USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > The history of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 > Part 21
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Town Meeting, November 11, 1806: Voted that to a former law or vote passed in this Town in November last respecting Geese the same penalty and restriction be added to restrain Turkies and that they be proceeded with accordingly.
With so many animals at large together in our streets the question of individual ownership was a very pressing one. Owner- ship was determined primarily by branding, and in the original title to the town given by the General Assembly in May 1719, a special brand, the figure 9, was assigned to Litchfield. But in . addition each individual had his or her separate brand. Charles Shepherd Phelps, in his charming Rural Life in Litchfield County, published by the Litchfield County University Club, 1917, gives a number of these brands, thus: "A cross on the off ear taken out". "As the marks on record increased", (p. 21), "the style of the mark- ing became more complicated, as, a cross cut on the off ear and a slit in the cross of the near ear and a slit in the under side of the near ear.
"The taking of stray animals, and their impounding and sale when not claimed by the owner, was also common, as shown by the following, copied from the Litchfield town records: Two red yearlen heffers marked with a cross in the off ear and one black yearlen heffer with some white upon the rump, white under bolly and sum white upon the inside of the hind leggs-also marked with a cross in the off ear-which heffers are in the custody of Thomas Lee and have been prized by his desire on the 27th day of November last by us, by the sum of three pounds and fifteen shillings, by us John Baldwin, Joseph Bixy. The above named heffers are put upon record this fifth day of December Anno Domini 1723",
A good many advertisements of strayed cattle are given in the early Monitors, sometimes with curious identification marks, of which the following is a sample, (Monitor, November 14, 1796) : "Strayed from the subscriber some time in July last, a yearling Steer, marked with a swallow tail in the off ear, two half pennies the under side of the near ear, and a slit in the end of the same; of a red colour, white face, red hair round his eyes. Whoever will take up said steer and give information thereof, shall be well rewarded by David Beach". The etymology of the word car-marks is sufficiently apparent here.
Litchfield has always been a good dairying country, and the amount of live stock has probably been large from the earliest days. The only mention of the purchase of any stock in the town records, is the appropriation on January 1, 1722, of 30 shillings advanced by the Town towards obtaining three bulls for the Town use. Morris, p. 90, says that there were shorn in this town in May and June 1811, 6,784 sheep.
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The end of the Common and the beginning of Litchfield's Park system dates from about 1820. The buildings were taken out of the Green about the same time, the last one to go being the second Congregational church, which was taken down in 1827, the year after the departure of Lyman Beecher. Although the alder swamps had probably been drained considerably before this date, the center of the streets were still unsightly, full of loose stone and brush, together with the little mounds with whortleberry bushes which Oliver Wolcott Jr. said the truants from school hid behind. About 1820, the citizens got permission to enclose the center of Meeting House Street, in connection with some of the tree planting which was then becoming popular, and the day of the public pasture gradu- ally came to a close. At first many ludicrous and stormy scenes and wordy battles occurred when the haywards attempted to confine the trespassing cattle, but changes come quickly and by the time the Parks were more formally laid out, say 1835, the old Commons was already almost forgotten.
Turning to the wild animals, we read in Morris, p. 88, "Many years after the settlement of this town, deer, bears, and wild tur- keys, were numerous. Deer and bears have been taken by hunters between the years 1760 and 1770, and turkeys at a later period. Wild-cats occasionally visit us, and destroy sheep and lambs. A small tract near the north-east part of this town is rough and ledgy, and affords them a refuge from hunters and their dogs. Con- siderable mischief was done by them in the winters of 1811 and 1812".
"There are persons yet living", (Kilbourne, p. 62), "who remem- ber when bears and wolves were hunted in Blue Swamp, and deer and wild turkeys were frequently seen within two miles of the Court House; when Indians, in companies of twenty or thirty, were accustomed to make their annual visits to this town, encamping on Pine Island, or along the Lake-shore, the men employing themselves in hunting and fishing, while the squaws made and peddled baskets and brooms. Foxes, minks, musk-rats, rabbits, woodchucks and raccoons are now frequenty trapped within the limits of this town- ship".
