USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 7
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
The whole number of men credited to the quota of this town by the adjutant-general was three hundred and eighty-seven. The enlistments and re-enlistments from our own citizens numbered two hundred and
Elina Ingraham
59
BRISTOL.
seventy ; of this number about twenty were re-enlistments, leaving the total number of Bristol men who were in the service very nearly two hundred and fifty. The services of the different regiments are a matter of state and national rather than of local history. The Six- teenth was hurried to Washington, furnished there with arms, and rushed into battle at Antietam almost entirely ignorant of military discipline. In this battle fell Captain Manross, killed instantly at the head of his company. A young man of high character, an earnest and successful student, having just been appointed to a seat in the faculty of Amherst College, he gave up the brilliant prospects before him to enter the army, only to fall in his first meeting with the enemy. His body was brought home and buried with military honors, attended to the grave by the newly enlisted soldiers of the Twenty-fifth, who had not yet left Bristol. A monument has been erected to his memory in the Forestville cemetery by the students of Amherst College. Com- pany K, with the rest of this regiment, spent the following year in hard campaign work, marching, and building fortifications, rather than in sharp fighting. April 20, 1864, they were captured at Plymouth, N. C., and sent to Andersonville prison. Of the seventy-four Bristol men who went out in this company, twenty-four died in Rebel prisons, most of them at Andersonville; and those who came back came as from the brink of the grave, shattered in body and mind, shadows of the robust men who had gone out three years before. Captain T. B. Robin- son, with two companions, escaped from Andersonville and made his way to the North, hiding by day, travelling by night, depending on the negroes for guidance and for food.
The Bristol company of the Twenty-fifth went with its regiment to Louisiana, took part in the battles of Irish Bend and Port Hudson, and was mustered out of service Aug. 23, 1863, a part of the men re-enlisting in other regiments. Our volunteers in the Fifth and Tenth went through much of the hardest fighting of the war, were with Sher- man in his famous march through Georgia, with Grant at Appomattox Court House, and took part in the victorious occupation of Richmond. Our soldiers' monument bears upon its side the names of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Newbern, Gettysburg, Plymouth, Fort Wagner, and Irish Bend, -battles in which Bristol soldiers were killed. Of our two hundred and fifty volunteers, fifty-four died in the service. Of these, sixteen were killed or mortally wounded in battle, twelve died of disease, two were lost at sea, and twenty-four starved in Rebel prisons. Of the entire number, only thirteen are buried in Bristol ; the rest sleep, most of them in unknown graves, at the South.
During the last year of the war the building of a monument to our dead soldiers began to be discussed, and in May, 1865, immediately after the fall of Richmond, a meeting was held and a Monument Asso- ciation organized. Subscriptions were at first limited to one dollar, that the sorrow and gratitude of the whole people might find expression, but afterward larger sums were taken. During the autumn the work was finished, and on the 20th of January, 1866, our soldiers' monument was dedicated. It is of brown Portland stone, twenty-five feet high. bearing upon its sides the names of those to whose memory it was raised, and the battles in which they fell. This was the first soldiers' monu- ment raised in Connecticut, and, it is said, the first in the country.
60
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
The mercantile and general prosperity of the town has, of course, kept pace with the development of its manufactures. Most of the early settlers built on what is now called King Street, in East Bristol, and the tavern there became the centre of what business and social life existed. Later, the building of the stage-route transferred the business centre to the north side, and the few stores were grouped about the post-office and tavern on the turnpike road. In the middle of this century the stage-road was succeeded by the railroad, and business again shifted itself to the neighborhood of the railway station, where it has ever since remained. The block of old wooden stores near the station, in which most of our merchants were then located, was burned to the ground in January, 1870. It was immediately replaced by a substantial brick block, but this too was burned in April, 1873. In February of the same year Laporte Hubbell's shop was burned, and in April, only two days after the burning of Nott & Seymour's block, the Forestville Welch & Spring shop was entirely destroyed. The burn- ing of H. A. & A. H. Warner's small shop in May completed a disas- trous list of fires. Nott & Seymour's block was rebuilt in the autumn of 1873. It has ceased, however, to be the only or the principal busi- ness building, and the centre of the town is now well filled with substantial and handsome stores.
