USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, Volume I > Part 73
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BUCK'S HILL CEMETERY.
On December 30, 1789, "on motion of John Welton, Esq., to have a suitable piece of ground sequestered for a burying yard in the northern part of this town, it was voted to request the selectmen to choose out a suitable piece of ground and purchase it for the above purpose if they think prudent." A few stones are standing in the Buck's Hill cemetery, of dates before 1800. Additions have been made to the original layout, and the evergreen trees which surround it were presented by Joseph Welton in 1860.
BROCKET (OR POTTER) CEMETERY.
On March 27, 1813, Zenas Brocket deeded to his son-in-law, the Rev. Samuel Potter, certain pieces of land, one "a little southeast of Spectacle pond so called, containing about six acres, in which is included a burying ground of twelve rods of land, which is not conveyed by this deed." The earliest burials therein were probably the two sons of Mr. Potter, one of whom died in 1803, the other in 1804. Franklin Potter, the present owner, has twice enlarged it, and its present dimensions are nearly one acre. It is used largely as a place of burial by the inhabitants of Simonsville and that vicinity.
* See note on page 645.
+ It is said that a complete list of the burials in Gunntown cemetery is in existence, but it is not avail- able for reference at this time.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
WOOSTER CEMETERY.
This is a small plot of ground lying south of the Potter burial ground, now within the limits of the town of Naugatuck. The ear- liest interment was that of Walter Wooster, who died July 21, 1829, aged eighty-two years; the latest Sylvester B. Bailey, aged sixty- five, in 1892. There seem to have been only about twenty burials, nearly all bearing the name of Wooster.
For an account of cemeteries opened since 1825 see Volume II, pages 786 to 789.
BELLS AND THEIR USES.
The history of church bells in old New England communities is a subject by no means barren of interest, and the ancient customs connected with bell-ringing are worth studying. Although it is so recently that they have fallen into disuse, there are few to-day who know much about them. Their connection with deaths and burials was so close that this would seem to be the proper place in which to give some account of them.
Bronson in his History of Waterbury makes the following refer- ence (page 110) to primitive New England customs: "The drum was a favorite instrument among our ancestors, and was put to many uses. It answered the purpose of a town bell. It called the people to meeting on Sundays. It summoned them to the fortified houses at night. It gave the signal for the town gatherings on public business. It told the people when to turn out 'to burn about the common fence.'" The use of the drum as a legal signal for sheriff's sales-in which property was advertised "to be sold at beat of drum "-has continued until very recently. The Connecti- cut statutes of 1866 prescribe this method of giving notice; but the daily paper and the town sign-post seem now to have taken the place of it. It is quite probable that the drum was used in Water- bury for the purposes indicated for at least a hundred years. It was gradually superseded by the bell, and the bell having once secured an established place, new uses were developed which it successfully supplied.
On page 613 it is remarked that the second meeting-house (1729-1796) "apparently had a bell," and that it was probably the one sold by the people of Milford, about 1740, "to a society in Waterbury." In that case the statement on page 557 of Bronson's History, repeated in this volume (p. 599), that the bell of the old academy was the first in town, must be incorrect .*
* For the history of the academy bell see page 600 and Vol. II, p. 519. F. J. Kingsbury, who in his boy- hood assisted in taking down this same bell from the belfry of the second or stone academy, after it had become permanently injured, says it was pushed from the end of a plank, fell on the hard ground and broke into several pieces.
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BURYING GROUNDS AND TOLLING BELLS.
The grant "to pay for the bell," made by the First society in 1788 (p. 613), would seem to indicate either a recent purchase or a long- standing debt, or else payment for the use of the academy bell or for ringing it. But in any case, the third meeting-house (1796-1840) had not been finished long ere it was furnished with a new one. The subscription paper for this bell was in existence in 1885, but has since disappeared. Fortunately, however, it was published in the Waterbury Republican of August 19 of that year, with the entire list of the subscribers, and the bill, showing the size and cost of the bell. The heading is as follows:
We, the subscribers, hereby promise to pay to Capt. Benj. Upson, Messrs. John Davis and Jesse Hopkins, society's committee, for the purpose of purchasing and hanging a bell in the steeple of the meeting-house lately built in the First Society in Waterbury, the several sums annexed to our respective names, by the first day of December next, provided the sums hereto subscribed shall amount to a sum sufficient to purchase a bell that shall weigh six hundred weight, and not exceeding six hundred and fifty pounds weight, and hang the same.
