USA > Connecticut > Tolland County > Columbia > The story of Columbia > Part 5
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Columbia's oldest cemetery, The Old Yard, contains the graves of twenty veterans who fought in the Revolutionary War and one who fought in the French and Indian War. These graves are easily located by head- stones crected by the State of Connecticut. According to volumc 6, page 5, Columbia Congregational Church Vital Records, four were killed in battle: Mr. Gould, Charles West, Nathan Hovcy and Phinehus Sprague.
In the new cemetery are buried three veterans of the War of 1812, eleven veterans of the Civil War, and three veterans of World War I.
In the West Street Cemetery lie the remains of one veteran of the Revolution, six veterans of the Civil War, one of the Spanish-American War, and one veteran of World War I.
There were eighteen men from Columbia who served their country in World War I, and several of these served in France with the American Expeditionary Forces. Two men from Columbia lost their lives during that war: Cyrus Hilton, who lived with James P. Littlc as a boy, was killed in action in France: Stanley Hunt, who was in the Navy, dicd while in service and is buried in the new cemetery. Soon after the end of hostilities, a boulder was erected on Columbia Green by the town, with the names of the veterans inscribed on a bronze plaque.
About a year after World War II started in Europe, the United States again instituted the draft, and all young men of specified ages were called upon to register for military service. After Pearl Harbor, the calling up of men under the Selective Service Act was very much accelerated. Before the war nded in the fall of 1945, between one hundred and one hundred tweni cnefrom Columbia were called to the colors or voluntarily en- listed. They scrved in all the theatres of the war, in the Army, Navy, Air Corps, Marine Corps and Sea Bees. Men from Columbia fought in the Philippines, on many islands in the Pacific, and later somc served in Japan. They also served their country in England, France, Germany, Africa and Italy. No matter where they were, on land or sea or in the air, they all did their share to bring victory to the Allics. It should also be mentioned that two girls from Columbia served in the Womans' Army Corps.
Columbia was very fortunate in that no men or women lost their lives in the conflict, but the names of those who were wounded in action
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should be mentioned. Benjamin Plesz was wounded in action in the Gilbert Islands; Lcster Thompson was badly wounded in Munda; Michael Wilke was wounded twice, once in Franee and oncc in Germany; Karol Michalik was wounded twice in Luxembourg; Arthur Cobb was wounded in action in Germany; Alfred Barrett was shot down flying over Italy and was taken prisoner: he was relcased when Italy withdrew from the war.
In connection with World War II there should be mentioned an organ- ization which did a great deal for the boys while they were in service. In 1943 six Columbia girls organizcd under the name COGS, standing for Columbia Older Girls Society. They were Jean Isham, Olive Tuttle, Jane Lyman, Carol Lyman, Shirley Trythall and Kay Sharpc. In March 1943 they started writing a newsletter, "The Cogwheel" and they issued it each month until December 1945, and mailed it to all the boys wherever they were stationed in the service. A copy was also mailcd each month to the State Library for the War Record Exhibit. Raising money by running weekly dances, the COGS purchased and presented to the town an Honor Roll and flag which werc dedicated on March 26, 1944; they mailed Christ- mas gifts to all service men for three years; installed an amplifying system in the Town Hall for use of any organization. A Welcome Home banquet honoring all Columbia veterans was scrvcd and paid for by the COGS on October 26, 1946. When the Columbia Post No. 157, American Legion, was organizcd, the COGS presented the Post with Standards and Colors in a colorful ceremony. The Legion Post then presented the COGS with a Mcritorious Service citation for their service as a force for good in com- munity, statc and nation.
The Selective Service Act has remained in force, and young men are continually being called into the service from Columbia. When the United Statcs was forced into the Korean conflict to stop the spread of communism, morc boys from Columbia were called up. Some were stationed in the States and others in the occupation forces in Germany, and scveral were stationed and fought in Korea. One of them, Alton Lathrop, Jr., was wounded in Korea but returned home safely.
Columbia's service on the home front has also been effective in many ways. The young farmers who under Selective Service were drafted to help feed a nation at war, even though not under arms gave an essential service in a way they were best equipped to do. Older citizens served on the unpaid but time-consuming Selective Service and Ration Boards. There are no records of women's part in the early wars, but during World War I they worked actively for the Red Cross, as they did again during World War II, knitting for service men and making thousands of surgical dressings. Thc ballroom of the Old Inn was used for this work during both wars.
