USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 57
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In reluctantly closing this imperfect sketch, the writer must express his obligations to those who have aided him in his task. Among these should be mentioned Mr. Charles J. Hoadly, to whom all local historians have or ought to have recourse ; also Dr. Rufus W. Griswold and Mr. Charles Williams, both of Rocky Hill ; Mrs. Mary D. MeLean, of Weth- ersfield ; and Mr. Galpin, the town clerk of the same place.
S.M.Arany
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PA
CONNECTICUT STATE PRISON AT WETHERSFIELD.
XXVI.
ROCKY HILL.
BY SHERMAN W. ADAMS.
THIS township was incorporated in May, 1843, at which time its boundary-lines were defined substantially as follows : Begin- ning at the Connecticut River ; thence extending due west to a button-ball tree in the fence on the east side of the highway about two rods north of Goffe's Bridge; thence to the Four Corners, so called (where the road from Griswoldville to Rocky Hill crosses the old road from Berlin to Hartford), intersecting the northeast angle ; thence along the east side of said old road to the Hang-dog road, so called, on which [Amos] Benson resides ; thence, westerly, par- allel with two-rod highway, to twenty-rod highway, to a point three degrees north of east of the monument, in the northeast corner of Berlin ; thence, westerly, to said monument ; all the Wethersfield terri- tory south and cast of this line. As thus laid out. the new township was bounded north by Wethersfield (now partly by Newington), east by the river, south by Middletown (now Cromwell), west by Berlin and Wethersfield (now partly by Newington). Its greatest length, cast and west, is about four and a half miles, and its greatest breadth, north and south, about three and a quarter miles. It embraced the old parish of Stepney, and its subsequent enlargements.
The first representative sent by this town to the legislature, in 1844, was Roderick Grimes. In 1852 it contributed one of the sena- tors to that body, - General James T. Pratt. The same gentleman was a representative to Congress, 1853-1855.
The topographical and physical features of this section have been mentioned under the title of " Wethersfield." To these we may add, that good specimens of slate are found here, associated with anthracite in small quantities. A fine red carth, known and sold to burnishers as " polishing-grit," is found here in large deposits. Fossil fishes are im- bedded in the strata of slate rock. The latter is described in Dr. Per- cival's Report, in 1842, as "a large bed of bituminous shale, containing fish impressions, and recently excavated for coal."
Down to the date of the existence of Rocky Hill as a separate town- ship it has been treated as a part of Wethersfield, excepting as to its ecclesiastical history. It remains, however, to narrate briefly the story of the rise and progress of the parish, out of which grew the township. In December, 1720, certain people at Rocky Hill, namely, Thomas Williams, Sr., Joseph Butler, Jonathan Smith, John Goodrich, Samuel Belden, John, Stephen, and Joseph Riley, William Nott, Stephen Williams, Joseph Cole, John Taylor, Richard Butler,
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Elihn Dickinson, Jonathan Curtis, Samuel Collins, Thomas Good- rich, Jonathan and Jacob Riley, Joseph Crowfoot, Gideon Goodrich, Samuel Smith, and Abraham Morris, set in motion a project for separate worship there. In the following year they petitioned the town for its sanction of the movement. In March, 1722, the town voted favorably. At its May session, 1722, the General Assembly in- corporated the parish, and fixed its bounds substantially as follows : Connecticut River and Beaver Brook on the east ; a line due east and west from Samuel Dix's (now Russell Adams's) corner to the rear of Peter Blinn's home-lot, north ; the rear of the lots on the west side of the main road to Middletown, west, in part ; and partly by the west ends of the three southernmost cast-and-west tiers of lots; south by Middletown. Upon the application of Joseph Grimes, Jonathan Curtis, and Benjamin Wright, a committee to select a site for a meeting- house was chosen at the same session. In May, 1723, the new parish was christened Lexington, in honor, as the writer believes, of Joseph Grimes, who was probably a native of Lexington, Mass. However, this name was, at the very same session, dropped (Grimes himself being one of those who requested the change), and that of Stepney substituted therefor. The reason assigned was, that another Lexington existed in Massachusetts.
Why Stepney, the name of a borough now in the Tower Hamlets in the east suburb of London, was the name finally chosen, the writer has never heard suggested. It was anciently written Stibenhede, or Steben-hythe, and meant, as is conjectured, a stowage-haven.
Stepney parish was enlarged in 1759 by the extension of its east line to the river and its north line to the New Haven road. On the west it was made to include a part of Kensington parish. In 1794 Stepney contributed some of its territory to Worthington parish, which had been created in 1772. Minor changes were effected in 1823, 1829, and 1847, which we cannot detail here. In 1826 the legisla- ture substituted the name Rocky ITill for Stepney.
