USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 19
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The following purchased house-lots of the original owners, and became permanent settlers, the most of whom were also from Hart- ford : -
Robert Porter, died in 1689 ; John North, died in 1692 ; John Steele, Jr., died in 1653 ; Samnel Steele, removed to Wethersfield, and died in 1685 ; John Hart, burnt in 1666, with all his family except the oldest son, who was absent ; Nathaniel Kellogg, soon died ; Matthew Woodruff, soon died, or removed per- haps to Milford ; Thomas Thomson, died in 1655 ; John Andrews, died in 1681 ; John Lee, died in 1690; William Adams, died in 1653; John Clark, died in 1712 ; Samuel Cowles, died in 1691; Moses Ventrus, died in 1697 ; William Ventrus, removed to Haddam ; Robert Wilson, died in 1655 ; John Wiatt, re- moved to Haddam ; John Standley, died in 1706; Joseph Kellogg; Deacon John Langdon, died in 1689 ; Thomas Hosmer, returned to Hartford ; William Smith, died in 1669; Thomas Newell, died in 1689 ; David Carpenter, died in 1650.
The other early settlers were Thomas Hancox, in Kensington ; John Root, died in 1684 ; Mr. Simon Wrothum, died in 1689; Edmund Scott, removed to Waterbury ; Dr. Daniel Porter, died in 1690; Mr. John Wadsworth, died in 1689 ; Thomas Orton ; James Bird, died in 1708; Joseph Bird, died in 1695; the Rev. Samuel Hooker, died in 1697 ; Mr. Anthony Howkins, died in 1673 ; Richard Jones, removed to Haddam ; William Corbe, removed to Haddam ; Jo- seph Woodford, died in 1701 ; Zach. Seymor, removed to Wethersfield ; Richard Seymor, went to Great Swamp or Kensington with others in 1686 ; Thomas Bull, died in 1708; John Norton ; Abraham Dibble, removed to Haddam ; Richard Jones, removed to Haddam ; Richard Weller ; John Carrington, removed to Waterbury ; Thomas Gridley, died in 1712; Samuel Gridley, died in 1696 ; Obadiah Richards, removed to Waterbury ; Thomas Richardson, removed to Waterbury ; John Scovill, removed to Haddam ; John Welton, removed to Water- terbury ; John Rew, died in 1717 ; John Blackleach, merchant ; Joseph Hawley, died in 1753.
The eighty-four proprietors consisted of such of the above as re- sided in the town in 1672, or their sons, together with three non-resident owners ; namely, Mr. Newton, Mr. Haynes, and Mr. Wyllys. With but few exceptions, as has already been stated, the inhabitants were con- fined to the village. A few daring spirits, however, were attracted by the meadows on the Mattabesett, and about 1680 commenced a
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settlement at the Great Swamp under the guidance of Richard Seamor. From this beginning this society of Kensington originated in 1705, and subsequently that of New Britain, 1754, and still later the parish of Worthington, 1772. These parishes, with some additional territory, were constituted the township of Berlin in 1785. In 1850 New Britain became a town, and in 1872 a city. In 1673 the narrow intervals upon the Naugatuck determined an emigration to what afterward became the town and subsequently the city of Waterbury. Here and there a more bold and enterprising spirit fixed his dwelling at some distance from the village. As we have said, during this period the inhabitants by degrees became more numerous, but with the exception of the colony near " the Scamor-fort," and two or three houses on the northern bor- ders of the great plain, they were as yet scattered for two miles or more along the village street. The upland near their dwellings had been slowly cleared and the forest still lingered in sight along the foot of the mountain. The western woods were yet an unbroken wilderness, save the opening which had been made by the Indians as they retreated in 1672 to their reservation west of the meadows, and rallied around a new burying-place for their dead. On the south was " the white oak plain," still unsubdued, and "the great plain " was thickly crowded with its growth of birches and tangled shrub-oaks. It was not till 1695 that a highway was laid through this district of the town. The meadows still furnished our fathers their grass for the long winter, and the corn for the Indian pudding, their favorite dish. From the upland and the drier portions of the meadow they harvested their wheat and rye and peasc. The meadow remained a common field, enclosed by a sufficient fence, and shut during the growing of the crops against the intrusion of cattle. The regulation of this property constituted the principal business of the town-meetings. The river furnished to the English and the natives its overflowing abundance of shad and salmon, and the west woods abounded in deer, wolves, and panthers.
