USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Norwalk > The romance of Norwalk > Part 14
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East Norwalk Cemetery: Hezekiah Hanford, private in the coast guard; John Eversley, private; Stephen St. John, lieutenant colonel, who was taken prisoner at night in his house by Major Hubbell and a party of Loyalists, his son also being taken; Daniel Eversley, corporal; Samuel Marvin, Jr., private ; William St. John, private; James Fitch Third, Daniel Hanford, James Smith, Josiah Raymond, David Comstock, all privates; Richard Camp, who saw service in New York, sergeant; Asa Hoyt, lieutenant; Aaron Keeler, ensign; John Lockwood, paymaster; John Street, Hezekiah Whitlock and Hezekiah Whitney, privates.
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Rowayton Cemetery: Moses Webb, private; John Rich- ards, householder keeping watch; Stephen Raymond, private; Jesse Reed, also a householder keeping watch; Eli Reed, lieutenant and captain; Gershom Raymond, commit- tee of safety, county congress and householder keeping watch; Paul Raymond, clerk and sergeant; Rev. Moses Mather, D. D., patriot pastor, Middlesex church, taken prisoner by British and in New York prison ship for six months; John Mather, private.
Pine Island Cemetery: Nathan Hoyt, private; William Bouton, sergeant; Nathaniel Raymond and Stephen Hyatt, privates; William Seymour, lieutenant; James Seymour, quartermaster; John Seymour, private; Nathaniel Benedict, private ; Samuel Keeler, captain, in prison at Fort Washing- ton; Stephen Wood, Daniel Hoyt and Daniel Lockwood, privates; Uriah Raymond, ensign; John Seymour, William Hoyt, Evert Quintard, James Quintard and John Hoyt, jr., and Nathaniel Raymond, jr., and Marvin David, privates.
D. A. R. MONUMENTS
In addition to identifying the graves of Norwalk soldiers killed during the Revolutionary War, the Norwalk Chapter of the D. A. R. erected, from time to time, several monu- ments to commemorate certain historic spots made famous down through the years. In 1894, the chapter marked the scene of the France street "Battle of the Rocks" with a tablet placed on a stone block, the inscription on which reads : "On this Historic Ground the American Patriots Bravely Sustained the Cause of Liberty Against the British Invaders, July 12, 1779. Erected by the D. A. R. of Norwalk, 1894." The block may be found almost at the junction of France and Cannon sts.
It will be noted that the D. A. R. fixes the date as July 12 and not as July II, the date used by most historians.
In 1896, the D. A. R. erected the Founders' Stone,
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corner of East ave. and Fitch st., the inscription on which was given earlier in the history.
During the same year, this patriotic chapter marked the scene of the Flax Hill encounter with a granite boulder inscribed as follows: "This Rock Marks the Site of a Battle Between the Americans and the British, July This Cannonball was Found on the Battle- 12, 1779.
field a Hundred Years After. By the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1896." A large British cannon-
ball is embedded in the surface of the rock. This memorial may be found just north of Flax Hill road, in the vicinity of Hillside place, between Bayview and Elmwood aves. In 1899, a memorial marking one of the landing places of the British invaders in 1779, was set on Fitch's Point in East Norwalk by the D. A. R.
April 19, 1901, the Nathan Hale Horse Trough, to which reference was previously made, was erected and placed in front of the Armory. When the automobile re- placed the horse, it was moved to the grounds of the D. A. R. home on Mill Hill. Later, a tablet was erected at the foot of Grumman's Hill, East ave., to mark the hill atop of which the British General Tryon sat and ordered the burning of Norwalk. The tablet is now about to be moved to make way for the cutting of a new road to a real estate development. Thirty-nine did duty in the old Norwalk Guard during the Revolutionary War including: Isaac Isaacs, John Platt, Lieut. Asa Hoyt, Capt. Stephen Betts, Reuben Mott, Matthew Reed, Capt. Lemuel Brooks, Jacob Jennings, Stephen Marvin, Edward Wentworth, Samuel Raymond, Aaron Adams, James Crowley, John Saunders, father and son, Seeley Squires and Commodore Cannon.
News of other Norwalk men who took part in the Revo- lution seems very scarce. There are three others who must be mentioned : "Captain James Richard was at the invasion of Danbury and Norwalk." "Captain Job Bartram of Nor- walk was wounded at Fairfield, July 7, 1779," according to "Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution." "Cap-
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tain David Whitney offered his vessels and his self for the suffering townspeople."
