USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > The story of Bridgeport > Part 2
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BODY IS NOT HERE
May 22, 1849 is given as the date of Isaac, Jr's death. It is presumed that he was buried in Freeport, Illinois, since it was not the custom of the times to transport bodies from one place to another for burial. In addition, it is unlikely that anyone who had died from the dread cholera would have been carried out of a plagued community into one untouched.
So then, the assertion of histories that Isaac Sher- man, Jr., first mayor of Bridgeport, "is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery" does not seem correct. Further proof that he is not actually buried in this city is given on the headstone erected in Mountain Grove Cemetery by his mother.
There are two Isaac Sherman headstones in the Mountain Grove Cemetery. The first is for Isaac Sherman, Sen. who lies side by side with his wife in plot 14. There is a separate headstone for each.
The second Isaac Sherman headstone bears the names of both Isaac Sherman, Jr. and his brother Levi and is situated in plot 17 of the Mountain Grove Cemetery. This stone is not an upright but a flat marble tablet laid in the ground. It reads as follows:
In memory of ISAAC SHERMAN, JR. Who Died of Cholera May 22, 1849 Aged 48 yrs. and 7 mos.
Twas God's Own Will In His Own Time
To Take This Mortal (?) In His Prime Erected By His Mother Also of LEVI SHERMAN Who Died In St. Louis, Mo. Jan. 13, 1852 Aged 48 yrs. and 9 mos.
Their souls went to God when he gave amen (?) and Their bodies are at rest in a far distant land.
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THE STORY OF BRIDGEPORT
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According to Orcutt's genealogy, the family tree of Isaac Sherman, Jr. was as follows:
"Isaac, Jr., son of Sterling and Anna (Kirtland) Sherman . . married Eliza, daughter of F. C. Bassett.
"Children: David, who is living near Cleveland, Ohio; Henry, living near his brother, and Jane."
Just where these descendants are today is not known. Nor are we even sure of the exact number of descendants, for the newspaper report of the death of Isaac Sherman, Jr., in Freeport, Illinois, gives him five children instead of three!
Witness the following notice which appeared in the "Freeport Journal," May 23, 1849:
"Mr. I. Sherman, a merchant of St. Louis, Mo., died in this city of the cholera on the morning of the 22d. He arrived in town last Thursday en route for Batavia, New York, having rode from Galena by stage with the malada opperating upon him, and be- fore medical aid could be procured, he was in the state of collapse, from which however, he rallied dur- ing the night and on the following day bid fair to re- cover, but the consecutive fever and inflammation terminated his existence. The deceased was about 49 years of age, formerly of Bridgeport, Conn. He leaves a wife and five children in Batavia, N. Y., anxiously awaiting his arrival, who will be called upon to mourn his melancholy death.
"Friends will be glad to learn that every effort was
made that could be dictated by by the madical talent; or by the kindness and sympathy of those in whose midst he closed his earthly career, and though he died among strangers he was not without every attention that could be bestowed.
"St. Louis, Connecticut and Western New York papers please notice."
Search of the genealogical records, vital statistics and the probate records, in St. Louis, Missouri; Free- port, Illinois; Batavia, New York; and in Stratford, Fairfield and Bridgeport, by this writer, fails to re- veal much more concerning the end of Isaac Sherman, Jr. The only other item of interest unearthed, was a record of the probation of Isaac, Jr's., estate.
Isaac Sherman, Jr. was bankrupt when he died. His estate was administered by his mother and by Joseph Thompson, according to Bridgeport probate records of 1849.
An inventory of the estate presented November 12, 1849, showed that he owned a lot of land in Bridgeport, 36 rods more or less, "bounded on the north on Golden Hill Street, east on William J. Shelton, south on Anna Sherman and west on David Meeker, valued at 1400 dollars."
The above lot, however, was encumbered by mort- gages amounting to $1800 on which interest was owing. So it was announced by Joseph Thompson, administrator, that:
"As no assets appear above no dividend was de- clared."
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LES . BENTON
"THOSE NAKED SONNES OF ADAM"
CHAPTER THREE
B IG Chief First Bridgeporter sat in front of his wigwam (corner Main and Golden Hill) smok- ing peacefully.
The late spring sunshine through the young leaves of a butternut tree, threw into relief the greased cox- comb of hair, the high cheekbones, the broad nose, the thin lips of the Indian; and sketched a lacy pat- tern across his bare, tawny chest.