In the forest up the mountain, and especially in the interval between the first and second range, was their common place of pasturage, and this portion of the town was long reserved for that use. The meeting- house lot was as yet a noble common of several acres. A canoe with ropes was furnished at the north end of the street, by which the river was crossed, as it was not until 1725 that the first bridge was erected at this place. At the annual town-meeting no man might be absent who valued his twelvepence. Then were chosen the townsmen, the register, the fence-viewers, the chimney-viewers, - so necessary in those days of wooden mantels, of ill-constructed chimneys, and of enor- mous fires, - their tithing-men, and John Wadsworth: last, not least, their one constable, who was to them the right arm of the king himself ; a functionary ivilliam Lovis treated with reverent awe and obeyed with implicit deference. Whosoever resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God. Two men besides Mr. Hooker bore the appellation of Mr., - Anthony Howkins and John Wadsworth. Nor may we forget to name Captain William Lewis, Captain Jolm Stanley, Ensign Thomas Hart, and Sergeant William Judd.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Their communication with the other towns was infrequent. Occa- sionally a traveller would appear by the path from Hartford, with news from their friends and kindred there, or a message of alarm from his Excellency the Governor, and now and then some one would emerge from the forest by the "New Haven path " with tidings from that commercial emporium or from the lands beyond the seas.
The Indians were still here by hundreds. Within the slip of land reserved for them near the village their canoes might be seen every day filling the little creek that put in from the river, and their owners were stalking along the streets, now trying the Indian's cunning, and now frowning with the Indian's wrath. A few were gathered into the Christian church, a few admitted as freemen ; and a missionary school, embracing sometimes fifteen or sixteen, was taught by Mr. Newton and perhaps by Mr. Hooker.
From the first, however, the relations of the settlers with the Tunxis Indians were usually friendly. No outbreak of a hostile character ever arose between them. Whenever dissatisfaction was apparent, the Indians were assembled, treated with kindness, and "gratified with presents."
For their title to the lands, our fathers rested upon the original agreement with Sequasson, the sachem of Suckiaug, and chief sachem of the neighboring tribes. But for the sake of satisfying the natives, this title was afterward confirmed by two successive agreements, the first in 1650, the second in 1673.
In the first of these it is taken for granted that "the magistrates bought the whole country to the Moohawks country, of Sequasson 1 the chief sachem." Then it is noted that the Indians at that time yielded up all their grounds under improvement, and received " ground in place together compased about with a creke and trees." This was now to be staked out, and " although the English had bargained for the gras for their cows, yet this they let go." This reservation was that finest por- tion of the meadow still called " the Indian Neck."
It is added, " that the peace and plenty that they have had and enjoyed by the presence of the English, in regard of protection of them, and trade with them, makes more to the advantage and comfort of the Indians, though they hire some land, than ever they enjoyed before the coming of the English, when all the lands was in their own disposal ; and although they do hire in regard of the increase of their company, yet their corn and skins will give a good price, which will counterbal- ance much more than the hire of their lands, and therefore the Indians have reason to live loveingly among the English by whom their lives are preserved, and their estates and comfort advantaged. .. . In this we the chief Indians, in the name of all the rest acknowledge, and we engage ourselves to make no quarrels about this matter." This agree- ment was signed by John Haynes and Pethus and Ahamo his son, with their heraldic devices. It was witnessed by Stephen Hart, Thomas Judd, Thomas Thomson, Isaak More, Thomas Stanton, and Roger Newton.
By the second treaty there were reserved to the Indians two hundred acres of upland, which they are forbidden to sell without leave, together with the Indian Neck. There is also given a map of the land sold, as
1 Also sometimes spelled Suncquasson, as on page 163.
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measured from Wepansock, that is, the Round Hill, ten miles south, eight west, three miles east, and five miles north. This is signed by twenty-six Indians, chiefs, squaws, and sons, with their appropriate devices.
In 1681 Massacope gives a quit-claim deed of all this land. He was probably a Mattabesett Indian, and with his son signs the agreement for valuable considerations, and " gratification at the time of sale." Not satisfied with the limits as specified in the deed, he went out and for himself examined and marked the boundaries.
