USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 32
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275
MARLBOROUGH.
granddaughter of the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, of Bedfordshire, England. Mr. Lord died in 1762, leaving seven daughters. His widow married the Rev. Mr. Eells, and removed to Middletown. After his death she returned to Marlborough, where she died July 8, 1794, aged eighty- four. Her daughter, Elizabeth Lord, married John Eells. Epaphras and Ichabod Lord came down from Hartford and purchased a large tract of land in Chatham and Colchester.
Joel Foote, Esq., son of Asa and Jerusha (Carter) Foote,1 and fourth in descent
from Nathaniel
Foote, of Weth-
ersfield, was born
Joel Forte Justice Peace
June 26, 1763, in that part of the town of Colchester which was set off to Marlborough. He was liberally educated, and was probably as good a type of an old-school gentleman as any resident of the town. His uprightness was proverbial, and his services in places of trust were constantly sought. He represented the town in the General Assembly twenty- two successive years, and from his general prominence won the title of "the Duke of Marlborough." He was twice married, his first wife being Abigail Robbins Lord, daughter of Elisha Lord, of Marlborough, who died at an early age, leaving four children. His second wife was Rachel Lord, daughter of Samuel P. Lord, of East Haddam : eight chil- dren were born of this marriage. His death occurred at Marlborough, July 12, 1846, at the age of eighty-three years.
Ezra Hall was born in 1835. After working upon his father's farm till he was twenty years of age, he determined to acquire a liberal education, and after a course of preparatory study at Wilbraham, Mass., and East Greenwich, Rhode Island, he entered Wesleyan University, at
Middletown, in 1858, graduating in 1862. He read law in the office of Judge Moses Culver, of Middletown, while in the Univer- sity, and afterward in that of the late Thomas C. Perkins, of Hartford, and after his admis- sion to the bar began practice in the city of Hartford, pursuing his profession there until his death. He was elected to the State Sen- ate in 1863, from the district in which his native town was situated, and was the youngest member of the body. He was again elected to the Senate in 1871, and in 1874 he represented Marlborough, in which he still kept his legal residence, in the House of Representatives. In 1874 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, and argued some important cases before that tribunal. He was taken suddenly ill, and died at Hartford, Nov. 3, 1877, after a few days of intense suffering. He left a widow and two children. Mr. Hall had attained an honorable position at the bar and a high
1 Asa Foote, youngest son of Nathaniel Foote, one of the most prominent men in the new settlement of Colehester, was born in that town May 4, 1726. He married, April 26, 1752, Jerusha, daughter of Ezra Carter, of Colchester, died May 11, 1799. He was the father of Joel Foote, Esq., "the Duke of Marlborough."
276
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
place in the public esteem. He was ambitious in his profession, and in- defatigable in the discharge of its duties. No client ever had reason to complain of any neglect of his interests. He was always honorable in his practice, and had in this respect the entire confidence of his associates at the bar. He had a tenacious will, a vigorous and especially active and perceptive intellect, and a rare faculty for the despatch of business. He was, however, made for a man of affairs rather than for a great thinker, and found his most fitting place in dealing practically with business and with men. With a shrewdness and sagacity of the tra- ditional New England type, he was unusually skilful in negotiation. During the later years of his life Mr. Hall was a specially growing man. An earnest study not merely of the law, but of everything that would help him to a higher development of his faculties, was showing its fruit. Professional success was still the great object of his ambition, but it seemed to gather about itself in his conceptions higher and higher moral conditions, - a wider knowledge, a more thorough self- culture, a high standard of personal honor. He was for many years a communicant in the Pearl Street Congregational Church of the city of Hartford, and for a long time one of the most active laborers in its Sabbath school.
