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 74
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
THE BEARD COUNTRY - From Nathan Beard, "Plough Right," who came in 1737 from Stratford, and in 1740 had built a house and grist mill between the Naugatuck River and the New England railroad, and on the north side of David's brook. He owned over seventy acres between the common fence and the east side of the river. It lay against Steele's meadow, and its north end was substantially at a point where the fence approached the river at the western foot of Drum hill; its southern limit was ap- proximately the southern limit of the present Highland park. Nathan Beard sold to the third John Scovill everything he owned there but his house and mill land. Ezra Bronson and Asa Leavenworth bought rights of the Scovill heirs, includ- ing forty acres on which they built a mill, calling it " Beard's old mill place." Later owners were Caleb Merrills, Seba Bronson, Azor Bronson, Philip Tomp- kins. The Naugatuck railroad so nearly obliterated the site of the old mill, that it is now impossible to identify its exact location.
688
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
BEAVER MEADOW, THE BEA- VER MEADOWS, COVE MEADOW -The ancient boundaries were Burying Yard hill, a line of coves that separated it from Manhan neck on the northwest, Hop Meadow hill, Great brook and the river. The modern limits may be desbribed as Meadow street, the tail race of the Waterbury Brass company, the river and the remaining sections of Hop Meadow hill, together with Great brook. Along the land of the Brass company and the present junction of the New England and Nauga- tuck railways lay Long cove. It was about a quarter of a mile in length. Mid- dle cove lay next, and Mud cove was near the western terminus of Hop Meadow hill. A fourth cove, perhaps sixteen rods long, lay in the meadow a little westerly of Field street. Through Long, Mid- dle and Mud coves coursed the same stream which crossed West Main street a little west of the Green. From Mud cove to the river, the stream was known as Tophet or Tophet brook. Middle cove was of slight depth and in 1849 it had disappeared. It was customary in the early years of the century to draw loads of hay through it.
Sixty years ago the coves afforded ex- cellent fishing ground; pickerel, roach and bullheads being abundant. Samuel H. Prichard informed me that he had caught many wild duck and mink in and about the coves, whose waters have now disappeared.
BEAVER POND BROOK-The large tributary of the Mad river which comes into it from the east at the point where the East Mountain road crosses the Meri- den railroad.
BEAVER DAM BROOK-The same as Beaver Pond brook.
BEAVER POND HILL-The hill at East Farms, north of the Beaver pond.
BEDLAM BROOK-Either what is now Long Meadow brook, or a brook running into the same at the present "Widow Bradley place."
BEDLAM HILL-The hill on which Middlebury centre is. The name is now applied to that portion of the hill south of the centre, which is 120 feet higher. On it Amos and Abel Scott had lands. Aaron, John and Gamaliel Fenn's farms lay there. On its eastern side is " Ben Fenn's pool," a boiling spring that never changes its temperature and thaws the ice that forms around it. In 1784 there was a school-house on the hill.
BEDLAM MEADOW-Later called Long meadow; now partly covered by Long Meadow pond. In 1771 Daniel Hawkins's house was on the west side of it.
BEN'S MEADOW-From Benjamin Judd, in 1679, who was quite prominent in public affairs while he remained here. On Steele's brook, above Steele's meadow, and Isaac's meadow. It was originally the meadow northwest of the "poor house," where a race course now is.
UPPER BEN'S MEADOW - The next bit of natural meadow above Ben's meadow, near Slade's mill and near the mouth of Turkey brook. In 1797 this meadow is described as being " near Benjamin Richards' new dwelling- house," and, as " 81/2 acres more or less " -at which date it was sold by " Bela and Olive Blakeslee, Hezekiah Brown, James Warner, Jr., and Joanna, of Plymouth, and Preserved and Rachel Hickcox of Sangersfield, Otsego Co., N. Y., to Seba Bronson and Benjamin Prichard."
BEN'S MEADOW HILL-The ridge of hill land lying westward of Ben's meadow.
BEN'S MEADOW GATE - Where the Wooster or Watertown road passed through the common fence.
