was Sacket, ran away and left her, and years after- wards a notice of his death revealed the fact that he had been living with another man's wife. It is said he went straightway and was married again.
The writers upon superstition may be challenged to furnish a more striking illustration of the power of ghosts than the one which had so happy an effect upon the character of the Derby ferry-man.
SHIP BUILDING IN DERBY.
This for a series of years was one of the most active and prominent industries of the town. Among the earliest vessels built were those constructed upon the shores of the Ousatonic and Naugatuck rivers, above their junction at the Narrows.
The first ship building was conducted, most probably, by Thomas Wheeler of Stratford, who settled on Birmingham Point in 1657 ; remaining six years, when he returned to Stratford.
Soon after Mr. Wheeler returned to Stratford Mr. Alexander Bryan, a merchant and ship builder of Milford, became the pos- sessor of Mr. Wheeler's privileges, or a part of them on the Point, and continued these enterprises in his line until about 1680, when his son Richard made some arrangements to settle in the town as an important business man.
Joseph Hawkins the first became the possessor of Mr. Bryan's interests at the Point, in which his son, Joseph Hawkins, junior, succeeded him in mercantile business, but to how great an ex- tent is not known, except that in 1712-20 it was the principal trading place in Derby.
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SHIP BUILDING.
At the cove near by the Stone building, where ancient walls in part are still standing, on the east side of the Ousatonic, a long mile above the dam, there was a busy ship yard, among the earliest great enterprises of the town. The little vessels built here were called the Boston Coasters, and employed in car- rying on trade with Boston, the Southern Plantations and the West Indies. Here was also kept by Isaac Lane, at a later day, a trading house or store, from which were supplied the towns around with rich treasures, such as molasses, sugar and the like, brought up the river in these little coasters. The first Leaven- worth toll bridge, a short distance below, was built in 1798, after which this building was transferred down the river to the west side, near the old red house now standing. Capt. Ed- mund Leavenworth and his son Gideon built the bridge, and some years afterwards, it having been condemned by the com- missioners, it was in part rebuilt by Gideon. This Capt. Ed- mund Leavenworth was the son of Dr. Thomas Leavenworth, who first purchased the large farm, including the famous Indian Well, which farm has been in the possession of the Leavenworth family more than one hundred and fifty years. Dr. Thomas was born in 1673, and after mature age made his home here upon this obscure spot along the wild shores of the Ousatonic. He was a man of uncommon energy of character, and was the pro- genitor of the numerous family of Leavenworths now scattered throughout the United States. His farm was bounded on the river some miles, and his habits of primitive frugality made him wealthy and gave him a commanding position.
The first vessel built at the Red House was called the Ana- conda, and was launched at the ship-yard which lay between the Red House and the Leavenworth Hotel standing on the bank of the river a few rods below. Schooners, sloops and vessels to the number of twenty-one were here constructed by Capt. Edmund Leavenworth and his sons, Gideon and Edmund, the latter having been long known by many now in this vicinity by the familiar name of Uncle Ed.
Gideon Leavenworth in his early life was a captain in the Revolution in 1777, and commanded an infantry company raised by the state from Ripton, now Huntington. He was in the battle of White Plains, where he was wounded in the thigh by
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
a musket ball. Religiously trained, he had a kind, social and Christian heart, and was noted for his praying propensities, but like many other good and noble-souled men, he sometimes, when provoked, lost his balance of mind, even in his pious moments. A truthful story is related of him in reference to a mischievous swine which often annoyed him by coming into the kitchen whenever she could escape from her inclosure.
On one occasion while at his morning devotions, leaning over the back of his chair in the good old Puritan way, Captain Gid- eon [sometimes called the " Presbyterian deacon "], being dis- turbed by a noise in the kitchen, opened his eyes, and looking through the open door discovered that his domestic intruder had turned over the butter churn filled with new milk. Pausing a moment, he bawled out, " Boys, go and drive out that damned old sow from the kitchen," and then went on and finished his devotions.