That room was also the mecting place of the British War Relief Group of Columbia, formed in 1940 and affiliated with the Hartford Branch, to help the civilian victims of bomb raids in England and meet other needs occasioned by war. This organization was active for five years in Columbia,
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and its members, numbering fifteen or twenty, produced an amazing amount of work at their weekly meetings. They made more than five hun- dred wool-filled or wool-picced quilts, many crib quilts, several afghans and throws knit from odds and ends of yarn donated by everybody. They also produced nearly six hundred new woolen garments for English civilians, and sent nearly one thousand garments they had collected from everywhere, cleaned, repaired or made over. About five hundred knit garments were made for the armed forces, and forty soft toys for English children. After June 1941, they worked at alternate meetings for the Windham Com- munity Memorial Hospital, to help mect the town's quota of the hundreds of supplies the hospital was accumulating as its share in the Home Defense program.
Special mention should be given in this permanent record to the con- tribution of Mrs. Raymond Squier, who gave use of the ballroom and built and maintained the fires there so that it was a comfortable work room, and to Mrs. Marshall Squier, who made coffee for the women every week. Those who carried on for the five years in the quilting group under super- vision of Mrs. Henry Hutchins were Mrs. Raymond Squier, Mrs. Clayton Hunt. Mrs. Arthur Smith. Mrs. Bessie Trythall, Mrs. Ralph Wilson and Mrs. Hubert Collins. In the sewing group under the skillful direction of Mrs. Raymond Clarke were Mrs. Clair Robinson, Miss Edith Sawyer, Miss Katherine Ink, Mrs. Charles Natsch, Miss Katherine Christhilf and Miss Anne Dix. Miss Dix was the able director of the whole project, and Miss Lois Clarke, Secretary-Treasurer, was also the mechanically-inclined member who kept the sewing machines in running order.
Also in connection with home defense, a group of women established a well-equipped casualty station, an adjunct of the Windham Hospital, in a basement room of what is now St. Columba's Chapel, and maintained it while the need existed. Mrs. Arthur Smith was in charge of this project.
The Defense Council, of which Harvey Collins was Chairman, had several sub-committees, all doing important work in preparing for defense of the community. Lavergne Williams was in charge of Air Raid Wardens, and Lucius Robinson of the Observation Post. At first Columbia shared responsibility with Hebron for the Aircraft Warning Station in that town, but later a lookout tower was built by the Town, on Post Hill, and it was manned twenty-four hours a day. Teenaged boys and girls, and men and women of all ages, served on a regular schedule. The Observation Post, and the aircraft beacon light located nearby for the guidance of plancs, have now been removed, remaining only in the memories of those who lived and served through those most recent war years. A fine spirit of patriotism and cooperation was shown by Columbia people, whether in salvage drives, war bond and fund drives, or personal volunteer service.
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Wells Woods
The Wild West isn't the only section of the country that has "ghost towns".
Many years ago there was a settlement in this town, known as Wells Woods, named for the Boston merchant who bought the land on June 14, 1818. It stretched for 812 acres from the present-day Pine Street to Hebron Highway in Columbia, and to the adjoining tract of land in Lebanon known as Wells Great Meadow, now known as Lake Williams.
Mr. Wells cut a road through the center of his land and sold farms on both sides. Known as Wells Road, it branched off the old Boston-New York post road, which went past the present home of First Selectman Clair L. Robinson.
Mr. Wells sold land to families by the names of Wheeler, Root, Gates, Leland, Burnham, Fitch. Mathewson. Webber and Fuller. He made these transactions over a thirty-year period, then returned to Boston and was heard of no more.
Today, hikers can see the foundations of twelve homes, a schoolhouse, a sawmill and an axe helve factory. The road is now closed to the public, being open only to the present land owners, who use the land for hunting, grazing cattle and forest products.
In the old town records there is evidence of two schoolhouses having been built in this district, twenty years apart, the first one having burned. The land for these schoolhouses was given by a man named Ira Root.
