USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 12
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The late Hon. Richard D. Hub- bard, of Hartford, was once a resi- dent of this town, and a student at its academy. He represented the town in the legislature in 1842 and 1843.
Henry Howard Brownell, distinguished as a poet, and especially for his stirring " War Lyrics," written while serving as ensign under Admiral Farragut in his famous naval fights during the late war, was a resident of this town. His brother, Clarence M. Brownell, M.D., died in 1862, while exploring the source of the White Nile.
Anthony Dumond Stanley, son of Martin and Catharine Van Gars- beck Stanley, of this town, was graduated at Yale College in 1830. He was a tutor in that college for four years, and filled with signal ability the Professorship of Mathematics for seventeen years. A man of many brilliant qualities, he won the love and esteem of all who knew him. He died March 16, 1853, at the age of forty-three years.
Denison Olmsted, son of Nathaniel Olmsted, and a native of this town, was also a graduate of Yale College (1813), and was afterward Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in that institution. The text-books of which he was the author were widely used. He died May 13, 1859.
The public-houses of a town are closely connected with its history. They furnish a meeting-place for the dignitaries, and for the populace upon occasions of common interest. In them were held the festive gatherings, the political conferences and primary meetings, and in front of them usually assembled the military subjects to be put through their annual training. The halting-place of stages and of travellers, they were the centres of gossip and intelligence from the outer world, and here the villagers gathered to absorb and carry away the latest informa- tion. Here too, perchance, they paid homage to the occasional distin- guished guest who tarried for the night.
The General Court early recognized the necessities of strangers who "are straightened for want of entertainment," and ordered "ordina- ries " to be kept in the towns by some " sufficient inhabitant."
The first ordinary mentioned (1648) on this side of the river was kept by John Sadler, in Hocka- num, on the country road toward New London.
Phillip Smith
In 1710 Philip Smith was given liberty to keep a public-house, and probably its site was on the
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
meadow hill near the south-ferry road, where storm-bound or flood- delayed passengers would be grateful for its shelter.
Mr. Thomas Olcott was licensed a year later to keep a house of entertainment at Hop Brook, in Manchester.
Benjamin's Tavern was a noted and " newsy " stage-post during the Revolution. It stood on the north corner of Main and Orchard streets.
Later, Woodbridge's (afterward Well's) Tavern, on the east side of Main Street, became the chief hostelry. In 1817 President Monroe lodged here. The President was called upon by General Griswold and most of our first citizens, while outside the drum-and-fife corps of the artillery company made the air throb and thrill with a lively serenade. To his callers the President was very gracious, declaring, among other things, that our street elms were the finest he had seen.
The Phelps Tavern (first established by Richard Goodwin), once standing on the south corner of Mill and Main streets, came into vogue a little later. Here General Lafayette halted with his escort in 1824, and passed through its portal, upon his crutches, for a short rest.
Pitkin's Tavern was maintained for many years on the bank of the Connecticut, near the ferry, where belated travellers might find shelter.
The present hotel in the meadow was once kept by Joseph Pantry Jones, an old captain of our infantry company, and was a popular resort during the field-days of the militia upon the meadows.
Tripp's Tavern, midway on the Bridge Road, with its once famous punches, and the Jacksonian vigor of its politics, is still well remem- bered, though in other hands its ancient character is lost.
Many other public-houses have afforded entertainment to the passing stranger, and places of evening resort to the bibulous or gossipy citizen. Among these was one by Levi Goodwin (about 1800), at the junction of the main streets, south of Gilman's Brook, -all the scenes of old-time gatherings, of stirring interest at the time, but now as remote as the glow of the tavern hearth-fires, which no longer, as of old, warm the genial flip-iron to dissipate the late comer's chill.
foro. O. Goodwin.
IX. EAST WINDSOR.
BY THE REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D.D.
