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 75
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695
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
On the southeast corner of the same ridge John Bronson, son of Isaac, gave his son Joseph (the year after Joseph's marriage with Anna Southmayd) a house and farm. The Bronsons spread down into the valley of the Naugatuck river and became the possessors of a large part of Steele's meadow and plain. Notable among them was Seba, the son of Joseph, who owned a 200-acre farm-on which Waterbury's almshouses, both the old and the new one, now stand. Seba Bron- son's house stood either on the site of the first " poor house," or on the opposite side of the road that goes over Edmund's mountain. At one date, Seba's house was described as " near the four corners of two roads"-one was from Waterbury to Watertown, the other from Bunker hill to Waterville.
Jonathan Prindle, Jr., from whom the ridge was also named, settled at Oakville and spent his life there, while his descend- ants ascended the mountain and owned it largely.
EDMUND'S NEW MOUNTAIN - The bound lines of Waterbury, Middle- bury and Watertown meet on it. It was also known as " Ned's New Mountain."
EDMUND'S PASTURE-On Great brook-a landmark in ancient days in the layout of highways. Near Farm street.
ENGLISH GRASS MEADOW-See page 244.
EPHRAIM'S MEADOW-On Great brook above City Mills pond. Granted about 1705 to Dr. Ephraim Warner. One of the sweets offered to him by the town to stay away from Woodbury. It was not laid out until his return to Waterbury about 1715.
EPHRAIM'S SWAMP-An earlier name for Sol's swamp, in the Park.
FISHING ROCK-On the north side of the West Branch, above Eagle rock.
FLAGGY SWAMP-The swamp the west side of Cooke street. Robert Porter in 1687 had land at this swamp. Thomas
Fitzsimons lives on Flaggy Swamp plain " off Pine street."
FORT HILL-On the east of the Naugatuck valley. It is a sandy spur of the Mount Taylor range, and a short dis- tance south of the Rattle-Snake ledge, so-called a century ago. Near by, and above it, lived Abraham Hikcox, and, later, Daniel Brown, son of James, the inn-holder. In the distribution of Brown's estate the hill is called the Tray orchard-probably from its shape. Quite recently the tray-shaped top was under cultivation. It lies a little above the present Waterville cemetery. The Naug- atuck railroad runs around its western end, the carriage road crossing the west- ern point. It seems a natural place from which to defend the upper end of the valley.
FORT SWAMP-This swamp, through which the Meriden road passes beyond the house of George Hitchcock, is an approximation to the swamp fort of the Pequots-being a peninsula encircled by a deep swamp. A high hill, close by, may have afforded a good watch-tower to note the signals of the approach of the Mohawks, and may have been used for a beacon fire to warn the surrounding natives. Fort swamp is referred to many times in our records by its ancient name, and certainly as late as 1801. It has also been called Ford swamp, from the Ford family who owned lands in or near it. In 1716, in a layout of land to Timothy Hopkins, it was described as "in great swamp east of the old Saw- mill Woods." Hopkins owned, at the time of his death, over a hundred acres in the swamp. The Hopkins heirs sold to the Upsons .*
FROST'S BRIDGE-Crosses the river against Buck's meadow near where Moses Bronson lived. Named from the Frosts who lived in that vicinity for several gen- erations. One old house, now occupied, and two in ruins still mark the sites.
* See page 220.
696
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
FULLING MILL BROOK - Daniel Warner's brook, Squantuck brook. At Union City.
GASKINS ROCKS, THE GASKINS -The precipitous eastern end of the range lying between Pootatuck brook and the West Branch, anciently known as Pine mountain in the distribution of 1688. It is now called The Gaskins. The cemetery of Thomaston is on the north- eastern part of the range. The old hill road west of the river is now in use as far as the cemetery. It formerly con- tinued over the range and on down over the ancient Scott's mountain.
