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 77
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STONY PASTURE-On the western side of Long hill.
SMUG'S BROOK-Origin of name unknown. Possibly from an Indian. The stream that enters the river at Hopeville - sometimes written Smug Swamp brook.
SMUG'S SWAMP-Now occupied by the reservoir of the Smith & Griggs company at Hopeville.
SOUTHMAYD'S PASTURE - On Great brook above Grove street, border- ing on Cooke street.
STEELE'S BROOK-Is first referred to as the brook that comes into the river at Steele's meadow; later it is called Ben's meadow brook, " Woster," brook, and for a time the two names Steele and Woster contended for the mastery. Named from John or Samuel Steele of Farmington, and possibly from Edward Wooster of Derby.
THE STONE PATH, 1716-See the Park.
TAILOR'S MEADOW OR JOHN WARNER'S MEADOW-John, the son of Thomas Warner, in 1717, laid out land near where the small tributaries forming the head waters of Beaver Pond brook unite. Dr. Ephraim Warner laid it out for him, but forgot to tell of it, and the land became mingled with other layouts, but continued for many years to bear his name.
William Austin now owns land which includes Tailor's meadow. The old Goodyear house was near it. Austin obliterated the cellar-place of the house quite recently. The first settler in the region of the meadow was Caleb Merri- man, son of Eliasaph of Wallingford. He was succeeded by Benjamin Benham who "carved off some of the farm for Lydia Mix." The Rev. John Reed (who won Waterbury's heart about 1700) had a farm near by, which James Benham bought. Reuben, Shadrach, and perhaps Ebenezer Benham, all lived in that vicinity between 1750 and 1800.
THE TAYLOR LOT-The Cooper lot (seven acres) lay at the northeast cor- ner of East Main and Cherry streets and extended to Walnut street. The Taylor lot (five acres) adjoined it on the east and extended from East Main to Walnut street. "Stanley's Timber" adjoined the Taylor lot on the east. It was a seven acre tract and was bounded west by Niagara street. Niagara street was an ancient highway (mentioned in 1691). Walnut street probably began where it now does, and "ran catering up the hill to Niagara street."
TAMARACK SWAMP-It was called by this name about 1754 when Mr. South- mayd and others combined to drain the swamp and make improved meadow of it. This was perhaps the last real estate transaction in which he was engaged, and he seems to have accomplished his purpose, as he and the other owners sold to one of their number a portion of
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
the swamp in severalty, bounded on a ditch. Sixty years ago the region was a dense swamp. It is now cleared. The Middlebury road now runs through it, and also Sunnyside avenue. It was first called " the great boggy meadow west of Town Plot." At a later date both Rich- ardson's and Upson's Meadows lay in it.
TAYLOR'S MEDITATION-The rough, high hill lying east of the east branch of Hancock brook, around which the New York and New England rail- road curves, before reaching Tolles's station.
TAME BUCK HILL-The high, extensive and prominent ridge between Lily brook and Fort Swamp brook.
TAVERN BROOK-Now called East Mountain brook. A branch of Beaver Pond brook. The distributing reservoir of the first city water works is built in the valley of it.
MOUNT TAYLOR-The rocky, prominent ridge above Waterville and between Naugatuck river and Hancox brook.
It was quite natural, therefore, that it should be used as one of the points of demarkation or departure in the Indian deeds of Waterbury, and also that the undiscovered Mr. Taylor whose name had been given to the height before the first Indian deed of Waterbury was drawn, should have made use of it in viewing and exploring the wilderness in the pre- historic days of Mattatuck.
The most prominent and elevated ridge of Mount Taylor was called Mount Tay- lor rock. The western extremity of the rock has its perpendicular face to the southward, and, with its abrupt ending at the river westward, it nearly cuts off the valley at that point. The eastern end has a greater altitude, but termi- nates on the level summit of a wall of rock which presents an abrupt face to the brook below. At this point were located the "Deer Stakes," where deer pursued and driven from among the hills either northward or southward of the place
would have to pass in close quarters -- the large and plentiful boulders thereabouts affording hiding places for hunters.
About a century ago the most south- erly ridge of Mount Taylor rock became known as the Rattlesnake ledge.
Between Rattlesnake ledge and Mount Taylor rock there is a depression that was once in cultivation and has not alto- gether gone back to its original wildness. A house once stood there, the marks of which, perhaps, may still be seen. Apple trees are near by, and a little brook not far off; where birds sing and the sun shines in, just as it did when Mr. Southmayd had there one of his sev- eral farms. A steep road leads up to the old house-site, which may have been made by the planters -- for this is the place designated in the "old book" as that where the rails were obtained to build the west fence of their common field.