Samuel Finley Jones was born in Marlborough. His father, Jolm Jones, served in the Revolutionary War, and died, on his way home, of a fever contracted in the service, leaving a widow and two sons. His widow died soon after, and the elder son went to sea and was never form of gomes heard from. Young Sam- uel at three years of age went to live with his grand- father, Samuel Finley, for whom he was named, and lived with his grandparents until sixteen, receiving only a common- school education. He was then apprenticed to Colonel Elisha Buell, to learn the trade of a gunsmith ; and after serving his time out married Miss Annie Strong, and bought a small farm in the northeastern part of the town. From this time on he added to his landed property rapidly, and for fifty years was the largest land-owner in that section. Mr. Jones had also a genius for money getting and keeping, and was well known as the money king of that section for many years. The Methodist Episcopal Church and town interests found in him a firm friend and most excellent adviser. His great force of character, in- domitable courage, and individuality were remarkable. He died at the age of ninety years, the last ten of which were years of infirmity.
Many Shall.
XVIII.
NEW BRITAIN.
BY DAVID N. CAMP.
N "EW BRITAIN is one of the smallest towns in Hartford County in extent. It is less than five miles in length, and its extreme breadth is a little less than four miles. In the northern and western parts of the town, the hills rise to a considerable height and the surface is broken ; in the southeast, the town extends to the mead- ows near the source of the Mattabesett. Most of the place is high, composed of rolling hills and irregular-shaped valleys. The main street of the city is about one hundred and seventy feet above sea level at the railway crossing, and more than one hundred and thirty feet higher than the railway crossing at Asylum Street, Hartford.
New Britain forms a water-shed, -one of its streams discharging its waters into the Quinnipiac at Plainville and thus passing into the Sound at New Haven ; another forming an important branch of the Mattabesett, joining the waters of the Connecticut at Middletown ; and a third flowing northeasterly, uniting with the Connecticut at Hartford. Numerous springs and small streams furnish a supply of water for agricultural purposes, but produce little motive-power for mills or manufactories.
The soil is generally fertile, producing good crops in those parts of the town devoted to agriculture and gardening. The trap-rock in the hills and that which crops out in different parts of the town afford material for the foundations of buildings, paving roads, and other stone-work. A copper-mine in a spur of trap upon the Berlin road was once worked, but was abandoned many years ago as unprofitable. Lead, asphaltum, calcite crystals, and other minerals have been found, but not in sufficient quantities to be of commercial value. Nearly an entire skeleton of the Mastodon Americanus was dug up some years ago on the land of the late William A. Churchill, between Main and Arch streets.
At the time New Britain was first settled, few or no Indians resided there. The Tunxis Indians, from the valley of the Farmington River, occupied a portion of the northern part of the place, - Dead Swamp and vicinity being a favorite hunting-ground. The Wangunks of the Connecticut valley extended their incursions within the limits of Berlin and New Britain, and the Mattabesetts, apparently a division of the Wangunks, had a lodge near Christian Lane, and perhaps another at Kensington. The Quinnipiacs upon the shore of Long Island Sound had extended their dominion as far north as Meriden, and they claimed the right to hunt in a portion of the territory since included in Berlin
278
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
and New Britain. Members of other tribes sometimes made incursions upon this neutral ground.
The Indians were generally friendly to the English, permitting them to establish their settlements near the Indian lodges and to pass over the Indian trails without opposition. The English were seldom attacked by any tribe or clan in a body, but were annoyed by the thefts and robberies of individual Indians or groups, and went armed for safety. The Indians, by their knowledge of the country and wild animals, were often an aid to the whites. Some of the settlers of New Britain were at first accustomed to seek shelter in the fort at Christian Lane; but this was a temporary arrangement, for they soon found that their new homes could be occupied without molestation.
It was not long after the incorporation of Farmington as a town in 1645, that improvements were made in the southeastern part of the " town's first grant," on the east side of the hills which divided the valley of the Tunxis from the great meadows on the Mattabesett. Some of these improvements were within the present town of New Britain, and the rude cabins constructed at irregular intervals on the eastern and southern slopes of the Farmington range of hills became the nucleus of the settlement in that part of the town.
In August, 1661, the General Court granted to Jonathan Gilbert, a former officer of the court, " a farm, to the number of three hundred acres of upland and fifty acres of meadow, provided it be not preju- dicial where he finds it to any plantation that now is or hereafter may be settled." The next year, or in March, 1662, Daniel Clarke 1 and John Moore had four hundred Daniel Clark acres granted to them, and in 1665 another grant was made to Clarke. These grants to Gilbert, Clarke, and others were chiefly in Berlin, occupying a portion of the valley now traversed by the New York, New Haven, & Hartford railroad, but extending southerly to the northern part of the town of Meriden, and northerly in the valley of the Mattabesett River to the Great Swamp.
