USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 52
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In 1771 a movement was begun which resulted in the formation of the First, Second, and Third school districts. At this time Hezekiah May, Ezekiel Porter, Silas Deane, and others petitioned the legislature to divide the society into districts. They alleged that there were four hundred children in the society limits, and but two school-houses ; that a third one had been built by voluntary subscriptions, in 1770, to accom- modate the one hundred children on one (the Main) street, on which the petitioners lived. The result was the formation of the First, Second, and Third districts ; and the erection of the brick school-house formerly in Broad Street, and also the present North Brick structure. For the Third district the school-house built by volunteers, in 1770, on High Street, was adopted. The construction of the Broad Street and North Brick buildings had been commenced by the First Society before the formation of the districts in question. For the First ( Broad Street) district a branch school-house of wood was built on South Hill in 1772, in the highway, some three or four rods southwesterly from the present brick school-house of the South district, which was built in 1850. The Broad Street school-house, of brick, was destroyed by fire in 1866, and the present structure was built the next year. The High Street build- ing remained in use until 1862, when it was succeeded by the brick one of to-day. The old building is now a dwelling-house at the south end of the town. The Old South school-house is a wagon-shop.
In 1780 West Hill was made a new district, -the Fourth. The old building, built by Captain JJosiah Robbins and others in 1768, was in 1795 replaced by the brick building which, until 1870, stood in the crossing of the West Hill and Welles Quarter roads. At the latter date the present one was built.
At Griswoldville a school is said to have been kept in the Major Josiah Griswold house before the formation of the Sixth district. That district dates from 1835. In 1837 it built its first school-house.
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a wooden structure, now a dwelling-house. It stood on the site of the present chapel there. It was replaced in 1852 by the present brick school-house. This closes our sketch of the school-houses in the First Society.
On the east side of the river, it does not appear that there was any school before that section was constituted a separate township. At Beckley Quarter the town, in 1748, aided the people in that section to maintain a school, by its action in exempting them from school-rates. In 1757 the legislature made this section a district, the first in Weth- ersfield ; and we suppose its school-house was forthwith constructed. since that purpose was the principal reason assigned for asking for district autonomy.
At Rocky Hill a school-house was built in 1712, in size twenty by sixteen feet, and six and a half feet "between joints." Sergeant Jona- than Smith, Benjamin Deming, and John Wright were the building committee, and Wethersfield ratified their doings. This, the first school-house at Rocky Hill, was in the highway, about opposite to the site of the present northernmost school-house of that town.
In 1718 a committee of the legislature recommended two school- houses, one on the hill by Grimes's, the other on the hill by Widow Sam Cole's. But the evidence indicates that but one was built, - on Cole's Hill, by the west side of the burying-ground, - and the old one, at the north end, continued in use ; the two together being called " the school."
In 1726 Stepney parish was organized, and in 1729 it voted to remove the school-house from Cole's Hill to the space between the southwest corner of Sam Williams's pasture and the south end of the meeting- house. - which then stood in the highway, in front of the site now oc- cupied by the barn of Wait Warner. The removal took place in 1731. In 1733 a new school-house was built on land of William Nott. The writer supposes this building to have been on the east side of the Middletown road, nearly opposite to the site of the present North school- honse ; a school having in the mean time been kept in the meeting- house. In 1754 the old Cole's Hill school-house was sold to the highest bidder. In the mean time, in 1752, territorial limits had been assigned for the three branch schools. From this time until 1757 " the school " was kept for certain months in one section, and then in another, and so on throughout the circuit thus constituted.
In 1756, or soon after, there was a northern, a southern, and a western precinct. At the same time a school-house for the south sec- tion was built on the north bank of Hog Brook, at the foot of the hill below the burying-ground. Another, for the north section, was built on the south side of Jonathan Boardman's lot, in the highway, and on the east side thereof.
In 1773 the parish voted to build two school-houses, - one for the north-central section, in the highway, near the north side of the Rev. Mr. Merriam's home-lot; the other, for the south-central section, on Cole's Hill, between " the mouth of the lane leading to the Water-Side" and the house of Ephraim Williams. The western people were also authorized to put up a school-house at their own expense.