E AST WINDSOR was not incorporated as a separate township until the year 1768 ; but for more than one hundred and thirty years before that date events had been shaping themselves toward its existence. The town of East Windsor existed in embryo from 1630, when a company of people, one hundred and forty in number, organized into a church at Plymouth, England, under the pastoral care of Mr. John Warham and Mr. John Maverick, set sail for the New World. Settling first in Dorchester, Mass., and remaining there six years, the major part of them then removed and planted the town of Windsor, Conn. The territory embraced in this ancient township was some twelve miles square, divided nearly equally by the Connecticut River. The first settlers located themselves on the west bank of the river. But the fields on the eastern side were fair and fertile, and were destined ere long to be occupied ; and so, in due time, the town of East Windsor came into existence.
According to ancient tradition, the first man in Windsor who ven- tured to go over and build his house upon the eastern shore was John Bissell, who is believed to be the ancestor of all persons in this coun- try bearing his family name. Years passed on, and the settlements on the easterly side of the river advanced slowly. Indians abounded in all that region; and though these river Indians were generally friendly and peaceful, yet there were warning signs and tokens which made families fearful about taking up their residence at points remote from the main settlement. Indeed, it was not until after King Philip's War (1675-1676), when the Indian pride was thoroughly humbled, that there was any general movement to occupy the fertile meadows and uplands skirting the eastern banks of the river.
In the year 1680 there went over a family from the western to the eastern side of the river, that proved, in after years, to be one of the utmost importance. This was the household of Simon Wolcott, con- sisting of himself and wife and nine children, of whom the youngest was Roger, then an infant a year old. Simon Wolcott was himself the youngest son of Henry Wolcott, the founder of the Wolcott family upon these shores. There was no man connected with the Windsor plantation of higher family rank and social standing, according to the current English ideas, than Henry Wolcott; and as all the people of the plantation were then fresh over from England, the English ideas of honor were in full force. Simon Wolcott was only five years old at the time of his father's coming to this country, in 1630. He was left
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
behind in England with his two sisters, and these three joined their kindred in Windsor about the year 1640, when Simon must have been fifteen years old. He was first married to Joanna Cook, in March, 1657. She died in the month of April following. The facts connected with his second marriage were romantic and peculiar. In the year 1659 a gentleman of standing and character came over from England and settled in Hartford. His name was William Pitkin. Two years later his sister, Miss Martha Pitkin, came from England to make him a visit, expecting, after a little stay, to return to her own conntry. She was then twenty-two years of age, attractive in her person, of accom- plished manners and fine culture. The wise men and women of the Connecticut plantations put their heads together to contrive a plan by which she might be permanently detained upon these shores. In the superb volume recently published, entitled the " Wolcott Memorial," there are a few sentences on page 53 from the pen of Dr. Thomas Robbins the antiquarian, which tell the story thus : -
" This girl put the colony in commotion. If possible she must be detained ; the stock was too valuable to be parted with. It was a matter of general consul- tation, what young man was good enough to be presented to Miss Pitkin. Simon Wolcott, of Windsor, was fixed upon, and, beyond expectation, succeeded in obtaining her hand."
The youngest of the nine children who were the fruit of this marriage was, as already stated, Roger Wolcott, born Jan. 4, 1679, of whom more will be said later.
By the year 1694 the people living on the east side had become so numerous that they had prevailed (after some previous ineffectual at- tempts) in obtaining leave of the General Court to establish separate worship. This liberty was granted May 10, 1694, in answer to a peti- Samuel Quaint sonor tion signed by forty-four men, inhabitants upon the eastern side of the river. Some of the leading names upon this peti- tion were Nathaniel Bissell, Samuel Grant, Samuel Rockwell, Thomas Stoughton, John Stoughton, Simon Wolcott. Permission being thus given for the establishment of a separate religious society on the Makaron bissia east side of the river, which ter- ritory then went under the gen- eral name of Windsor Farme, the services of the Rev. Timothy Edwards were secured in the November following, and he commenced his labors among this scattered people. Before begin- ning his ministerial work he had been united in marriage, Nov. 6, 1694, to Esther Stod- dard, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, and granddaughter of the Rev. John Warham, the first minister of Windsor. Thus began a ministry which in many respects was one of the most notable in the whole history of New England.