GAYLORD'S BROOK-Rises in the swamp east of Long swamp, runs down west of Gaylord's and Oronoke hills to Hop brook. The portion of it that ran through Hikcox meadow received his name. At a later date the lower end of it was known as Wooster brook, from Abraham Wooster, who settled there in 1752.
GAYLORD'S HILL .- It was named from Joseph Gaylord, the planter. It is on the road to Middlebury. On its south- ern end was the Nichols tavern of 1770 or earlier, until a year ago, when the house was burned. It is opposite the Peat swamp. See page 354.
GAYLORD'S MEADOW - See Sco- vill's meadow.
GAYLORD'S PLAIN-The flat land at and about where Silver street begins. From John Gaylord. Also a school dis- trict in the earlier half of the century.
GEORGE'S HORSE BROOK-A small brook that comes into Beaver Pond brook just west of Beaver pond.
GEORGE'S HORSE HILL-It ex- tends from George's Horse brook on the west, to Hog Pound brook on the east. The famous Beach tavern, now a Pier- pont place, was at the south end of the hill. Named, it is thought, from a horse belonging to George Scott, the son of Edmund.
GILES' GARDEN-A piece of grav- elly land on the river road to Waterville, a little below the Waterbury Brass Com- pany's dam-named from Giles Brown, who tried to cultivate it.
GLEBE SWAMP-See " The Park." When laid out, it was described as " lying in the cattail swamp on the brook which runs through Scovill's meadow." In 1800, the southeast corner of it was a chestnut tree, " dry and blown up by the roots." The same chestnut tree bound is mentioned in 1726.
GOLDEN'S MEADOW, GOLDING'S MEADOW-That swampy place next below the City Mills pond. Origin of the name is not known. It is now over- flowed.
GRASSY HILL-Mentioned in 1726. It lies between Lewis's or World's End hill and Spindle hill. In 1738 it is described as being about 100 rods north from Benjamin Warner's house.
GREAT BROOK-Rises east of Grassy hill, passes between Long and Burnt hills, flows through the city and enters the river between Bank and Bene- dict streets.
A branch of Hancox brook is fre- quently called Great brook and the name is, in certain instances, given to Hancox brook itself; also, to the north branch of Hop brook.
GREAT BOGGY MEADOW-On Buck's hill. In 1731 John Warner, son of Ephraim, had a house west of it. A white oak tree stood at the northwest corner of his house lot, and a black oak at the southwest.
GREAT BROOK BOGGY MEAD- OW-The stone factory of the late Henry C. Griggs is in this meadow, and it is also to be the site of the new mill of Rogers & Hamilton.
THE GREAT BOGGY MEADOW, WEST OF TOWN PLOT-Tamarack swamp.
GREAT BROOK PLAIN-St. Paul's church stands on it.
697
ENGLISHI PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
THE GREAT HOLLOW, GEORGE'S HOLLOW-That depression at the head of Fulling Mill brook between East mountain and Hopkins's hill. From George Welton, 1726.
THE GREAT HILL, EAST OF QUASSAPAUG-Referred. to by name in one of the Indian deeds. It is now called " The Great hill."
GREAT HILL-The extensive eleva- tion on the east side of the river extend- ing from Fulling Mill brook at Union City to " Smug's " brook at Hopeville.
GREAT HILL-The Great hill north of the town extended from the Nauga- tuck valley to the valley of Little brook, and from David's brook to the lower lands near the Town Spot.
GREAT HILL-West of the village of Naugatuck. The top of the hill was, later, called Gunn hill from Isaiah Gunn. The lower portion is now called the Terraces. Gideon Scott was, perhaps, the first man who lived on the hill. His brother Edmund also lived there.
GUNNTOWN-The centre of Gunn- town was situated in the heart of the basin once known as Toantic meadow and a little farther up the brook than the present village of Millville, while the homesteads of Nathaniel Gunn, Sr., his son Enos, and his grandson Enos, as well as that of Samuel Gunn (also the brick store built by him) all stood on the present Middlebury side of the line.