Near the meeting-house certain individuals had at their own cost set up the frame for a new school-house. In 1773 the parish voted to
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take this frame at its just value for "one of the aforesaid school- houses." The votes of 1773 were not literally executed : for we find that the framework in question was, prior to 1779, placed on the tri- angular plot between the roads, near the present residence of Dr. Rufus W. Griswold. It came to be called the Middle school-house. In 1782 districts (three) were created for the first time in this parish. Dr. Griswold, who has examined the district records, concludes that a school-house, of brick, was built in 1782, for the North, or Third district. It stood on the east side of the road, nearly opposite to the old house now occupied by Jason Boardman, where its predecessor had stood. About the same time a new one was built for the South, or Sec- ond district, at the head of the road running westerly from and nearly opposite to its present brick school-house. The latter was built in 1849, to replace the former, which was removed to the north side of Hog Brook for a dwelling-house. In 1791 the Western district was created. Its first school-house, built then or earlier, was of wood, and stood in the road, a little south of the present brick building, which was built in 1850.
The Middle school-house, of wood, ceased to exist as such about 1800, when it was removed to the river-landing, to serve as a dwelling- house. It was again removed, in 1871, by the Connecticut Valley Railroad Company, to its present site on the Dividend road, between the burying-ground and Hog Brook. It was replaced by the present two-story brick building in the Centre. This interesting structure, built partly by means of voluntary subscriptions, caused the financial ruin of Abraham Jagger, the contractor. It was destroyed by fire in 1839, re- built on the old walls, and has remained in use ever since. Its two lower rooms are devoted to school purposes, and its upper one is the public hall of Rocky Hill.
The town established a " writing-school" in 1665, but we cannot say how long it continued. In 1734, and at various dates thereafter, until 1797, a " singing master " was employed by the town. Private schools have probably been kept in the village for more than a hun- dred years past. Frederick Butler, Esq., father of the late Chief Judge Thomas B. Butler, kept one in the academy building. He was the author of a History of the United States in three volumes, a Life of Washington, a Life of Lafayette, and other published works. One of the most noted schools was the Female Seminary, begun in 1824 by the Rev. Joseph Emerson, the author of several educational works. He died in 1833. His school was in the academy building.
The academy, or high school, building was built in 1802-1803. partly by private contributions and partly by the First School Society. The chief promoter of the enterprise was Colonel John Chester. The build- ing cost $3,294.52. A public high school was established in it in 1839, which existed, with occasional interruption. until 1850.
Since 1868 a free high school has been maintained in the academy building. Mr. J. O. Hurlburt, a native of East Hartford, has been the principal. It has the benefit of a fund of $6,000, given by Chauney Rose, of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1867, - a gentleman of wealth, and a native of Wethersfield.
In 1716-1717 the largest section of Yale College was in Wethersfield. President Clapp says: "The principal part of the students went to
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Wethersfield, and were under the instruction of Mr. Elisha Williams ; some went to other places, and some remained at Saybrook." During the year ending in September, 1717, the students were divided as fol- lows : at Wethersfield, fourteen : at New Haven, thirteen ; at Saybrook, four. Extra seats for their accommodation were set up in the meeting- house in 1716. Mr. Williams became the head of the institution at New Haven in 1725.
Among the first acts of the plantation was the securing for itself a corporate name. Until February, 1637, it called itself, both as plan- tation and as township, Watertown. The reason for this name is ap- parent. The first planters considered themselves still a part of the Massachusetts settlement whence they had emigrated; and in an ecclesiastical sense, perhaps they were so. At least one session of the General Court, that of September, 1636, was holden "at Watertown," on the Connecticut River. In the same month administration was granted upon the estate of the murdered Oldham there, it being the first instance of the settlement of an estate in the colony.