Timothy Edwards was the son of Richard Edwards, of Hartford. He was born May 14, 1669, and was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1691, with a very high rank as a scholar. His father built
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EAST WINDSOR.
for him a dwelling-house which was unusually costly and substantial for that period, and which was standing in the early years of the present century. This house stood less than a mile south of what is known as East Windsor Hill. The families to which Mr. Edwards ministered were scattered upon Timis Edwards. one long winding path a little way back from the Connecticut meadows, which reached from the Hartford town line, four miles below his home, to a nearly equal distance above. This road, which at the first was only a rude bridle-path, was gradually enlarged and improved, as the years passed on, until it came to be known as The Street, - a name which still continues in common use, and which distinguishes this from all other roads in the vicinity.
In times past it has been commonly supposed that a church was organized here in 1694, and that Mr. Edwards was at that time or- dained and set over it as its minister. But later investigations show that Mr. Edwards preached here some years before the organization of the church, and before his own ordination. In the colonial records of Connecticut it is made plain that no church existed here May 14, 1696, two years after Mr. Edwards began to preach, as leave was then given to " the inhabitants of Windsor living upon the east side of the great river . . . with the consent of neighbor churches to embody themselves into church estate." Though the liberty to organize was thus given by the General Court, still there were long delays before the work could be effected. John Alden Stoughton, Esq., in his recent volume entitled " Windsor Farmes," has shown conclusively that Mr. Edwards was not ordained until near the close of May, 1698. Under date of May 28, 1698, he finds in the account-book of Captain Thomas Stoughton " An account of provition laide in at the house of Mr. Edwards for his ordination."
At length the inhabitants of Windsor on the east side of the great river secured their separate parish and church, and the first organic steps were taken looking toward the future existence of a separate town.
The space allotted will not admit of lingering here upon the mi- nute details of Mr. Edwards's ministry, which was extended to more than sixty-three years. That parish developed some remarkable men and many notable events. Some examples in illustration of this fact will more naturally, perhaps, be presented in the historical sketch of South Windsor.
The next movement looking towards separate organization on the east side was the formation of the parish and church in what is now Ellington, in Tolland County. This district constituted the northeast portion of the town of Windsor, and was known as the Great Marsh. The name was probably given in the days of ignorance ; for the terri- tory covered by the town of Ellington is exceedingly fair and grace- ful, spreading out in agreeable curves and attractive landscapes. The carliest settlement upon this territory was not until 1717; but a few years later there was a considerable population gathered there, so far away from Mr. Edwards's church that it was altogether reasonable they should seek to establish separate worship among themselves. This sec- tion of the town was also called Windsor Goshen. As early as 1725 the following vote was passed by Mr. Edwards's parish : "That the
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
inhabitants at the Great Marsh shall be freed from their parts of Mr. Edwards's salary for the year past, provided they do on their own cost provide themselves a minister to preach the gospel to them from this present time till the first day of April next." By the year 1732 this matter came before the General Court. A period of several years inter- vened between the beginning and the end of the movement looking towards the formation of a separate society in Windsor Goshen. The records, if copied in full, might be tedious ; but the result was at last reached. At the October session of the General Court in 1735 the committee reported in favor of the memorialists, and action was taken accordingly.
A few years later there was still another earnest call for division and the creation of a new parish. The territory between the Scantic River on the south and Enfield on the north had so filled with inhab- itants as to make a parish north of the Scantic River quite needful. Accordingly, at the May session of the General Court in 1752, after a full presentation of the case, the following action was taken : -
" Resolved by this Assembly, that the aforesaid Second Society of Windsor [Rev. Mr. Edwards's parish] be, and it is hereby, divided into two distinct ecclesi- astical societies."