To this agreement, we are told by the Republican, 108 names were subscribed, and all but nine had check marks after them indicating that payment had been made. "The amounts ranged from four shillings to £3, and the total amount was £86, 15s., 6d., or about $430." The receipt, which we reproduce, shows that the bell finally procured was a hundred pounds heavier than the committee at first reckoned upon:
NEW HAVEN, March 2d, 1797.
THE FIRST SOCIETY OF THE TOWN OF WATERBURY, To FENTON & COCHRAN, DR.
To a bell weighing seven hundred and forty-eight pounds, at two shillings and three pence per pound (eighty-four pounds, three shillings), .
£ s. d.
84 3 0
Also altering a P. bell weighing 24 pounds at 2-3, 2 I O Also two brass gaging boxes weighing four and half pounds at 2 per
0 9 0 pound,
87 6 0
FENTON & COCHRAN.
Before the purchase of this bell, that on the academy was used to some extent as a church bell. The vote of the First society to give the Episcopal society the use of the new bell "on all proper occasions " has already been referred to (page 618). It probably met the requirements of both parishes for many years. No refer- ence to a bell on the Episcopal church has been found of earlier date than 1823, and there is no indication in the First church records until 1827 that the bell of 1797 was not sufficient and satis- factory. On March 5 of that year, however, it was "voted that the
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
society's committee have liberty to sell the bell of the meeting- house at their discretion," and on November 16, 1829, it was " voted to lay a tax of one and one-half cents on the dollar on the list of 1829 to be appropriated to the purchase of a bell, payable the first day of March next." Of this proposed purchase there is no further mention in the records, but in the Reminiscences of Horace Hotch- kiss (already quoted elsewhere), there is an interesting reference to to it. He says :
For some years subsequent to the erection of the two churches, the bell of the Congregational church was used for both societies for Sabbath and funeral occa- sions. The old bell was at length broken by undue ringing, one Christmas Eve, and it was decided to hang a new one before the installation of a pastor which was just about to take place. Mr. Israel Coe sent a bell from New York, but when it was tested, on the Saturday previous to the installation, it proved unsatisfactory. Determined at all events to have a good bell for the coming occasion, I proposed to Edward Scovill that we should drive over to Hartford, that afternoon, to procure one, and return at evening. The weather was intensely cold and the snow was drifting heavily, but we equipped ourselves with shovels and blankets, and left Waterbury about noon.
On the Southington plains, in consequence of the drifts, we were obliged to shovel the paths for long distances, and reached Hartford only at night-fall. Dur- ing the evening we secured a bell whose tones we liked, and at 9 p. m. started on our tedious homeward drive of thirty miles over the mountain, with the bell in the sleigh,-an additional weight of more than half a ton. By urging the horses and by frequent shovelling we reached the brow of the mountain at midnight, but beyond that the road was so blockaded that we could proceed no further with the sleigh. We resolved to ride home on horseback, leaving our load behind, but on attempting it our frequent falls and the bitter cold convinced us that this, too, was impossible; so we led the horses to a house about half a mile distant, and arousing the occupants, found quarters until the next evening (for although the strict Sab- bath laws of my earlier life were not then in force, we were unwilling to give occa- sion for scandal because of having travelled on the Sabbath). After sunset on Sun. day night we extricated our sleigh by aid of oxen and slowly proceeded home.
The bell was hung on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it rang out a joyous sum- mons to the installation. Long afterward it called the people to worship and gave them notice of occurring deaths. I think it is but a few years since this last custom was dropped in Waterbury. At a funeral the body was carried to the grave on men's shoulders. Occasionally the bearers were relieved by others, and as they went on, the slow and solemn tones of the passing bell filled the air. (This, I sup- pose, was from a Saxon custom notifying the people to pray for the soul of the departed.) The bell was also 'rung on week days, at early morning to give notice when to rise, at 12 o'clock for the mid-day meal, and at 9 p. m. to indicate the hour of retiring.