A new name, " Wythersfeild," was given to the plantation in Feb- ruary, 1636-7. The reason for selecting this title has never been satis- factorily explained. The word is said to mean " a slicep-field ; " but this can hardly be inferred from the old spellings of the English hamlet, upon the Pant, or Blackwater River, in Essex County. It may be found writ- ten Walperfeld, Whelperfield, Weddarsfield. Werchesfield, Weresfield, Westerfield, Witersfield, Wydersfeld, Wydrysfylde, etc. Some of the above would more nearly indicate a wolf-field than a wether-field. That there was no local reason why a name suggestive of flocks of sheep was adopted, is apparent from the fact that then there probably was not a sheep in the colony. What seems certain is, that the Wethersfield in Connecticut was named in honor of Wethersfield in England. In cer- tain physical aspects they resemble each other, especially as to soil ; but there is no such close likeness between the two places as to call for the naming of the later village from the earlier one. The writer suggests that John Clarke (or Clerke, as the name is written in some docu- ments), who was one of the pioneer settlers of the plantation, may have been the Dr. John Clerke who inherited the manor of Wethersfield about 1629, or his son or nephew. It was a nephew of the same Regnans Cheser name who succeeded to the inheritance. The Wothers- field (Conn.) John Clarke (who removed to Quinnipiac in 1638) was a very important man in the colony, and he may have had the naming of the township in 1637. Again, the wife of Leonard Chester is said by some to have been Mary, the daughter of Nicholas Sharpe; but Dr. Bond believes that she was Mary Nevill.1 If so, she probably was a descendant of Sir Hugh de Neville, "Lord of Wethersfield ;" and when the young "gentleman," Leonard Chester, and his wife made their home in the wilderness, where
I But see Savage's Genealogical Dictionary, and Leonard Chester's will, not known to Dr. Bond. - T.
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their first child, John, was born (probably the first white person born in the plantation ), the fee of part of the old Wethersfield still remained in the Neville family : and so new Wethersfield may have been John Prester named in honor of Mrs. Ches- ter. The reader can take these conjectures for what they are worth.
It is probable that among the first acts of the new settlement was the laying out of the public square, by the meeting-house. It included the land whereon stands the house of Levi Goodwin, lately deceased, the Deming house next north, the old Gershom Nott (now Shepardson) house southeast, and the Latimer (now Martin Griswold's) house ; also the area of part of the present burying-ground.
At about the same time home-lots were set out in the village plot, on both sides of Broad and High streets (as far north, on the latter, as the Common), the west side of Main Street (then called Rose Lane), the northeast side of Sandy Lane, the west side of Bell Lane, part of the north side of Fort (now Prison) Street, and Meadow Row, which adjoined the Common on the east. Broad Street has been made much narrower, especially at its north end, where several house- lots have since been sold by the town.
The next step, perhaps, was the setting out of the land in the Great Meadow, and on the Island, in severalty. Thirty-four men shared in these lands. The average area corresponded very nearly with that of the homesteads. Upland was next divided up, - that is, such as adjoined the village on the west : and here the rule was to give to each " proprietor " what was called a " four-fold " amount, based upon the number of acres each recipient had in the meadow. This was the minimum ; but many, by purchase of " rights," obtained much larger areas. These upland lots were probably assigned and defined in 1637 and 1638. There was a primary division of land into " Fields," of which there were four, - the Furthest West, the Little West, the Great West, and the South fields. The Furthest West field was bounded north by Hartford south line, east by the road to Hartford, south by the " road to the country " (now Jordan Lane), west by the ridge where the Wyllys Welles house is. It had one tier of lots, ranging north and south. The Little West field was a tier of lots, ranging north and south, on the south side of Jordan Lane. The Great West field was bounded north by the Little West field; east by the road to Hartford in part, and partly by the homesteads on the west sides of Main Street and Bell Lane, the "path to the mill," and the South field ; west by the Wilderness. It contained one tier of lots, ranging east and west, and being each one and one half miles long. Its far- thest lot south was that of Leonard Chester, where the grist-mill is. The South field was bounded north in part by the Great Plain, the village-plot, and the Great West field : east by Fearful Swamp and the lower meadow. It seems to have included land to the south and west to an indefinite extent in the Wilderness. The " lots " were taken up later in this field than in the others mentioned.
In 1639 there was a general division of lands called the Nanbuc Farms, on the east side of the river, beginning at Hartford's south line
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north, and extending south as far as the vicinity of Roaring Brook. The lots were each three miles long, east and west. The writer has prepared a list of the original holders of these long lots, but lack of space compels its omission here. Some received very large tracts. Clement Chaplin had 1,200 acres ; William Swayne, Gentleman, had 435 acres, which afterward became Governor Thomas Welles's; Leon- ard Chester had 432 acres : Matthew Mitchell had 900 acres.