The time was 1636, just 300 years ago and the ground on which the wigwam stood, is now one of the busiest corners in the city. It supports the Medi- cal building, housing some 60 doctors and dentists.
But the Big Chief thought not about what might come and worried less.
He was content that spring had come again; that once more the corn would wave in the summer breeze; the earth would bear beans and pumpkins; the maple trees, sugar.
Music to his ears was the sighing of the light wind in the elms and sassafras behind him, the gurgle of the brook beside him, the laughter of the romping children before him.
His black eyes wandered lazily and contentedly over the landscape-even though they saw no high storied buildings, no trolley cars, no five and tens, no railroad, no hurrying throngs of people.
Instead, there were low bushes, green grass, over- hanging trees and Indian trails. To the south, along the shore, was a strip of fertile plain, sandy, loamy soil. Patches of cleared ground for the corn could be glimpsed between the thick clumps of trees. To the east was the old Indian fort, which reared its sides of stout logs on the spot where Congress and Water Streets now meet.
The Big Chief smoked and dreamed. The Great Spirit had been kind. His people were happy. He
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framed a wish that prosperity might be with them always.
Little did he envision that within a few short years there would scarce be an Indian left, that the white man, greedy for land, intolerant of his red-skinned brother, would crowd him out; and that within the space of a few generations, a city of 150,000 would rise where once the wigwams squatted undisturbed.
THREE WIGWAM VILLAGES
When the first white settlers set foot in this com- munity, they found three thriving Indian villages, one on the southern slope of Golden Hill, numbering a hundred or more wigwams and including about 500 Indians; a second at the head of the cove near the junction of what is now State Street and Fairfield Avenue; and a third west of the Uncoway River, now known as Ash Creek.
At the north end of Black Rock harbor was a great planting plain. Overlooking it, the Indians had seen fit to erect and palisade a fort, garrisoning the same with 200 young braves. North and east of the fort extended the plain, known as "Old Indian Field", later a bone of contention between the Indians and the whites and finally sold to the town of Fairfield in 1681.
The Indians in the vicinity of what is now Bridge. port were the Pequonnocks, believed to have been a branch of the Paugussetts who lived on the east banks of the Housatonic River. Incidentally, the name Paugussett is said to have been derived from the word "pog-Kussit", denoting a swift current in a river.
To the west in Fairfield was another Indian tribe, the Unkowas; to the east in Stratford were the Wepawaugs.
The land on which the Pequonnock Indians had "set down" was called after them "Pequonnock" and was used to designate all the land east of Ash Creek, north to the Old King's Highway and south to the Sound.
There seems to be a sharp difference of opinion among historians as to just what the word "Pequon- nock" signified. Some insist it meant "cleared field" or "open ground"; others are sure it meant "broken ground"; while a third group is certain it meant "place of slaughter" or "place of destruction".
Whatever it meant bothered the Indians little, for they lived and prospered here for many years before the whites arrived.
By 1638, the Indians at Uncoway river had given land in Fairfield to the General Court at Hartford and the Indians on the banks of the Housatonic had given land at Stratford. On the land thus ceded, settlers located the following year.
This date, 1639, marks the appearance of the first whites in this vicinity. It must be remembered that as yet, there was no Bridgeport as such. Stratford and Fairfield owned all the land within our present city limits. For that reason, the early history of Fair- field and Stratford is also that of Bridgeport.
INDIANS PEEKED
Two major Indian problems faced the first white settlers here. For one thing, the Indian wouldn't "stay put". For another, he was a heathen and obstinate about going to church.
One of the main reasons the Indian wouldn't "stay put" was that he was intensely curious about his new neighbors-he wanted to see what they did and how they lived. The best way to find out was to peek in the windows and, when the "oil'd" paper on the windows was so thick he couldn't see through, he peeked in the door. Thus it was not uncommon for the good wife to glance up from her beanpot or her soapmaking tub and to find herself staring into the face of a redskin.
In other ways the Indian annoyed the settler; he wouldn't keep his cattle "to home"; he wanted to play with the white man's firearms; he had a hanker- ing for liquor once he tried it.