Bounties were offered in the earliest days of the settlement for killing wolves and rattlesnakes. Thus, at a Town Meeting, May 16, 1740, we find "Voted, that whosoever shall kill and distroy any rattlesnakes within the bounds of the Town any time before the 10th day of December next, bringing the tayl and som of the flesh to any one of the Select men of the Town shall have three pence for each snake". We do not, however, find any appropriations made of town funds for the payment of these bounties, and the catch was probably small. To-day, it is said that no Rattlers exist between the Naugatuck and Housatonic Rivers, though they are said to be found on the further side of both those rivers on rare occa- sions. However, one fine haul of snakes is reported in the Monitor, December 3, 1787, "A few days since, in this town, upwards
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of Three Hundred and Forty Snakes of every species excepting the rattle, were found sheltered under a meadow bog; where, it is supposed, they had taken up winter quarters".
The only mention of wolves in the Monitor occurs in 1806, when four are reported to have been killed in Norfolk, very probably these were the last in the County. The residence of Bertram Lewis, at the foot of Brush Hill, is known as Wolf Pit Farm, the Wolf Pit having at one time been made there by Captain Joseph Vaill, who built this, the oldest house in the township (now much remodeled), in 1744. Miss Alice Bulkeley, Historic Litchfield, 1907, p. 12, describes the construction as "simple, but effective; an exca- vation in the ground was surmounted by heavy logs so arranged that they would fall upon and crush a wolf when it tugged at the bait fastened at a figure 4 trap underneath".
Regarding bears, the tradition is that the last one was killed long ago after being treed into the big oak back of the residence of John P. Elton on North Street, which itself is supposed to be the last survivor of the primeval forest remaining within the borough limits. Amos Benton, the father of Horatio Benton, used to tell that in 1774, when he was three years old, a bear passed but a few rods from him while he was playing near the brook by his home. The alarm was given and his father and some of the neighbors started in pursuit, but did not succeed in killing it.
The only animal which, after being locally exterminated, has returned to us is the deer. "Captain Salmon Buel, now in his ninety second year", wrote Kilbourne in 1859, "has seen wild deer in the swamp between his residence and the village". For about a hundred years no deer were seen; they were protected for ten years previous to 1917, throughout the state, and returned in con- siderable numbers, presumably from the Adirondacks, wintering suc- cessfully in our swamps.
"The fish in our waters are various", Morris, p. 88, "In the Great, Little and Cranberry Ponds, and their tributary streams, no trout have ever been taken. The fish in these waters are eels, perch, roach, suckers, shiners, red-fins, and bull-heads or cat-fish. In the winter of 1809, twenty eight pickerel were taken in a pond in Southwick, near Granby, transported in casks of water by sleighs, and put into the Cranberry Pond. Their progeny now begin to be taken in considerable numbers. What effect they will have in destroying the former occupants, remains to be proved. Probably the shiners, red-fins, and smaller perch will many of them be destroyed; yet it is thought that the pickerel will be a valuable acquisition".
A previous experiment with pickerel was authorized in April 1779, when Capt. John Marsh was granted by the Town the exclu- sive Pickerel Fishing rights in the Loon or Cranberry Pond, "pro- vided he shall at his own expense procure pickerel to breed and propagate therein in a reasonable time". It seems however that
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no advantage was taken of this privilege. How successful the pickerel have been since 1809 needs no comment. They were for a long time the great fish of Bantam Lake, being known as Bantam Shad. More recently black bass were put into the Lake, and are now the chief aim of the fishermen. Other fish have been put into our waters on several occasions, the latest experiment being the salmon trout in 1919 by the Connecticut Fish Commission.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SOUTH FARMS, MILTON, NORTHFIELD AND BANTAM.
Until 1859, the present township of Morris formed an integral part of Litchfield, and was an important factor in our population and acreage. In 1810, its population was 1,238, probably the largest figure it attained. When the towns were divided, the population is estimated at 675.
The early history of this parish has been well told by Wood- ruff, pp. 53-55: "In May 1740, the Inhabitants of South Farms peti- tioned the Legislature, to be annexed to the north Society of Wood- bury, now Bethlehem. A committee of the Town of Litchfield was appointed to oppose it, and the application was unsuccessful. Sev- eral attempts were made to procure their incorporation as an Ecclesi- astical Society, which did not succeed till 1767, when an act of the Legislature for that purpose was passed. In 1753, there were but 30 families in the parish; when it was incorporated it con- tained 70.