Notwithstanding all these precautions, the early settlers of this town were occasionally moved to fear and alarm. In 1642 the General Court took measures in reference to a hostile gathering and plot of the Indians about Tunxis. In 1657 the house of John Hart was destroyed by fire, and his family consumed, with the exception of one son. In the John Hart son same year Mr. Scott was cruelly murdered. The house of Mr. Hart was near the centre of the village, that of Mr. Scott on the border of " the great plains." Both these acts were ascribed to Meshupano, as principal, and his accessories. For firing the house the Farmington In- dians paid each year a heavy tribute for seven years, "eighty faddome of wampum, well strung and merchantable." The year after, complaint was made of the bullets shot into the town from the garrison of the natives, and also of their entertainment of strange Indians, and they were ordered to find another garrison. In 1662 we find them quarrelling with the Podunks of Windsor. From 1640 to 1720, eighty years, this town had fronted an almost unbroken forest which extended from the wooded hori- zon which we see from the village street, westward to the Housatonic and northwestward to Lake George. This was the hunting-ground of the Tunxis tribe and the marauding-ground of the dreaded Mohawk, who might appear either as the foe of his timid subject, or perchance as his ally for the destruction of the whites. For the first sixty years there was a numerous and not always friendly tribe in a garrison and village almost within musket-shot of the church.1 In 1675 Simsbury, then Massaco, a frontier settlement to the north, was deserted by its inhabi- tants - some forty families - and totally burned. So complete was the desolation, that the returning settlers found it difficult to discover the places where their effects had been secreted. The church erected in 1708 was provided with " guard seats," as they were called, where some ten to twenty men could be on the lookout near the doors against a sudden assault. The space for these seats was relinquished in 1726 for the erection of pews for eight families, with the provision that the pews should be surrendered should there be subsequent occasion to mount a guard. Later than this, on some occasion of alarm increased by the presence of strange Indians, the men of the Tunxis tribe were required to present themselves daily at the house of Deacon Lee, and pass in review before his daughter, whom they both admired and feared. Dea- con Lee lived a little distance northward from the centre on the west
1 Early in 1657 an Indian killed a woman and her maid and fired the house, occasioning the destruction of several buildings. The Indians were forced to deliver up the murderer, who was brought to Hartford and executed " as a butcher fells an ox." - Diary of John Hull, Transactions and Publications of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. iii. p. 180.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
side of the street. The Indian garrison and village extended southward to the point of land at the confluence of the Pequabuck and the Tunxis rivers. It is very easy to perceive the reason why this place was selected as their chief residence. It is not easy even now to walk along the brow of the hill which overlooks the reservation so long styled the Indian Neck, without picturing the rude wigwams scattered along this sunny terrace, with canocs idly floating below on the stream, which was filled with shad and salmon, while the deer were abundant in the forest that stretched westward and northward to the Mohawk country. It is pleasant to find, in 1751, liberty granted to the Christianized Indians to build themselves a seat in the meeting-house in the northeast corner over the stairs. From the Colony Records for 1733, 1734, and 1736, appropriations are ordered from the public treasury for " dieting of the Indian lads at 4 shillings per week for the time they attend the school in said town." In 1734 £336s. were paid ; in 1736, £28. In 1689 and 1704, which were years of alarm from distant Indians, houses were fortified, and stores of ammunition were provided. These fortified houses were strongly guarded by double doors and narrow windows. The years named were years of alarm throughout New England, as in consequence of war between England and France the colonies were threatened with incursions from the north and east by French and Indians. Relays of men were called for to serve in the two or three desperate wars in which the French and Indians combined for the posses- sion of the northern and western line of posts, and in which victory for the French might bring the tomahawk and the torch into this valley.
In 1740 the Indian boys were so many and so strong that they were esteemed more than a match for the whites of the same age. About the middle of the century, as game became scarce, the remnants of the tribe removed, first to Stockbridge, and afterward to Oneida County, New York, and finally to Green Bay in Wisconsin. A fragment remained behind till they became extinct. The last male of unmixed blood was buried Dec. 21, 1820, the day which completed the second century from the landing at Plymouth Rock, while the only surviving female stood trembling by the grave. Tradition relates that during the ministry of Mr. Whitman, the Stockbridge tribe invaded the Tunxis Indians near their homes. They were met by the Tunxis tribe in battle array, in the little meadow two miles north of the village. The latter were at first routed and driven back upon their ancient burying- place. There they rallied, and by the assistance of their squaws, who attacked the flank of the foe, they drove back the invaders with defeat and almost entire destruction. After the removal of the greater portion of the tribe to Oneida, they often visited their friends and sepulchres here, and on such visits would hold dances at the old burying-place, and evening powwows, and give splendid exhibitions of their agility and strength. There are not a few living who remember the Indian reser- vation and the frequent appearance in the village of the descendants of the ancient tribe on visits of begging and traffic.