BENSON'S HILL -The hill where Wolcott centre now is. Named for Jacob Benson, who was the first known resident on that hill. if not within the present bounds of Wolcott.
BENSON'S POT-A remarkable pot or well in the Mad river at the Mad River
689
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
falls, where Prichard's mills now are. Benson and Benjamin Harrison had a mill at the place.
BIG MEADOW POND-Covers what was Southmayd's meadow in the north- west part of present Watertown, and was described when laid out as "on a Sprain of Woodbury river." The road running up to the eastward of it is the Litchfield turnpike from New Haven, of 1797.
BIRCH HILL-In Middlebury. It is now Camp's hill, or at least contiguous to it. It lies southerly from Hop swamp.
BIRCH PASTURE-On Willow street, north of Ridgewood.
BIRCH PASTURE-By Mad meadow.
BISCOE'S HILL-The southern end of Bedlam hill. Jeremiah Peck laid out 120 acres on it in 1721. Samuel Biscoe from Milford lived there, and Nathan also, it is thought.
BISSELL HILL-The hill northeast of Hop swamp, south of the Bronson's meadow which is at Race plain, and east of Three-Mile hill.
BISSELL'S SWAMP-At the foot of Three-Mile hill, southward of it.
BLOCK HOUSE HILL, BLACK HOUSE HILL-"The south end is north of the road from Northbury to Cam- bridge."
BREAK NECK, OR THE BREAK NECK HILL-In the division of lands of 1688 Thomas Warner was to have " two acres for one of meadow at the southward end of the Break Neck hill as we go to Woodbury." Thomas Warner sold the meadow acres to Isaac Bronson about twenty years later, who settled there, and the name Break Neck was used to designate, with an occasional variation to " West Farms," present Middlebury, until the incorporation of the town. It is now used, as at first, to designate the high hill between the branches of Hop brook in Middlebury. Historians have repeatedly assigned the name to a later date -telling us that it "was derived
from the circumstance of one of the cattle falling down there and breaking its neck while employed in transporting the bag- gage of the French troops under the com- mand of General Lafayette."
The French army reached Break Neck on the evening of June 27, 1781. The following, from the Diary of a French officer. "presumed to be that of Baron Cromot du Bourg," recently translated, tells that the army reached Farmington on June 25th, and encamped about a mile and a half from the village. The diary commended the Farmington encamp- ment as one of the most fortunate it had occupied.
The next day, the 26th: " In the morn- ing we went to Baron's Tavern; the day's march was not fatiguing. The roads were very fine." This was over a por- tion of our military road, and Baron's tavern was Barnes's tavern, in South- ington. "27th. We left in the morning for Breakneck, which we had the great- est difficulty in reaching, because of the mountains. Our artillery was greatly delayed and only arrived at nightfall." In a side-note, the writer explains that " Breakneck is the English for Casse-cou. It well deserves the name from its diffi- cult approach. The village is frightful and without resources. I noticed some mills, in which several planks are sawed at the same time." The distance from Barnes's tavern to Break Neck is given as " a march of 17 miles."
BRIANT'S HILL - The high ridge northwest of West Side hill. Origin of name unknown.
BROOMSTICK LEDGE - On the north side of Mount Taylor rock.
BRONSON'S MEADOW-On the Mad river about three miles northeast from the centre of Waterbury, and east of the road to Wolcott. This meadow is of spe- cial interest, because it was a very early landmark, dating back to 1688. Land was assigned there to John Bronson (the planter) who died in 1696. The earliest mentioned path over Long hill was " the
44
690
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
path to Bronson's meadow." Here it was that Timothy Hopkins (son of John the miller) had land in 1715, and he had a house there in 1718.