The bell procured by Messrs. Scovill and Hotchkiss became in its turn unsatisfactory. On December 26, 1853, the society voted that the society's committee should be authorized to exchange the present bell for a new one, the new one to weigh not less than 1500 pounds, nor more than 2500. The date at which the exchange was
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BURYING GROUNDS AND TOLLING BELLS.
made does not appear in the record, but the result was a disappoint- ment. The bell was evidently taken "on approval," for on March 22, 1855, the society took action as follows:
Voted that the bell now hanging in our church is not satisfactory to us, and that we do not think it for our interest to purchase it.
Resolved that this society is under no obligation to try another bell from Mr. Holbrook's foundry, and that the committee be directed to procure a bell wherever they think the interest of the society will be best served.
Four months later it was still there, or else the society had been dis- appointed again; for it was voted (July 16) "that as the bell now hangs we are not satisfied with it,-as regards the difficulty of ring- ing it and the tone given out when it is tolled, and that the com- mittee be instructed to advise Mr. Blake of the feeling, giving him an opportunity to remedy the difficulties, if he sees fit."
The people of St. John's parish were called to more heroic expe- riences than these. On the night of January 18, 1857, when the steeple of their church was blown down, the bell, which weighed nearly 4000 pounds, fell with it. It struck, however, in a pile of broken timbers in such a way that it received no injury. But when the church was destroyed by fire on the morning of Christmas, 1868, the bell was melted and fell in drops.
An account of the chimes at St. John's is given in Volume II, p. 620, and in the chapter on music.
The following account of the somewhat elaborate system of bell- ringing which prevailed here for many years has been furnished by Mr. Kingsbury:
Bells were rung for church services, for deaths, for funerals, for fires, for general alarms-such as for lost children-and for secular meetings; and the system was so complete that it needed only a few strokes to make known the object.
For church services the peals were in four strokes with a brief interval between the second and third. A first bell was rung an hour before the time of service. The second bell began ten minutes before the time of service, and after ringing a few minutes finished with a slow toll. This second bell and the toll are still in use.
It was in ringing for a death that the elaborate system I have spoken of was most noticeable. When the bell was to be rung to advise the little community that death had taken some one away, it was at first slowly tolled, the number of strokes indicating the sex and proximate age of the deceased,-namely, three for a girl, five for a boy, seven for a woman, nine for a man. This having been done, the bell was rung for several minutes, the strokes being in groups of two instead of four, but in other respects like the ringing for church service. After ringing a suit- able time, which was a matter of judgment on the sexton's part, and determined by the age and social position of the deceased, the ringer ascended to the belfry and, attaching a small rope to the tongue of the bell, tolled the age by pulling the tongue against the side of the bell. The age was tolled in groups of tens, with a rest of a few seconds after each ten strokes. If we could not decide, before the bell ceased who among the persons known to be ill had passed away, the inference was that a non resident had been brought here to be buried, and the subject was a
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
matter of inquiry. Frequently this was shouted to the sexton from below by some curious person in the pauses of the bell. The bell was rung in groups of two strokes to give notice of the funeral when held in the church, and sometimes when held at private houses, and it was very slowly tolled while the body was being car- ried on a bier upon men's shoulders to its last resting place. As the town grew larger the custom of ringing or tolling the bell for a death was gradually given up. Not long ago I was making some inquiry as to the time when it ceased, when to my surprise the bell of St. John's was rung and tolled for Mrs. Palmyra Cotton, who had just died in her one hundred and first year.
Alarm bells were rung in rapid peals, the bell turning over and over and ringing without cessation. Fire was the usual cause of alarm, but the bell was rung in the same way to call people together to hunt for a lost child, and was recognized as the legitimate method of general alarm. It seemed to say, "Something is the matter! come at once!"
The surplus vitality of the youngsters in a country town frequently found vent in playing some mischief with the bell. One young man fastened a piece of twine to the tongue of the bell, and took the other end in at the window of his room, not far off. In the night there came a slow, muffled, spiritual toll. The supernatural was more in fashion then than now, and a certain feeling of awe seized the listen- ers. The young man's room was visited. He sat up in his bed and wondered with the rest, or rather, more than the rest. Subsequent investigation or confession-I forget which-showed that his end of the string was fastened to his great toe; and the spirits were laid. Somewhere-it may not have been here-a similar tolling was found to have been caused by a string fastened to the horns of a ram tethered in the upper part of the church and supplied with hay. In reaching for the hay he pulled the cord which tolled the bell. On the night before New Year's or Christ- mas day, the boys would sometimes get into the church and set the bell a ringing with an alarm peal. What happened to one of them was told in rhyme some fifty years ago, and is repeated in Volume II, page 936.