"But the Legislature long before that time granted the Inhabi- tants power to maintain the public worship of God among them for three months during the winter, and this right was called the 'Winter Privilege'. They thereupon exercised the ordinary powers of an Ecclesiastical Society. Their first meeting for such purposes was holden on the 23d Nov. 1748, at the house of Capt. Thomas Har- rison ... and Public Worship was held in different sections, at the School and Private Houses. The first School House was voted to be built in 1747. Twenty pounds was given from the Town Treasury for that purpose".
There are two Cemeteries in the limits of the South Farms parish. The older, for which liberty was granted in 1747, is now known as the Morris Cemetery, and lies on a hill, with slope to the southwards. Some of the graves near the road are marked by very old stones, many well-nigh illegible. The first person buried in this grave-yard was James Stoddard, who was killed at the raising of a dwelling in March 1749. In connection with the funerals at this Burying Ground, a vote of the Society, passed March 14, 1759, survives, which is one of the most singular examples of old orthography in any of our records. This was, "to pay Charles Woodruff six shillings for ye Bears to carry ye Dead".
The second Cemetery was authorized in 1776, in Footville or West Morris. "The sanctity of burial places", Woodruff, p. 54, "seems not to have been very highly regarded"; for the deed from Thomas Waugh of the land to be used specifies that "said Thomas
MORRIS WOODRUFF
RESIDENCE OF HORATIO BENTON, SOUTH FARMS
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Waugh his heirs and assigns shall have good right forever to enclose said Burying Yard, and use it for pasturing, provided, he or they shall keep up and maintain convenient bars for the people to pass and repass, for the purpose of burying their dead".
"In the year 1764", Morris, p. 104, "the inhabitants agreed to build their first church. It was only one story high, 34 feet by 32". The original vote of the Society authorizing this church gives slightly smaller proportions, as follows: "25 by 35 ft. with 9 ft. posts provided Justice Gibbs will do it by Dec. 1st, for seventy pounds ten shillings, plank body, clapboards on the outside, 10 win- dows of 24 panes 6 by 8 inches, floor well lined, sealed with pine, one doar. point the cracks between the planks with clay, decent pulpit, one-half to be paid in proc. bills ( ?), and one-half in specie". Later voted "A Quchion" and later "two pairs of stairs and foarms were built in the gallery".
"The greatest puzzle", Morris Herald, September, 1899, "was the gallery in a church with posts only 9 feet high. Probably the space under the roof was included in the room and the gallery was at the end, with the gallery floor dropped a little below the plates".
A second church, more suitable in size to the needs of the grow- ing community and to use all the year, instead of for the winter privileges only, was planned as early as 1774, but the War pre- vented its construction until 1785. It was a more pretentious structure than most churches of that day. The main entrance was a high double door over which was a large carved pine apple and other carved work. (Morris Herald, January, 1900). "Over the pulpit was the inevitable sounding board, described as a Turkish minaret, surmounted by a scarlet tulip. On each panel of the base of the sounding board was a carved bunch of grapes, and on the front of the pulpit, which was over six feet in height, were five rows, three bunches each, of carved bunches of grapes, a bright purple in color and two grape leaves to each bunch, of natural size. On wood work behind the pulpit were two narrow green stripes, surmounted by scarlet tulips. There was but one stairway for the pulpit, on the left side, while down in front of the pulpit was the deacons' seat. The seats were arranged on three sides of the square pews, so that one third of the people would sit back to
the minister. In the early days the people were seated according to social position, which was determined by wealth chiefly. This custom provoked jealousies and, in 1827, it was voted that the congregation should be 'seated by age without regard to list' ... In a great gale of wind in 1822, the steeple was blown down and the bell broken. In 1824, a stove was for the first time set up in the church. ... The church stood in an exposed spot and in spite of the stoves in severe weather it was impossible to heat the church. and it was taken down in 1844 and the present Church took its place. When it was torn down, Dibble Smith, an intense Uni- versalist. obtained the old pulpit and took a part of it to the match
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shop located where the Waterbury Reservoir now is and had it made into matches. He said they ought to burn well, for the pulpit must be well seasoned by the brimstone theology preached in it".