The last two vessels built were unfortunate, one was called George and Fane, the other The Fox. They were owned mostly by Uncle Ed., and were captured by the French in the war of 1812, which was a serious loss to their owner.
On launching days thousands of people flocked to see a vessel ride from dry land into the water, and a launch generally ended with a merry dance at the Leavenworth hotel.
Pickets were built up the Naugatuck river earlier than 1797 opposite the "Old Parsons Place," just above S. H. Proctor's residence. Soon after a schooner was built by Capt. George Gorham and launched near the present Naugatuck Derby sta- tion. Capt. Gorham was in the war of the Revolution and helped to stretch the famous iron chain across the Hudson to obstruct the British from going up the river. He built many vessels below the Point of Rocks at the Thompson Place, near Reuben Baldwin's distillery, now known as Hallock's Old Ship Yard. Capt. Bradley of Guilford built several vessels for the' Derby Fishing Company about 1810, and among them was the Ocean, a large and fine sailing vessel, and being fitted out and heavily laden she was captured by the French and all her valua- ble cargo confiscated, which proved a heavy and serious loss to Derby people at that time.
The Rev. Mr. Ruggles, for some time pastor of the Derby
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VESSELS BUILT.
Congregational church, then Up Town, having fallen into some imprudences unbecoming a minister of the gospel, was obliged to resign his pastorate, and he then went into ship building. He built a fine schooner which was launched just above the Point of Rocks upon the Huntington side of the river. Mr. Ruggles had a wife and daughter, both named Hannah, and to perpetuate their names in seafaring life he called his schooner Hannah. The night before she was to be launched, some wag, with a paint brush, daubed on three sides of the schooner in glaring capitals, " The Pulpit," which name adhered to the ves- sel through all its misfortunes, outliving in fact its baptismal name, Hannah.
Ezra Hubbell built a vessel soon after, which was launched opposite or near the Doct. Jennings place, just above Capt. Z. M. Platt's store in the Narrows. Now Ezra was an old bachelor, slow, sure and circumspect in all his movements and undertak- ings, and some of the fair damsels of the town thought he was uncommonly so in reference to matrimonial alliance.
It was predicted that he would never finish his vessel, but after a long while it was completed and when launched it rested upon the meadow, and the disappointment then gave it the name Who'd Thought It, but Ezra called his vessel Laura, and with much difficulty she was made to rise and float on the waters.
Just below this last place, a vessel was built by John Lewis, and was named Mary, in honor of three families, Smith, An- drews and Kimberly, each of whom had a daughter by the same name ; only one of the three, the venerable and accom- plished Mary Smith at the Narrows, is still living.
We learn of vessels being built next, at Sugar street, by Talmadge Beardsley, where he built several of different tonnage, and has the credit of building the first center-board vessel ever built upon the Ousatonic. This was called the Commodore, and was the fastest sailing vessel that ever plied between Derby and New York. Beardsley afterward worked at ship building in Bridgeport, and again in Derby, for the Hallock's. He is believed to have been the first man, especially in these parts, who went into the forests, felled the trees, hewed the timber and every way constructed the framework of a vessel before it
34
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
was delivered to the ship-yard. His workmanship was of a su- perior order.
He was employed by Robert Fulton, and assisted in building the first steamboat that was commercially successful, and that moved upon the waters of the Hudson.
As we come down to later times, we find that during the cold summer of 1816, Capt. Lemuel Chatfield built a sloop called the Champion, which was launched just north of what is now the west end of the Ousatonic bridge in the new and enterprising
MODESTY
THE SCHOONER MODESTY.
village of Shelton. Chatfield employed Zephaniah and Israel Hallock, brothers, as builders, who came from Stony Brook, Long Island.