Already we have three ecclesiastical parishes on the east side of the river in Windsor, but as yet the ancient town of Windsor is one and unbroken. Moreover, before the Thomas Johngrant town of East Windsor shall be or- ganized there is to be still another formation, of a somewhat peculiar type, - not a parish in full, and destined not to endure as a per- manent organization. The follow- ing extract from the records of the General Court for October, 1761, will show the nature of this move- ment : "Upon the memori- al of Thomas Grant, Joseph Jagpasted man Joniel Skimer. Stedman, John Grant, Daniel Rockwell, Daniel Skinner, Thomas Sadd, Jr., Samuel Smith, and other subscribers thereunto, inhabitants of a place called Wapping, on the east side of the Second Society in Windsor," leave was granted, in
consequence of their Daniel Rockwell distance from the place of worship, that they might be a half- way ecclesiastical par- ish, and for five months in the year might procure preaching among themselves and be exempt from taxation in the old parish during that portion of each year. This Thomas peculiar organization long ago ceased to exist, but may be regarded as a kind of forerunner of the
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EAST WINDSOR.
present Congregational Church in Wapping, which was organized in 1830.
We have, then, the somewhat remarkable fact of four ecclesiastical parishes (or, more strictly, three and a half) existing upon the east side of the Connecticut River within the limits of the ancient town of Windsor, before the town of East Tom & Smith Windsor itself came into being. The long ministry of Mr. Edwards, lasting more than sixty-three years, had ended by his death in 1758. More than one hundred and thirty years had passed since the Dorchester colony took up its abode at Wind- sor, and nearly one hundred and twenty since John Bissell went over and built the first house upon the east side of the Connecticut River. Events moved slowly in that early period.
At length, however, the time was fully ripe, by the consent of all parties, for the division of the ancient town and the formation of a new township embracing all the Windsor territory upon the east side of the river. In the years just before this event there were voters in the town of Windsor who had to make a journey of ten or twelve miles, over the roughest roads, and across a broad river often swollen with floods, to reach the place of voting. When it was fully decided that the town should be divided, the river itself constituted the natural line of separation, and there was no occasion for disputes about boundaries. The following extract from the Colony records shows the action whereby the town of East Windsor was constituted, in 1768 : -
" At a General Assembly of the Governor and Company of the Colony of Connecticut, holden at Hartford on the second Thursday of May, A. D. 1768,
"On the memorial of the inhabitants of the town of Windsor, showing to this Assembly that the memorialists, at their legal town-meeting in December last, agreed to divide the town, and praying that the part of the town on the west side of Connecticut River be and remain the town of Windsor, with ancient privileges of said town ; and that the part of said. town that is on the east side of said river be made and constituted a town ; and that their common stock, money, and poor be divided, etc., according to their agreement at their publick meeting on the third Monday of April, 1768, as per memorial on file,
" It is enacted by the Governor, Council, and Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that that part of said town that is on the east side of Connecticut River be, and they are hereby, made, erected, and constituted within the limits and bounds thereof a distinct town, with all the liberties, privileges, and immunities that other towns by law have and do enjoy, and that said new erected and constituted town be called and known by the name of East Windsor."
The first town-meeting in East Windsor was held July 6, 1768, when Erastus Wolcott was chosen moderator, and Aaron Bissell was chosen town clerk and treasurer.
The new township, though only the fragment of an older one, was itself of large proportions. The towns of Enfield and Somers bounded it upon the north. The eastern boundary line was quite irregular, in some places reaching back from ten to twelve miles eastward from the river. It was bounded on the south by Hartford, which then included the present East Hartford and Manchester. The river was the western
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
boundary. The distance from the Enfield line on the north to the Hartford line on the south was not far from ten miles. . The people at the Great Marsh found their journey to town-meeting easier than when they had to cross the
Grastis Words
Connecticut River ; but it was still a long and toilsome way of seven or eight miles which they had to travel to reach the first parish meeting- In the year 1786 that
house, where the town-meetings were then held. part of the new town was set off and organized into a new township, by the name of
Ellington. The
rest of the terri-
tory remained un-
Metaron Bipelle Sherif Deputy
broken, as the
town of East
Windsor, until the year 1845, when it was divided into the present towns of East Windsor and South Windsor.
