USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 46
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443
NAUGATUCK FALLS.
which all were agreed. Mr. Munson and Gen. Pratt, then a member of the House, proposed to drop the name of Hun- phreys and adopt that of Seymour. Thomas H. Seymour was then Governor, and the town bearing his name it was believed he would not veto the bill, which finally passed the House by two or three majority ; the Governor gave his signature, and thus the town was organized.
The deed given by the Indians, of the land in the vicinity of where the village of Seymour now stands, was dated April 22, 1678. The tract thus conveyed extended from the Naugatuck river, eastward, to Mill river, now in Woodbridge, and from Bladen's brook on the north to about where the Henry Wooster house stands, a mile and a half below Seymour village, with the exception that the Indians reserved " the fishing place at Nau- gatuck, and the plain, and the hill next the river at the fishing place." This reservation included nearly all the territory now occupied by the village of Seymour east of the river, extending over the hill into the hollow.
By this deed1 it may be seen that this place at that time was known by the name of "Naugatuck." In the report of a com- mittee dated two years before the deed just referred to, this name is used in the same manner : " Plum meadow and the ad- jacent land is by estimation about twenty acres, lying on the east side the river that cometh from Naugatuck."2. This latter record was made in 1676, one year after the organization of the town. It is to be observed, also, that the Fishing Place at Naugatuck is mentioned, and from it may be obtained the meaning of the word Naugatuck. In the Indian language Amaug means fishing place; and suck means tidal water, or a pouring out of water. Hence Amaug-suck, or, as the English caught the sound from the Indians' rapid pronunciation, Naug- tuck, was the fishing place at the Falls ; and hence Naugatuck was the name of the locality. From what may be seen of the different spellings of the Indian names, it may be concluded that, although regarded by some as "far-fetched," this is not a tenth as much so as to suppose the place was named from "a big tree that stood at Rock Rimmon," a mile distant. Besides,
1The deed may be seen on page 70 of this book.
2Ibid page 59.
444
HISTORY OF DERBY.
it may be noted here that if there was a big tree designating any locality in that region, it was probably two miles further from the falls than Rock Rimmon, on what is now called "Chestnut Hill," for that hill was originally called "Chestnut Tree Hill," as if named from one tree. In the onward march of nearly two hundred years, some one hearing the story of a big tree, transplanted it by a forgetful memory from that hill to Rimmon, and then concluded that since tuck in the Indian tongue meant a tree, tuck meant Naugatuck, or the fishing- place-at-the-falls.
The next land purchased in this vicinity, after that in which the reservation was made at the Falls, was secured by David Wooster, son of the first Edward, in a deed from the Indians dated in 1692 : " A certain parcel of land on the north-west side of Naugatuck river, in the road that goeth to Rimmon, the Long plain, so called, in the bounds of Derby." This descrip- tion, of itself, gives no word by which its locality may be known, but one month later Mr. Wooster bought another piece adjoin- ing the first, by which we learn that the first piece included the Long plain at the foot of Castle Rock from the Falls southward, taking the whole plain. The second piece bounded eastwardly with the ledge of rocks (Castle Rock), southward "with a pur- chase of David Wooster," or in other words, his own land, and northward with the Little river, and westward with another "ledge of rocks." This piece, containing all that part of the village of Seymour west of the Naugatuck Falls, and much more, was bought "in consideration of a shilling in hand re- ceived,"3 and was reasonably cheap considering the amount of rock it contained. Both of these pieces deeded to David Woos- ter were included in the Camp's mortgage purchase of 1702, which was " a parcel of land three miles square."4 In 1704 the town voted "that David Wooster have that land that he bought of the Indians on the west side of the Naugatuck river, above the Little river, allowing for highways." How far up the Nauga- tuck above Seymour this land extended has not been ascer- tained.
In the year 1678, two months before the purchase of the
3See page 96 of this book.
4 Page 108 of this book.
--
445
ROCK RIMMON.
tract of land bounded north by Bladen's brook, Col. Ebenezer Johnson bought of the Indians, "three small parcels of land, bounded on the north-west with Rock Rimmon, and on the east with Lebanon, and on the south with a small brook and Nauga- tuck river, and on the west with a hill on the west side of Naugatuck river so as to take in the little plain." One or more
J.D.FELTER
ROCK RIMMON.
of these pieces of land must have laid in the valley west of Rock Rimmon, for the town record shows us the following grants: "December 30, 1678. The town have granted to Ebenezer Johnson the upper plain land against Rock Rimmon, and that it shall lie for division land and be so called if Milford do not take away the propriety of it ;5 and the town grant the said
5Having seen, since writing the foregoing chapters, the statement repeated sev-
446
HISTORY OF DERBY.