The ruin of a house still stands on the west side of the Wolcott road, at the junction of that road with a highway that goes around the north end of Long hill. The stone chim- ney, freed from the house frame, is a picturesque monument to the memory of a home. In it are four fire-places, each one of which occupied diagonally a corner of a room, while the chimney itself is twisted to the square of the ridge of the house. The brick ovens are deep-set within the large fire-places, and two cranes still hang in place. Ebenezer Warner built the house and lived in it from about 1747 until his death at the age of ninety-four years in 1805. In the same house was born Ebenezer's son Justus, by whom, it is said, the red house standing across the high- way was built. Justus removed after the death of his father to Ohio- where, after having lived fifty years in Connecticut and fifty years in Ohio, he died in 1856. Reuben and Elijah Frisbie also lived at Bronson's meadow. Elijah's house was gone in 1801, a stone in the bound line between Waterbury and Wol- cott, at that date, being "set where the centre of the house was."
BRONSON'S MEADOW-The large, fair meadow-tract between Three-Mile and Two-and-a-Half-Mile hills in Middle- bury, named from Isaac Bronson, the planter, in 1688. His son Ebenezer set- tled there until he exchanged with Wil- liam, son of Deacon Judd, and came to live on the Deacon's corner (southwest corner of West Main and Willow streets). William Judd did not stay long, if he ever lived at the meadow, and, eventually, Ebenezer Richardson became the settler there. It is on the old Woodbury road east of Three-Mile hill. Nathaniel Rich- ardson, Ebenezer's son, built a house on the opposite side of the road, which is still standing.
BRONSON'S BOGGY MEADOW- From John Bronson, in 1688. Its loca- tion is not satisfactorily determined. It is, perhaps, the swampy tract between the branches of Hop brook, northwest of Break Neck hill.
YOUNG BRONSON'S BOGGY MEADOW-The low meadow land northeast of Chestnut hill on Ash swamp brook, above the Wolcott road.
BUCK'S HILL-This is one of the hills whose name has remained un- changed from the beginning of the town- ship. It either belongs to the period be- fore the planters came, or it may have re- ceived its name from some member of the Buck family. Abraham Andrews (the cooper) had a brother-in-law whose name was Buck, and the Buck family of Wethersfield was closely connected with others of the first settlers here. Tradition conveniently accounts for the name by the supposition that it was named from a buck, which leaped from a certain rock on that hill.
The earliest grant of land on Buck's hill was made in 1699 to Ephraim War- ner and John Welton-" twenty acres at the east end "-but no Welton appears to have lived upon the hill until 1709.
Israel Richardson was the first person who had land recorded on Buck's hill. On April 18, 1701, John and Ephraim Warner, father and son, were granted land adjoining each other on the north side of the hill, which they divided by a highway, and also bounded south by a highway. On these lots they at once proceeded to erect houses opposite to each other and near a famous spring, called Israel's spring-the father appar- ently designing the house he was build- ing for his son John. John and his son Ephraim had formerly lived neighbors to each other-the father, at the north- east corner of West Main and Willow streets-the son, at the corner of Grove, Willow and Pine -- while John had prob- ably lived with his father. At about this time the elder John Warner removed to Farmington. Soon after, or about the
691
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
same time, the two youthful Gaylords, Joseph and John (who already were land owners on the hill), concluded to build at the same place, and obtained the south end of the lot on the west side of the highway, where each built a house. The Warner houses were probably built in the season of 1701-the Gaylord houses in 1702. Ephraim Warner sold to his cousin Benjamin Warner in 1703, and removed to Woodbury. It will be remembered how rejoiced the people were to get him home again (as Dr. Ephraim Warner) after the sorrowful days of 1713. He then lived on the Irving block corner, but later in life returned to Buck's hill. It is thought that he then lived on the east side of the highway, not far from the "Buck's leap," and, in the same house where Roger Prichard lived in 1760, and Elias Clark at a later day. The house is now occupied by Feodore Liebricht. Dr. Ephraim War- ner's sons, John, Obadiah and Ephraim, all settled on Buck's hill. Joseph Gay- lord sold his house in 1709 to Richard Welton. Richard had been down at Durham, working for Joseph, and took the house in payment for his labor. H lived on the hill forty seven years, and his descendants lived and prospered there long after his decease.