Since the organization of the town, in 1768, down to the present time, one hundred and thirteen years, only nine persons have filled
Test Frederick Elsworth Town Park
the office of town clerk : Aaron Bissell, 1768-1786 ; Frederick Ells- worth, 1786-1799 ; Aaron Bissell, Jr., 1799-1825 ; Abner Reed, 1825-
Aaron Bibell Town Clerk
1834; James Moore, 1834-1845 ; David Osborn, 2d, 1845-1854 ; Phineas L. Blodgett, 1854-1867 ; Elbridge K. Leonard, 1867-1874 ; Mahlon H. Bancroft, 1874- .
This record shows an excellent degree of stability in respect to an office which in its very nature ought not to be passing frequently from hand to hand. It will be noticed that the two Aaron Bissells, father and son, filled this office for the long period of forty-four years.
One hundred years ago all public offices, whether town, state, or national, were far more fixed and enduring than at present. The law of rotation did not then prevail as now. It was expected that men, having become thoroughly acquainted with the duties of certain offices, should continue therein from year to year. In old times, in two adjoin- ing towns of Massachusetts, two men who had long represented their respective towns in the General Court happening to meet, the follow- ing conversation ensued. " What is this I hear ?" said one of them.
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EAST WINDSOR.
" They say that you are planning to retire, and not go as representative to the General Court any more." "Yes," was the answer ; " I am get- ting old, and I think some younger man had better take the office now." " Old !" was the rejoinder ; "I am ten years older than you, and I feel just as well able to represent my town at the General Court as ever I did." " Well," said the other, " I am afraid, if I should go ten years more, I should feel just so."
Before entering upon the details of the religious and ecclesiastical history of the town, it may be well to try and recall the condition of things in those years when what is now the First Congregational Church in East Windsor came into being. This carries us back to the middle
11/12
thefun
THE OLD THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF CONNECTICUT,
AT EAST WINDSOR HILL.
of the last century, about one hundred and thirty years. At that time the strength of the population on the east side of the river was in what is now South Windsor. There the settlements began ; there society had become strong and established, while the more northern portions were yet in a half-wild state. The Street, that chief road lying near the banks of the river, had been built upon more or less com- pactly all the way from the Hartford to the Enfield line. Above the Scantic River this street was by no means so fully occupied with dwell- ings as below, though it was far more thickly populated than any other part of the Scantic parish. From this street out to the eastern line of the parish was a distance of six miles or more, and all this territory was as yet but very sparsely populated. When the Scantic meeting- house was built, near where it now stands, it was only a mile and a half from The Street, and yet the dwellers along that thoroughfare complained that it was too far off in the woods. Azel S. Roe, Esq., in his " History of the First Ecclesiastical Society of East Windsor," has given us some graphic pictures showing the primitive state of things in VOL. II .- 8.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
that region about the middle of the last century. Rev. Thomas Potwine was to be ordained in 1754. Mr. Roe says (p. 19) : -
" No building had yet been erected for publie worship, but the people, anxious to have the ministration of the ordinances, and a servant of God as their leader and teacher, procured the use of a private house for that purpose, and the one most appropriate then, on account of its size and capacity for accom- modating a number of people, was that which is now in possession of Mr. Joel Prior, situated in Main Street. The ordination of Mr. Potwine was celebrated under the roof of a barn then newly erected and never as yet used. Of course none are now living (1857) who witnessed that scene, but the account of it the writer has received from an old lady, who very distinctly remembers what her mother told her about it, who was present, and with her babe in her arms. The ceremony was performed upon the barn floor. A table answered for a desk, and benehes made of rough boards, with a few chairs for the more distinguished min- isters, were their seats. Boards were laid across the bays as standing-places for the women and other people, while upon the beams above perched the younger and most elastic."
Until this Scantic parish was organized, all the people in that part of the town attended church at Mr. Edwards's, and buried their dead in the graveyard near his ancient meeting-house. Mr. Roe says (p. 11) :
"One of our oldest inhabitants remembers that at the death of a young lady, whose relatives had been buried in the old cemetery on East Windsor Hill, the corpse was carried from the house he now occupies in Ireland Street, upon the shoulders of the bearers to the place of interment, a distance of seven miles, several sets of bearers relieving each other."
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