Sunday School as well as day school for at least fifty children was held here. Some living residents can remember attending Sunday School in the second schoolhouse that was built. Miss Lillian Pinckney, (now Mrs. Howard Rice), taught her first term in the school, the last year school was in session in Wells Woods.
Located on one of the ponds in the woods are the remains of the Fuller Sawmill, while on another pond further down lie the ruins of Leland's Axe Helve Factory.
The population of the section was approximately one hundred inhab- itants. The whole population of Columbia in 1850 was 431 males, 445 females, a total of 876. The names of these inhabitants and the popula- tion figures were taken from an old map published by Woodford & Bartlett of Philadelphia, made from actual surveys of the towns of Tolland County in 1857.
Today a passerby can see an old cemetery in Wells Woods which is located on the old Ira Root homesite. Herein lie the graves of Mr. Root, his two wives and his sister. These stones were tipped over and covered with moss and dirt when Mr. Root's foster grandson, Clayton, decided to restore the burial plot. He cleaned the stones and reset them, and sur- rounded the plot with a stone wall.
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THE OLD FITCH HOMESTEAD
Today only a pile of boards remains. This picture was in the April 1943 edition of "The Connecticut Circle". Harry Judd was the photographer.
One can observe the enormous stones used for the foundations or underpinnings of the homes and the long slabs of granite used in the build- ings. On the Fitch house in the rear, set in carth and approaching the back entrance, are a number of huge irregular blocks weighing a ton or more apiece. In front of the house they form a fence on either side of a pair of upright granite gate posts.
All over the woods are the remains of stone fences made by these men to show their boundary lines. The stones in these fences are mammoth.
Through the years, the children of these people left the farms for the larger towns and cities. Some of the homes burned and the children never bothered to rebuild them, while other homes were simply abandoned. As soon as the woods had been cut, they had found that the land was not too good for farming. So again the place is woods, but evidence of former resi- dents is everywhere about.
Several years ago, when some necessary digging was being done to the west of Holmes' house, two old tombstones were uncovered which bore the inscription "Yc Distemper called Smallpox". The people were so afraid of this dreaded disease, that the dead were not permitted to be buried in the public cemetery, but were interred close to the homes they had died in.
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Romance of Industry
The present generation will hardly believe that this town had as much industry as history discovers, there being none today. Scattered throughout the town are many old mill sites. In the carly 1900's only one industry was left, a cotton mill in Hop River, and the rest of the town was mainly agricultural.
Hop River is a small village on the river of the same name. It is located in the northern part of Columbia, on the New York and New England Railroad (now the New York, New Haven and Hartford), but is no longer a stop on that road, although trains pass through there for Willimantic or Hartford. The railroad station has been moved and converted into a house. Hop River is one of the oldest mill sites in the state, where manufacturing has been carried on for over a century and a half. Most of the time satin or cotton warps were made, while some machine work was done. The mill property has passed through various hands. In 1850 the village con- sisted of three houses, a grist mill and a cotton mill. In 1865 the property was bought under the name of the Hop River Warp Company, and they began the manufacture of cotton thread, yarns and white and colored warps. Later, a speciality was made of white and fancy yarns for webs and tapes, and many styles of shoe webbing. About 1890 one firm held the patents and manufactured a newly-patented Whipper cotton opener, a device which was one of the most successful cotton openers in use at that time. More recently, a paper mill was located there; it manufactured paper mache chair scats and fibre board. The old mill has long been gone, and a newer building built along the track. This factory has had many changes of occupants, but no company of any importance has used it for any length of time.
In the Wells Woods section, described elsewhere in this book, were several mills at very early dates, now completely gone. Nothing in the wilderness was easily taken, and there is a sadness about all the hard work of pioneers, lost completely.
Cards Mill section, cast of the center of town, boasted a combination mill, sawmill and gristmill, on their beautiful stream. This mill, up-stream near the road, is only recently gone, and many people remember it well. Gristmills ground the grain and corn for home use. They also ground cobmeal from dried corn cobs with the corn on them, for use in feeding farm animals.