In 1870 the Bristol Savings Bank was incorporated, and in 1875 the Bristol National Bank, both of which have been very valuable agents in promoting the general prosperity. In 1871 our first permanent newspaper was started, - the " Bristol Press," -which has thus far maintained its position as a reliable local journal. At various times prior to this there had been irregular publications of small sheets, but little deserving the name of newspaper. The population of the town has increased gradually during the century of its existence, a considerable gain having been made in every decade since 1820. In 1790 the total number of inhabitants was 2,462, and in 1800, 2,723. In 1810 the number fell to 1,428, the town having been lately divided, and in 1820 a further loss to 1,362 was reported by the census. Since that time the figures have been as follows : 1830, 1,707: 1840, 2,109; 1850, 2,884 ; 1860, 3,436 ; 1870, 3,788: 1880, 5,347. It will be noticed that during the last ten years the increase was over forty per cent, a much greater gain than in any former decade, and a gain equalled by very few towns in the State.
The history of the Congregational and Baptist churches has been sketched, and that of the early Episcopal Church. After the long sus- pension of Episcopal services which followed the removal to East Church, the society reorganized in 1834. They immediately built a small church building on Maple Street, north of Daniel S. Lardner's house. The Rev. George C. V. Eastman was their first rector, and they continued to hold services there till 1862. In that year they built the church building which they have since occupied on Main Street, and soon after sold their old building to the Forestville Methodist society.
During the great Methodist revival period in the carly part of this century several itinerant preachers came here and taught the doc- trines of that then novel sect. A few converts to their preaching organized the Methodist Church in 1834. A " class " had already been
6 Ill etate
61
BRISTOL.
formed, including at first only four members. So great was the hos- tility to Methodism in the other denominations, that the land for a church building could be bought only by concealing the fact that it was to be used for a Methodist Church. The building was completed in 1837, and was occupied by the society until they built their new church in 1880. This church has grown continually and rapidly. The first religious services that were held in Forestville were led by itinerant Methodist preachers about 1850, and in 1855 fourteen members organ- ized a church there. They held services irregularly for several years at private houses, and in 1864 bought the church building which the Episcopal society had lately vacated, and moved it to Forestville. This building they still occupy.
The first Roman Catholic services in town were held about 1840, at the North copper-mine, by priests from New Britain and Waterbury. When mining operations stopped, and the building of the railroad through the town began, many of the Roman Catholics moved to Bristol Centre, and mass was said for several years in a building below John Moran's house on Queen Street, and in Gridley's Hall. In 1855 the Roman Catholic residents, still constituting a mission attached to the New Britain parish, built their church building. Eleven years later Bristol was made an independent parish, and the Rev. M. B. Roddan became the first pastor. He was afterward absent a few years, but returned, and is still in charge of the parish.
In 1858 a Second Advent Church organized ; they maintained services several years in private houses and in public halls, and in 1880, having united with a body of seceders from the Methodist Church, bought the old meeting-house from which that church had just moved, and have since had a settled pastor and a regular place of worship.
In addition to the regular services of these seven Christian churches, occasional meetings are held by the Spiritualists, a considerable num- ber of whom live here.
In closing this sketch the writer wishes to acknowledge his in- debtedness, and the public indebtedness, to previous workers in the same field. The writings of Tracy Peck, Esq., are of especial value. A man of great accuracy, and deeply interested in everything pertain- ing to our local history, he had the advantage of living at a time when the memory of old residents went back nearly to the settlement of the town. In writing of the first fifty years, one can hardly do more than repeat the details that he collected. Assistance has also been received from Mr. Roswell Atkins's History of the Bristol Baptist Church, and from a series of sketches published by the " Bristol Press" during its first year of publication.
The historian of Bristol has no thrilling events to record, no famous names to eulogize. He has to deal with the commonplace acts of com- monplace people. But while none of our citizens have attained to more than local fame, we have been remarkably free from that dense igno- rance and squalid poverty often to be found in a manufacturing town. Bristol has been fortunate, in that the clock business, in which it has been so largely engaged, is one which requires a high degree of intel- ligence and skill in the operatives. Until very lately there has been no distinctively " factory settlement" in town, and our pleasantest
62
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
streets have been lined by comfortable and handsome residences owned by our skilled mechanics.
