USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
509
WINDSOR.
Dec. 13, 1658, Provision was "made upon the top of the meeting house, from the Lanthorne to the ridge of the house, to walk conveniently, to sound a trumpet or drum to give warning to meetings."
We have seen that the early settlers were from necessity accus- tomed to the use of arms. The town of Windsor was called upon and promptly responded in all the earlier and later military expeditions. We have already remarked upon their hardships and privations, their operations offensive and defensive, in the Pequot War. Scattered throughout the town records are frequent references to their mili- tary organizations. In 1643, when there was fear of a general insurrection of the Indians against the English, the people were obliged to keep watch and ward every night, from sunset to sunrise. There was another general alarm in 1653, consequent upon the hostilities between the Dutch and the English, when it was feared the Indians would be incited to a general insurrection. The United Colonies ordered that five hundred men should be raised out of the four colonies. Connecti- cut's portion of these was sixty-six, of whom twelve were from the town of Windsor. The origin of " Gen- eral Training-day " may be traced to the order of the Court on the 8th of September of this year : -
" The Court doth grant the soldiers of these four towns on the River [Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, and Middle- town] and Farmington one day for a General Training to- gether - and they have liberty to send to Captain Mason to desire his presence, and to give him a call to command in chief, and to appoint the day ; provided that each town shall have power to reserve a guard at home, for the safety of the towns, as occasion shall serve."
In 1637 Captain Mason had been appointed public military officer to train the military in each plantation.1 It was on training-day, when the people were assem- bled, that the town business was generally transacted. March 11, 1657-8, was first organized a troop of horse, under Major Mason. They were thirty-seven in num- ber, and seventeen were from Windsor. For four years the troopers met at some place of general rendezvous ; but in 1662 they were allowed to train in the towns to which they belonged, but were regarded as "one entire Troop, consisting of several parts, who are to unite and attend the General Training as one entire body of horse." The General Assembly at Hartford, Oct. 10, 1667, decreed as follows : -
" The inhabitants of Windsor having improved themselves in building a fort, this Court, for their encouragement, doth release the Train soldiers of Windsor two days of their training this Michael Tide, and one day in the Spring."
1 Colonial Records, vol. i. p. 15.
flaxchig: 1684 The townmon wave forms lead. was at John &figliyes house Grat wayEd 524 pounds LEmo over it to Return Strongs.
510
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
This is supposed to have been the Old Stone Fort, or Stoughton house, nearly opposite the residence of the late Lemuel Welch, which was pulled down about the year 1809. Of what constituted the mili- tary supplies in 1669-1670, the Windsor recorder certified at Court " that they had 300 lbs. of Powder and 700 lbs. of lead for their town stock."
In 1675, at the breaking out of King Philip's War, we find Windsor partaking of the general consternation lest the New England tribes should band together against the whites. To the prosecution of the war the town contributed her full proportion of troops, having sent at the different levies about one hundred and twenty-five. Captain Ben- jamin Newberry commanded the Hartford County troops sent to the defence of New London and Stonington. Again the Council ordered the night watch, and " that one fourth part of each town be in arms every day by turns. . . . It is also ordered, that, during these present commotions with the Indians, such persons as have occasion to work in the fields, shall work in companies; if they be half a mile from town, not less than six in a company, with their arms and ammunition well fixed and fitted for service." Scouting-parties were sent out con- tinually for the prevention of danger to travellers upon the roads be- tween town and town. Sergeant Joseph Wadsworth, of Hartford, and John Grant, of Windsor, were ordered to proceed to Westfield and Springfield, each commanding twenty men. Of two hundred bushels of wheat to be ground and baked into biscuit, ordered on the 28th of September for the supply of the army, Windsor was to furnish fifty bushels.
At this period all the towns were ordered to be fortified, and the weak and remote settlements of the colony to be protected. The United Colonies decided to attack the Narragansetts, who had been persuaded by the arts of Philip, and raised an army of a thousand men to attack them in their principal fort in the winter. Connecticut sent as her quota three hundred Englishmen and one hundred and fifty Mohegan and Pequot Indians, in five companies, under charge of Captains See- ley, Gallup, Mason, Watts, and Marshall, of Windsor. In that bold stroke against the Narragansetts the Connecticut troops turned the tide of battle. Windsor had her names upon the roll of honor. Cap- tain John Mason, a son of the hero of the Pequot War received a wound that proved to be mortal. He died
Samuel maxphares
within a year after. Captain
Samuel
Mar-
shall was killed " as he ascended the tree before the log-house." Edward Chapman, Nathaniel Pond, Richard Saxton, and Ebenezer Dibble received wounds from which they died.