On Basket Shop Road, running west from the old West Street District School, was the town's basket shop. Norman P. Little, most adept of basket- makers, gathered his own pussy willow fronds for his work. His work was meticulous, and he was justly proud of his willow baskets. He made all kinds of baskets, both in size and material. Ash lumber was used for splint
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baskets, of which he made market, peck and bushel baskets, and hampers. For the latter he would take the steaming ash strips, dye some of them red with homemade dye, and trim the natural color hampers with the red strips. After Mr. Little, the business was carried on by his step-son, John McMurray, who, having at one time the idea that he was losing some of his choice lumber, put a self-printed sign on the fence reading:
"The Lord helps those who help themselves,
but the Lord help those I catch helping themselves."
A hat factory located near Columbia Lake at the ravine was run by Norman P. Little before the Civil War. The ravine now disperses the water from the spillway which takes the overflow from the lake. After the hat factory was closed, the building was moved to the E. P. Lyman property and used for many years as a garage. Torn down in the fall of 1953, it was missed as it was one of the oldest buildings in Columbia. Another mill at the other end of the ravine was located on the pond there known as Franklin pond. It supposedly used old up-and down saws.
A furniture factory was located across the road from the lake on the stream which feeds the lake at Buell's cove. This was a cabinet shop and under a shelter had a bench for woodworking. Hickory hoopers for barrels were also made here. Five mills were built on this stream, and all have disappeared except for a dam fallen in, or a wheel under water to mark the sites. Further than that, nothing remains in the three-fourths of a mile where they all once worked. In this vicinity there was also a sorghum mill. Sorghum, a kind of cane looking much like corn growing, with the excep- tion of long tassels, was reduced through a process of cooking and dripping at lower levels to a kind of molasses.
There was a sawmill on Mono's Pond (formerly Hunt's Pond) at its overflow. This, history says, was an old up-and-down saw run by Simon Hunt. Old up-and-down saws were very, very slow, and in those days cut principally chestnut and oak. Years ago, chestnut was THE timber around here. It was beautifully grained and took a handsome polish, and had the advantage of being fast growing. Of the most suitable trees, wide boards were cut for the floors of the early homes. Simon Hunt used to draw the pond off in the spring so that he could cut hay on the meadow; then he would dam it up again in the fall for water power, and so that the boys could skate. On the same stream at Pine Street was another sawmill known as Uncle Daniel Holbrook's mill. On another stream on Pine Street, "Uncle" Joseph Clark's mill sawed lumber and steamed and cut shingles.
Near the foot of Tennenbaum hill, a grist 'mill once stood and 'way up in the woods on the same stream are the remains of an old dam which no one living here now remembers the use of.
Chestnut Hill is south of Columbia center, and is part of the town. The Air Line R. R. ran a short line through there from Willimantic. Years ago students going to High' School travelled by train from Chestnut Hill to Willimantic. There are no longer any trains over this track.
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BASKET SHOP
Located on Basket Shop Road, no longer standing.
In our earliest times, lumber mills were nonexistent and lumber used in construction was all hand-hewn. Railroad ties, for which there was quite a thriving trade, were all hand-hewn of chestnut. Chestnut was especially popular as tie-beams for house and barn alike, and may be found today in many of the old barns and houses, and they are all hand-hewn. The first shingles were split out by hand and hand shaved. They were usually about one inch thick at the butt, 16 to 18 inches long, and shaved almost to a point. Shingles taken recently from a barn eighty years old were found to be still good.
Years ago there was a toll house at Post Hill to help defray the expense of the new road which ran from Hebron to Willimantic. The original toll house is still on the farm of Lucius Robinson, in use for storage. Recently when a stone wall was removed, the well for the toll house was found under it, and was filled in. The Hartford-Norwich Road ran from Well Road in Hebron past the front of Lucius Robinson's house and past Clair Robinson's to Hunt Road. This was a very busy thoroughfare before the new road was laid.
Near Hunt Road there was a very busy blacksmith shop on the old road from Willimantic to Hebron. Another blacksmith shop, run by Chester Collins, was on the new road near the center. Horses being the only means of transportation, both shops ran a thriving business. They also shod oxen,
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made wagon repairs, and set wagon tires. Mr. Collins, in conjunction with his blacksmith shop, madc wagons.
A cattle pound was located just south of the Old Yard cemetery on the main road. Stray pigs, goats, sheep, cows, and horses were impounded until claimed by their owners.
Baseball bats were manufactured by Mason Squier, who owned a big lathe run by a steam engine. It is said that none of the bats went to market as the local demands were great.