In 1720 Thomas Williams, Sr., Jonathan Curtis, and others, "in- habitants of Rocky Hill," desiring ecclesiastical autonomy, asked the town for sixty acres of land for " church use." The town gave the land ; it being northerly from the " stone-pit " and south of Cold Spring. Eight acres, for a parsonage, was granted at the same time. These tracts were on the south side of the road leading from Gris- woldville to Rocky Hill. The meeting-house was probably built, or begun, the same year. It was completed, excepting its pulpit, prior to 1726. It was a two-story structure, of wood ; and it stood in the highway, in front of the present site of Wait Warner's barn. Pews were put in, from time to time, until 1730. In 1732 galleries were built. Its ceiling was plastered for the first time in 1769 or 1770. The meetings, for many years, were convoked by beat of drum. In 1808 the old building was sold at auction and demolished.
In July, 1726, occurred the installation of Stepney's first settled minister. He was the Rev. Daniel Russell, a son of the Rev. Noadiah Russell, of Middletown, who was one of the founders of Yale College and one of the authors of the Saybrook Platform. Mr. Russell con- tinned in the pastoral charge until his death, Sept. 6, 1764.
The Rev. Burrage Merriam (a native of Meriden ?) was installed in
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ROCKY HILL.
February, 1765. He occupied the house now Mrs. Webster Warner's. Ilis ministry closed with his death, Nov. 30, 1776. He was succeeded, Jan. 30, 1781, by the Rev. John Lewis, of Southington, a tutor at Yale College. His wife was Mary, a daughter of Colonel Leverett Hubbard, of New Haven. He built the house afterward occupied by Dr. Chapin. He died April 28, 1792.
The next minister was the Rev. Calvin Chapin, D.D. He was a native of Springfield, Mass. ; was graduated at Yale College in 1788; studied theology with the Rev. Na- than Perkins, D.D., of West Hart- ford ; was licensed to preach in 1791; Calvin Chapin. 9.8. a tutor at Yale College until 1794, and had the educational charge of Jeremiah Day, afterward its presi- dent. He was installed at Stepney, April 30, 1794. He preached there until Thanksgiving Day, 1847. His office closed with his death, in March, 1851.
The late Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., of Farmington, said of Dr. Chapin: " He was distinguished for exactness, enterprise, and humor, and a constant interest in all Christian and benevolent enterprises." From its organization, in 1810, until his death, he was Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. In 1826, as " Missionary," he made the tour of the Western Reserve, Ohio; publishing a pamphlet giving the results of his observation. When the Connecticut State Temperance Society was organized, in 1829, he was made chairman of its executive committee. As a humorist he was keen, kind, and incisive.
It was during Dr. Chapin's ministry, in 1808, that the present Con- gregational meeting-house was built. It was sixty by fifty feet in size, and modelled like that at Middletown. It was dedicated on the 22d of September. Originally its seats were pews ; these were removed in 1830 and 1842, and slips substituted. The bell and clock were pro- vided in 1835. In 1843 the spire was taken down, leaving the present tower. Some of the timber of the first meeting-house was incorporated in the present dwelling-house of Mr. Samuel Dimock.
The Rev. J. Burton Rockwell succeeded to Dr. Chapin in July, 1850, and preached about nine years. He was succeeded by the Rev. George Muir Smith, a native of Scotland, from April, 1859, until June, 1863. The Rev. Henry Ford, of Binghamton, was acting pastor for about three years next succeeding, when, Nov. 6, 1867, the Rev. Merrick Knight was installed, and continued in office until March, 1872. The Rev. William P. Fisher, a native of Canada, was settled as Mr. Knight's successor. He continued until 1878, when he accepted a call to Bruns- wick, Maine. Since his dismissal the pulpit has been occupied suc- cessively by the Rev's Samuel Y. Lum, William Miller, and Charles L. Ayer, the present incumbent. In 1843 the membership of this church was as high as two hundred and twenty-four in number ; and in 1870 as low as one hundred and fourteen.
Services by Methodists were first held at the Centre in 1843. The meetings were in the old " store" once Archibald Robbins's (one of the crew of the famous brig " Commerce "), which had been removed to a point a few feet north of the present Methodist church. The Rev. H. T. Gerald was the preacher. In 1859 the " store " meeting-house was sold to James Warner, upon whose homestead it now stands ; and
496
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
a house of worship, the one now in use, was built. The Rev. John Lovejoy began preaching in 1844, and continued several years. Since his time the pulpit has been supplied mainly by preachers assigned by the Conference, or hired temporarily, or by students from Wesleyan University.