In February, 1675-6, the Indians were so troublesome and threat- ening on the east side of the river that the inhabitants were obliged either to establish garrisons into which were brought all their cattle and provisions, or to convey the same over to the west side. In the Cana- dian campaign, in 1709, Captain Matthew Allyn was in command of a company from Windsor ; and we find him writing to his wife from the camp at Wood Creek, that he himself, " Tim Phelps, Obadiah Owen,
511
WINDSOR.
Nat. Taylor, and Bartlett are sick, Taylor the worst." 1 In Timothy Loomis's manuscripts occurs the following record : -
" The Training Day they had throughout the Colonies to press soulders to go take Canada was the 6th of July, 1711. There went out of Col. Allyn's com- pany seven. The names are as follows : Joseph Holcomb, Thomas Gillett, Ben- jamin Howard, Benj. Barber, Benedict Alvord, Ebenezer Cook, Nathan Griswold. They set away from Windsor, July 10, 1711. They returned to Windsor againe Oct. 12, 1711."
Captain Moses Dimond's company in the same service had five Windsor men, - Lieutenant Samuel Bancroft, Nathaniel Griswold, Joseph Griswold, Sergeant Na- thaniel Pinney, Isaac Pinney.
Pretum Strony
In the futile and disastrous war against the Spanish West Indies, three thousand four hundred men died in two days. Of the one thousand from New England there were Dathis Hayden scarcely a hundred survivors. Though few perished by the enemy, it is computed that from the first attack on Car- thagena to the arrival of the fleet at Jamaica in 1741, twenty thousand of the English had died. There were Windsor men in this calamitous expedi- Roger-Newberry tion. In Captain Allyn's company for Cuba volun- teered Thomas Elgar, Alexander Alvord, Cyrus Jackson, Asahel Spen- cer, Aaron Cook. In the State archives are found the names of Return Strong, Nathaniel Hayden, and Roger Newberry.2
I Wolcott Manuscripts.
2 The town books contain this record of Roger Newberry : -
"Roger Newberry Esq. Capt. of one of His Majestie's Companies belonging to Connecti- cut, and Listed in His Majestie's Service in ye war against ye Spanish West Indies dyed (accord- ing to the best account that is yet given) May 6, 1741. In his Return from Carthagena to Jimica about Three days before ye Transport arrived at Jimica."
The following is an exact copy of an old obituary notice of this distinguished citizen of Windsor : -
" Windsor July 29, 1741. Last Monday we had the Melancholy news of the Death of the Worthy Capt. Roger Newberry who went from this Town on the Expedition. He was well descended. The Honorable Major Benjamin Newberry that had adventured his Life in his Country's service in the Indian war, and sate several years att the Councill board, was his Grandfather. Capt. Benjamin Newberry, who died of Sickness in the Expedition formed against Canada, 1709, was his father.
" This Gentleman had a Liberal Education Bestowed upon him which he was careful to Improve and was an accomplished mathematician and Good Historian. He always Carryed about with him a Lively Sense of the Divine providence and of man's accountableness to his Maker of all his tho'ts, words and actions, and gave his Constant Attendance on the Worship of God in the Public and Private Exercises of it, was Just in his Dealings, a Sure friend and faithful Monitor.
" He had a very Quick and Clear apprehension of things, a solid Judgement & Tenaceous memory ; his Discourse and Conversation was affable and Instructive and so Peculiarly win- ning that most were his Real friends, as were acquainted with him. His mind was formed for Business, which he followed with an Indefatigable aplycation by which he not only discharged to Good Acceptance the public Trusts that were put upon him, but also advanced his own Estate.
"In May 1740, he heing then a member of the General Assembly was pitcht upon by the Governor and Councill, yea, he had the suffrage of the Assembly to Invite him to Lead one company of the Troops from this Collony in this Expedition. He took it into Consideration
512
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
In the expedition against Crown Point and Niagara in 1755, Benja- min Allyn, Esq., of Windsor, was appointed captain of the fourth company in the third regiment, and eighty-five men enlisted under him, nearly all of whom were from this town. In the muster-roll of General Lyman's company, in camp at Montreal, Sept. 4, 1760, may be found many names from the Poquonnock district.