Men from the vicinity of Norwalk who were shut up in prison ships, in the dungeon of the notorious Sugar House in New York, or in other enemy prisons, according to the D. A. R. records, included: Rev. Moses Mather, D. D., taken from the Darien Congregational church; John Clock, detained six months in New York; Thaddeus Bell of Mid- dlesex, now Darien; James Bell and Joseph Mather. Col. Stephen St. John was also a prisoner for a time. It will be remembered that poor deaf Fountain Smith was taken from his pretty Norwalk home to New York, where he died in prison. Captain Seth Seymour of Norwalk was another who died wretchedly in an enemy prison and filled an un- known grave. He met his end in the Sugar House prison, a brick building some five stories high, "near the Old Middle Dutch Church," within the limits of New York city. The British literally piled their captives within the walls and there thousands of them died from improper food, lack of clothing and no medical attendance.
REBUILDING THE TOWN
CHAPTER XVI
Norwalkers Face Heroic Task-Providence Assists And Many Twin Lambs Are Born-General Assembly Peti- tioned For Help-State Grant Made In Ohio-Work Commenced on Erection of New Homes in Norwalk
AFTER the burning of the town in the Revolutionary War, Norwalk found herself in a very unhappy plight. Let us stop and see what relief measures were taken by Connecti- cut for this community and what Norwalk did to help her- self out of her unfortunate condition. According to the Gazetteer of the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut, by John C. Pease and John M. Miles, dated 1819, Nor- walk's loss amounted to $116,238.36. Another historical account places the damages at approximately $130,330.27. At the time of the battle of Norwalk, the town had been settled a little more than 125 years and the taxable property had increased in value from a few hundred pounds to about $300,000, in 1779. These figures would show then, that close to half of the community's assets were placed on the debit side of the books. The General Assembly of the state estimated the damage at about $1 16,000.
Hartford took cognizance during the month of July, 1779, of Norwalk's trouble, immediately following the burning and the battle here. Realizing that the town needed every available man for the relief of its own villagers, the Connecticut government ordered that Nor- walk be required to furnish for the army only half as many men as asked in the last quota. During the same month, the assembly at Hartford requested Col. Stephen St. John of Norwalk, Samuel Bishop Esq., of New Haven and Thad-
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deus Burr of Fairfield, "to collect and transmit as soon as may be to his Excellency the Governor, a general statement of the loss and sufferings in the towns to which they respec- tively belong." October 18, 1779, 121 Norwalkers signed a memorial which was sent to the General Assembly, asking relief by exemption from taxes and in such other ways as the Assembly might see fit, on account of the destruction of their property. Meanwhile, throughout Connecticut, con- tributions were being taken up to aid the homeless of the three towns of New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk.
In January, 1780, order came from Hartford that Jona- than Sturges, Esq., of Fairfield was to make dis- tribution of the contributions, throughout this territory. Two months later, in March, 1780, when the Nor- walkers found themselves far short of the necessary amount of wood, nails and glass for the rebuilding of their new homes, they, in company with a number of Fairfielders, petitioned the General Assembly to allow them to export grain and pork, so they might import in exchange their necessary building materials. They wished to send the grain and pork "to the eastward country," and requested that Captain Stephen Thorp be put in charge of the work. The petition and request were granted. Yet still the Norwalkers found themselves unable to carry their heavy burdens and the following winter, December, 1780, a petition to the General Assembly at Hartford, signed by John Lockwood and 37 others prayed the state to abate the taxes laid on the list for 1779 and 1780.
As a result of this petition, the state taxes of 123 persons in Norwalk on the list of 1779, and 119 on the list of 1780, were abated. Fully four years after the burning of Nor- walk, the town fathers decided at a meeting held August II, 1783, again to apply to Hartford for relief. In spite of its cheerful tone, the petition composed by the fathers shows traces of a resentment on the part of Norwalk, that the Connecticut government had not done more to relieve suffering here, inasmuch as this city, by reason of the fact
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that it was a coast town and was raided and burned by the British, shouldered more than its share of the black fortunes of war.