Between this time and 1670 there were laid out most of the lands in the Great. Beaver, and Mile meadows, Fearful Swamp, West Swamp (now Hog Meadows), the South Field far toward Rocky Hill, besides additional homesteads. About 1650 the road to Mattabesett, through the east side of Rocky Hill, had been opened through the woods.
In 1670 there was a general allotment of land in the strip one mile wide, adjoining Farmington on the west. This strip afterward took the name of the Mile-in-Breadth. It was divided among such of the householders of Wethersfield as lived on the west side of the river. Each received a lot of fifty-two acres. There were seventy-six "house- holders " at this time : some of whom, or their sons, removed to the Mile-in-Breadth, and thus came to be called the West Farmers.
In 1673 the Five-Mile or Indian Purchase was obtained, it being the tract of thirty or more square miles described in an earlier part of this sketch. One hundred and fourteen "inhabitants " were taxed to pay for this great tract, comprising some five eighths of the present township of Glastonbury. Prior to this some few Wethersfield people had built and occupied houses on the east side of the river. Thomas Edwards, son of John, the settler, was living at Hoccanum (in Weth- ersfield) in 1650, - perhaps in 1648, - and he had Samuel Gardner for a neighbor. Down by Roaring Brook, at Nayaug, Matthew Mitchell had a cow-pen in 1639; and he had a tenant living there in a " cave- cellar " (a common form of a "house" in those days) to care for his kine. These we estimate to have been the first settlers of Glastonbury ; but John Hollister, Jr., soon went from Wethersfield village to Nayaug. In Beckley Quarter, Sergeant Richard Beckley had obtained and was living upon his tract of three hundred acres there, bought from the Indians, in 1668.
At Rocky Hill, Thomas Williams became a settler about 1670; as did Joseph Edwards and Joseph Smith, also. John Williams, son of Thomas, had a house on the east side of the way to Bulkeley's mill (at Dividend) in 1684; and he may have built it earlier, for he had received the land from his father several years before. Phillip Goffe's house had been built as early as 1655 ; but this was nearer to Wethers- field village than to the centre of Rocky Hill. Home-lots were taken in Rocky Hill at an earlier date than at Newington, - one, Samuel Boardman, Junior's, as early as 1655. All early settlers at Rocky Hill went from Wethersfield proper.
At the West Farms, afterward known as Newington, house-lots were taken up in the vicinity of the saw-mill, in Pipe-stave Swamp, by Joseph Andrus (or Andrews), John Slead (or Slade), and Samuel Hunn, between 1682 and 1684. Ezekiel Buck, son of Emanuel, went thither.
In 1695 another, probably the fourth, general allotment of lands was made. In this case the town-lands were apportioned among the
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resident tax-pavers in the ratio of half an acre per pound of tax as- sessed to each on the list of 1693. Five tiers of lots were made. One, of thirty-eight lots, was made adjoining Middletown north line, the road to that place bounding it east and the Mattabesett River west. The second tier lay next north, a twenty-rod highway separating the two. This contained lots 39 to 78 inclusive. The third one, contain- ing lots from 79 to 87 inclusive, was on the north side of what is now Jordan Lane, continued. Hartford bounded it north, the Stedman homestead (Lieutenant John) east, the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge's farm, in Newington, west. The fourth tier was at Cow Plain, afterward Newington. It contained lots numbered from 88 to 126 inclusive ; it being bounded north by the third tier just described, cast by undivided lands along the west slope of Cedar Mountain range, south by Middle- town, west by the half-mile-wide common. The fifth tier, with lots 127 to 165 inclusive, lay next north of the second one, a ten-rod high- way separating it therefrom. In 1754 another and final distribution of undivided lands was made. It was voted by a meeting of " pro- prietors," in accordance with the then recent construction of the law relating to the division of the public lands. Of these there were four hundred and thirty-six ; and the great residue of the publie do- main was given to them in the proportion of one acre of land for each £37 upon the tax-list of the recipient. This apportionment exhausted not only the " undivided lands," but also the commons, or publie pas- tures for cattle and sheep.