Ebenezer liberty to take in another man with him." At the same time also the town granted "to Jeremiah Johnson twenty acres of land at the lower end of the plain against Rock Rim- mon, provided highways be not hindered." At the same time they granted to Daniel Collins, John Tibbals and Philip Den- man ten acres each. Not quite a month later they granted " liberty to Samuel Riggs to take up twenty acres of land at or near Rock Rimmon on the west side of the river." In 1682 the town "granted Abel Gun ten acres, either on Little river above Naugatuck Falls, or on the Long plain, west side of Nau- gatuck river above the falls, as he shall choose."
Upon searching for the first settling of persons in this part of the town, it was supposed that the first house was erected at Pine's Bridge, but the following records indicate otherwise. One of the three pieces of land purchased by Ebenezer Johnson which is said to be "bounded on the north-west by Rock Rimmon," must have been located south-east of that rock, and hence the di- vision of it was made in thefollowing form in 1683 : "To Samuel Riggs, half that land at Rimmon on the north-west of the said Samuel Riggs's cellar, between that and the Rock, and at the same time granted Sergeant Johnson the other half north-west of said cellar." This fixes the cellar south-east ofRimmon, and this was the first beginning for the erection of dwellings anywhere in the vicinity of the present village of Seymour.
In 1700 Maj. Ebenezer Johnson and Ens. Samuel Riggs purchased of the Indians a tract of land extending from their land in the vicinity of Pine's Bridge southward so as to join that
eral times as historical, that Milford at first owned the township of Derby, it is proper to say that the first land deeded by the Indians to the Milford Company ex- tended only so far north as to the mouth of Two-Mile brook, which is about a mile below Derby Narrows. Ten years after the organization of the town of Derby, Milford purchased one piece of land of the Indians, lying north of the Derby and New Haven road, and in 1700, another north of the first, and in 1702, another north of the second, extending to the Waterbury line, but each of these joined the township of Derby on the east, as may be seen by the reading in the history of " Seymour and Vicinity," page 6, second edition, and were never any part of Derby territory. The Paugassett Company paid taxes, the first three years that they paid any, direct to the New Haven Company, and after that, thirteen years to Milford, and they attended and supported the church at Milford, but all the doings of the plantation, with the above exceptions, were independent of Milford from first to last, and Milford never pretended to own or be in possession of any territory that ever was claimed by Paugassett or Derby.
1
447
FIRST SETTLERS.
of David Wooster, on the west side of Naugatuck river, and neeting also Tobie's land on the north."6
When Maj. Ebenezer Johnson and Ens. Samuel Riggs divided their land at Pine's Bridge in 1708, Ensign Riggs accepted that which lay west of the Naugatuck river and south of the brook that enters that river from the west near the bridge, including the "two islands at the mouth of that brook;" and Major John- son accepted "the land on the east side of said river and on the north side of said brook, with a road six rod wide running up- wards by said brook until it come to Tobie Indian's land." It was this land, called by Col. Ebenezer Johnson (for he was then colonel) "my farm at Rimmon," that he divided equally to his son's Timothy and Charles Johnson in 1721. It was also two hundred acres of this land west of the river, that Ens. Samuel Riggs gave to his son Ebenezer Riggs in " December, 1708, with houses and all appurtenances thereunto pertaining," and on which this son settled soon after, and where he died in 1712 or 13, a young man, thirty-one years of age. It is most proba- ble that some of the children of Maj. Ebenezer Johnson settled in this vicinity about the same time Ebenezer Riggs did. They may have settled first south-east of Rimmon, and so far south-east as to be on the Skokorat road where Bennajah John- son afterwards resided, he being heir to the property of both Jeremiah and Maj. Ebenezer Johnson, for his mother was the eldest daughter of the latter, but probably not so far from the Rock.
It is also recorded that in 1684 " Jeremiah Johnson, jun., was granted a home lot containing four acres, in the Scraping-hole plain," and that John Tibbals was granted a pasture "on both sides of Beaver brook below Scraping-hole plain."
In 1731 the town purchased "all that tract of land known by the name of the Indian Hill, in Derby, situate on the east side of Naugatuck river, near the place called the Falls ; all that land that lieth eastward, northward and southward, except the plain that lieth near the Falls up to the foot of the hill." The deed of this land was not given by Chuse, but by John Cookson, John Howd and other Indians, which is proof that Chuse was
6On page 96 of this book the deed says this land was bounded westward with Naugatuck river : it should read eastward.