BUCK'S MEADOW, BUCK MEAD- OW-Mentioned in 1679. On the river above Mount Taylor. Frost's bridge is against it.
BUCK'S MEADOW MOUNTAIN- The elevation lying along the meadows and extending northwestward to Deep River brook. The more elevated portion of Buck's Meadow mountain, west of the source of Turkey brook, is the fine, mas- sive wealth of highland that frames Watertown on the northeast, the Scott's mountain (910 feet at its highest point) of ancient Waterbury. Buck's Meadow mountain extends southward to Ed- mund's (Scott's) old mountain.
BULLHEAD POND-The small pond north of Waterville village, and near the factory of the American Pin company.
BULL HEAD PONDS-The four small round ponds, two on each side of West Main street, near the Waterbury Brass company's canal.
BULL PLAIN-The plain near Bull- head pond, formerly Hancox plain. Named from Deacon Samuel Bull of Woodbury, who early owned it.
BULL PLAIN ROCKS-The lower point of the Mount Taylor range, near Bull plain.
BUNKER HILL-A school district. The name was assigned before 1800 and was undoubtedly given in honor of the locality of that name in Massachusetts, Formerly " Tompkins' district."
BUNKER HILL ROAD-Before 1720 it was known as the " Upper Road to Woodbury." Later, after Joseph Nich- ols settled near where John Atwood lives, it was called "the Road to Nichols' farm and Woodbury bounds."
BURNT HILL-Mentioned in 1680. It rises to an elevation of 660 feet di- rectly north of the city, whose streets are rapidly extending upon it. It was probably burned over at a very early date.
BURYING YARD HILL-The Grand Street hill, on which was the first bury- ing yard of the township.
BUTCHER'S ISLAND - A small island at the junction of Steele's brook with the river.
BUTCHER'S ISLAND-The island at the mouth of the West Branch, be- tween it and the river. The butcher was Thomas Hancock or Hancox.
BUTLER'S HOUSE BROOK -In Naugatuck.
CANE MEADOW - Mentioned in 178I. At the head of Cane Meadow brook, which empties into Wigwam Swamp brook from the north, east of Waterville.
CANE MEADOW PLAIN - Men- tioned in 1728. The fair hill-top where Zebulon Scott settled, on the road from Waterville to Buck's hill.
692
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
CANOE PLACE-There were doubt- less Canoe places wherever it was con- venient for the owners of canoes to use them. One is mentioned on the Mad river, another apparently at Union City. The name is now applied to a spot at the bend of the river below Naugatuck.
CANNON BRIDGE-The bridge over Mad river, at Dublin street. Mr. James Porter says he was told by some of his people that after the war of the Revolu- tion an old cannon was set up in the ground near the bridge, and that the bridge got its name from that circum- stance.
CARRINGTON'S BROOK - From John Carrington, an original settler. The tributary of the Mad river, rising on the east side of Long hill and entering Mad river through the raceway of the. East brass mill.
CARRINGTON'S PONDS-The pair of small, round ponds between the old Cheshire road (now so-called) and the Plank road, east of Carrington's brook. Named from John Carrington.
CARRINGTON'S SWAMP - The swampy tract on Carrington's brook south of the old Cheshire road and mostly, if not wholly, north of the Plank road.
CATTAIL MEADOW-Mentioned in 1740. North of Eliakim Welton's house.
CEDAR SWAMP-At the head of a branch of Hop brook, east of Lake Quassapaug. Mentioned in an Indian deed of 1684.
CEDAR SWAMP-In the " northeast corner of the bounds near the Great Rock house."
CHESTNUT HILL-The hill north- east of Long hill that is 860 feet in height. The Rev. Jeremiah Peck had land on it. There is a remarkable little pond on the summit of the hill. City Mills pond lies at its southwestern side and the Chestnut Hill reservoir north- west of and between it and Patucko's Ring.
CHESTNUT HILL MEADOW-Now covered by City Mills pond. One arm of the pond is over Joseph Lewis's meadow. The second Samuel Hikcox had land in it, and a grant of land for a yard near by.