The intellectual and moral growth of the community, the most interesting and most valuable part of every history, can hardly be touched upon in such a paper as this. The organization and disso- lution of business firms, the building of factories, the establishment of churches, - these make up the tangible details of a history whose real interest lies in the constant growth from the quaint farming hamlet of 1742 to the brisk manufacturing town of the present time, preserving continually those characteristics which have made the political and social life of New England remarkable and unique.
Two well-known Bristol citizens who have done much to build up the place are Messrs. Elias Ingraham and Elisha N. Welch.
Elias Ingraham was born in 1805, and came to Bristol in 1826, in the employ of Mitchell & Hinman. He died at Martha's Vineyard, Aug. 16, 1885. He had been for thirty years at the head of the Elias Ingraham Company, and was the originator of many valuable designs and methods, a man of fine business capacity and of high Christian character.
Elisha Niles Welch was born in East Hampton, Feb. 7, 1809. He removed in 1826 to Bristol, and has since been extensively engaged in manufacturing and also in farming. He is now president of the E. N. Welch Manufacturing Company, Bristol Brass and Clock Company, and Bristol Manufacturing Company, and is also a director in several other important concerns. He was representative in the State legislature for two terms and State senator for one term.
Soupluodites Rok.
V.
BURLINGTON.
BY THE HON. ROLAND HITCHCOCK, Ex-Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut.
T HE territory of which this town and Bristol were formed, belonged, many years ago, to Farmington, and was called Farmington West Woods. It was part of the land purchased of the Tunxis Indians by the original proprietors of that town, and was by them sur- veyed, and divided into tiers of lots; the interest of each proprietor therein being determined by the amount of his interest in the whole purchase.
For many years after the " reserved lands " of Farmington were settled, this territory remained a wild, unbroken forest. Hartford and Windsor, by colonial grant in the time of Sir Edmund Andros's at- tempted usurpation, were the proprietors of Litchfield and Harwinton, which were settled earlier than Farmington West Woods. Credible tradition relates that the path of such proprietors to those towns was through West Woods, and it is possible (as some have claimed) that along this wild path settlers might have been found as early as 1740 ; but they were very few and widely scattered. It is certain, however, that several permanent settlers were in this territory between 1740 and 1755. Among these were, in the western part, Enos Lewis, Asa Yale, Seth Wiard, Joseph Bacon, and Joseph Lankton, Sr., though the last named afterward lived at the Centre ; Abraham and Theodore Pettibone, extensive landholders, and men of much influence, in the northern part ; Nathaniel Bunnel and one Brooks in the southern part ; and John and Simeon Strong in the castern part. But the settle- A sa yale ment was slow ; the land was infested by Indians as they retired westward from the settlement of the white man along the natural meadows of the Farmington valley, and it was not until about 1750 that the permanent settlement to any considerable extent began. In 1774 the General Court, by separate enactments, established in Farmington West Woods the ecclesiastical societies of West Britain and New Cambridge, each having well-defined limits. In 1775 these were incorporated as the town of Bristol, and thereupon ceased to belong to Farmington. In 1806 Bristol was divided ; the part of it within the limits of West Britain was incorporated as the town of Burlington, and the part of it embraced in the limits of New Cambridge remained, and was constituted the town of Bristol.
64
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Pursuant to the act of incorporation, the first town-meeting of Bur- lington was held June 16, 1806. Abraham Pettibone was moderator, and the town was duly organized by the election of the ordinary town officers. Since its incorporation part of the township has been annexed to Canton and part to Avon ; its population, as well as its assessment list, has thereby been much reduced, and it is believed that its eastern boundary has been thrown back to the Farmington River.