448
HISTORY OF DERBY.
not here, nor in possession of this land at that time, nor was he in such relations to the owners of this land as to make it im- portant that he should sign the deed, and therefore it may be inferred, as is the case in the Indian History of this work, that he belonged to a family of the Pootatucks, and that it was some years after this that he was elected sachem and became the es- tablished governor of the Indians collected at this place. In the Historical Collections we are told that " At the time Chuse removed here there were but one or two white families in the place, who had settled on Indian Hill; " and it is quite certain the whites did not build on the land until after they had pur- chased it. And since, as we are informed by the authority just referred to, he resided here forty-eight7 years, and was residing at Scaticook in 1783,8 he must have settled here in 1738 (or only a short time before), the same year that the Indian settlement was commenced in Kent. Chuse "erected his wigwam about six or eight rods north of where the cotton factory now stands, [1836] on the south border of the flat. It was beautifully situ- ated among the white oak trees, and faced the south. He mar- ried an Indian woman of the East Haven tribe."9 His wife's name was Anna, concerning whom the Rev. Daniel Humphreys made the following record : "September 12, 1779, then Ann Chuse was admitted to communion with the Church of Christ." The Rev. Martin Tullar recorded her name in 1787, “ Anna Mawheu," and at the same time he recorded Chuse's name " Joseph Mawheu," as having been a member of the church up to the time of his removal, but when he first joined is not known. In the "Indian History " of this work the name as re- corded on the town records was followed, which is " Mauwee" only, but finding since that time on the church records the name "Mawheu," it may be properly concluded that the name in full was Mauweeheu. .
In 1780 the town. appointed Capt. Bradford Steele and Mr. Gideon Johnson a committee with full power " to take care of the Indian lands in Derby, and let out the same to the best advan- tage for the support of said Indians, and to take care that there
THist. Col. 200.
8De Forest, 417.
9Barber's Hist. Col. 199.
INDIANS' LAND. 449
be no waste made on said land and to render an account of their doings to the town." This opens the way for the supposition that Chuse had already removed to Scaticook, but does not make it certain.
John Howd appears to have been the successor in office to Chuse, as indicated by the signing of deeds, and the following record : " Whereas the Assembly held on the 2d of May, 1810, authorized Joseph Riggs of Derby to sell certain lands, the property of Philip, Moses, Hester, Frank and Mary Seymour, . Indians ; lands which descended to them from John Howd an Indian," therefore the lands were sold by Lewis Prindle and Betsey Prindle, agents in place of Joseph Riggs, in behalf of these Indians, and two years later some part of this land was sold to Col. David Humphreys, and another piece, at the same time to Mrs. Phebe Stiles. This John Howd, Indian, should not be taken for the prominent white citizen some years before, by the same name, and after whom most probably this Indian was named.
At the time the Indian Hill was purchased by the town there were probably some families residing on Little river within two miles of the Falls on the Naugatuck. In August, 1747, "George Abbott of Derby sold to Stephen Perkins of New Haven a saw-mill, grist-mill and dwelling house on Little river, above the Falls."
In 1760 the town granted " to James Pritchard the liberty of the stream of the Little river from its mouth up against the dwelling of said Fairchild to erect and keep in repair a corn- mill or mills."
For more than sixteen years the water power of the Little river was utilized in mills of various kinds, within a short dis- tance of the much greater power which might have been secured on the Naugatuck, but the effort to use the latter seemed too great to be undertaken. On the 4th day of October, 1763, Ebenezer Keeney, John Wooster and Joseph Hull, jun., of Derby, purchased of the Indians, one acre of land, including the Falls on the Naugatuck river, and one acre and a half for a road through the Indians' land to the Falls. This deed, which was given for only this small portion of the Indians' reservation, was signed by Joseph Chuse and John Howd, the chief men of
57
450
HISTORY OF DERBY.
the little tribe. On this land were erected by this company two fulling-mills, a clothier's shop and a saw-mill, before 1803; probably only one fulling-mill was standing there, at first, for some years.
In 1785 John Wooster and Bradford Steele, leased for 999 years, for fifteen pounds, "a certain spot or privilege at a place called Rimmon Falls upon the east side of Naugatuck river, a certain plot of ground to erect a blacksmith-shop, or hammers , to go by water, for the purpose of scythe making or other black- smith work, containing thirty feet of land in front, next to the flume, together with the privilege of setting up grind- stones or other work necessary for said work."