From Mr. Southmayd the land passed to one or more of his Bronson grand- children, and the first person mentioned on record as being in possession of a house there was a widow named Roberts; the last one, probably, was James Har- rison Warner.
The most southern pinnacle or ridge of Mount Taylor, separated from Mount Taylor rock by a deep depression, was called at a later day Bull Plain rock or rocks, from Deacon Samuel Bull of Woodbury-who married the widow of Deacon Thomas Hickcox-and the an- cient Hancox plain adjoining became Bull plain. Through the deep depression, mentioned above, ran a highway from Buck's hill to Watertown. Where it crossed Hancox brook there was a mill (Scott's), and to this mill ran the highway from our North Willow street, following the course of the common fence all the way.
The Mount Taylor rock range extends to the northward along the western bor- der of Hancock's brook to the old mill at Greystone, and its most northern peak was called Pine hill. In some places it
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ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
presents a declivitous front to the brook, overhanging its own base. A portion of this lofty ledge, seen from the valley of the brook, presents the appearance of a lion's face. This, it is thought, is what was, in the records, called Anthony's nose. There is also a clear profile resembling that of Washington.
Marks of once existing highways, the records, and the natural circumstances of the case lead to the belief that this sec- tion was formerly open to the outside world. Mount Taylor, in its whole length from its southern point of Bull Plain rocks to Greystone, is about two miles long.
TAYLOR'S MEDITATION -- Is thought to be the hill around which the New England railroad curves so sharply before reaching Tolles station.
THE THREE SISTERS, ALIAS THE THREE BROTHERS -- In 1673, the " three chestnut trees growing from one root," represented on page 193, formed a boundary corner of New Haven and Milford townships. Later, Waterbury and Wallingford met at the same bound with the former places. At one time and another, the same tree has been the cor- ner of nine different towns. The south- west corner of Wallingford became the southwest corner of Cheshire; the north end of Milford became Woodbridge ; eventually, the southwest part of Chesh- ire (and the southeast part) became Prospect ; the northwest corner of New Haven became the town of Bethany, and the southeast corner of Waterbury and northern part of Woodbridge became Naugatuck. Thus, this historic tree (being three in one) has, during its life, remained on its own root and yet lived in nine townships. It is also distinguished as the corner bound of two counties- Hartford and New Haven -- which it con- tinued to be until Waterbury was trans- ferred from Hartford county to New Haven county.
TOANTIC BROOK-This brook an- ciently ran out of the east side of Toantic
pond or lake, flowed easterly down the hill into the valley at the foot of Twelve- Mile hill, then ran northward and united with what is now Long Meadow brook After Long Meadow pond was made, the name of Long Meadow brook supplanted that of Toantic from the confluence of the two original streams to the river.
TOANTIC HILL-The fine elevation that rises to a height of 880 feet on the southwest side of Long Meadow pond. It is thirty feet higher than the ancient Twelve-Mile hill. It is now known as Woodruff's hill. The name was variously applied to the several eminences about the pond.
TOANTIC MEADOW-In the heart of ancient Gunntown. The basin on ancient Toantic brook east of the bend of it. Joe's hill is on the north, Saw-Mill hill on the east, Twelve-Mile hill on the south, Lewis's hill on the west.
TOANTIC POND-The small natural lake lying about one mile below present Long Meadow pond. It is between what was the ancient Toantic hill in Water- bury (now Woodruff's hill) and the Toan- tic hill in the Derby township of 1684. It is situated (to use an ancient form of expression), " up among the hills," being on a hill and among higher hills, its ele- vation being over six hundred feet. It was a point in the boundary line between ancient Waterbury and Derby.
TOANTIC SWAMP - The swampy basin of Toantic pond. The enterpris- ing Arah Ward, mill-builder and pioneer, in 1754 undertook the scheme of making a mill-pond of the region. He essayed to stop up "Cockapatane's " boundary line (the ancient Toantic brook), by divert- ing the water into an artificial channel and bringing it to the saw-mill site on Long Meadow brook. This scheme was enlarged by his successors, Nathaniel Gunn and his sons Enos and Abel. They added a reservoir at Long meadow, since known as Long Meadow pond, in which undertaking Noah Cande joined for the sake of having the water on his
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
land a part of the time. While Arah Ward remained in the neighborhood and retained a share of the mills, and had begun to build for himself a second and a larger house, the dam at the head of the ditch which conveyed the water from Toantic to the mills was undermined by beavers, or in some way gave out and produced great disaster, burying Arah Ward's new frame for his second house, and making wild gravel and boulderland of deep muck. A great chasm was left in the side hill where it started, carrying away so much of the highway as to neces- sitate the laying out of a new one and changing materially the order of arrange- ments in the vicinity. The above deduc- tions are the result of a careful research in existing records combined with tradi- tion.