The assault upon Quebec began at two different points during a furious snow-storm on the evening of the 31st of December, 1775. One party was led by General Montgomery in person, and the other by Colonel Benedict Arnold. The commanding general was killed at the head of his division while entering the city, and Arnold was wounded while rapidly advancing under the fire from the ramparts. In the assault made by Arnold's division, and first to mount the barricade, were Captain Seth Hanchett, of Suffield, and Elijah Marshall, of Wind- sor. Hanchett's voice is said to have been heard above the din of bat- tle animating his comrade in these words : "Walk up, Marshall ; our mothers are at home praying for us, and the enemy can't hurt us." Theophilus Hide, of Windsor, was among the killed, and Elijah Marshall and Daniel Rice were taken prisoners.
Several Windsor men participated on the night of the memorable 4th of March, 1776, when the Heights of Dorchester were so secretly fortified, and when the works were " raised with an expedition equal to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin's wonderful lamp." As General Howe himself expressed it, "It must have been the em- ployment of at least twelve thou- sand men. I know not what I shall do; the rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in months." Hezekiah Hayden_ Sergeant Thomas Hayden was at Roxbury when the fortifications were thrown up, and, being an architect and builder, is said to have constructed some of them. There were also present Hezekiah Hayden, Lemuel Welch, Nathaniel
and after Sometime appeared Inclined to undertake it, whereupon Some of his Relations to Dissnade him from it Laid before him the Dangers of his own Life and the Great Loss his family would Sustain if he should miscarry. He answered
"'I can Leave my Family with the Divine Providence, and as to my own Life Since it is not Left with man to Determine the time or place of his Death I think it not best to be anxious about it. The Great thing is to Live and Dy in our Duty. I think the War is just and my Call is Clear. Somebody must venture and why not I, as well as another.' So he took out his commission and Proceeded to fill up his Compiny, and there appeared such a Readiness to serve under him that he said he thought he could have made up his Compiney in [his] own Town.
"He was att the Takeing of Boto Chico, from which fort two Days after he wrote a chearful Letter to his Wife Expressing his Great Hopes of Takeing the Town of Carthagena and thereby finishing the Expedition and opening a way for his Return.
" Butt soon after this he was Taken Sick and Languished untill the fifth of May. When he had almost Completed the thirty fifth year of his age, he not far from Jamaica Departed this Life and wee shall see his face no more untill the Sea gives up the Dead that are in it.
" He hath Left his antient mother to Lament the Death of this her only Son. His own Widdow with seven small Children, one att her Breast, a Family to mourne under this heavy Bereavement and Combat with the Difficulties of an unquiet World." 1
1 Stiles's History of Windsor, p. 331.
513
WINDSOR.
Lamberton, and Increase Mather. When mustered on the 21st of April, 1775, there were twenty-three Windsor men under Captain Nathaniel Hayden's command who began their march to Boston; and afterward there were many Windsor men among the ten thousand soldiers of Connecticut who were called to service in New York in August, 1776.
" Hezekiah Hayden enlisted into the army about the 1st of January, 1776, and served as a private soldier. He was taken prisoner on the 27th of August, 1776, at the battle of Long Island, and died of starvation on board the prison- ship, after having disposed of everything in his possession, even to his sleeve- buttons, to purchase of his keeper food enough to sustain life. He was a native of Windsor, and much respected and esteemed by his neighbors. .
" Nathaniel Lamberton died on board the prison-ship November 9. William Parsons died November 9, in captivity, at New York. Elihu Denslow died Sep- . tember 9, in camp, at New York. Captain Ebenezer Fitch Bissell, Sr., was one of those who endured the horrible cruelties of the imprisonment in the Jer- sey prison-ship. He was accustomed to relate with much feeling the sufferings which he witnessed and experienced at that time. He sent home to his family for money. Silver was extremely scarce, and by dint of hard scraping, borrow- ing, and pledging, they succeeded in sending him some. But it never reached him, having probably found its way to the pocket of some greedy British official. His wife (whose maiden name was Esther Hayden) was vigilant in her endeavors to send articles for his comfort and relief, and once succeeded in visiting him in his captivity.1
" Samuel Wing and his son Moses were present at the retreat from New York, as was also Jabez Haskell, who was then acting as nurse to the sick sol- diers. Having through some neglect received no orders to retreat, they were left behind, and finally escaped in the very face of the advancing British. . . . Daniel Gillet, Jerijah Barber, Oradiah Fuller, Elisha Moore, Watson Loomis, were drafted, and served in New York and Westchester in August and September." 2
Joseph Marsh died August 15, at Meriden, coming from camp at New York. "The great number of the drafts had seriously interfered with the agricultural interests of the town, and the crops were scanty and insufficient for the winter's supply. Nearly all the able-bodied men of Windsor were absent in the army, and labor was so scarce that the harvests of 1776 were literally gathered by the women and chil- dren." The leaden weights of every clock in town were melted down and run into bullets.