The first religious society organized in what is now Burlington was a society of Seventh-Day Baptists ; the Ecclesiastical Society of West Britain was established (as has been remarked) in 1774, but no reli- gious society was formed under it till 1783, when the Congregational Church was formed. It appears from " Clark's History of the Seventh- Day Baptist Church in America," that " a church of that denomination was organized on the 18th of September, 1780, at Farmington West Woods [afterwards (1785) called West Britain : afterwards still (1806) incorporated as the town of Burlington], by the Rev. Jonathan Burdick and Deacon Elisha Stillman, consisting of nineteen members." They came - about twenty families - from the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, and their settlement and meeting-house were about two miles north from the village now called Burlington Centre. They were ex- emplary and industrious people, ardently attached to their faith, and had much influence in the affairs of the town in its early history ; many of its influential members ultimately removed with their families to the State of New York, and there joined a church of their faith. This weakened the old pioneer church to its ruin, and after a precarious existence of forty or fifty years it became extinct. Many of the dwell- ings built by these people are still standing, though none of the well- remembered builders, none of their descendants, none of the faith so dear to them, and for which they endured so much, remain to care for the graves of the many they left in the silent city of their dead.
The Congregational Church was formed July 3, 1783, with twenty- six members, and still worships harmoniously in the faith of the fathers. The Rev. Jonathan Miller, from Torrington, the first minis- ter, was ordained Nov. 26, 1783, and continued his ministrations until a few years prior to his death (July 21, 1831). The first meeting- house was located at the foot of what is called Meeting-house Hill, on the northern slope of a hill nearly opposite the corner of the roads where stood the old tavern of Zebulon Cole, and abont twenty rods across the road, in a southeasterly direction from it; the locality is now overgrown with wood. The second meeting-house was located about thirty rods northeast from the first. one ; the heavy bank wall Zebulon Ele which constituted its northern foundation still stands, a lasting monument to the sturdy, earnest men who more than seventy years ago erected it. This meeting-house was dedicated Dec. 25, 1808, and stood, with its long row of horse-sheds on either side of the road and its steeple high among the clouds, until 1836, when it was removed to where it now stands, remodelled, and on the 14th of December of that year re-dedicated.
The Methodist meeting-house was built in 1814; it was located in the southerly part of the town, on the elevated ground a few rods
65
BURLINGTON.
northeasterly from the south cemetery, and was removed to its present location in 1835. Nathan Bangs (afterward president of Wesleyan University), Laban Clark, and Daniel Coe (pioneers of Methodism in the State) were among the early pastors of the church of that faith in the town.
The township is eighteen miles west from Hartford, is bounded on the north by New Hartford, east by Farmington River, south by Bristol, and west by Harwinton, and is about six miles long and five in breadth. In most parts it is well supplied with streams and springs of excellent water ; it has hills and valleys, and in many parts is rugged with stones
Laban Class and rocks. The soil is not unlike that of the other granitic parts of the State, produces substantially the same kinds of fruits and ce- reals, and with proper cultivation yields to the farmer a good return for his industry. The natural growth of timber is walnut, oak, birch, maple, and chestnut, which were quite evenly mingled in the primitive forests.
The inhabitants are generally engaged in agricultural pursuits, and are intelligent, industrious, thriving, and happy, in their quiet homes. The affairs of the town have been managed generally with ability and good judgment, and it is now free from debt, after having paid all its expenses and met all its burdens growing out of the late Civil War and the depreciation of property consequent upon it.
Convenient access to the town is furnished by a branch of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, which runs through its eastern part. At the census of 1880 its population was 1,224.
West Britain from its small and sparse population furnished several soldiers for the country in the War of the Revolution. After its incor- poration as Burlington the town furnished many in the War of 1812 ; and though the pensioners of those wars who belonged to the town have passed, with their honorable scars upon them, to " the undiscov- ered country," they are held in respectful remembrance by all who knew them. In the late Civil War the town furnished its full quota of soldiers, many of whom will return no more.
" The leaf to the tree, the flower to the plain, But the young and the brave they come not again."
The narrow limits to which this sketch must be confined forbid extended reference to the noble men and women who were the early inhabitants of the town. Much of pleasant reminiscence and merited respect might properly be said of them. Their personal appearance, their characteristics, and their many virtues awaken in one who knew many of them feelings of mingled pleasure and sadness as they return in memory. The names Alderman. Barnes, Beach, Beckwith, Belden, Bronson, Brooks, Brown, Bull, Bunnel, Butler, Cleaveland, Cornwall, Covey, Crandal, Culver, Curtis, Elton, French, Frisbie, Fuller, Gillett, Griswold, Hale, Hart, Hitchcock, Hotchkiss, Humphrey, Lowry, Marks, Mathews, Moses, Norton, Palmiter, Peck, Pettibone, Phelps, Pond,
VOL. II. - 5.