MOUNTOBE, MOUNT TOBE-This mountain is separated from Mount Tay- lor on the south by Spruce brook, and extends upward about three miles to the One Pine hill in Plymouth. On the west, it is separated from Jericho rock by George's brook, named from George Scott, son of Edmund, the planter. On it, the Gaylords and the Warners had lands laid out at an early date. About 1785, Victory Tomlinson, owner of a large pro- portion of the stock of the Waterbury River turnpike, lived on the mountain only a few feet from its summit, which is 893 feet high.
THE TIMBERED MOUNT TOBE -The uppermost peak of Mount Tobe. It is two feet higher than the main part of the mountain.
LITTLE MOUNT TOBE-Thought to be the hill at Greystone, between which and the mill-pond the railroad passes. It is just above the Plymouth line.
TWELVE MILE HILL, SCOTT'S HILL, OSBORN HILL, HUNTING- TON HILL, ANDREWS HILL- Twelve Mile hill is the most ancient English place name that we can account for within Mattatuck plantation.
The name is applied to that fine, beau- tiful dome which lies directly west of Naugatuck and rises to a height of 850 feet-forming the northwestern portion of Strait mountain-the mountain reach- ing down to Spruce brook which flows through High Rock glen. The ancient Toantic, or Woodruff's hill, is thirty feet higher than it.
In 1671, before Woodbury was, and when but twelve families were living within the territory later known as Derby, the Colonial government granted that the northern limit of that plantation should extend "twelve miles from its southern boundary." That measure- ment led to the summit of this hill, on which a stake was placed from which surveys were made east and west for the town line between Derby and Water- bury. The stake stood for nearly a cen- tury. The site of it was then faithfully held for many years by an apple tree, which, in turn, has disappeared, but the point is still marked by a heap of stones.
The restoration of the ancient name of this hill, and the replacing in enduring and suitably inscribed stone, of the Twelve Mile stake-presaged by the order of 1671, and placed on the hill probably soon after that time, certainly before May 18, 1680-is an honor which Naugatuck might well confer upon her- self, if, indeed, the ancient towns of Derby and Waterbury neglect their op- portunity of an anniversary meeting on the same hill for the same purpose.
The first English land-owner on the hill was John Standly, who received a grant of twelve acres "at the stake set down by Derby men." This grant was made about 1687, and sold in 1721 to Mr. Joseph Moss of Derby.
When Conquepatana, a chieftain of the Derby Indians and an ancestor of the distinguished Konkerpot family among the Scatacook tribe of north- western Connecticut, signed the deed of the Derby Indians conveying to the set- tlers of Mattatuck their tribal rights to the lands adjoining to the northward, and
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ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
said it was good, and that he understood it, he reserved, or thought he did, this particular hill and its environment to himself and family for individual pos- session. He sold the Waterbury part of it, in company with his son Tom, in 17II, to Waterbury. A little later the Derby side of it is referred to as having been purchased from the native Indian pro- prietors by Joseph Moss and his brother Samuel. Joseph acted as agent for Water- bury in the former purchase.
Of this hill, Mr. William Ward, the appreciative and accurate historian of the early settlers of Naugatuck, has written: " Ascend in the early summer any one of its surrounding hills and sweep the horizon with your vision, and your eyes will remain fixed upon this beautiful hill. Its fine lines, graded by nature, curve gracefully from its summit in every direction to the valley below. It was easy for man to convert it into a beautiful lawn. A visit to this lovely place on a bright summer's day, when every inspiration of its pure air seems to lift one above the strife and selfishness of the world below, is a delight. Any one who can inhale the bracing air and gaze on the beautiful landscape, and not be happy, should at once retire to his lower plane and hide himself in the smoke of the valley. Remain on this charming spot until the forces of nature seem to be hushed into silence, lest they disturb the preparations making to wrap the earth in its mantle of night; then turn your eyes westward and see the glorious sun gently sink in a dazzling flood of beauty and loveliness, until, with a final good- night flash, it hides behind the Catskills -and your soul must be filled with won- der and admiration."