Before the days of steam most of the factories in town had bells. These have been superseded by steam whistles. The startling effect produced by these upon the auditory nerves was the theme of a piece of verse published in the American in March, 1864, entitled " The Stranger in Town," and " respectfully dedicated to Brown's gong." Says the poet:
As through this great city I wandered around,
Astonished was I at a horrible sound.
He is told by a passer-by that it is a steam whistle, and concludes that it is without parallel in all his previous experience:
In my far western home I often have heard The yell of the panther, the scream of the bird; But of noises unearthly-strange though it seem- I've never heard aught like the whistle of steam.
It strikingly illustrates " how use doth breed a habit in a man," that in 1895 the sound of the steam whistle is quite unobserved, unless it is sounding an alarm of fire or is carried shrieking through the city at midnight on the top of a locomotive.
CHAPTER XLIII.
INDIAN AND ENGLISH PLACE NAMES FROM "ABRAGADO" TO "WORLD'S END"-THE MEADOWS LARGELY NAMED FROM THE PLANTERS- THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS AND STREAMS FROM THE PLANTERS OR THEIR SONS-EXCEPTIONS.
T HE men of Farmington had permission from the Colonial government to improve the lands at Mattatuck, before the associated planters of 1674 came here. This improvement period was, with little doubt, preceded by the occasional occupancy of desirable meadows for the cultivation of English grasses and grains, hops, and other commodities-under the fostering care and protective power of the General Court.
It is, therefore, not surprising that we should find the few remaining Indian place names of the township accompanied by certain English place names, which we refer to the pre-historic days of the region, because we have not been able to associate them with any names known of record. Of the number, Mount Taylor is the most prominent. Like Mount Tom in Litchfield, it occupies a conspicuous position in the midst of the surrounding country. While not so much higher than other hills as to give any more commanding or extensive views, it yet stands out in relief when viewed from other eminences for the reason that it fills the space between the valleys of the Naugatuck river and Hancock brook, at or near their confluence.
It was quite natural, therefore, that it should have been used as one of the points of demarkation in the Indian deeds of Waterbury, and we can readily believe that Mr. Taylor made use of it as a land- mark when viewing the region, or exploring the wilderness. He evidently had regard for elevated and rugged prominences, as the name of Taylor's Meditation was given to the rough, high hill or range east of the east branch of Hancock brook. Of Mr. Taylor we have no further knowledge. Of Butler we know only that he lived and had a house in present Naugatuck before the planters of Mattatuck took formal possession of that region. John Macy and Golden and the Buck who probably gave name to Buck's Hill may have been and probably were improvers of lands before 1674, while a Wooster, undoubtedly, gathered harvests from the swamp lying east of Watertown, before the forty acres were laid out to the planters of Mattatuck. Notwithstanding these place
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
names, we find in our early records no additional evidence that a Butler, Taylor, Macy, Golden, Buck, or even a Steele lived in Waterbury during its first forty years.
The need of local names was imperative. For a time Indian names were probably accepted, but gradually these were dropped from the speech of the people, and English names were substituted.
The various allotments of land gave opportunity for designating a given locality by its owner's name, and at a very early date we learn to follow the line of meadow lands for eighteen miles-from Welton's meadow at Thomaston to Ben Jones's meadow (lying be- tween Grove cemetery at Naugatuck and the river).
The division of the township into four quarters-by the Nauga- tuck river, and the Farmington and Woodbury roads-assisted in designating lands; and the mountain lots and hill lands soon became known by the respective names of their owners.
The modern names are not included in the following list.
ABRAGADO-The rocky eminence, occupying nearly all the area lying within the great curve described by the Mad river just before its union with the Nauga- tuck river, was known to the first inhab- itants as Abragado. The region is now encompassed by Dublin, River, Bridge, and Washington streets. In process of time the name has undergone various changes-from Abragado to Abragadow, to Abrigador. The origin of the name is of special interest. See p. 51.