The principal hat plant was located about a quarter of a mile from the center on the south side of the Hebron road. All who could do mechanical work were hatters. The shop was run by water with an overshot wheel about 12 feet in diameter. The hats were made of wool cones, therefore the fields were full of sheep. The cones were delivered around town to the women, who ironed them into shape with very heavy irons, some of which weighed 15 pounds. The forms for shaping were about the same as are used now. The hats were hard, heavy and hot. It was a common sight those days to see all the females old enough to sew, trimming hats during the long winter evenings. The trimming consisted in sewing in the hat band, piping the edge and putting a band around the crown. What a trial this was for their eyes can well be imagined, and they were satisfied if the family earned a couple of dollars a week. These hats were known as "Nigger Hats" as the whole output was sent to the south and sold to slave owners for the outfitting of their slaves. This industry was killed by the Civil War. With the outcome of the war and freedom of the slaves, the negroes were compelled to furnish their own clothing, and the demand for the hats ceased.
Mills requiring water for running could operate all year in those carlier days, because the ground was covered with virgin timber and there was plenty of water from drainage of the land to enable them to keep operating. There were the remains of five dams on the brook in back of the hat factory property, which before the Revolutionary War was called Dam Brook. "Tres" Tucker bought the property and ran a sawmill and later a wood turning and woodworking shop. He was forced to give this up as the finished lumber was more valuable than the articles he could make to sell, but what he did there later made him one of the town's most interesting residents, and this article would not be complete without a bit about him.
Tressillian Tucker, now in his eighties, was known as "Tinker Tucker" and is a mechanical and electrical genius. He developed the first electric lights in Columbia. even building his own batteries, and the same system is still in use. In 1886 he made a camera which took excellent pictures, and he also made the paper on which to print them. He had the first high wheel bike in town, and later the first motorcycle and also the first automobile, all of which he could fix if there was anything wrong with them. He prob- ably was the first automobile repairman to have a garage here, and he repaired cars for eighteen years. In his machine shop he made many of his .
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own tools, and no parts needed were too complex for him to make. Several institutions of learning sent him intricate drawings of equipment for special manufacture, and he had customers from far and near. Failing eyesight forced his retirement in 1953.
With this backward glance, Columbia is seen as a town which once had diversified industries.
Cemeteries
Of the three cemeteries in the town of Columbia, the oldest, The Old Yard, is situated a short distance southeast of the crossroads at the Center. Many of the first residents of the town are buried there.
In 1851, a new cemetery was laid out and the Columbia Burying Ground Association was formed. The grounds, covering an area of three and one half acres, south of the library, have been improved from time to time.
The West Street cemetery was laid out about 1825, and the West Street Cemetery Association formed. It is located on the top of Utley Hill, overlooking the lake.
Interesting old gravestones are to be found in The Old Yard. For example, the following :
Miss Anne Little, daughter of Mr. John Little and Mrs. Anne Little, who died Dec. 2nd 1811. aged 18 years and 14 days. Stop blooming youth before you pass
And view my mansion here Perhaps this lesson is the last For death is drawing near. Dear friends, you can't prepare too soon, If you would happy be, Jesus may call while in your bloom. He did for me, you see.
In memory of Lydia, wife of Mr. Eleazer Dewey who departed this life in hopes of a better April 28th 1805, in the 26th year of her age. Death is a debt to nature due Which I have paid and so must you.
In memory of Deacon James Pinnco who departed this life Apr. 18th, 1789 In the 81st year of his age The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when they sleep in dust.
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The Library
About the year 1882, a small group of people in Columbia felt the need of a library for the town. Dr. Charles N. Gallup, who lived in the house on the Green now occupied by Lyndon E. Little, was the leader of this group and at a meeting held on February 20th, 1883, The Columbia Free Library Association was organized and Dr. Gallup was elected its first president. Other elected officers were Edward P. Lyman, vice-president; William A. Collins, secretary: James P. Little, treasurer: and John A. Hutchins, trustee. Members of the first Library Committee were the Rev- erend Frederick D. Avery, Charles N. Gallup, M.D., William H. Yeomans, Joseph Hutchins, Charles Little, Amelia Fuller, and Alanson H. Fox.
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