In the year 1777, when enlistments for three years or during the war were asked for, bounties were paid by the town and voluntary subscriptions made for those who would enlist, and their families were supplied with necessaries in their absence by a committee appointed for that purpose. Though heavily burdened with taxation, both old and young entered into the spirit of the time. When in April the re- ported attack of the British on Danbury reached Windsor, many were ready to respond to the call. Mr. Daniel Phelps, a man of more than threescore years and ten (grandfather of the late Deacon Roger Phelps), and the late Deacon Daniel Gillet, a few years his junior, started for the scene of action.3
1 The sword of this gallant officer was owned by the late Mrs. Fanny L. Bissell.
2 Stiles's History of Windsor, pp. 394-396.
3 "Each was mounted, and carrying a musket, hastened forward only to meet the return- ing volunteers, who told of the burning of Danbury and the retreat of the British. The old VOL. II. - 33.
514
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
In October a detachment of eleven men of Ensign David Barber's company, of Windsor, in Lieutenant-Colonel Willey's regiment, was
ordered to Pari Bas Cum Capsu Peekskill. Their names were Ensign David Bar- ber, Sergeant Martin Pinney, Sergeant Alexander Griswold, Cor- poral Zephaniah Webster, Drummer Joseph Holcomb, Timothy Cook, Gideon Case, Abel Griswold, Elisha Marshall, Oliver Phelps, and Benjamin Moore.
Roger Enos, of Windsor, was colonel of one of the regiments raised in 1777-1778,
and was sta- tioned in the
southwest part of the State ; and in the year fol- lowing, Elijah Hill, Judah Pin-
Roger Conco
ney, and Joseph Holcomb, of Captain Barber's company, were in garrison at West Point.
During the massacre at Wyoming, Mrs. Azuba (Griswold) Perkins, a daughter of Windsor, barely escaped with her two children from the savages who had murdered her husband. She afterward lived and Elisha N. Sill died in Poquonnock. Dr. Elisha N. Sill was also one of the sur- vivors of this massacre.1 With- in the recollection of those now living, in nearly half the houses north of the Farmington there lived some old man who had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and the pension-rolls contained more than fifty Windsor pensioners. A carefully compiled list of the soldiers in the Revolutionary army who were natives of or enlisted from the town of Windsor was made by Dr. Stiles from State archives, official returns, and private letters. The list contains three hundred and thirty-four names. One of these, Mr. Daniel Bissell, Jr., accepted the perilous duty to which he was appointed by General Washing- San® I fell m. ton, as spy within the British lines. In furtherance of this purpose he allowed himself to be entered and published in the official returns as a deserter from the American army. He had served with credit at White Plains, at Trenton, and at Monmouth, being slightly wounded at the latter place. The duty for which he was selected in the summer of 1781 was to
man sighed that he could not get 'one shot at the Red Coats.' But turning back he reached a ferry where numbers of impatient riders were waiting their turn, who with one consent declared that their rule should not apply to the old man, and the old man's plea took his companion with him. Late that night they reached the house of a friend, where the weary old man, in utter exhaustion, laid him down and died, and the younger volunteer returned to his home alone." - STILES's History of Windsor, p. 398.
1 Stiles's History of Windsor, pp. 380-400.
515
WINDSOR.
furnish General Washington information as to the enemy's force and plans in New York City and on Long Island. We have the account of his enterprise in his own affidavit, sworn to on the 7th of January, 1818, at Richmond, Ontario Co., New York,1 and copies of original documents in the War Department at Washington, attested by the secretary, John C. Calhoun, Dec. 5, 1820. He received the Honorary Badge of merit, given only to the author of any singularly meritorious action, - "to wear on his facings over the left breast the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding," and a certificate, of which the following is a copy : -
" I, George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, &c., &c., &c.