After the above description one can understand Chieftain Conquepatana's love for his hill.
John Weed, hatter of Derby, came into possession by purchase and layout of con- siderable tracts of land upon the hill, in- cluding some of the grants to Waterbury men, and proceeded to set up his sons as
farmers in the neighborhood. His son John settled before 1732 at the foot of the hill near its northwestern cor- ner, his son Jonas on the northern slope of the dome of the hill, not far from its summit, before 1733, and Joseph came at the same time and had a house some- where on his farm, which lay on or near the junction of the hill with the Strait mountain.
Amos Osborn, son of Joseph of New Haven, married Joanna Weed, a sister of the above three brothers, and removed with his brothers Thomas, Joseph and Daniel Osborn to the same hill. During five years the Weeds seem to have lived alone on the hill, Job Pierson being their nearest neighbor on Strait mountain, he having acquired a house and ninety acres from a blacksmith named Holbrook, on the top of the mountain near the Derby line, in 1729.
Thomas Osborn came in time to pay a good sized tax in 1738. In 1739 he bought the twelve Standley acres at the stake, and the same year, with his brothers Joseph and Amos, he became the owner of half the hundred-acre farm adjoining, that the Rev. Joseph Moss and his brother Samuel had bought of Conque- patana.
Daniel Osborn, the fourth brother to arrive, appears not to have come until after 1750.
During this time Joseph Weed had sold his house to Joseph Lewis; Jonas Weed, having become a physician, had removed to Northbury, and Daniel Osborn was living in his house; Joseph Lewis had also bought the house of Joseph Osborn in 1748, and in 1749 had died while living on the hill.
During the seventy years that Thomas Osborn spent on the summit, it is said that he built three houses, the first one very near the stake, but just over the line, and therefore in Derby. In this house he seems to have lived until 1755. From 1755 to 1783 he lived in a new and large house that he had built on the Waterbury side. After that date, he is
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
said to have built his second house across the line in Derby-and, in his old age (he lived to be 91), to have crossed the line once more and lived with William, one of his sons. His houses were, as it were, in the same door-yard. His Waterbury house, not being in service, was, it is said, torn down to save the taxes paid to Waterbury on it, every fire-place being taxed, and taxes in Waterbury higher than in Oxford. Tradition tells of the lavish expenditure, the luxurious living and the unbounded hospitality of Wil- liam Osborn on this hill after the death of his father, Deacon Thomas Osborn, he having bought the rights of the other heirs. He, at last, left it, and the hill- top passed into the hands of the Hunting- ton family-the first of the name there being the Rev. Mr. Huntington of the Congregational church in Oxford. Later, the Andrews family came into the owner- ship of it, and it has come to be called by their family name. The summer resi- dence of G. W. Andrews is now on it. One of the Thomas Osborn houses was standing as late as 1885, and the old well is still in use. It is forty feet deep and has never been cleaned because the flow of water is too great to admit of it. The Osborn houses on the apex of the hill were, at different times, in the towns of Derby, Waterbury, Oxford and Nauga- tuck; in the societies of Oxford and Salem; in the Probate districts of Wood- bury, New Haven, Waterbury and Naugatuck, and yet close neighbors.
TURKEY BROOK-At first known as the north branch of Steele's brook. An early grant was described as being " up a small brook that falls into a small brook that falls into Turkey Brook." It enters Steele's brook at Oakville.
THE FALLS OF TURKEY BROOK -Above the place where Samuel Judd lived in 1730-between Scott's mountain and Buck's Meadow mountain.
TURKEY MEADOW-Now a reser- voir for Slade's saw - mill on Turkey brook.
TWITCH GRASS BROOK-In Thomaston. Now called Clay brook.
TWITCH GRASS MEADOW-See page 315.
THE CITY. UNION CITY - As early as 1770 Union City was known as " 'The City." It was then what might be called a little manufacturing centre, consisting of a saw-mill, a grist-mill and "potash works." In Deacon Gideon Hotchkiss's account book are a number of entries of ashes "delivered at The City" in 1770 and in 1771.