Constant quarrelling between the redskins and the whites led the General Assembly to make certain restrictions. The settlers were forbidden to sell arms, ammunition, liquor, horses or boats to the Indians. The sachems were made answerable for the deeds of their tribes and Indians were forbidden to enter the houses of settlers or to handle their firearms or other weapons, under penalty of fine for disobedience or retaliation in kind, should loss of life or limb be occa- sioned by their carelessness.
At the same time, not more than two or three Indians were allowed to come into the settlement to- gether and in any case were to leave their weapons behind. If found prowling around the homes of set- tlers after dark, it was lawful to shoot them.
The General Assembly also passed resolutions in- structing the various town officials to endeavor to
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convey through suitable interpreters some knowledge of God and his word to "those poore lost naked sonnes of Adam" and ordered that at least twice a year a teaching elder and an interpreter should go among them and "endeavor to make known to them the counsels of the Lord."
That at least a few of the Indians did go to church is evident from a vote passed at an early date in Stratford, forbidding the Indians to enter the meet- ing house during the prevalence of a contagious disease, -- probably smallpox.
GOLDEN HILL RESERVATION
Fairfield and Stratford grew rapidly-too rapidly for the amount of room allotted them. Fairfield pushed the Indians to the east and Stratford pushed them to the west. Because each community thought the other should take care of the Indians, the Gen- eral Assembly decided to settle the matter once and for all.
Forthwith, the court decreed that Golden Hill law- fully belonged to the Pequonnock Indians and it was ordered in 1659 that the Indians should "possess and enjoy henceforth and for the future, that parcel of land called Gold Hill." Eighty acres were given over to the Indians "beginning at the foot of the hill where the wigwams stood, and to run upwards on the hill" and beyond for some distance.
Since Stratford was giving up its Golden Hill prop- erty, Fairfield was asked likewise to give up a piece of land to satisfy the Stratford planters. And, in case the latter didn't like the land so picked out, Fairfield was to satisfy the Stratford planters in some other manner.
After much argument, it was finally decided "that the Fairfield men shall pay to the Stratford men for the 80 acres that the Indians do possess at Paquanocke (Gold Hill reservation) 20 pounds (about $100), this to be paid in beefe, porke, wheate and pease".
Upon these terms between the two settlements was the Golden Hill reservation of 80 acres established, and this price in "beefe, porke, wheate and pease" is the first valuation of what was afterward to be an important part of the city of Bridgeport.
In return for the reservation, the Indians promised not to steal any cattle, corn or peas and to keep their fences in repair so that cattle wouldn't break through and destroy the settlers' crops.
With all these restrictions in force, a comparative
peace reigned. But the settlers were taking no chances. They feared the Indians and for many years troopers were kept on guard at night. During the day the settler carried his musket to the fields with him; on Sabbath and meeting days it was decreed that one from each household should come to meeting fully armed and equipped.
INDIAN ESCAPADES
During one Indian escapade, the shepherd of the town flock in Stratford was set upon by a number of drunken redskins who painted his face and stamped on his chest. Being of good old stock, he survived.
At another time, David, the infant son of Alexander Lane of Stratford, was found dead. Two Indians, Shillings and Chops, were immediately charged with the murder. They were acquitted when the settlers came to the conclusion the child drowned.
The tale is told of one strong and sinewy redskin who itched to pit his strength against that of the white man. He taunted the settlers as they drilled on the parade ground and dared them to try him out. It was decided that John Sherwood, captain of the train band, (a training band of settlers similar to the national guard today), was the only match for the bully.
Thus it was that Captain Sherwood, founder and elder of the Stratfield Baptist Church and himself an athlete of no mean ability, accepted the challenge. He advanced towards the brave who was naked to the waist and shining with grease, and, according to the story, "put his hand on the shoulder and crumpled it in his vise-like grip and then, throwing his left arm around him, gave him such a hug and mighty fall as to leave him senseless upon the field, while the air rang with the plaudits of the specta- tors."
By 1710, there were no more than 25 wigwams on Golden Hill and not more than 60 to 80 warriors in other parts of the town.
Little is heard of the Indians in the ensuing years until 1763 when three or four redskins complained to the General Assembly that twelve Fairfield and Stratford settlers (including the Rev. Robert Ross of Stratford) had entered the Golden Hill reserva- tion, ejected the Indians and pulled down their wigwams.