In 1672 Jonathan Gilbert purchased the interests of Clarke and other proprietors, and made additions to the territory by other grants, until he held the title to more than a thousand acres.2 He soon sold the most of it to his son-in-law, Captain Andrew Belcher,3 who pro- ceeded to improve it by laying out roads, constructing tenant houses, and preparing a part of the land for cultivation. This tract, a part of which extended within the present limits of Meriden, was sometimes
1 Daniel Clarke and John Moore were deputies, and also held various offices to which they were appointed by the General Court. Clarke for several years was secretary, also clerk of the county court of Hartford, member of the committee to treat with the Indians, of the committee to appoint and commission officers of the militia, and of the standing council with the governor and lieutenant governor. His name was spelled with and without the e.
2 Gilbert was at this time marshal. He had a warehouse in Hartford and estates "on the east side of the Great River over against his warehouse."
3 Captain Belcher was a wealthy merchant of Boston, engaged in trade with the Connec- ticut and New Haven colonies. He owned vessels employed in transportation, and was the agent of Connecticut in purchasing "armes and ammunition " for the colony. He was also employed by the Massachusetts colony to carry provisions from Connecticut to Boston for the supply of the army and the colony. His youngest son was governor of Massachusetts and afterward of New Jersey.
David M.Camp.
279
NEW BRITAIN.
known as " Merideen" or " Moriden ;" but this term was afterward applied exclusively to the southern part and the territory south of it, and the northern part was termed the Great Swamp. It having yo Loving friend Andrew Beliefer been found that Great Swamp and vicinity was not included in either of the towns already in- corporated, the General Court, at a special session held January, 1687, Richard Joanner gave permission to the towns bor- dering on it " to make a village therein."1 Farmington was prompt in improving the opportunity thus presented, and within a few months of the passage of the act Richard Seymour and others, from Farming- ton, were located in the northern Stophon part of Belcher's tract, at a place called Christian Lane.2 This settle- ment was near the southeast corner of New Britain. Other families, Joseph Smith which soon followed Seymour and his associates, located farther north, on sites now within the limits of the town. Among the persons occupying this local-
ity were Captain Stephen Lee, Sergeant Benjamin Judd, Jo- seph Smith, Robert Booth, An- thony Judd, Isaac Lewis, and
Robert Booth
others, who were ancestors of many of the present residents of New Britain. The settlement gradually extended north, occupying East Street, South Stanley
Anthony Jums
Street, and a part of the southeastern and eastern portions of the present city and town.
Franck Jarvis
The first settlements of New Britain were thus in two localities, - one in the northern and western part near the borders of Farmington, extending by degrees southerly at the base of the Blue Mountain, and the other in the southeast part of the town, extending from Berlin north- erly on the streets east of the Centre to Stanley Quarter. The present business part of the town and city was occupied at a later date. The residents of the southern and eastern portions of the town constituted a part of the Great Swamp Society until 1754, when the new society of New Britain was incorporated.
The original settlers of New Britain were from Farmington, and nearly all the adults were members of the church of that place, con- tributing their full share for the preaching of the gospel and other parish expenses. They were accustomed on Sundays and lecture-days
1 The act is as follows : "This court grants Weathersfeild, Middleton and Farmington all those vacant lands between Wallingford bownds and the bownds of those plantations, to take a village therein."
2 The town of Farmington voted to Richard Seymour one pound, and similar gratuities to others, for forming this settlement.