The first land owned by any person in that vicinity was six acres granted to Timothy Standly in 1687, described as "up Toantic brook." After Timothy Standly and his nephew, Thomas Clark, agreed to have all things in common and dwell lovingly together (no doubt em- ployed in weaving cloth for the Water- bury people), they deeded this tract of land to another cloth-weaver, Joseph Lewis, who laid out about eight acres of upland in a snug little nook near it, and there built a house for his son Joseph, deeding his possessions in that vicinity to him after the young Joseph was mar-
ried. Joseph, Jr., like his father, was progressive and enterprising, and soon added to his houses and lands a hand- some slice of meadow, and another house. Although the Lewis possessions at Toan- tic meadow antedated those of any other person in that neighborhood, yet Thomas Warner laid out a handsome tract of bachelor land by and near the base of Lewis's hill. Removing to Wallingford, he sold the land to John Andrews, who immediately began to enlarge his domain and built himself a house there, and probably was the first settler in that neighborhood His house was mentioned in 1726; the Joseph Lewis house in 1728.
In 1733 Nathaniel Gunn appeared upon the scene and bought the farm and house of John Andrews. Joseph Lewis's next-farm neighbor, Nathaniel Gunn, was a son of Abel, who was one of the most extensive land owners and financially stable men of Derby, to whom his uncle Abel (who was the first town clerk of Derby and who died childless) left his property. Abel, the town clerk, was the son of Jasper, who was a physician in 1658.
To Nathaniel Gunn, then a young man of twenty-four years, Joseph Lewis sold out all his possessions in and about Toantic meadow, and removed to Ox- ford in 1735. From the date of Nath- aniel's settlement in Waterbury to the time when his family reached the zenith of its glory in the days of his son Joba- mah, the progress of the Gunn family is both interesting and impressive to fol- low. Beginning with a single farm in 1733, it was augmented with the next adjoining in 1735, and from that time onward the holdings of the Gunns spread as with an irresistible force until they had taken possession of the region round about so completely that it might well be said that "they owned all that joined them." The Gunns evidently believed in the ancient system of land- lord and tenant, leaving no place for miller, blacksmith, farmer or laborer that was not owned by a Gunn. They had a few neighbors like themselves-wealthy,
698
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
powerful and aristocratic after the fashion of the locality and time-on whom they encroached not, except so far as to carve out a kingdom for themselves.
They owned the ground the Gunntown church stood on so long as it remained and after the building was removed. Pos- sessed of a round three hundred acres almost at the start, Nathaniel Gunn added over a hundred on Bedlam hill, which continued in the family for several genera- tions. Another hundred on the side of the Twelve Mile hill was added a little later, while the number of minor acquisitions became too numerous to mention. Grad- ually they gathered-in John Weed's farm, the Hawkins farm, and, with the acquisition of the Arah Ward lands, the Gunns reached to Derby line, having previously stepped beyond it and owned a farm at Red Oak. Finally, the Great hill near Naugatuck centre became Gunn hill, and the Isaiah Gunn place became an ancestral home of the Gunns, while the possessions of Enos Gunn extended to the river.
Jobamah Gunn, it is said, aspiring to become the largest land owner in Water- bury, carried his tax-list on a certain year to the assessors, and, learning that another man owned more acres than he had returned, went straightway and bought in haste the first land he could find for sale. Tradition claims that he at one time possessed a thousand acres, and he is said to have carried on all kinds of business possible in his day at this place; but at last he wavered and fell financially, and the glory of the Gunn family from 1730 to about 1800 has be- come but a tradition. In the year 1794 he was assessed on £277. He returned 603 acres of land. He ploughed 33 acres, had 220 of pasture and meadow, 220 of " bush pasture and first-rate out- land," 80 of second-rate and 50 of third- rate. He also owned one of the fifteen watches and one of the six brass clocks owned in Salem the same year. There were also eight wooden clocks in that parish the same year.