The Rev. David Lewis Parmelee was the pastor in South Farms from 1841 until after the parish had become a separate town- ship, and he was largely instrumental in having the third church built. He was greatly interested in the parish, and was the largest subscriber to the church, and gave the sum of $1,000. for the con- struction of an adjoining chapel. He was very strict in the observ- ance of the Sabbath, and used to feed his horse on Saturdays to last over the day. South Farms has been fortunate in having such leaders as he was, and still more in James Morris of the Morris Academy.
Under the direction of the latter, the first Library in the town of Litchfield was founded in South Farms in 1785. "In the year 1791, a constitution was formed; and the proprietors became more numerous. The library consists of between 300 and 400 volumes of well-chosen books, of ancient and modern history and divinity" (Morris, p. 106).
A debating society, formed in 1842, should also be mentioned. This was the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Society of South Farms for Moral and Intellectual Improvement. It had a large membership, and had an active but short existence of six years. Among the subjects debated, we find the following: "Has the introduction of manufacturing establishments into our country as a whole been injurious to public morals?" This was decided in the affirmative. "Is matrimony more conducive to happiness than celibacy?" This also was answered in the affirmative. The last subject recorded is: "Is the credit system beneficial to the community?" This seems to have been too much for the society, which never met again.
THE MORRIS ACADEMY.
In addition to the Law School and Miss Pierce's Academy, there was within the then limits of the town a third educational institution, more modest in its scope, yet which achieved important results. This was the Academy of James Morris in South Farms. He was born January 19, 1752. He himself has told us of its scope in the Statistical Account, written in 1812-4, (p. 105) : "An Academy was begun in South-Farms, in the year 1790; in which are taught the Latin and Greek languages, English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, rhetoric, logic, and moral philosophy. Sev- eral gentlemen within the parish and in the town of Litchfield built the house by subscription, at the expense of $1,400. More than 1,400 scholars, of both sexes, have been members of this school. More than 60 of these have entered Yale and other colleges. The school still continues. It was originally instituted for the purpose of
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improving the manners and morals of youths, and of attracting their attention from frivolity and dissipation".
The achievement of the results here so modestly described was not an easy one. To build up in the conditions then prevailing, as we shall see, in South Farms, an educational center capable of influencing the entire community and of sending out graduates with the ideals of John Pierpont, John Brown of Osawatomie, Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and at least two of the sons of Lyman Beecher, was a work requiring a remarkable personality in its founder, and there is no question that Mr. Morris was a remarkable and splendid man.
We are fortunate in that he left a narrative in manuscript, extracts from which have been printed in Morris Herald (March 1900), in the Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, (Vol. III., 1878, part 2, pp. 172-4), and in Johnston's Yale in the Revolu- tion, (pp. 74-77 and 138).
The extracts which have been printed are chiefly concerned with his services in the Revolution. He served from 1776 to the end of the war, with rank of Captain. He was a prisoner for over three years after the battle of Germantown, the experiences which he narrates being of much interest. We must, however, confine our- selves to a few quotations telling of his early life in South Farms and the starting of his life work. He began his Memoirs with these words: "In looking back to my early childhood I can well recollect that I was very much attached to my book ... In my youthful days I had an ardent desire to have a public education and my ultimate desire was to be a minister, but being the only son of my father he could not brook the idea of my leaving him for that purpose. He meant that I should be his earthly prop".