Within ten years after the settlement of Wethersfield was begun, Broad, High, Main (at first Rose Lane and Bell Lane combined), Fort (now State or Prison), Short (now Marsh) streets, and the street lead- ing to Hartford by Sandy Lane, were laid out by the town for public travel. So also were Fletcher Lane (connecting Main with the middle of Broad Street), Watering Lane (now Back Lane or Garden Street), Jordan Lane (then the "road to the country "), Mud Lane (then the " path to the mill "), the Plain Lane, Carpenter's Lane (running southeast from Broad Street), and several roads in the Great or Upper Meadow ; also a road the length of the Island. These, like most of those afterward laid out, were taken from land belonging to the town itself, and not from private owners. The fee of the soil of such roads still remains in the town. The road to Rocky Hill, at the foot of the eastern slope of the elevation to which the place owes its name, was opened in 1650. This was part of the first road to Mattabesett ; but in 1661 another road, up and over the hill, existed, as far at least as Dividend.
In 1671 was laid out the first road in Newington, then called the West Farms. It was eight rods wide, extending east and west across the Mile-in-Breadth. It went west from the corner south of the homestead now or lately of J. S. Rowley. The old road to New Haven, via West Rocky Hill, was established in 1673. In the same year a road up the hill, northwesterly from Rocky Hill landing, was provided.
At Naubuc Mr. Nathaniel Foote, about 1640, reserved a roadway two rods wide through his three-mile lot. In 1674, by order of the General Court, a highway across the Naubuc lots, eight rods in width, was laid out, -from Hartford on the north to Nayaug, now South
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Glastonbury, on the south. This was the first road of importance laid ont across private lands. New London road is first mentioned in 1674. The Saw-Mill Path, being the road from Wethersfield to Pipe- stave Swamp (now northern Newington) through what is Welles Quarter, is mentioned in 1680, two years after the setting up of the saw-mill which gave it its name. In this same year the middle road to Rocky Hill was laid out. In 1686 Windmill (or Wolcott) Hill road, was laid out, across the tier of one-and-one-half-mile lots, which com- posed the Great West field. The General Court ordered the opening of this road, which was the first one on the west side of the river not opened by the town itself. In 1684 the town directed the lay-out of the road from Nayaug to Middletown, along the east bank of the river. The long north-and-south road in Newington, about a mile east of Farm- ington line, was laid out in 1686. It was twelve rods wide. Many of the roads opened prior to 1690 have not been noticed here, for want of space. The main road, north and south, through Newington, originally twelve rods wide, was reserved from the town lands at the time of the allotment of 1694-1695. The macadamizing of most of the main thoroughfare has been effected within the past ten years. The first arched bridge of stone was that known as the "Folly," built in 1846.
Ont of the great body of wilderness sections were set apart as " stated commons," usually commons of pasture for cattle or sheep, - swine being allowed to run in the wilderness. But the earliest " stated common " in Wethersfield, probably established in the first year of the settlement, was destined not for pasturage merely, but also as a com- mon for fishery, turbary, and as a public landing-place or water-side. It was originally bounded by the river (now the cove) on the north ; Meadow Row (upper end of High Street), east ; the tier of home-lots on the north side of Fort Street, south ; and the bend in the river, and Pennywise, west. A remnant of it still exists as town-land, and the vicinity retains its old title of the Common.
In the early years of the settlement the cattle were placed under charge of herders, or cow-keepers. Richard Belden was chosen by the town in 1647 as its herder, and he was required to care for twelve- score of cows and oxen. He was allowed to depasture them in the wilderness. In 1648 four cow-keepers were placed in charge of the " towne heards." They were particularly enjoined to guard them from the wolves. The herders went from house to house blowing a horn, and upon this warning the people turned out their cattle to them. There were two herds: one of which was kept "toward Hartford bonnds," and the other below the South Field, in Rocky Hill.
In 1674 a common of one thousand acres was established at Rocky Hill, for sheep and cattle. At this time there were shepherds chosen by the town. Sergeant John Kilbourn and Mr. Josiah Willard held this office in 1674. In 1683 a common, bounded northerly by the " short lots" on the south side of Jordan Lane, easterly by the ridge next west of Wolcott Hill, southerly by the Collier Road, west by Hog Meadows, was established. In 1686 it was enlarged on the west side by extension to Cedar Mountain, so as to make it amount to twelve hun- dred acres. This was for both sheep and cattle. In 1694 the last common was established. It was six miles in length and half a mile in breadth ; bounded north by Hartford, east by a tier of lots on the
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