In 1843 the Methodists at West Rocky Hill built a modest little temple for that section ; the Rev. B. Redford preached therein in 1844. Since his term the pulpit has been supplied, with some intermissions, in the same way as that at the Centre.
Services according to the form of the Roman Church were first held, about ten years ago, at the hall in the Centre school-house, mass being said by the Rev. John Ryan, of Cromwell parish. In 1879 a church edifice was begun, and in 1881 it was, for the first time, ocenpied.
Some effort was made, about 1815, to organize a Baptist Society ; but the project failed. A little later, John Marsh, of Hartford, used to conduct services for a few Universalists. He ceased after 1822. In 1876 efforts were made to revive this latter organization, but without success.
There are four school-houses in the township. The history of these has been given in our account of such buildings in Wethersfield.
The shipping, commerce, public works, societies, and institutions of Rocky Ifill have been alluded to in our sketch of Wethersfield ; so have its mills, manufactories, and industries, so far as they ante- date its incorporation as a town. Subsequent to that date the manu- facture of "champagne cider" was carried on for some years in the buildings earlier the carriage-works of Neff & Merriam and the foundry of Robert Sugden & Co. In 1879 Amos Whitney and Charles E. Billings, both of Hartford, purchased the old edge-tool works, at Divi- dend, from General Leonard R. Welles, and the works are now owned by said Billings. In these and a new building constructed the present year the Billings & Edwards Co. are manufacturing machinery. Close by the steamboat landing a manufactory was built, in 1881, for Hart & Co., who began to make shelf hardware. The Pierce Hardware Company, with a capital stock of $40,000, is now in the same estab- lishment, making hollow hardware. But the leading occupation of Rocky Hill people is agricultural, and their productions are much the same as those of the parent township.
In the War of the Rebellion, Rocky Hill, as it appears from the rolls of the Adjutant-General's office, contributed one hundred and ten sol- diers to the Union army. Of these, six were blacks. The number reported to have died in the service was twelve.
In conclusion, it may be truly said that a view of this place, looking westward from the river, will satisfy the observer that here is one of the most agreeably picturesque villages in New England, and one that naturally affords opportunity for development to a much larger com- munity. It is also, at times, the head of sloop navigation of the river upon which it is situated.
XXVII.
WINDSOR.
GENERAL HISTORY.
BY THE REV. REVEL HI. TUTTLE.
D URING the year 1631, Wahginnacut, an Indian sachem from the Connecticut River, visited the governors of Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies, in order to induce emigration to the Con- necticut valley from both these colonies. He pleaded as an inducement the fruitfulness of the country, the opportunity for trade in such com- modities as corn, and the skins of the beaver and otter; and he pledged an annual present of a full supply of corn and eighty beaver- skins to the Englishmen who would settle in the valley. Governor Winthrop courteously declined the proposition, but Governor Wins- low, of Plymouth, consented to go and view the savage paradise. His visit must have been satisfactory, for he called himself the " dis- coverer" of the river and the valley ;1 and his favorable account no doubt incited the ardor of other explorers who soon followed. The earnest solicitation of the Indian sachem may be accounted for in the fact that the river Indians were distressed and alarmed because Pekoath, the great sachem of the Pequots, had made war with them and was driving them from the country. The assistance of an English settlement was desired, therefore, as a protection and defence against their powerful enemies. The Plymouth people, notwithstanding the refusal of the Massachusetts colony to unite with them, determined to form a trading-company and to establish a trading-post. In September, 1633, John Oldham and three others from Dorchester made the journey to the Connecticut through the wilderness. The native chiefs showed him kindness and made him presents, and he carried back with him to Dorchester specimens of black lead and Indian hemp. William Holmes was selected by the governor of Plymouth to build a trading-house in Windsor. With this commission, in the latter part of October, in "a large new bark," with a daring and adventurous crew, he set sail for
1 The first discovery of the Connecticut was in 1614, six years before the settlement at Plymouth. The foremost enterprising discoverers at that time were the three Dutch naviga- tors, Hendrick Christaensen, Adriaen Block, and Cornelis Jacobsen Mey. Block spent the winter of 1613-1614 on Manhattan Island, in building a yacht of sixteen tons, which he named "Onrust " (Restless), to take the place of his ship, the "Tiger," which had accidentally been burned. In the spring he sailed eastward, passing through the rapids of Hell Gate in the East River, explored Long Island Sound from end to end, and discovered and entered the Quonehtac- ent, or Connecticut, River. He ascended this stream as high as 41º 48', where he found an Indian village, or fort, belonging to the Nawaas, and named the stream Fresh River. The fort of the Nawaas was probably situated near what is now called Wilson Station, about midway between Windsor and Hartford. - Dr. O'CALLAGHAN's History of New Netherlands, vol. i. p. 73.