In 1840, by order of the School Society of Farmington, a monumen- tal block of red sandstone was erected to the memory of these Indians. It stands in the new burying-ground on the edge of the river. The spot is one of sad historical interest, as the following inscription on one side of the monument explains : -
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IN MEMORY OF THE INDIAN RACE; ESPECIALLY OF THE TUNXIS TRIBE, THE ANCIENT TENANTS OF THESE GROUNDS.
The many human skeletons here discovered confirm the tradition that this spot was formerly an Indian burying-place. Tradition further declares it to be the ground on which a sanguinary battle was fought between the Tunxis and Stockbridge tribes. Some of their scattered remains have been re-interred beneath this stone.
The reverse side of the monument bears the following lines : -
" Chieftains of a vanished race, In your ancient burial place, By your fathers' ashes blest, Now in peace securely rest. Since on life you looked your last, Changes o'er your land have passed ;
Strangers came with iron sway, And your tribes have passed away. But your fate shall cherished be, In the strangers' memory ; Virtue long her watch shall keep, Where the red-men's ashes sleep.'
The church was organized in 1652, or, as the record has it, " Upon the 13th of October Mr. Roger Newton, Stephen Hart, Thomas Judd, John Bronson, John Cole, Thomas Thomson, and Robert Porter joined in Church Covenant in Farmington." Of this church Roger Newton was the first pastor. Stephen Hart had been a member of the original church of Thomas Hooker. It is added, " About one month after myself [John Steele, the clerk ], Mrs. Newton, the wife of Stephen Hart, the wife of Thomas Judd, the wife of John Cole, and the wife of Thomas Thomson." Mr. Newton was one of " those young scholars " mentioned by Cotton Mather, who came over from Eng- land with their friends and completed their education in this country. He married Mary, the daughter of Mr. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, and probably completed his education under his instruction. He remained here till .1658, generally approved, when he removed by invitation to the more ancient and larger church at Milford, where he labored with acceptance till his death, in 1683. His widow became one of the eighty- four proprictors of the town, and inherited the farm of Governor Hopkins in Farmington.
In July, 1661, Mr. Samuel Hooker, son of Thomas Hooker, " the light of the western churches," was installed the pastor of this church, Samuel Hooker. having received his degree at Harvard College in 1653. He continued to be its pastor until his death, Nov. 6, 1697, and was esteemed " an animated and pious divinc." He was, according to the testimony of the Rev. Mr. Pitkin, " an excellent preacher, his composition good, his address pathetic, warm, and engaging," and as story relates, he informed a friend of his that he had three things to do with his sermons before he delivered them in public, -" to write them, commit them unto his memory, and get them into his heart."
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He was a Fellow of Harvard College, and was employed in 1662, one of a committee of four to treat with New Haven in reference to a union with Connecticut, and was esteemed throughout the State an eminent and influential minister. He twice preached the annual election sermon, for which he received a special vote of commendation and thanks. His name, with that of three other citizens, was appended to the address to King William of Orange after the glorious Revolution of 1688. Cotton Mather says of him, at the conclusion of the life of his father, " As Ambrose would say concerning Theodosius, 'Non totus recessit, reliquit nobis liberos in quibus eum debemus agnoscere et in quibus eum cerni- mus et tenemus ;' thus we have to this day among us our dead Hooker yet living in his worthy son, Mr. Samuel Hooker, an able, faithful, usc- ful minister at Farmington, in the colony of Connecticut." He was a large landholder, and had eleven children, and among his descendants are named many of the most distinguished families and individuals of New England. His daughter Mary married the Rev. Mr. Pierpont, of New Haven, and was the mother of Sarah, the wife of Jonathan Edwards.