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LAND GRANT IN OHIO
Just how many more petitions Norwalk, Fairfield and New Haven made to the General Assembly of Connecticut, following the Tryon raids here during the Revolutionary War, is not known. But it is known that in 1792, the Assembly made a drastic effort to satisfy all applicants for relief and to make everybody happy. The gift made by the Connecticut government to the homeless and bankrupt people who seemed unable to make a fresh start on the old home grounds, consisted of sections of property owned by the state in Ohio. The property was deeded to the state by the federal government in part payment of war expenses and losses sustained by Connecticut. Following the receiv- ing of the last petition for relief by Norwalk and Fairfield, the Assembly by a resolution, "released and quitclaimed, to the sufferers in these and other towns, and to their legal representatives, if deceased, and to their heirs and assigns, 500,000 acres of land owned by the state west of Penn- sylvania, bounded north by Lake Erie and so forth. Said land to be divided among the sufferers and their legal repre- sentatives in proportion to the several sums which they had lost by the enemy during the war."
The tract became known as "The Fire Lands" because many who settled there had lost all they possessed during the war by fire, at the hands of the enemy. The valuation of the land allotted to Norwalk as the greatest sufferer, was more than 26,000 pounds or about $130,000, approximately the amount of loss suffered by the town through fire. Some years later, a number of Norwalkers left town and settled Norwalk, Ohio, of which more later.
That a hard winter, a discouraging, desperate, almost hopeless winter followed the burning of Norwalk, can well
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be imagined. Here were people facing the bitter cold and snow, minus their comfortable and warm cottages; with no cows in the barn, and no grain in the storage bins; with their stores and their mills and their places of business nothing but ruins. Verily, they had less with which to start again, than had the pioneer families who first settled Norwalk.
On the flyleaf of an ancient Bible which once belonged to Eliakim Smith, whose home on Ann street was burned in 1779, which Bible was found some years ago in the posses- sion of the New York Bible society, is the following note : "Norwalk burnt, July 11, 1779 and ye winter following most severe in ye fore part and ye following summer very dry."
Many of the residents bore up bravely under the trying situation and some even viewed it in the most rosy and optimistic of lights. Witness the following: "The burning of Norwalk occurred in July and tradition preserved by the descendants of a Revolutionary War mother, relates that there were two aftermath hay crops in Norwalk that season, and many sheep had twin lambs the following year, which helped make good the losses," according to Miss Juliette Betts, daughter of Captain Hezekiah Betts, a Revolutionary War veteran. We cannot help but give thanks to the kindly Providence which provided double hay crops and twin lambs for the destitute people of Norwalk. Such generosity must have been overwhelming in view of the past sufferings of the town.
REBUILDING OF NORWALK
The rebuilding of Norwalk was not accomplished in a day nor yet in a year. Even had the men been able to devote all their time to the process of rebuilding, instead of divid- ing it between the homes and the farms, the materials necessary for the work were not at hand. Though the trees were here, the mills were gone; though the hands were ready, the tools were lacking; though the spirit was willing, the wherewithal was missing. The people were anxious to
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rebuild immediately not only their homes but their churches as well as is evidenced by the earnestness with which they went to work on some sort of structure to replace the burned St. Paul's. It was decided to put up a building 24 by 36. Some gave money, some, parts of the frame and covering, the girders, the posts, the rafters, studding and shingles, some, skill in cutting and strength in working and some, time in carting.
Among the new homes built by Norwalkers after the fire were the following: Lockwood dwellings on Knight street and hill; Samuel Cannon and Governor Bissell homes on Town House Hill. The latter home stood where Le Cordon Bleu now holds forth, corner of Park st., and Mill Hill. Between the Cannon and Bissell residences was the home of the future "Blackstone of America," James Kent, LL.D., chancellor. Other houses constructed after the fire included the John Cannon, Jr., house, "Squire Betts" house, and the senior William St. John homestead, "with faultless green in front and delightful forest patch behind and quiet stream meandering gracefully through it."
Then there was the Junior William St. John home on High st., rebuilt after the war, the Phillips house on West ave., and the James Cannon place, not far from the tomb, according to history, of some who fell in the France street battle of Norwalk. Some time after the Revolution, the son of "Mad Anthony Wayne," general during the Revolution- ary War, built a home on lower Fairfield ave. This after- wards became the rectory of Trinity church and here Widow Caroline Birch Cockefur, grandmother of Humphrey Doulens, 9 Lafayette Circle, was married to Charles Doulens, October 29, 1876. The place next fell into the hands of Louis Udelman who resided there at 21 Fairfield ave. It was recently sold by him to Nat Wissman, realtor, who intends erecting an apartment building on the site.