The Huntington side of the river being unfavorable for launching, Chatfield bought the Sugar street place of about ten acres, including the old store which was used afterwards as a ship carpenter's shop. In 1820, at Sugar street, just below the dam, the ship-yard was thought to be a permanent establishment, and the Hallocks then removed and made their residence in Derby. Here at Sugar street they built many large vessels,
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LAUNCHING VESSELS.
but experienced a difficulty in launching and getting them down the river, when a more desirable spot being offered them, they bought, in the spring of 1824, a tract of land at Derby Landing, including the famous Reuben Baldwin's peach and cider brandy distillery. Being temperance men, they thought it wise to break up the old distillery.
Here ship-building was carried on successfully until 1868, when the march of progress in railroads rather compelled the Hallocks to sell the interest in their ship-yard as the Nauga- tuck railroad by charter passed directly through it. Four ves- sels however, were built after the railroad was in operation. The last one built by the Hallocks was named Modesty, which was certainly in good keeping with the character of the build- ers. The Modesty was named by Mary Louisa, daughter of Thaddeus G. Birdsey. It was a vessel of two hundred tons burthen, built for Thomas Clapman. In all, they built fifty- two vessels, great and small, and only one was unfortunate in being launched, having stopped on "the ways" causing much delay and trouble in remedying the mishap afterwards. Great precautions were always taken in launching, as it was a sort of superstition among sailors that any bad luck at such a time is ominous of evil on the waters, and they will never ship on board of such a vessel for service if aware of the fact. This vessel proved no exception to the belief, for she was early lost at sea.
The launching of vessels at Derby was always a great curios- ity, and when this took place, the people at home and for miles the country round, came to see the wonder of the craft, and thus launching day with colors flying, was made a grand and excit- ing holiday among the denizens of the town. On one occasion, a gentleman and his little son came a great distance to witness the launching of a vessel, and going on board and examining her minutely as they were on deck, the son looking down the hatchway into the hold cried at the top of his voice, "O, daddy, look here ! She's all holler."
The Hallocks as ship-builders always bore an enviable name at home and abroad. Zephaniah the elder, familiarly known by the name of Uncle Zeph., was among the most hon- est men that ever lived. Pious to the rule, there was no du- plicity or double dealing in his character, and rather than shirk
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
his contracts by putting in shoddy timbers or practicing any dodge upon his employes, he would sooner suffer great loss in dollars. Therefore, any vessel labeled in memory, Uncle Zeph., whether in port or on the ocean, always bore the palm of great merit.
Ship building therefore has been, nearly from the commence- ment of the town, a large element in the enterprises which have employed capital and labor. At one time few if any towns in Connecticut built more sailing craft than Derby, and this in earlier years gave it the name of "Ship building town." The question may be asked, how could vessels built so high up the river be launched and floated down to deep water ? The an- swer is, that once the volume or quantity of water flowing down these rivers was much larger than now, besides the vessels were launched during freshets and on tide water, and were buoyed with hogsheads or other floating material.
Thus once a lively branch of profit and loss among our enter- prising forefathers has at length given place to the noisy hum of machinery, and a great variety of manufacturing interests, and in a little while all traces of ship building in Derby will have passed from sight except in the records of history.
Since the above writing the following additional items have been obtained.
If correctly informed, many vessels were built in colonial times below the junction of the rivers. One called the Lorinda, a brig, was launched at Huntington Landing, directly opposite the present residence of William Holmes, the florist. She was owned by George Thompson, a wealthy merchant who carried on a brisk trade with the West Indies, keeping quite an exten- sive store at the Landing. Sometime during the Revolution this brig, returning from the West Indies heavily laden with a cargo of sugar, rum and other valuables, was captured and detained by a British man-of-war off Stratford harbor. Thomp- son was a cautious, shrewd, far-sighted man, and being imme- diately sent for, hastened on board his brig, where he met the British captain. After the usual courteous salutations, Thomp- son, who had never signed the pledge, said to the British cap- tain, " We have on board some liquors, superior to anything ever drank in Old England, I propose a drink all round." " I
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TRADE OBSTRUCTED.