HANCOX BROOK, HANCOCK BROOK-Enters the river from the east below Waterville. From Thomas Hancox, or Hancock.
HANCOX BROOK MEADOWS- Between "Mountobe " or Mount Toby and Taylor's meditation; first mentioned in 1688 as "the place where Timothy Standly, Stephen Upson and Samuel Scott should have their division up Han- cock's brook, they to pitch where they would, not exceeding three places, and to have two acres for one," because they went out of their way to accommodate. They all had stackyards there.
HANCOX ISLANDS-See page 245.
HIKCOX BOGGY MEADOW-See page 347.
HIKCOX SWAMP-Named from Ser- geant Samuel Hikcox. The second Sam- uel Hikcox sold it to Deacon Judd. It is on the Buck's Hill road about a half mile above Griggs street and is that fine, level tract of land lying between the road and the east side of Burnt hill. Martin Shugrue lives on it.
HIKCOX SWAMP-In Watertown. It is now covered by the considerable pond lying to the southeastward of the village.
HIKCOX BROOK-First, the stream that borders Westwood (the residence of Mr. Israel Holmes) on the south. It was named from Sergeant Samuel Hikcox, who very early laid out five acres there. His son William laid out much land at the same place. Second, in Watertown, flowing between Hikcox mountain and Hikcox hill.
HIKCOX MEADOW BROOK-In Middlebury. From Samuel Hikcox, who owned a boggy meadow along the brook. In 1687, in a grant to George Scott, it was called the north branch of Hop brook. It is the lower end of Gaylord's brook. At its mouth it is called Wooster brook, from Abraham Wooster, who settled where the Bradleyville knife shop is.
HOG POUND-See page 221.
699
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
HOG POUND BROOK-Flows into Beaver Pond brook at the East Farms school-house.
HOP BROOK-See p. 353.
HOP MEADOW-See p. 241.
HOP SWAMP-See p. 353.
HOPKINS MOUNTAIN-The north- ern end and the highest part of Ed- mund's mountain.
HOPKINS HILL-The hill which extended from near the Milford line to Fulling Mill brook and on which Stephen Hopkins, son of John, the miller, settled in 1734. After the death of John, the miller, in 1732, his sons, Timothy and Stephen, sold the corn-mill here to Jona- than Baldwin, and so far as has been learned no member of the Hopkins family was a miller after that date in Waterbury. In 1734 we find his house first mentioned. It has been said that he was living there in 1730 when Joseph, his son, was born. Hopkins hill is two miles easterly from Naugatuck. The first house of Stephen stood on the sum- mit of the hill a little southeast of the present residence of Timothy Gibbud. He built immediately (and perhaps be- fore his house was built) a saw-mill on the small stream that flows southward through the ancient farm into Beacon Hill brook. The farm itself was some- thing more than an ordinary farm. It consisted of a solid block of nearly a thousand acres, beside out-lands. The nucleus of the farm was a 200-acre tract that had been Joseph Gaylord's. Gaylord sold it to Timothy Hopkins, and this sale has perhaps given rise to the erroneous statement that Timothy Hopkins lived at Judd's Meadows. Timothy sold this to his brother Stephen. Other lands about the sources of Fulling Mill brook were given to Stephen's wife by her father, John Peck of Wallingford.
Southeast from his own house (perhaps a quarter of a mile) Mr. Hopkins gave to his son Stephen a house on the same range, calling it his "good hill." His son John was given a considerable farm
off the northwest corner of the large tract, with a house on it. John's house was on an east and west road and a little west- ward from the north and south road through the Hopkins farm (commonly known as the Hopkins road, and ulti- mately as a New Haven road). The house has been lately known as the Monroe place. On the south side of the same east and west road, and east of the Hop- kins road, there was a house that was given, perhaps, to his grandson Stephen. To Joseph he gave a farm in the north- east part of the Hopkins tract, near George's, or the Great Hollow, which he had bought of George Welton. Joseph gave the farm to his son Joseph and removed to Waterbury. The latter house place is on the north and south road that ran from the Russell saw-mill down to the road by the Indian well.