The next manufacturing enterprise, apparently, was erected on Bladen's brook, nearly one mile east of the Falls. Thaddeus Hine of Derby sold to Titus Hall Beach of the same town in 1799, "one certain piece of land lying in said Derby on each side of Bladen Brook, so called, containing half an acre on the north side of the middle of said Brook." Upon this land Mr. Beach erected a fulling-mill, and in 1801 sold it and removed to Paterson, N. J. This fulling-mill stood on the site of Mr. Sharon Y. Beach's present paper-mill, at what is called Blue street.
Soon after the building of the blacksmith shop and scythe manufactory at the Falls, religious services began to be held in this community. The first church in the place was organized about the time of the following record : "Derby, Nov. 3, 1789. This may certify all whom it may concern, that the subscribers have joined and paid towards the support of the Gospel as the Congregational Society in Derby, near Bladen Brook, and mean for the future to support the Gospel there :10
Capt. Timothy Baldwin, Asahel Johnson, Gideon Johnson, Capt. Bradford Steele, Elisha Steele, Isaac Baldwin, Turrel Whitmore, Amos Hine, Bradford Steele, jun., Medad Keeney,
Trueman Loveland,
Ebenezer Warner,
Leverett Pritchard,
Levi Tomlinson,
John Coe, Ebenezer Beecher Johnson,
Nathan Wheeler,
Bezaleel Peck,
Francis Forque,
Joseph Lines,
10 History of Seymour, 21.
-
451
FIRST CHURCH.
Hezekiah Woodin, John Adee, Ashbel Loveland,
Moses Clark, Philo Hinman, Thomas Hotchkiss.
In furthering the work of establishing a church in this place i deed of land was given according to the following record, by Isaac Johnson : "For and in consideration of Mr. Benjamin Beach of North Haven coming and settling in the Gospel minis- ry in the Congregational or Independent church in the third school district in the town of Derby, do give unto the said Ben- jamin Beach and to his heirs and assigns forever, one acre of land lying a little east of the meeting-house in said district, . . being bound north on highway, east, south and west on my own land. November 25, 1789." The house Mr. Beach built on this land is still standing, a little east of the Methodist church, and is owned by Mr. Charles Hyde. In 1791 Mr. Beach bought an acre and a half of Mr. Johnson, "lying east and south " of the first, and in 1799 he bought seventeen acres for $333, at a place called " Success Hill," which he sold in 1810 to John Swift for $686.06, when he (Mr. Beach) is said to be of Cornwall. Mr. Beach is said to have preached here two years before moving his family here, which is very probable since the meeting-house was standing when this land was given him ; and it is said to have been built for him to preach in, and in those days such a work could not be done in much less time than two years. The inhabitants were then (1789, soon after the Revolutionary war) residing near the church, in the valley east of Indian Hill, up Bladen's brook, on Skokarat road, at and below Pine's Bridge, on Little river, and a few families on the west side and others on the east side of the Naugatuck, a little distance below the Falls. Such was the situation in 1789, except that the Indians, few in number, were occupying their huts on the plain near the fulling-mills. There may have been a house or two at this time standing on the land belonging to the mill company. For fourteen years after this the enterprise of the place was manifest in clearing away the forests and improving the mill property in the vicinity, until Col. David Humphreys purchased in 1803 the fulling-mills, when everything took on the form of new life. Already (in 1794) the Oxford turnpike had been constructed above the Falls, and there was
452
HISTORY OF DERBY.
much interest in connecting the Falls Bridge with that turnpike and making another turnpike to Derby Landing, and the spirit of progress was running high, just as it did forty-five years later, when the railroad was built.
Col. Humphreys brought his merino sheep (an account of which may be seen in the biography of him) into the town of Derby in 1802, but did not proceed at once to erect the woolen mill. He continued the dressing of cloth in the mills in the usual manner of that day, but a fulling-mill or carding mill was not a spinning and weaving mill of later days ; the spinning and weaving were done at the homes of the inhabitants throughout the community. The first wool from his sheep was thus spun and woven, and then dressed at his mills. Col. Humphreys's plans were philanthropic and enterprising to a high degree for his time, but he had not the mechanical skill to run a loom or set up a spindle for the manufacture of woolen cloths ; all this was executed by others.