66
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Richards, Roberts, Session, Smith, Webster, West, Wiard, Woodruff, and many others not less worthy belonged to inhabitants honorably identified with the early history of the town, and whose energy in their respective spheres contributed much to its first prosperity.
Dr. Peres Mann, the first physician of the town, was a native of Shrewsbury, Mass. He acquired his profession in Boston, and settled in West Britain about 1780. Dr. Aaron Seres Mann Hitchcock was his professional successor ; he settled in his profession in Burlington about 1806.
The Rev. Romeo Elton, D.D., was a native of the town, and received his rudimental education in its common schools. He graduated at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, in the class of 1813. Much might be said of him to encourage young men in their struggle against repelling circum- stances, did the space per- Momeo Ellon. mit. He was a modest, retiring man. His chief delight was the study of the ancient and modern languages, to which his unobtrusive life was unre- mittingly devoted, both in this and foreign countries. It is believed the country has produced few if any more thorough linguists, few of purer literary taste. His fine personal appearance, cultivated diction, and musical voice placed him among the most agreeable of public speakers. He died at Boston, Feb. 5, 1870, at the age of eighty years. His pub- lished works, besides occasional sermons, are an edition of J. Callen- der's " Historical Discourse " (on the early history of Rhode Island) with a memoir of the author, notes, and a valiable appendix ; the " Literary Remains of the Rev. Jonathan Maxcy, D.D., with a memoir of his life ; and a " Life of Roger Williams," printed in London in 1852.
Simeon Hart, for many years principal of the celebrated Farming- ton Academy, was a native of Burlington, and received his common- school education there. He graduated at Yale College in the class of 1823, and soon after became principal of the academy above referred to, to which he gave much celebrity, and in the management of which he gained for himself high reputation as a teacher. His useful life closed at Farmington, where for the most part it had been spent, and where his students have erected a fitting monument to his memory.
Dr. William Elton, a native of the town, has been for several years the resident physician. He is a gentleman of good literary taste, and well qualified in his profession.
book
VI. CANTON.
FROM NOTES BY D. B. HALE AND LEVI CASE.
C ANTONI measures eight miles north and south, with a breadth east and west varying from one and a half miles at the north to three miles at the south. It is bounded north by Barkhamsted and Granby ; cast, by Simsbury ; south, by Avon, Burlington, and New Hartford ; and west by New Hartford and Barkhamsted. It has in its territory four post-offices, seven churches, eight school-houses, fifty-five miles of public highway, and about four hundred dwelling-houses. The Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad, and a branch of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, commonly called the Canal Road, pass through the town.
The surface of the territory is much broken by hills. There are Rocky, Rattlesnake, Onion, Crump's, and Wildcat mountains. The valley of the Farmington River in the southwest part of the town is fertile, and Cherry Brook valley, where Canton Centre lies, is noted for its fine farms, though the most valuable agricultural land in the town limits is said to be in the low plain near the eastern boundary. The great " Jefferson flood " of 1801, which made many changes along the . Farmington valley, washed away much of a very valuable tract, called the Hop Yard, that lay between Cherry Brook and Farmington River, and the river at that time took permanent possession of the channel of the stream.
Rattlesnake Mountain derives its name from the fact, or tradition, that an early settler, Mrs. Wilcox, while driving home her cows, met near there a very large number of rattlesnakes. She killed forty of them (all full grown) and came unharmed out of the conflict ; but the mountain, by a curious freak of history, takes its title from the defeated forces. Crump's Mountain, one and a half miles north of Canton Centre, is named from Crumpus, a noted Indian who had his wigwam on its summit for many years after the whites came. Indian Hill, near the New Hartford line, was for some time the home of a band of Indians, - a peaceful set who were much troubled by other Indians, that lived in and gave the name to that part of New Hartford known as Satan's
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.