It is first mentioned in existing records in 1699, at which date the following grant was transcribed from a record then so old, or worn, that its date was gone, showing that the name, proba- bly, was here before the plantation was: " There was granted to John Rich- ason, William Hikcox and John Gay- lord, thirty acres of land att ye east end of abragado provided they im- prove it and inhabit four yeirs after im- provement and build according to origi- nall articles not pregedising highways former grants nor drifts of cattell."
It was upon the " Abragado " that the land lay, which was the subject of the following unique deed of 1803 (see Vol. II, p. 794). It may be found in Vol. XXVIII, p. 429, of the Land Records.
"Know all men by these presents, that I, John Nichols of Waterbury in New Haven County, taking into con- sideration that all mankind sent into this Terrestrial world were by nature entitled to the equal enjoyment of Water, Earth, and Air, until those pestilent words mine and thine were introduced by Cain and Abel in personal property, and adopted by Abram and Lot, which produced an actual division of their real estate by the removal of one over Jordan into the plains, whilst the other remained in the hill country, whereby Jordan be- came a line betwixt them, from which period the tenure of lands has generally been regulated agreeable to the several constitutions holding jurisdiction there- of, and by virtue of which, under Providence, I possess in fee simple a small landed estate, while my indigent Neighbor hath not a place to lay his head. Conscious of these facts, and from motives of benevolence, duty and charity, I do hereby give, grant, bargain and con- vey unto Stephen Judd, my neighbor, as aforesaid, and unto Sarah, his wife, the following messuage or tenement of land lying in Waterbury aforesaid, at a place called Abrigador in the first society, be- ginning at a heap of stones, my corner
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ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTAFUCK.
joining the highway that leads to Colum- bia (Dublin street), and runs southwest ten rods, then northwest six rods, then southeast to the first corner, twelve and a half rods, butted east and north on highway, west on my own land, and south on the heirs of Jonathan Baldwin, deceased, or common land, to be by them quietly and peaceably enjoyed during their natural lives, and then to descend in fee tail to Elizabeth Judd, the eldest daughter to said Stephen and Sarah, if she shall choose to occupy and improve the same, if not to such of her brothers and sisters as she, the said Elizabeth, shall choose to resign the same unto, or to her, the said Elizabeth's heirs; and I the said grantor, do hereby convey the above described premises with this posi- tive and express condition only, that they, the said Grantees, shall not sell either the property or use thereof, nor shall the same be liable for any debt due or demand of the said Grantees or the use thereof; but the same is given for the sole use and purpose before mentioned, and that only (viz.) for a building spot and garden to render said Grantees comfortable through life, and if the said Elizabeth shall not survive the said Stephen and Sarah, then to descend to their next eldest surviving daughter and to her heirs."
The land deeded lies on the south side of Bridge street and west side of Dublin street. It is now or was recently owned by George Barns.
ARNOLD'S HILL-From Nathaniel Arnold. Beyond the Boughton place on the Middlebury road -the hill to the left.
ASH SWAMP-Now covered by the waters of the Chestnut Hill reservoir. [Patucko's ring of pre-historic days was probably a circular fort in the swamp at that point, but it became a very elastic ring, stretching northward nearly to Spindle hill, and eastward to the Mad river.]
ASH SWAMP BROOK-Now Chest- nut Hill brook.
BAD SWAMP-It is thought to be the small, deep swamp on Fort Swamp brook, west of Tame Buck hill, and east of the old Finch place.
BALD HILL-In Wolcott. West of the Fair grounds.
BARTLETT'S SWAMP-Originally laid out to George Scott, Jr. In the southwest corner of Ash Swamp basin.
BEAKER HILL-A prominent hill west of the Mad river, and above Pa- tucko's ring and Spindle hill. Sometimes " Becor" hill. It extends from Misery brook to the Cambridge road.
BEAR HILL-In Plymouth.
BEACON HILL BROOK-See p. 205.
BEACON HILL-The hill on the east side, at the straits of the Nauga- tuck river, and along which the brook of the same name runs. Mentioned in 1673.
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