CLARK'S SWAMP-Near the mouth of Carrington's brook, named from Clark, the son of John Carrington, the planter, or from Deacon Thomas Clark, who owned land there.
THE CLAY PITS-North side of, and at Grove street. Land extending from the Buck's Hill road westerly to a five- acre tract belonging to Samuel Hikcox, which separated it from Cooke street, is described as " at the Clay Pitts." On the south side of Grove street at the same point, the second Joseph Hikcox had land; he was " not to hinder men coming to the Clay Pitts."
CLINTON HILL, OTHERWISE NEW CANAAN-Near and west of Spindle hill. It is 960 feet high and on a clear day Long Island Sound may be seen from it. It was perhaps named from Samuel Clinton, who lived there in I795.
COMMON FIELD-The enclosed land of the proprietors, in which each held lands according to the number of pounds propriety which he had, the highest £100, the lowest £50; although a man might augment his lands by buying his neighbor's rights in the field.
COMMON FENCE -The fence en- closing the above lands, which fence was made by each proprietor in proportion to the number of acres he owned within the field.
COMMON LAND-The unappropri- ated land of the township, held by the proprietors in fee, but devoted to no special purpose.
COMMONS-The sequestered or re- served sections of the township, devoted to special and particular uses, in which every man had a common right to get wood, timber and stone. In the seques- tered land were the common pasture, the pasture for horses and the reservation
693
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
where young cattle were kept during the summer, and where the bog-hay was stacked, this being then the staple winter food for growing stock. And at a later date the Green and the highways were used, under certain conditions, for pas- turing cows, and the cows so pastured were known as Common cows. This was under Borough rule.
COOPER'S CORNER-From Abra- ham Andrews. It is that portion of his meadow allotment which lay between the Naugatuck and Mad rivers at their junction.
COOPER'S POND-A small collection of water, near the present junction of East Main and Orange streets-fed by springs.
THE COOPER LOT-On the east side of Cherry street, running from East Main to Walnut streets. The Tailor lot (from John Warner, the tailor) lay next east of the Cooper lot, and Standley's Timber adjoined that on the east.
COTTON WOOL MEADOW-Ed- mund Scott owned land there in 1722 as one of the "proprietors of the old saw mill." The name is supposed to have arisen from a plant now growing in the swamp. Daniel and Abraham Osborne owned lands in it in 1770. It is now in Osborntown and is called Cotton Wool swamp.
CRANBERRY BROOK-Crosses the highway to Watertown a little below the site of the first meeting-house and the old cemetery of that town. Cranberry pond and Cranberry meadow are on the same brook, south of Richard's moun- tain, the site of the first house in Water- town, 1701. First mentioned in 1722.
CROSS BROOK-In Watertown. It rises at the north end of Scott's moun- tain, near the original Hungerford house and flows northwestward into the West Branch. Bidwell's saw mill is on it.
CROW HILL-"About three miles southeast of Waterbury meeting-house." "Near Tavern brook." Directly north of Turkey hill.
DAVID'S BROOK - Named from David Carpenter. There was no other David in the town at the time when this brook was named on the records, and the same land was owned later by Robert Porter, David Carpenter's successor. It is that small stream or "run of water " crossing the upper Waterville road near Nuhn's ice house. It rises between Wil- low and Cooke streets in the north part of Flaggy Swamp plain, and flows be- tween the Great hill and Drum hill, and enters the river against Steele's meadow.
DAVID'S BOTTOM-The low land at the mouth of David's brook, now occu- pied by the pond of the West Brass mill.
DAVID'S SWAMP-This was west of Town Plot, near where Caleb Thompson settled. It was granted to David Scott on condition that he " should not hinder cattle coming to water." Another swamp was named from the same David Scott. It was in the West Branch region.
DEAD MEADOW-On the Wolcott road, "east of Long hill, and south of the ancient Warner site." It was Upson's meadow of 1729; later Dead swamp. Jeremy's brook runs through it.