The Town House was replaced by rather an ugly look- ing structure which was destroyed some 40 years later by a band of young men who called themselves "Ensign An-
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drews." The present town house which followed the last named was erected in 1835 and is one of the oldest brick structures in town. John Seymour hastily built a little cottage until he could have time properly to construct a new home for his family, on the site of the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Frost, Jr., 200 West ave. After Seymour's home fell into decay, it was followed by the old Sammis residence which finally gave way to General Russell Frost's home. When the General moved up to High st., his son and daughter-in-law took over the West ave. home- stead.
Dr. Jonathan Knight, a surgeon during the Revolutionary War, came to Norwalk in 1781 and built a fine home on a new and nameless road, which was called after himself, Knight st. James Quintard, son of Peter Quintard, who owned a large Inn at Liberty Point, at the foot of Marshall st., rebuilt his father's hostelry after the fire of 1779.
The new permanent homes were not very pretentious ; they could hardly be called mansions, although a few of them were imposing. The majority were just large farm houses built to conform to the prevailing period of architec- ture. The style of this period of house building might be called the sixth in early domestic architecture of Connecti- cut. In the beginning it will be remembered, the Norwalk settlers constructed only log cabins, or at best, tiny one room shelters, a story or a story and a half in height, having the chimney at one end. This was the first period. The second period saw the addition of a second room to the first built house. With the third period in Connecticut architec- ture, came the lean-to type of house which boasted an addi- tion across the rear of the house. The fourth period ushered in the lean-to as an integral part of the construction of the home, while the fifth insisted that houses be two full stories throughout. During the fifth period, the chimney ran through the center of the house. The central hallway ap- peared during the sixth period. Up to this time, the chimney, from its central position, had more or less domin-
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ated the house and controlled its plan. However, with the call for central hallways, the central chimney was found to be very much in the way and so architects conceived the idea of putting in two chimneys, one on either side of the house. This plan allowed the wide central hall to run from the front door through to the back. On such a plan the new Norwalk homes were built.
Of course there were numerous variations. For instance, there were the ells built on to the rear of the house, regard- less of its shape and size. These ells were not always added after the erection of the house. Sometimes they were constructed beforehand. Such was the case frequently in Norwalk. The temporary shelter, built immediately after the fire, in order that the family might have some place in which to live, afterwards formed the ell or rear quarters of the permanent home. It is interesting to note in passing that all these new homes were of wood. No brick was used until many years later. Lewis Raymond built the first brick residence in Norwalk on Keeler ave., in 1829. A quaint picture of it, owned by Camilla Goodrich, was presented to the D. A. R. and now hangs in the old Town Hall on Mill Hill.
STAGE COACH DAYS
CHAPTER XVII
Norwalk on Three Main Stage Lines-"Norwalk Hotel'' and "Connecticut House" Entertain Travelers-Local Tavern Center of Life-Bridge Built at Falls-Pigs Cause Much Trouble-Methodism Gains Foothold Here
STAGE travel was resumed shortly after the Revolutionary War in the year 1789, and Norwalk was once more in fairly close contact with the great outside world. The stage, which brought travelers from the east, west, north and south with tales of their respective communities and news of conditions in the country in general, stopped at the Norwalk hotel. There seems to be considerable vagueness as to the exact location of this hotel. One fact is fairly certain, that there was a hotel in this town at which the stage coaches stopped when travel was resumed along the Post road, shortly after the war. In Low's Boston Almanac for the year 1800 is a stage coach schedule on which appears the name of the "Norwalk hotel" with the name of the proprietor, Reed, after it. The hotel is starred, meaning that stages stopped there on their way to and from New York.