The court looked into the matter and decided that
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it would be best for all concerned, if the Indians were moved from the Golden Hill reservation and placed somewhere else. Thus it was agreed, in 1765, that the Indians should sell all of the 80 acres on Golden Hill, with the exception of "a parcel of land called Nimrod Lot, containing about 12 acres with the spring at the point of Golden Hill aforesaid, bounded westerly by an highway, eastwardly by Pequonnock river, northerly by Jabez Summers' land and southerly by the Cove and common land, also about eight acres of woodland at Rocky Hill."
Very shortly the Indians were removed to the "12 acres aforesaid" on the banks of the Pequonnock. There couldn't have been very many to "move" be- cause, according to DeForest, there were in 1765 but seven Indians remaining on Golden Hill.
The twelve acres were located, according to his- torian Hurd, on the eastern side of Main Street, not far from its junction with Washington Avenue and became known as "Indian lot". One might wonder how the same 12 acres could include the "spring at the point of Golden Hill" and also the land at the present corner of Main and Washington. However, it must be remembered that "Golden Hill" in those days, covered a good deal more territory than it does today and stretched north beyond the present Wash- ington Avenue. Thus, the "Indian Lot" may well have been near the junction of the present Main and Washington.
The eight acres at "Rocky Hill" were situated in the vicinity of the present Chopsy Hill in north Bridgeport.
In addition to the 12 acres on the river bank and the eight acres of woodland, the Indians received for their sale of the Golden Hill land, "30 bushels of Indian corn and three pounds worth of blankets".
LAST OF THE TRIBE
The Indians, however, made little use of their new tracts of land and, as their white guardians were re-
peatedly obliged to advance money for taxes and other expenses, the whole reservation was sold and the money put out at interest for the Indians. By 1842, the sum amounted to $1,175. At that time $500 was expended in purchasing a small house and 20 acres of land in the township of Trumbull and thither the last remnants of the once proud Pequon- nock tribe went into exile.
"The tribe now numbers two squaws who live in an irregular connection with negroes and six half breed children, all of whom are grown up but one," DeForest wrote in 1851. "They are intemperate but have been about the same number for many years," he added.
Little trace of the Indians remains today in Bridge- port. True, Indian relics may still be unearthed by the diligent digger and in recent years arrow heads, mortars, pestles, axes, tomahawks and small vessels have been found. The Prospect School playground has always been a fertile field for relics. This was once an Indian burial ground. There are traces known of two others within city limits, one near the old gas works, in the vicinity of Meadow Street and the other, south of State Street and east of Main.
When the railroad went through this vicinity, stone posts were dug up near the Holmes and Edwards Silver Co., now the International Silver Company, 1600 Seaview Avenue. These stones were known as "pow wow" posts and showed that the land near the factory had once been used as a "pow wow" or medicine camp.
John Chops, who died in North Bridgeport on the Rocky Hill reservation in 1818, is one Indian whose name has been perpetuated by the hill on which his wigwam stood-Chopsy Hill.
Other Indian names, Pequonnock, Pootatuck, Housatonic, Naugatuck, Orinoque and Miamogue are about all that remain of the redskins who first trod Bridgeport trails.
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1936
JESS . BENTON
"AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING"
CHAPTER FOUR
W HEN the indomitable Madam Sarah Knight came through this community in 1704, on her famous horseback trip from Boston to New York, she thought so little of the place, she wouldn't even stop. The young widow enjoyed New Haven, where she had many friends, and thought quite well of Fairfield, but the intervening country scarcely rated a line in her "Journal".
"Dec. 6th we set out from New Haven", she wrote "and about 11 same morning came to Stratford ferry; w'ch crossing, about two miles on the other side Baited our horses and would have eat a morsell ourselves, But the Pumpkin and Indian mixt Bred had such an Aspect, and the Bare-Legg'd Punch so awkward or rather Awfull a sound, that we left both and proceeded forward, and about seven at night
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1936
. JESS . BENTON
come to Fairfield, where we met with good entertain- ment and Lodg'd."
History does not tell us which inn in this com- munity Madam Knight favored with her presence or rather which she left in a huff, but we do know that the pumpkin and Indian mixed bread, of which she complained, was common and popular fare in the early days of cur community.
Pumpkins were used down to their very skins by the economical goodwives, who stewed, baked and boiled them, made a gravy called "pompion sause" and also a bread mixed half and half with Indian corn meal.