On this hill lived the Stephen Hopkins. who removed there (possibly in 1729, at which date he sold his Waterbury house) and died in 1767; also his son Stephen, who died in 1796, and of whom it is said : "He was a grave, thought- ful man; in religion he was almost of the strictest sect of the Puritans, whose excellencies and defects he at once exemplified. His habit of close and careful observation both upon moral and physical subjects, and self-acquired way of reasoning upon them, made him in many respects a wise man. In person he was tall and spare, and in health rather delicate, and became accustomed to regu- late his diet and clothing with much care. Yet he lived to seventy-five, and then died of accidental small-pox."
Here also lived the second Stephen's son Samuel, of whom it is written : He was a farmer. Of all the men I ever saw, he was the most truly just, impar- tial and disinterested. He was ingenious, laborious and persevering; unsparing of himself, and sparing of the labor and suf- fering of all other creatures, brute and human, and most kindly affectioned towards all who could think or feel. As moral and metaphysical
700
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
speculations are those which can be best prosecuted in the midst of laborious occu- pations, so he dwelt much upon them. He had found time, however, to read nearly all of value that had been written on mental philsophy. He understood Locke, Hume, and Edwards, could repeat " Pope's Essay on Man," and had read much of the old English divines. His speculations, if reduced to writing, would in my opinion have made some clear additions to all that has been here- tofore written on some heads of meta- physical inquiry. I have never heard him on these subjects without being struck by some idea that was new to me, and this makes me apprehend that some very val- uable thoughts have died with him. In the practical concerns of life he had quick and intuitive perceptions of truth (simi- lar to those of his brother Samuel). As an instance, the following is given. "At Goshen, they were building a steeple to the church, the spire of which was fin- ished below, and was to be raised by machinery and placed on the square part of the tower. When raised nearly to its place a gin gave way in such a manner that the spire swung out of the right di- rection and hung leaning over, while its great weight and unequal pressure was thrown upon some braces, which were yielding and breaking gradually. It seemed alike fatal to the workmen to fly or stay, and consternation seized the multitude, while the impending mass threatened ruin, and the master builder was without resource. There were sev- eral men so placed that they could not be extricated, and if the mass fell they must fall with it. At this moment of horror, Mr. Hopkins saw where he could attach a chain so as to secure the works from further pressure in the wrong direction and probably prevent the fall. He seized an ox chain, wound it around his neck and
shoulders and mounted rapidly to the scene of danger, regardless of the calls of his friends, whose attention was engrossed by the awful danger of his enterprise. He attached the chain in such a manner as to secure the crushing braces and all was safe."
On Hopkins hill also was born "one of the most distinguished physicians of Connecticut" - Dr. Lemuel Hop- kins, brother of Samuel, of whom a notice will appear elsewhere, but not the following estimate left of him by one who knew him well : 'His pecu- liar faculty was the intuitive and almost instantaneous perception of truth. The whole cast of his mind, and therefore of his conversation, was in the highest degree bold, strong. original; and his thoughts were very often uttered in ner- vous and concise figures of speech en- tirely peculiar to himself and full of instruction and light. He was in many respects the most extraordinary man I ever knew, yet he has left nothing behind him which will at all do him justice. He will live a little longer in the love and admiration of the good and wise of his acquaintance who survive him, and then the memory will be lost to all human view." His portrait,* painted by Trum- bull in 1794, is said to "present a head and face hardly excelled by the superla- tive beauty of Milton." +
HORSE PASTURE-Of very early date. It included lands sequestered for the pasture of horses. It is now known as Hopeville.
HUBBARD'S HOLE - The place where Nathan Hubbard settled in 1735 or earlier. On Great brook at the Chest- nut Hill road, and on the north side of City Mills pond.