The accompanying cut represents, per- haps, the oldest house now standing within the ancient township. The date of its erection is not known, but it was built either by Dr. Daniel Porter, or by his son, Thomas Porter-therefore we have a house yet with us that was built either by a proprietor of Mattatuck, or by the son of a proprietor. Long may it be cherished by the townsmen of Naugatuck ! In 1765 Thomas Porter gave the house and sixty acres of land to his son Thomas. At the same date he gave gifts of houses and lands to other sons. The old house is of special interest, because within it were sheltered and cared for many soldiers in the war of the Revolution. It was kept as a tavern in 1770 and for many years after that date. See p. 456.
UPSON'S BRIDGE AND UPSON'S MEADOW -- Were on the Woodbury road, now a portion of the Park road, between where it leaves the Middlebury road and the hill. It was an early grant, without date, to Stephen Upson.
UPSON'S ISLAND ROCKS -- A suc- cession of semi-detached, rugged spurs of rock, bordering the river between the ridges of Mount Taylor and Mount Tobe -- so-called because lying against the an- cient Upson's island -- the tract of meadow land on an island in the river that was set apart in 1679 for a future inhabitant, who proved to be Stephen Upson.
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ENGLISH PLACE NAMES OF MATTATUCK.
UPSON'S WOLF PIT -- East of Long hill.
THE VILLAGE, GUERNSEY TOWN -- The era of exact and compre- hensive lay-outs began about 1728, and was soon in full force. The newer part of Litchfield county and the newer parts of the older towns, then to be laid out, were surveyed by the new system, instead of the very early one of going " as far as the good land lyeth."
The northwestern part of Waterbury was so laid out, and named " The Vil-
Woodbury was the bound, and was four rods wide -- two rods being taken from either town. The cross highways were four rods wide, and repeated every half mile, or so nearly so as not to divide any single lot -- the lots varying in size ac- cording to the amount of propriety repre- sented. At a later period an additional section was laid out on the east side at the northerly end.
After the first lay-out of the village, it was found that the line next Woodbury had been incorrectly placed, involving a
THE PORTER HOUSE AT UNION CITY ; BUILT BY DANIEL PORTER, THE PLANTER, OR HIS SON THOMAS. FIRST MENTIONED IN 1765.
lage." It began at, or on Richards's mountain (lying south from the Taft school buildings), and ran northerly, parallel with the east line of Woodbury township, to the town line road of Litch- field, which formed the northern bound- ary as far east as the West Branch. Within the above boundaries were tiers of lots running north and south, sepa- rated every half mile by an eight-rod highway. An eight-rod highway bor- dered the village plot on the east, while on the west the town line highway with
re-survey of the territory included, which was a parallelogram of about five miles north and south by about two in breadth. The village was also embarrassed by the lands already granted within the enclo- sure, and it was thought best to correct their lines-so a re-survey was had, and different outlines made. Among the tracts included were the Richards-Moun- tain land (where the first house in Water- town was, about 1700), and Richards's land on Nonnewaug hill; Welton's hill, where Hillside farm and the Fair grounds
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
are, the original hill being the eminence southwest of the Fair grounds and north of the Minortown road, but the name spread to the adjoining lands of the same owner; and Southmayd's meadow, now covered by a pond. (Big meadow) at the head of a branch of Nonnewaug brook, spoken of in Southmayd's lay-out as "a sprain of Woodbury river."
There was considerable trouble first and last in the lay-out of the Village. A number of committees were appointed, various sets of instructions given, some preremptory mandates and changes made, some resignations tendered, and perplexity seems to have attended almost every stage of this endeavor to live "by art." Waterbury evidently did not take kindly to that style of lay-out, for her people attempted and abandoned the same system in the old sequester, and in the southeast quarter; and some of the astonishingly irregular and indefinite lay- outs about the townships testify to their aptness at living without "art"-but nevertheless, the Village lines to a con- siderable extent may be traced to-day. Among the early settlers of the Village there is some reason for thinking that John Guernsey was the pioneer. He left and went to Litchfield, and probably set- tled on Guernsey hill. Jonathan Guern- sey came to Waterbury in 1729. Joseph came from Milford in 1734, and built a house at the Village. Its frame of white oak, it is said, was cut and hewn on the ground so near that not a stick of the timber was drawn by a team to the spot. The chimney was, at the base, fourteen by twelve feet, the kitchen fire-place, built of stone, was eight feet long and four deep. This house was a little west of Frederick Judd's present resi- dence. Jonathan's house was on the northern slope of the hill southeastward of Southmayd's meadow, and tradition declares it to have been the first house in " The Village." If so, he had a town house at East Main and Cole streets at the same time, which he bought iu 1729. Tradition has many bright and stirring
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