When Col. David Humphreys was on his last visit to England, he was greatly interested in the manufactures of that country and was anxious to introduce them into the United States. At this period he became acquainted with Mr. John Winterbotham, who was then a manufacturer of woolen cloths in the vicinity of Manchester, where he had inherited the business and property of an uncle, after he had been educated to the business and become master of it in all its branches. Arrangements were made by which Mr. Winterbotham was to settle his affairs in England and join the manufacturing enterprise commencing, or about to commence, by a company under the name of T. Vose & Company at Humphreysville, which arrangement he fulfilled and took his place as a junior partner in the firm, and was given the entire charge of the manufacturing department. The other partners were Colonel Humphreys and Capt. T. Vose, neither of whom had any knowledge of the manufacturing business.
Perhaps no person could have been found more capable of filling this arduous position than Mr. Winterbotham. He was in the prime of life, vigorous in mind and in body, and of well tried executive ability,-a man to meet and conquer difficulties with unflinching perseverance. These qualities he devoted entirely to the management of the factory, allowing himself no amuse-
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453
HUMPHREYSVILLE.
ments except two or three days shooting in the season when the birds were plentiful, a short bathing season with his family in New Haven once a year, and a ride on horseback now and then. It was a rare thing if he spent an evening away from home, or permitted one to pass without reading aloud to his family. His memory was remarkable ; he being able to communicate, at any time, whatever he desired, from books he had read. In all re- spects he was a plain, outspoken man, simple in his habits, almost austere in the performance of his duties, and so opposed to show and all sorts of pretensions, that he sometimes fell into the opposite extreme and was severe in his scorn of both.
Of Humphreysville and various personages residing there while Colonel Humphreys was living, Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, daughter of Mr. Winterbotham, thus writes in answer to some questions asked by the authors of this work :
" Two nephews of Colonel Humphreys represented him in the manufacturing business, and may have had considerable interest therein. The younger, William Humphreys-a fine young man as I first remember him-was the head of the count- ing-house, and, I think, cashier. The other, John, must have been a lawyer, for he was known as Judge Humphreys, and lived in one of the best houses in the neighborhood, a square white building that stands now on Falls hill, where the road that leads to Bungy crosses the highway. Judge Humphreys and his wife, an elegant, handsome lady, were great favorites with the Colonel, and were generally looked up to in the neighbor- hood as superior persons. He was one of the finest looking and most dignified men that I remember. Indeed, the whole Humphreys family were remarkable for great personal beauty, both in that and the next generation. Two of Judge John's daughters, Mrs. Canfield and Mrs. Pease, were beautiful and elegant women. A son of Mrs. Pease has not only retained the family grace of comeliness, but is now one of the first musical geniuses of the country.
" Mrs. Mills, an aged widow lady, when I remember her, was a sister to Colonel Humphreys and lived in a brown house be- tween Judge Humphreys's dwelling and the church which was then, and is now one of the most conspicuous objects on the hills. She married in her old age Chipman Swift, Esq., father
454
HISTORY OF DERBY.
of the Rev. Zephaniah Swift of Derby, and I remember seeing her at the Colonel's rooms during the wedding festivities in her bridal dress, a silver-gray pongee silk, trimmed to the knees with narrow rows of black velvet ribbon, while her soft, gray hair was surmounted by a lace cap brightened with pink ribbons.
" My own first recollections of Humphreysville, or indeed of anything in life, was a low-roofed two-story, or story and a half house in Shrub Oak, about a mile from the factory flats, on the western side of the Naugatuck. This house had a large garden at the back, in which were currant bushes and some peach trees, a front door-yard, shaded by maple trees, in which were lilac bushes and cinnamon roses. This, so far as I know, was the first residence of my parents in this country. It is, I suppose, now standing almost directly opposite a large, wooden residence built by Walter French. From our house, perhaps a quarter of a mile up the road, two other dwellings were in sight, a white house, whose occupants I do not recollect, and a red farm house, lifted from the road by a rise of ground and backed by a fine old orchard. This was called the Pritchard farm, and was owned by a family of that name with which our household became very intimate. On the other side of the way was a stream that emptied into the Naugatuck a mile below. Just opposite the farm, it gathered into a water-power of sufficient volume to drive a rude saw-mill which gave its lively music to the whole neigh- borhood. Turning back, half way below this dam and the French mansion, stood a red school-house close to the road. In front was a young apple-tree, and the back windows looked into a small pasture lot in which a tall pear tree stood, a per- petual temptation ; for the scholars could hear the ripe fruit rustle through the leaves and fall upon the grass where they were forbidden even to search for it. In this red school-house I learned the alphabet, at so tender an age that it all seems like a dream. Abby Punderson, a maiden lady, taught me from Webster's spelling book, bound in wood covered with bright blue paper.
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