Next to the church (or rather as essential to the continuance and the prosperity of the church), in the estimation of our fathers, was ranked the school. Through the deficiency of our early records we cannot trace the vestiges of their earliest care ; but as far back as we can find regular records of their proceedings, we find its wants, as were those of the church, the annual care of the town. In December, 1682, the town voted £10 toward maintaining a school, and appointed a com- mittee to employ a teacher. In December, 1683, they made the same appropriation, and ordered every man to pay four shillings a quarter for every child that should be sent. Again, they voted "to give £30 for a man to teach school for one year, provided they can have a man that is so accomplished as to teach children to read and write, and to teach the grammar, and also to step into the pulpit to be helpful there in time of exigency, and this school to be a free school for this town." In another vote about this period they ordered the services of a teacher to be secured who could teach Latin also.
Year by year we find similar records, till 1700, when the colonial assembly having directed forty shillings on every £1000 in the grand levy to be devoted to education, this town voted to add to the same a sufficient sum to maintain the schools for a certain portion of the year.
In the second century of its history the town steadily increased in population, although the population seemed slow to spread itself beyond the reach of the social and other attractions of the village. It was not so easy to subdue the forest as it became a century later. Either the colonial axes or the skill of those who wielded them has been surpassed by those of later generations. "The earlier settlers of New England for many other reasons dwelt in villages. Among these reasons were the fear of wolves and Indians and the desire to be near the meeting- house," with all that this signified. The fertile and ample meadows, with the generous uplands that opened directly upon them, also tended to hold this community together. Of the outlying lands the eastern farms on the gentle slope east of the mountain range were settled first,
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then the beautiful region since called the Stanley Quarter, opening toward the Mattabesett ; while here and there an adventurous planter or family group was bold enough to penetrate into the forest or upon the Great Plains and beyond, toward the south and southwest.
It is not surprising that before 1766 no schools were maintained except two in the village. The first school supported without the village was the one upon the Eastern Farms. The Great Plain was still uncleared, and it might be bought for a dollar the acre. Wild animals were abundant in the West Woods. So late as 1730 bounties were paid for wolves and wild-cats, and later than this a bear was shot by a little girl of fourteen, in Bristol, while the family were absent at meeting in Farmington. Venison was sold in the streets as late as the Revolution, and shad and salmon were caught from the river.
I find also a record, about 1729, of a cession of a considerable tract of upland to several individuals, on condition that it should be sown with English grass. The meadows were still unmarked by dividing fences, and the Pine Woods till 1740 were burnt over for a pasture, to which the people in the eastern towns drove their young cattle in the spring.
During this period, until after the War of the Revolution, the town as a whole gained largely in the wealth that was gathered from the soil. The population increased rapidly in large and sturdy households. Fre- quent calls were made for its young men to contend with the Indians in Massachusetts, at the Northwest, and in Acadia ; and thus the strug- gle for existence and growth was constantly maintained, as also a con- stant moral and religious discipline, by wars and pestilence, to say nothing of the theological controversies and the political discussions which tasked the thoughts and exercised the faith of these vigorous men and faithful women, until they were called to share in the first great struggle for national life from 1775 to 1783.
The original church and parish has from the first been more than usually exempt from controversies, although it has not been entirely without ecclesiastical contention. During nearly ten years after the death of Mr. Hooker, there was a sharp controversy in the town in reference to a minister, which called for the interference and authority of the General Court. At a General Court held 1702, " the town of Farmington laboring under great difficulties in reference to the calling and settling of a minister among them, and other ecclesiastical concerns, certain of the inhabitants made their address to this General Assembly, praying for counsel and relief. In answer whereunto, this assembly doth order and direct them to seek counsel and help from the Rev. Elders, namely, the Rev. Mr. Abram Pierson, Mr. James Noyes, Mr Taylor, Mr. N. Russel, Mr. Samuel Russel, and Mr. Thomas Ruggles, or any five of them, whom this assembly doth direct to be helpful unto them, and (unless the said inhabitants shall agree among themselves, etc.) to nominate and appoint a minister for them, and in case the minister so nominated and appointed will undertake this work, this assembly doth hereby order that said inhabitants of Farmington shall entertain him for one year, and also pay to him such salary as hath been usual and customary among them." The town officers were also appointed by the General Court. In 1704 the General Court directed the same ministers as above to procure a minister for the inhabitants of Farmington " who
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