VOL. II .- 32.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
the mouth of the Connecticut. He took with him the frame of the trading-house all fitted, and all the materials which would be required to complete it. He had on board Nattawanut and other Indian sachems, who afterward sold the land to the Plymouth people. He passed up the river without opposition until he came to the Dutch fort at Hartford, where two pieces of ordnance were brought to bear upon him, and he was ordered by the garrison " to strike his colors, or they would fire upon him."
The threat was not carried into execution. Holmes said he had the commission of the governor of Plymouth to go up the river, and he should go. The Dutch suffered him to sail by, and after proceeding a . few miles he erected his trading-house near the mouth of the Tunxis (or Farmington) River. "This," says Governor Wolcott, " was the first house erected in Connecticut." The point near where Holmes landed is now occupied by a fishing-hut, and is called by the boatmen on the river Old Point Comfort; I and the meadow lying in the vicinity of where the house stood is still called Plymouth Meadow.
The Dutch governor at Fort Amsterdam, Wouter van Twiller, sent a reinforcement to Connecticut in order to drive Hohes from his posi- tion. Seventy men with banners spread were prepared to assault the Plymouth house ; but, reluctant to shed blood, and finding that it could not be taken without, they came to a parley, and concluded to retreat.2 " We did the Dutch no wrong, for we took not a foot of any land they bought, but went above them and bought that tract of land which be- longed to the Indians we carried with us, and our friends, with whom the Dutch had nothing to do." The Dutch made no further demonstra- tions against the Plymouth house. In 1633 the small-pox broke out among the Indians, and in consequence Hall and two others from Mas- sachusetts, who visited Connecticut in November of that year to trade, were obliged to return the following January. The Indians about the trading-house fell victims to this disease, and Nattawanut, the chief sachem, died therefrom. But " not one of the English was so much as sick, or in the least measure tainted with this disease." 3
In June, 1635, the pioneers of the Dorchester company came to Connecticut and prepared to settle near the Plymouth trading-house, much to the surprise of Holmes and his party. After remaining here awhile they made explorations up the river, and on their return they found that other claimants had arrived. These were Mr. Francis Stiles and his twenty men,4 who had been sent out in a vessel by Sir Richard
1 Stiles's History of Windsor, p. 12, note ; Barber's Historical Collections, p. 125.
2 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 153; O'Callaghan, vol. i. p. 155.
3 Bradford's Journal.
4 The following is a full list of names of the Stiles party who settled near the Chief Justice Ellsworth place. Three of these were females, and tradition has it that Rachel, wife of John Stiles, was the first woman who stepped ashore in Windsor.
Francis Stiles, aged 35 years. Joan Stiles, aged 35 years. 3 66
Thomas Bassett, 66 37 66
Henry Stiles,
Geo. Chappel, 66 20 66 Thomas Stiles, 20 66
Thomas Barber, $6
66
21 Ed. Patteson, 66 33
28 Jo. Stiles, 66 35 Jo. Dyer, 66
Jo. Reeves, 66
Henry Stiles, 66
40 66
19 66 Thos. Cooper, 66
John Stiles, 66 9 months.
Ed. Preston, 66
18 13 66
Rachel Stiles,
28 years.
66
The Stiles party shared with the Dorchester men in the first distribution of land in 1640, when all the land on the road from the Little or Tunxis River "to Wm. Hayden's lot " (Hayden
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WINDSOR.
Saltonstall. In this conflict of claims Stiles was at length thwarted, and he removed his stores to a place near where the residence of the late Chief Justice Ellsworth was built. The Dorchester party and the Ply- mouth people now held the land in dispute. The latter claimed the prior right of purchase and occupation, and the former relied upon the tender mercies of God's providence. The Dorchester men therefore continued to prepare and improve this " Lord's waste " of Matianuck (Windsor) as the future abode of themselves and their children. The main body of the Dorchester people followed on the 15th of October, 1635. Their household goods and provisions were sent around by water, and sixty persons, among whom were women and little children, began the slow · and wearisome journey through the wilderness to the distant settlement. They drove their cattle, horses, and swine before them, and the frosts and snows of winter were hard upon them ere they reached their destination. The river was frozen over by the 15th of November, and the vessel containing their goods had not arrived. The winter which followed was marked by great suffering. They had insufficient shelter for themselves and their animals, and they could get but part of the latter across the river. On the 26th of November thirteen of the num- ber resolved to return to Massachusetts. One of them fell through the ice and was drowned ; the rest reached Dorchester in ten days. Those who remained in Connecticut suffered extreme destitution, being obliged to live on acorns, malt, and grains. Winthrop tells us that they lost nearly £2.000 worth of cattle. Most of this first party returned to Dorchester in the small vessel " Rebecca," which had providentially ap- peared. But, nothing daunted, in the spring of 1636 they set out again with Mr. Warham, the junior pastor of the church, and a large part of its members. With those from Dorchester there came others from Cambridge and Watertown. Matiannek was first called Dorchester. In February, 1637, the name was changed to Windsor.1 Notwithstand- ing the efforts of the colonial government to discourage emigration, it did not cease until 1637.