have no objections," said the British captain. The smooth, oily rum once swallowed, the verdict was, " nothing ever better." The wily merchant then said, " This will hurt no one, I pro- pose one more." " Agreed," was the response all round. An- other and matters grew friendly, and good feelings prevailed, although beginning to be a little mixed, and the British captain said to Thompson, "I perceive that your captain is a Scotch- man." " Yes, sir," with a graceful bow. "I also perceive that your mate and yourself are Scotchmen," continued the rough commander. "Yes, and may it please you majesty's honor, I perceive that you are a Scotchman, making the fourth, all good blood." Another taste of sugar and rum and Thompson's brig with her valuable cargo was re-captured, and without further molestation she was safely taken into the port of Derby.
THE STRATFORD BRIDGE.
The navigation of the Ousatonic by so many of Derby's ves- sels brings before the mind one of the items of difficulty with which these later day navigators had to contend. In the begin- ning of the present century was built the first bridge across the Ousatonic between Stratford aud Old Milford. Its completion formed an epoch in the history of these ancient settlements, which was celebrated with appropriate demonstrations of joy and re- joicing ; for prior to this, only a step behind the Indian's canoe, travelers were borne across the waters from town to town with scow and oar. At that period the coasting trade between Derby and the West Indies was in its hight of glory and prosperity, and the people in this vicinity very naturally were tenacious of their rights, and waxed violent in their opposition to any obstruc- tion in the great highway of commerce. Derby was then an important port of entry, and paid heavy duties to the govern- ment on her importations. Singularly enough, among other complaints, it was claimed that the fishing interests up and down the river would suffer from the noisy travel over this bridge, and as Ousatonic shad then sold at fourpence and sixpence apiece, and as there was a statute law against hindering them from going up stream within certain hours of the day, between Half Moon Point and Quimbo's Neck Point at the mouth of the
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
river, the Legislature was importuned with lobbies to stave off and prevent at all hazard the entrance of this proposed charter for a bridge. A warm contest ensued, lasting many weeks, which led to some cruel personalities. But the bridge petition- ers finally found favor among the wise Legislators, the charter was granted and the bridge built ; but in a few years an ice flood swept it into the deep. This providential mishap in turn cre- ated much rejoicing among the opposers of the bridge in Derby, while the good people of Stratford and Old Milford were deeply chagrined over their unexpected calamity. Horace Bradley was deputized to go down the river and make sure the bridge was gone, and he returned with the glad tidings that nothing was left of it but the piers. The people then had an impromptu gathering and made merry over its destruction, some of them in their rejoicing getting not a little exhilarated with sugar and rum. One Col. Tomlinson, not unknown to Derby farmers liv- ing on the Huntington side, it is said, slaughtered on the occa- sion ten innocent turkeys and made a jubilee, inviting his friends and neighbors to partake of the entertainment. He gave the following toast to his guests, which was characteristic of the feeling then prevalent, showing a little of the old Adam of hu- man nature : " May the fishing and shipping interests of our river never more be disturbed by the intolerable nuisance of another bridge across the mouth of its waters." Music, Yankee Doodle.
This bridge question engendered an enmity between the people up and down the Ousatonic, which generations have scarcely effaced. By dint of great effort, but mostly as the result of a lottery scheme in which some of our Derby citizens drew large prizes, the bridge was soon re-built, and commerce and shad again obstructed. Among the first vessels coming up to Derby after the re-building of the bridge, was Captain Bar- tholomew's, better known as Capt. Bartemy, a shrewd and plucky Frenchman, who was at the time a resident of Derby. It was the law, that vessels approaching the bridge to go through its draw should either fire a gun, or blow a horn, as a signal. Capt. Bartemy, whose vessel was heavily laden with rum, sugar, molasses and coffee, blew his horn, but the bridge sentinel most peremptorily demanded his papers, as a pass to the port of Derby.
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