" To all persons to whom these presents shall come sendeth Greeting :
" Whereas, it hath ever been an established maxim in the American service, that the Road to Glory was open to all, that Honorary Rewards and Distinctions, were the greatest Stimuli to virtuous actions, and whereas Sergeant Daniel Bissell of the Second Connecticut Regiment, has performed some important service, within the immediate knowledge of the Commander-in-Chief, in which his fidel- ity, perseverance and good sense, were not only conspicuously manifested, but his general line of conduct throughout a long course of service, having been not only unspotted but highly deserving of commendation.
"Now, therefore, Know Ye, that the aforesaid Sergeant Bissell, hath fully and truly deserved, and hath been properly invested with, the Honorary Badge of Military Merit, and is entitled to pass and repass all Guards and Military Posts, as freely and as amply as any Commissioned Officer whatever ; and is fur- ther Recommended to that Notice which a Brave and Faithful Soldier deserves from his Countrymen.
" Given under my hand and seal, in the Highlands of New York, this Ninth day of May, A.D. 1783.
(Signed) GEORGE WASHINGTON. [L.s.]
(Registered) JONATHAN TRUMBULL, Secretary."
Of those who belonged to the order of Cincinnati, organized at the close of the Revolution, and somewhat similar in its purpose to the Grand Army of the Republic, were the following belonging to this town : Major Abner Prior, Lieutenant Martin Denslow, Sergeant Tim- othy Mather, Lieutenant Cornelius Russell, and Lieutenant Samuel Gibbs.
In the War of 1812 Windsor was agitated sufficiently to organize a volunteer company, which was called into service at New London. It numbered about sixty-five men, under Captain Blanchard.
During the war for the preservation of the Union the sum appropri- ated and paid out by the town amounted to about twenty-five thousand dollars. The number of soldiers enlisted who claimed Windsor as their residence was one hundred and eighty-eight. Of these, ten died during the war, eight were discharged for disability, three died of wounds, seven were wounded and survived, two were killed in battle, and one was reported missing in action ; four deserted after being mus- tered in, and thirteen deserted during the recruiting service. Twenty- five Union soldiers now lie buried in the old cemetery, and ten in the cemetery at Poquonnock. Many who enlisted from this town were in
1 Preserved by Dr. D. Bissell, his son. See Stiles's History of Windsor, pp. 408-415.
516
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
the Twenty-second Regiment, which was stationed at Minor's Hill, near Washington, and were not engaged in any of the battles of the war. Prominent among the monuments in the cemetery is that of General William S. Pierson, whose patriotism, zeal, and enthusiastic devotion to the Union will be long and lovingly remembered by Windsor's sons.
Mr. John Braneker was the first schoolmaster of Windsor who is named in the records. In 1656-1657, the town voted that five pounds should be paid him "towards his maintenance of a school." Four years later Mr. Cornish was voted £4 10s. for discharging the same duty. The first mention of a school-house is in 1666-1667, so that pre- viously a school must have been taught at some private house. In 1672 the town must have contained a hundred families ; for in April of that year Windsor was fined five pounds for not maintaining a grammar school, and the fine was paid over to the Hartford grammar school. In 1674 Mr. Cornish was to receive £ 36 per year, and the children were required to pay five shillings per quarter. When John Fitch went to fight the Indians at the time of King Philip's War, in 1673, he made his will, giving all his property, after his debts were paid, " for the pro- moting of a school here in Windsor." His property was inventoried at about forty pounds, and his debts little more than a quarter of that sum. In 1679 Captain Clarke kept school for a year, six months on each side of the rivulet, receiving £40 for this service combined with attending to other town business. Ten years later there were two school-teachers, Mr. Cornish and Mr. John Loomis, the former receiving thirty shillings and the latter fifty shillings.
In 1698 school was maintained three months on the east side of the Connecticut and nine months on the west side, this latter period being divided equally to the north and south side of the Farmington. Lieu- tenant Hayden and Lieutenant Matthew Allyn were the committee who " agreed with Mr. Samuel Wolcott to keep a reading, and writing, and cyphering, and grammar school for one full year, to take none but such as are entered in spelling, for thirty-five pounds in country pay, or two- thirds of so much in money."
April 14, 1707, liberty was granted to the inhabitants on the north side of the Rivulet to set up a school-house on the meeting-house green upon their own charges, and the same liberty was granted to the inhab- itants on the south side. The first schoolmistress was Miss Sarah Stiles in the year 1717. In 1723 Windsor was divided into two school districts, one embracing the north and the other the south side of the Rivulet, in 1784 into three districts, and in 1787 into four districts.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.