DEACON'S MEADOW-See p. 239.
DEEP RIVER BROOK-Rises on Scott's mountain and empties into the Naugatuck opposite Jericho rock, and be- tween Deep River rock and Buck's Meadow mountain.
DEER STAKES THE-They are at the east end of Mount Taylor rock. It is not known whether the natural formation of land and rocks furnished the name, or whether stakes were erected there to turn the deer from their course. It is a wild region, well-watered and suitable for deer to range in. Mount Taylor rock extends east and west nearly across Mount Taylor, leaving the place called the deer stakes at the eastern base. It is a narrow passway, of fifteen or twenty rods, from the lower to the upper end of the range, and it can readily be seen that stakes at this place would serve to turn the deer either way. The boulders lying
694
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
here would afford excellent hiding places for the hunter. Mr. Southmayd had land laid out on the range that was culti- vated.
DEVIL'S CART PATH-Mentioned in 1763. Near the north end of Turkey hill.
DOCTOR'S ISLAND-From Doctor Porter. Mentioned in 1739. At Hancox meadow.
DOCTOR'S ORCHARD-Mentioned in 1740. From the second Dr. Daniel Porter. It was just below Newell's eight acre lot, below Highland park. It was afterward called Annis's Orchard, from Annis Scovill, who received it from the estate of her father-the third John Sco- vill.
DOCTOR'S POLES-At the falls of Hancox brook. A tract belonging to Doctor Porter. Supposed to be hoop pole land. It was on the east side of the brook.
DRAGON'S POINT-New Haven and other towns had places with the same name. It is that rocky point that comes to the river (on the west side) at the lower end of Long meadow, where the river turns abruptly to the west. It was the southern limit of the land divisions of 1674, when every plan was laid for the occupancy of Town Plot-and, later, was the southern limit of the common fence.
DRUM HILL-The highest portion of Cooke street passes over the crown of the hill. It is separated by David's brook from Manhan Meadow hill, while north- ward it extends to the valley of Wigwam Swamp brook, westward to the river. Hancox brook enters the river at the northwest corner of the hill.
EAST MOUNTAIN-East of Great hill and of the Abrigador and between Fulling Mill brook and Mad river. The City reservoir and the Distributing res- ervoir are upon it. It is 800 feet high and extends into Prospect and Nauga- tuck.
EAST FARMS: HOG POUND- The section of country that was early
devoted to the pasturage or keeping of live pork, the staple flesh food of our forefathers from the days when they hunted the wild boar in the wilderness forests of Central Europe in mediaval times, through the days of their establish- ment as a powerful nation in England, and to the period of their becoming a new nation in America.
The rough hills and swamps toward Prospect and Cheshire were used for a general feeding ground, while the smoother hills to the northward were ap- propriated to particular enclosures. This occupation of the land prevented the early settlement of the really excellent lands within the region.
Joseph Beach was conspicuous among the pioneers of this neighborhood, and his son Joseph became an extensive land owner. The Austins, Pierponts and Hitchcocks were among the early set- tlers; the names also of Benham, Mix, Lewis, Merriman, Munson, Stephen Cul- ver and Cornelius Johnson, appear at Hog Pound or its vicinity.
EDMUND'S MOUNTAIN, ED- MUND'S OLD MOUNTAIN- Named from the second Edmund Scott, who had a grant of land on it. It is the ridge that lies between the valley of the Naugatuck river and the valley of Steel's brook. The locality first known by that name was the southeast portion At a later date the northwest part of the ridge was known as Hopkins mountain. The same ridge at a still later date, when in the owner- ship of the Prindle family, was called Prindle hill. As early as 1726 William Hikcox had a farm on its eastern side, and in that year gave his son Samuel a house and orchard there. The Hikcox family remained on the mountain for sev- eral generations. Samuel had a grist- mill on the river just below Mount Tay- lor, and the old road that crossed the river at the upper end of Hancock meadow ran through the farm. Captain Abraham Hikcox was born and " brought up" in this neighborhood.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.