Stephen Jenkins, who tells of this almanac in his book "The Old Boston Post Road," has this to say of the hotel : "The Norwalk hotel, dating, so it is said, from 1775, was a very important tavern in the coaching days, when it was known as the Connecticut House." In the same volume appears a picture of the "Norwalk hotel, 1775," which leads one to believe that the old Boston store, northwest corner of Main and Wall sts., the Connecticut House and the "old Norwalk hotel" were one and the same. The im- pression is given that the building in early coaching days
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was called the Connecticut House, that its name was. later changed to the Norwalk hotel and that still later it was sold, and turned into a department store, until re- cently known as the Boston store. A new block of buildings has been erected there. No definite men- tion is made of what we moderns used to know as the old "Norwalk hotel," corner of Wall and River sts. We of today are in the habit of referring to the above place as the Norwalk hotel and to the building which was formerly used as the Boston store, corner of Main and Wall, as the "Connecticut House." Another historian is of the opinion that neither the Norwalk Hotel corner of Wall and River, nor the Connecticut House, corner of Wall and Main, were here in the revival of coaching days shortly after the Revo- lution, claiming that the Norwalk hotel was not built until 1800 or 1801 and that the Connecticut House was not
erected until 1824. If this argument is correct then there must have been another important hotel here about 1789.
We do know that during Revolutionary times there were the following inns in Norwalk :
A fair sized tavern kept by one John Betts on the Green. Here lodged the elegant Madam Van Horne and her two beautiful daughters, all three of whom fled to New York when they heard General Tryon was coming to town. Arnold's Inn, which stood where the Connecticut trolley barns are today, with a green bank rising behind it. It was noted for its fine view. It stood at the head of the Norwalk river, across the bridge, and many travelers watched the boats riding up and down the harbor, from their vantage points on the second story porch balcony. General Tryon, it is said, stopped here when he was governor of New York state and on one occasion bought a collection of natural history specimens at the hotel, which he sent to London.
Mention is also made of Wentworth tavern which "once stood on the James H. Knapp property, next to the Baptist church." It is added that George Washington spent a night here. Whether or not this was the same hotel at which
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Washington stopped shortly after the Revolutionary war, to refresh his horses, we do not know. The exact date of Washington's visit or visits, for he probably stopped in this town more than once during his career, cannot be ascer- tained. Rev. Selleck in his address at the centenary of St. Paul's church, speaks rather vaguely of the fact that George Washington once stopped at the "Taylor house, where a little child from the Woods house came and was taken into his arms."
But that is aside from the main problem. Where was the Old Norwalk Hotel, famous during coaching days? If it existed during the Revolutionary War, being built in 1775 as Jenkins claims, why is no mention of it made in any of the histories, in their accounts of the buildings burned or saved in the great fire here? Why do we not find it either among the houses rescued from the Tryon torch or among the buildings which were reduced to ashes? The only point on which all the histories agree is that the hotel was "at the bottom of the hill." Even this statement leaves us open to doubt, since it might have either been at the foot of Mortuary hill on the Green, or else at the foot of Mill Hill, corner of Wall and Main sts. Most of the local residents feel that it was the old Connecticut House, until recently the Boston Store, which was the famous stage coach hotel. Among them is Miss Mary Chichester, 31 Orchard st., who is quite well versed on old Norwalk. And so the matter must remain for the present, at least until some one comes forward with a good deal more definite informa- tion than has yet been found.
There are still some residents in town who recall hearing tales of ancestors who gathered at the Norwalk Hotel in coaching days and waited with subdued excitement for the loud and lengthy blast of the driver's horn "as he came down the hill." What a sight that must have been, as the stage driver swept into view, his coach rocking from side to side, his horses foaming and sweating, the passengers leaning
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eagerly from the windows in their gay silks and satins, and waving to friends and relatives gathered on the steps of the hotel. Sometimes a stop was made for a meal, depend- ing on the time of day; sometimes the coach paused only long enough to pick up passengers who might want to con- tinue to New York.
Stage coach lines were commenced between New York and Boston, June 25, 1772. During the Revolutionary war the lines ceased operation to recommence after the close of hostilities. Three of the main lines passed through Nor- walk, continuing together on the same road as far as New Haven. There directions changed. The upper road went over as far as Springfield and then across to Boston. The middle, ran through Coventry, Pomfret and Uxbridge, while the lower took an easterly course. New York at the time was not much of a city to brag about. When stage travel was resumed in 1789 it was practically in ruins. Several years in the hands of the enemy, combined with loss of trade due to war conditions, plus a very bad fire, had reduced it to a state of dilapidation and it was described by travelers as "a poor town with about 23,000 people."
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