INDIAN FARM: 1731-On the south- erly side of East mountain, or in that vicinity.
* This portrait was in 1832 in the ownership of Mr. James Watson of New York.
+ In his personal sketch of Dr. Hopkins, Dr. Bronson describes him as "ugly and uncouth in personal appearance," which, it would seem, in view of the above reference, must be a mistake. This impression was perhaps obtained from J. W. Barber's "Connecticut Historical Collections," where he quotes from " Kettell's American Poetry."
701
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
INDIAN FIELD, NEW INDIAN FIELD-Mentioned in 1731.
INDIAN WELL-Near the highway between Naugatuck and Prospect, within sight of it, and a little east of the four corners formed by the Hopkins road and the road by the ancient Ford place in Naugatuck. It is a depression in a meadow, circular in form, about thirty feet in depth, with a flat bottom, and shaped as though formed by art.
ISAAC'S MEADOW BARS-At the intersection of the upper road to Wood- bury with the Litchfield road, which fol- lowed the west fence of the common field to where it crossed the valley of Steele's brook.
ISAAC'S MEADOW - On Steele's brook just above its junction with the Naugatuck river, It lies "largely " on the west side of the brook just north of Hancox's eight acre lot.
ISRAEL'S MEADOW-The first land recorded at Buck's hill. It lies near the Buck's Hill school-house, and is low meadow land,
ISRAEL'S SPRING - From Israel Richardson, who was the first person who had land recorded on Buck's hill.
JEDEDIAH'S BROOK-It rises in Jedediah's swamp between Welton's mountain and Warner's mountain, and flows into Steele's brook at Ben's meadow. Named, it is thought, from Jedediah Turner.
JEREMIAH'S BROOK - A large branch of Steele's brook that originally flowed from Long Boggy meadow in present Watertown. The meadow was recently overflowed with water and called Wattle's pond. It is now known as "Win- nimaug," an Indian name, constructed for it by the Rev. Dr. Anderson. Jere- miah's hill is the elevation 820 feet high lying between the pond and Steele's brook. Jeremiah's meadow lies between and below the pond and the hill. The road running across the hill was de- scribed as going through the notch of Jeremiah's hill. The brook, meadow and
hill were named for the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, to whom lands were laid out there.
JEREMIAH'S HILL-See Jeremiah's brook.
JEREMIAH'S MEADOW-See Jere- miah's brook.
JEREMY'S BROOK-It flows south- eastwardly between Long and Chestnut hills into Dead Meadow or Swamp.
JEREMY'S SWAMP-Named from Deacon Jeremiah Peck in his youth. In the vicinity of Dead swamp and where the Warners settled on the Wolcott road.
JUDD'S JERICHO -- The plain on the east side of the Naugatuck river just above or near the junction of the West Branch with it and on which the Rey- nolds Bridge station stands.
STANDLY'S JERICHO-On the east side of the river south of Judd's Jericho and partly opposite Pine meadow.
JERICHO ROCK-The rocky height east of the river at Jericho bridge.
JERICHO FALLS-The place is now occupied as a knife factory. John Sut- liff had a saw-mill there in 1730.
JOE'S HILL-In Naugatuck. North- easterly from Lewis's hill. It was named from Joseph Lewis, and was first de- scribed as " the hill between Toantic and Cotton Wool meadows," and again as "the hill between Cotton Wool meadow and Nathaniel Gunn's farm." Here Jo- bamah Gunn had his deer park about 1780.
JOE'S SWAMP-Near Buck's hill. Mentioned in 1728. Probably from Jo- seph Lewis.
JUDD'S HILL-About three furlongs from Fort swamp. Thomas Upson, who married Rachel, a daughter of Deacon Thomas Judd, went to live on Judd's hill. Shelton Truman Hitchcock lives on the south end of the ridge, and on the same site. This hill is over the ancient Farmington line, but is mentioned here as the place to which Deacon Judd proba- bly removed during his brief absence from Waterbury.
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