For several years after the settlement of Windsor the people were harassed with wars. They enclosed themselves within their fortress or palisade, and at all times, night or day, whether laboring in the fields or wending their way to the sanctuary, were armed and prepared to encounter the secret foe. The original boundaries2 of the town were abont forty-six miles in circumference, lying on both sides of the Con- nectient River, and extending from Simsbury to the Ellington Hills. Ten distinct tribes were said to be within the limits of the town, and about the year 1670 it was estimated that there were nineteen Indians to one Englishman.3 This estimate is shown by Dr. Stiles to be much exaggerated. The whole number of Indians within the present limits
Station ) was laid out into home-lots. The claim that Stiles and his party arrived before the Dorchester people has been questioned. The first that we know of the Massachusetts settlers at Windsor is from Jonathan Brewster's letter, dated Matianuck, July 6, 1635, in which he states that the Massachusetts men were arriving almost daily, and he thinks they intended to settle; though he does not call them Dorchester men, as those settling at Windsor were afterward designated. Stiles and his party were sent from Boston June 26, 1635, and he evidently had not arrived when Brewster wrote, July 6 of the same year. - JABEZ II. HAYDEN, in " Hartford Courant " of Sept. 26, 1883.
1 Colonial Records, vol. i. p. 7.
" East Windsor was organized as a distinct town in 1768. Ellington was organized in 1786.
3 Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. i. pp. 158, 159.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
of Windsor probably did not exceed three hundred, and all within the original bounds 1 did not exceed one thousand. But it is evident that they were sufficiently numerous to require constant vigilance on the part of the early settlers. About the year 1646 the Windsor Indians did the inhabitants much damage by burning up large quantities of their personal property ; and three years before, when a general insur- rection of the Indians against the English was apprehended, in every town the people were obliged to keep watch and ward every night, from sunset to sunrise. The Indians of Windsor were generally peaceable and friendly ; for it had been their purpose at the outset, in asking the English to come among them, to insure their friendship and protection against the Pequots and the Mohawks, who held them in subjection. But a wise caution and vigilance became necessary. The first court, of which Roger Ludlow was a member, had ordered that the people should not sell arms and ammunition to the Indians. In subsequent regulations cider, beer, and strong liquors were prohibited from being sold, because it would be " to the hazard of the lives and peace both of the English and the Indians." The greatest number of Indians were on the east side of the Connecticut River, and they were called Podunks ; but all the different clans who lived on either bank of the Connecticut were called River Indians. In the wars which subsequently followed, Windsor bore her full share of the burden and the trial.
At the court, when the name Windsor was given to the Dorchester settlement, the boundaries were defined as follows in the Colonial Records : -
At a Court held, February 21, 1637, " It is ordered yt the plantacon called Dorchester shalbee called Windsor," and at the same court " It is ordered that the plantacon nowe called Newtowne shalbe called and named by the name of Harteford Towne." A committee previously appointed reported that the bounds of Windsor " shall extend towards the Falls on the same side the planta- tion stands to a brooke called Kittle Brooke, and soe over the Greate River uppon the same line that New Towne and Dorchester doth betweene them." It was or- dered by the court that " The boundes betweene Harteford & Windsor is agreed to be att the ypper end of the greate meadowe of the saide Harteford toward Windsor att the Pale that is nowe there sett vpp by the saide Harteford wch is abuttinge vppon the great River vppon a due east line & into the Countrey from the saide Pale vppon a due west line as paralell to the saide east line as farr as they have now paled & afterward the boundes to goe into the Countrey vppon the same west line. But it is to be soe much shorter towards Windsor as the place where the Girte that comes along att th' end of the saide meadowe & falls into the saide greate River is shorter then their Pale & over the saide greate Riner the saide Plantacon of Windsor is to come to the Riveretts mouth that falls into the saide greate River of Conectecott and there the saide Harteford is to runn due east into the Countrey." 2
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