280
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
to go to meeting with their families, from four to eight miles, over or around the mountain on roads which were little more than Indian trails. The journey was necessarily made on foot or on horseback, and in obedience to the laws of the colony, as well as for protection from Indians and wild beasts, the men were armed. No complaint of the distance or inconvenience of bad roads appears to have been made during the ministry of Rev. Samuel Hooker, who was much beloved, and was pastor of the Farmington church at the time New Britain was first settled. After Mr. Hooker's death, and during the long interim which occurred before his successor was settled, the people at Christian Lane began to inquire whether they could not have a minister for themselves. On application being made to Far- mington, the town voted " that so many of their inhabitants that do, or shall personally inhabit at the place called Great Swamp and upland belonging thereto," etc., might " become a ministerial society and be freed from the charge elsewhere."1 This action of the town was confirmed by an act of the General Court establishing a society to be called the Great Swamp Society. The new society included the families residing in the southern and eastern parts of New Britain. When the church was organized, a few years later, the first deacon chosen was Anthony Judd, from the New Britain portion of the society. For nearly forty years a large proportion of the people of New Britain were members of the Great Swamp Society, and attended meeting at Christian Lane. The residents of the northern and western parts of the place remained with the society in Farmington.
For a time harmony prevailed in the new society ; but when, forty years after its organization, an attempt was made to locate a new meeting-house, the elements of disunion were manifested. The society had gradually extended its settlement and occupation of farms north- ward toward Stanley Quarter, and to the southwest toward Kensing- ton Street and the Blue Mountains. After many meetings the new meeting-house was at last located and erected nearly a mile to the west and south of the first house at Christian Lane. The distance from the New Britain portion of the society was considerably increased, and the people petitioned for relief. They asked that they might " have the liberty for four months in the year to provide preaching for them- selves," and " be excused from paying their part of the salary of the minister of the Great Swamp parish for one third of the year."2 This petition was not granted, and the members of the north part of the society continued to pay their dues to the Great Swamp parish. But they also continued to petition, until at last in May, 1754, the General Court granted the request of the petitioners, and incorporated a new society with all the privileges of other ecclesiastical societies, and gave it the name of "New Briton." 3 From this time (1754) New Britain had a distinct corporate existence.
1 September, 1705. See Colony Records, vol. iv. pp. 527, 528.
2 This petition, dated May 9, 1739, was signed by twenty-six persons, all living in the southeast part of the present limits of New Britain. Among the signers were Stephen Lee, Isaac Lee, Deacon Anthony Judd, and other prominent men of the parish, some of whom had been foremost in founding the Great Swamp Society.
3 The part of the act referring to New Britain is : "And be it further enacted by the au- thority aforesaid, that there shall be one other Ecclesiastical Society erected & made & is hereby created and made within the bounds of the town of Farmington, & described as
ElhanaI. Andrews
281
NEW BRITAIN.
For civil purposes, this parish remained a part of the town of Farmington until the incorporation of Berlin in 1785. New Britain was then included in the latter town, of which it was a parish until 1850, when Berlin was divided by a line beginning at the centre of Beach Swamp bridge and running north 88° 20' west to Southington line, and in the opposite direction to Newington line. The books and records of the old town belonged to New Britain by the terms of the act. The first town-meeting in the new town was held July 22, 1850. Lucins Woodruff was chosen town clerk and treasurer, and Joseph Wright, James F. Lewis, Gad Stanley, Noah W. Stanley, and Eiam Slater were chosen selectmen.
At the first State election held after the incorporation of the town, 526 votes were cast for governor, 515 for the secretary of State, and 517 for member of Congress. Ethan A. Andrews, LL.D., and George M. Landers were the first representatives elected to the legislature.
The borough of New Britain was incorporated the same year as the town,- in 1850. It was four hundred and eighteen rods in length from north to south, and one mile in width from cast to west. The town- hall, the present high school building, was the centre of the borough. At the first meeting of the borough, held Ang. 12, 1850, the officers elected were Frederick T. Stanley, warden ; O. S. North, G. M. Landers, Walter Gladden, Marcellus Clark, T. W. Stanley, and A. L. Finch, bur- gesses. The first meeting of the warden and burgesses was held Aug. 12, 1850. In accordance with the provisions of the charter, arrange- ments were made for the better protection of property and the main- tenance of law and order. Police officers, fire wardens, a street com- missioner, and an inspector of weights and of wood were appointed ; provision was made for the abatement of nuisances and for the care of . the streets, and a watch-house was secured.