Madam Knight was the daughter of a rich Boston merchant. When she made her trip through here in 1704 she was a smart young widow of 38, with plenty of courage, it should be added. The journey was difficult and perilous "full of bugbears to a fear- full female travailler" and it was performed by this
woman with the company of only hired guides, the "Western Post" or whatever chance traveler she might find journeying her way, at a time when brave men feared to travel through New England and asked for public prayers in church before starting on a journey of 20 miles.
After leaving this little settlement, Madam Knight continued her journey as far as New York. There she enjoyed herself immensely, "Riding Sleys about three or four miles out of town, where they have houses of entertainment at a place called the Bowery." Having visited all her friends in New York, she returned home to Boston the same way she came.
In Madam Knight's Journal, everything she saw was compared with "ours in Boston" or said to be "not like Boston." One can picture this highly cul- tured young woman in her beribboned woolen round- gown, long leather gloves, high heeled shoes, silver buckled, and perhaps a "strap-cap" fastened under her chin, flouncing in and out of the primitive inns of the time, complaining bitterly of "ye wretched bed" and the "sad colour'd pillows", of the pickled mutton which "smelt strong of head sause" and of the purple cabbage which "Being hungry I got a little down but my stomach was soon cloy'd and what cabbage I swallowed served me for a Cudd the whole day after."
What Madam Knight expected to find in this little community, there is no way of knowing. Certain it is, however, that our small group of log homes and mud roads did not compare favorably with the com- forts of the cultured city of Boston.
After all, the village here was but a few years old as time goes. Small attempt had been made to plan its progress or its future, and like Topsy it "just grew". As the Rev. Orcutt, historian, wrote: "Bridgeport grew up without a plan or in spite of one."
PLANS GO ASTRAY
There is more truth than poetry to the above quo- tation. As a matter of fact, plans actually were made in the beginning for the settlement of Pequonnock (now Bridgeport), and Roger Ludlow, then deputy governor of Connecticut, was commissioned by the General Assembly to establish this settlement.
But the plans never materialized, for Ludlow, for reasons which shall be seen, changed his mind when
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he got down here and went on to Fairfield, com- mencing a settlement there.
Connecticut settlers may be said to have "discov- ered" this community during the Pequot war of 1637. Some of them were struck by the beauty of the place and made mental note to return at some future date. Among them was Roger Ludlow, whose energetic mind and all consuming ambition immediately fos- tered the idea of forming a settlement here.
Never slow to act, Ludlow set the wheels of prog- ress in motion and succeeded in obtaining a commis- sion from the General Court at Hartford to begin a plantation at "Pequonnock" in the spring of 1639. With four others, he set out on his journey. The pioneers carried their household effects with them and drove their cattle before them.
What happened on the journey was not known for some time. However, Ludlow did not follow out the Assembly's orders to found a settlement at Pequonnock. Instead he went on to Fairfield and there commenced the Village of Uncoway.
Returning to Hartford, Ludlow appeared before the session of the General Court held on the 10th day of October, 1639, and forthwith apologized for hav- ing begun a plantation at Uncoway instead of at Pequonnock.
Ludlow said that when he got down as far as Quinnipiocke (New Haven) "the hand of the Lord was uppon him in taking away some of his cattle. . .. Afterwards, att his coming to Pequannocke he found cause to alter his former thoughts of wintering his cattle there.
And what caused him to alter his former thoughts of settling Pequonnock? Only that he heard some settlers were planning a plantation in the vicinity of Fairfield and he thought he had better claim this fer- tile land first, before others took possession. As he stated the situation, he feared "that some others in- tended to take up said place who had not acquainted the court with their purpose."
Ludlow was reprimanded by the Court for settling elsewhere than in Pequonnock and a committee com- posed of Governor John Haynes and Mr. Thomas Wells was appointed to go down to Pequonnock and Uncoway and see just how the situation stood.
Governor Haynes and Mr. Wells were also appointed to administer the oath of fidelity to the planters of Pequonnock, to order them to send one or
two deputies to the next General Court convening and to instruct them in the formation of a local court of seven men who could consider all cases under 40 shillings (about $10).
Lastly, it was decided by the General Court, according to the old records of the October, 1639 meeting, "to assigne S'jeant Nicholls for the present to trayne the men and exercise them in military dis- cipline."
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