When he was eighteen his father acceded to his wishes for an education in so far as to say "that if I would go and sled home a certain quantity of wood that he had drawn off a piece of fallow ground the preceding summer I might go and try what I could do in the study of Latin. I then exerted myself, and in about a fortnight I had sledded home sixty loads of wood and loaded and unloaded the same". He then went and spent the winter with the minister in an adjoining town, tutoring especially in Latin. In the spring of 1770 he was called home to study under the minister in South Farms: "But", he says, "I made little progress, for every day I was interrupted; it was constantly said, James, you must go and bring some wood, you must get some oven wood and split it fine, you must go and bring up the old mare, your mother wants to ride out, you must go and fetch the cows, the pigs are in the garden, you must go and get them out". In spite of every difficulty he persevered, entered Yale, graduated in 1775, and began the study of theology. He did not consider himself fitted to be a minister, however, and after his return he and his wife, Elizabeth Hubbard of Middletown, made their home with Mr. and Mrs. Morris, Senior, both of whom were now in failing health. It was a restricted life
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for the young couple. "My parents being advanced in the waning of life chose retirement, my mother especially could not be broken of her rest or be disturbed of her sleep. We often had evening visitors and they would often stay till after nine o'clock, and some noise would be made either in conversation or when they bid me good night and went out of the house. The next morning my mother would complain that she was so disturbed that she did not sleep, and that she could not have it so, that I should send off my company before nine o'clock. Finding my situation growing unpleasant, yet at the same time feeling disposed to do everything in my power to soothe the pillow of age and to render the con- dition of my beloved parents comfortable, I consulted my father on the subject and I informed him that I had it in contemplation to purchase the house and lands where I now live". It was not long before Morris found that he needed more land, but he had not the money to buy it. "But", he says naively, "a kind providence had hitherto always found a way of escape for me when I was either in difficulty or in danger. In June 1789, God was pleased to remove my dear father by death. A considerable sum of money and cattle were placed in my possession by which I was enabled to free myself from debt without any embarrassment. Thus I was prospered in my worldly concerns, though the removal of my father was a grievous stroke to me in the dispensation of providence".
He was much distressed at the condition of the people about
him. "The church in this place was made up of numbers of ignorant, unprincipled and unexemplary men. They voted in church meeting that conversion should be no terms of communion at the Lord's Table, and this society ratified the same vote. Pro- fane swearing and open Sabbath breaking and drunkenness were not uncommon among professors of religion. The young people were clownish, ignorant and uncivil in their recreation and amuse- ments. They consisted chiefly of noisy and jovial mirth.
"The first effort that I made", continues Mr. Morris, "was to attract the attention of the children in the several schools". As an incentive he offered a prize to each of the eight from the several districts who should perform best in a public examination. Taking a continued interest in the school children, he began courses for them after school hours in English grammar and geography. "The young ladies were my first pupils; I took more pains with them in the outsetting in giving counsel than I did to the others because experience had taught me in my travels through the United States that in every town or village where there was a chaste or virtuous set of young ladies there was a decent class of young men".
He met with much opposition at first; people envied him for his position and hated him for his reforms. The opposition increased until in 1794 the Church took up the matter. A council was called and some of the neighboring churches sent delegates. The charge against him was that of disturbing the public peace. One of the witnesses testified that he occasionally walked home at night with
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his young lady pupils. Nevertheless the council acquitted him. After this his school prospered and steadily increased. In 1803 the people of the Society and other friends in Litchfield built him the house which was called the Academy. When the district of South Farms was set off as a separate township in 1859, the residents paid James Morris a deserved tribute in giving his name to the town, and thus honoring the memory of his sturdy character and of all he did for the community and for the world in Morris Academy. The value of his work appears when we contrast the early conditions in the community with the somewhat remarkable intelligence and character of the citizens in the years when the influence of the Academy came to be fully realized. It appears also in the large number of men from other parts of the country who were educated here and have filled important positions in the world. A few of his pupils especially have exerted a wide influence.
John Pierpont was born in South Farms on April 6, 1785. After studying at the Morris Academy, he went to Yale (Class of 1804). He studied law at the Litchfield Law School. He became one of the most distinguished pastors of the Unitarian Church, occupying the pulpit of the Hollis Street Church in Boston from 1819 to 1845. He was also widely known as a poet in those days, and composed the Poem for the Litchfield County Centennial in 1851, which he recited with much effect. He was a vigorous anti- slavery advocate, and carried on the temperance crusade begun by Lyman Beecher. The freedom with which he expressed his opinions regarding the temperance cause led to a bitter controversy. While not strictly pertinent to the history of Litchfield, the following may be quoted as showing something of the spirit of the times:
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