In a few years the necessity of some provision for a more adequate supply of water was evident ; and in 1857 a charter was obtained which empowered the borough to construct suitable water-works. Land at Shuttle Meadow was bought and cleared, the right of way secured, a dam built, and over five miles of main and distributing pipes laid in time for the water to be let on in October of the same year. The main reservoir, which covers about two hundred acres, is in the northeast corner of Sonthington, about two and a quarter miles from the city park, and about one hundred and seventy feet above it. The water- works have been extended and the supply largely augmented, to the great convenience of the people and the better protection to property in case of fire.
follows, viz. : South on the North bounds of Kensington parish & Easterly on Wethersfield town line, as far north as the North side of Daniel Hart's lot, where his Dwelling House now stands, & from thence to run West on the North side of said Hart's lot to the West end of that tier of lots, from thence to run Southerly to the old fulling Mill so called on Pond river & from thence Southerly to the east side of a Lot of land belonging to the heirs of Timothy Hart late deceased near 'Bares Hollow,' & from thence due south until it meets the North line of Southington parish, thence by said Southington line, as that runs until it comes to Kensington North line, Excluding Thomas Stanley, Daniel Hart & John Clark & their farms on which they now dwell, lying within the bounds above described, & the same is hereby created & made one distinct Ecclesiastical Society, & shall be known by the name of 'New Briton' with all the powers & priviledges that other Ecclesiastical Societies by law have in this Colony, & that all the improved lands in said society shall be rated in said Society excepting as before excepted."
282
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
As the business and population of the town and borough increased, the necessity of exercising additional powers became evident, and a city charter was obtained in 1870. The northern boundary of the city coincided with the borough line as far as that extended, but the southern boundary was upon the town line. From east to west the city extends six hundred rods, or one hundred and forty rods beyond the borough boundary in each direction. Under the city charter and amendments the streets have been extended and much improved ; the police and fire departments have been reorganized and made more efficient ; the apparatus for extinguishing fires has been greatly increased ; large additions have been made to the water-works; an excellent system of sewerage has been adopted, and its benefits have been extended to all the principal streets, and in many ways the city has been benefited. At the first election under the city charter Frederick T. Stanley was elected mayor, C. L. Goodwin clerk, and A. P. Collins treasurer.
The city government consists of a mayor and common council com- posed of four aldermen and sixteen councilmen, -one alderman and four councilmen being elected from each of the four wards of the city. The city clerk and city treasurer are also chosen at the city election. The town government, consisting of three selectmen, a town clerk, treasurer, assessors, board of relief, school committee, and justices of the peace, is still continued. The mayors of the city have been, in succession, Frederick T. Stanley, Samuel W. Hart, David N. Camp, Ambrose Beatty, John B. Talcott, and J. Andrew Pickett.
The first meeting of the New Britain Ecclesiastical Society was held June 13, 1754.1 At this meeting it was voted that a meeting- house should be built and that provision should be made for preaching. Apparently having in mind the difficulties experienced in locating a church in the Great Swamp parish, the New Britain society applied at once to the county court to have a site fixed by its authority. The court sent out a committee which fixed the site for the new meeting- house on the hill about half a mile northeast of where the railway station now is, near the junction of Elm and Stanley strects.
The society at its first annual meeting, Dec. 2, 1754, applied to the town of Farmington to lay out or alter highways so as to facilitate access to the " place appointed by ye county court to build a house for religious worship." 2 A committee was appointed to procure timber,
1 The records of the first meeting of this society are as follows : "A society Meeting Holden by ye inhabitants of ye Parish of New Britain, Holden in said society on ye 13th Day of June 1754, warned according to ye Direction of ye law. At ye same meeting ye society made choyce of Benjemon Judd Junr. to be a Moderator to lead and moderate in said meet- ing. At ye same meeting, Isaac Lee was made choyce of for a Society Clark. At the same meeting Lieut. Josiah Lee and Lieut. Daniel Dewey & Capt. John Paterson was Chosen a Comtt. to order the Prudentials of this society for ye present year. At the same meeting Lieut. Josiah Lee was Chosen Society Treasurer for ye Present year. The officers having been elected, the same meeting voted, That it is Necessary for the Inhabitants of this society to build a meeting house for Religious worship. Voted, That it is Necessary to have Preaching amongst us.'
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