USA > Connecticut > Windham County > Eastford > Town of Eastford : Centennial 1847-1947 > Part 6
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This must have been at the beginning of the hurricane in this section. Now I saw that it was blowing harder and harder with great gusts of wind and rain that drew a wildly waving curtain across my view and then snatched it away again. At first I wasn't afraid but suddenly I noticed that the great elm tree at the corner of my neigh- bor's barn next door was swaying back and forth like a young sapling. The wind made so much noise that there was no sound - just the
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THE HURRICANE
strange pantomine of that tall tree waving back and forth and then falling silently across the road. I was appalled. I began to look out of other windows around the house. The biggest swamp maple across the road had fallen and its bushy top filled my driveway opening. Branches were flying through the air and everywhere trees were either bent over or completely uprooted.
Now the house began to frighten me. My cottage is on a hill and it appeared to be getting the brunt of the storm. By some strange action or perhaps suction of the wind through the pipes in the plumb- ing system, the whole house was filled with a sound like a mamouth horn blowing. It shrieked and moaned and groaned. I fully expected the house to collapse on top of me. I put on my coat to go outside to avoid being crushed but the out-of-doors was such a roar of rain, flying debris and wind that I was afraid to do so. I tried to think of the safest place to be when the roof went and decided that my big old fashioned hearthstone was the safest spot, so I stood there. Afterward, hearing of the chimneys that went down in the storm, I shuddered at my ignorance.
I became half hysterical. The storm continued for three hours and the only other living creature in the house with me was my big grey cat, Opaque, who lay on the davenport completely unconcerned. Finally I had an inspiration. From my South windows, I can look across the valley to the church on the hill. Between gusts that oblive- rated it, I could see its tall white steeple pointing upward in the storm. I said to myself that if that steeple did not fall, surely my little house would stand the storm too. Between every gust, I stared across the valley. The steeple was still there and I was still alive. When the hur- ricane was over, this Congregational church was one of the few in all this area which did not suffer damage despite its high elevation.
Towards dusk the storm began to slacken somewhat and suddenly I heard a pounding on my west door. It was my brother-in-law who
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had come across the lots from his house to see if I was all right. I never saw a more welcome face. With him I started out for the neighbors and spent the night at my grandmother's.
Now I learned of the damage throughout the town. Orlo Carpen- ter had been killed in the collapse of his barn. All roads, many of which were either partially or wholly washed out, were blocked by fallen trees, washed out bridges and broken power and telephone lines. News of the outside world could be gathered only by automobile radios. Electric current was not restored for three weeks. Sea gulls had been blown inland and were seen hovering over our fresh water ponds. Our beautiful trees were completely ravaged. After the hur- ricane we notice that the east sides of white houses were stained a pale yellowish tone and finally concluded that it was caused by the stains of leaves blown and broken against the white clapboards. Later there was no beautiful display of autumn foliage as in other years.
Several days after the storm, I received a letter from my husband. He began with "when I get home, I'll tell you about the hurricane we had on the South side of Long Island-". He arrived home before the mails delivered his letter-but he never said a word!
Catherine Tatem French.
When I was about eleven years old and lived on a back road now discontinued the house and barn were called the "Seaman's Place": just a few acres of very poor land. My father used to say the land around there was too poor to grow a decent fish pole.
That Spring I was working for Oliver Bartlett which was about one half way to Eastford and his mother was still living at the time Oliver was workng on the road to cover his taxes. Another boy, about my age Eddie Bosworth was with us. In the ox wagon we had gotten as far as the Sibley place. Frank Walker's (Preston Sibley was his uncle) mother was my first school teacher when I was about four years old. Frank had been to Webster, Mass. on the day before and had some cigarettes which he brought back and saved one cigarette for Oliver to smoke; something very wonderful those days. Eddie Bos- worth called it a ciget. Anyway, he gave it to Oliver who put it away carefully for a later smoke. Later Oliver went away to stay over night some place so had to sleep alone. It seems that a man had hung him- self upstairs some years before just at the head of the stairs near our room. I was always afraid of ghosts so when I went to bed I covered my head with the bed clothes and got to sleep all right. Next day I plowed one acre of the land with a pair of oxen and when I got that done Mrs. Bartlett sent me home. I was in hopes she would give me ten or fifteen cents but did not. Then I went to Eastford and went to work for Mr. Cheney, an undertaker and blacksmith. He gave me $1.00 per week.
Later we moved to Phoenixville and had a nice place to swim in the Harris pond. We had a diving plank there and also a tree we used to jump down into the water from, also a big rock farther back. By taking a long run we used to jump from that too. There were the
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two Bullard boys, Ellsworth and Olin, the two Lanphear boys, Erwin and Louis, myself and my two brothers. None of us had ever dared to dive from the tree or the rock. But the last summer before we moved to Wales I went out alone one day and made up my mind I was going to beat the record so I not only dove out of the tree but off of the rock also. I had to dive pretty well out for the water was not deep enough until about ten or fifteen feet out. I took a long run in order to get out to deep water ..
I worked in the Harris Mill the last summer, (the old stone mill is still standing) before we moved away and Albert Harris made me second hand to the boss. (He got $1.25 a day because I could run any Machine in the mill). I was given fifty cents per day of twelve hours, seventy-two hours a week and that was real money. (No more farm work for me). (I saw one little boy about 4 years old run one side of a spinning frame for 50c a week no child labor laws those days.) I bought my first suit of clothes for $7.00 but never knew what underwear or an overcoat was until I got to weaving in Wales and bought my own. That kind of a life either kills children young or makes a boy tough so I guess that is why I am still alive. Bert Dean whose father kept a store here in Eastford used to tell me I would die of consumption early (I al- ways had coughs and colds). I met him in Putnam in 1890 when I was 23 years old and was fixing looms for the Putnam Woolen Mills and soon after I heard that he had passed away (I am the only one left of the 8 boys mentioned before.)
Just east of the Phoenixville school house where the two Bullard boys lived they had a carpenter's shop and during the winter it would be hired for dances. I was crazy over a violin so as a boy I used to play cymbals in the Phoenixville band. Palmer Bullard of another family played bass drum and he would give me the signal when I should play so loving a violin I used to go to the dances. Villa Baker who played the violin by ear and Dwight Lyon the cornet. Dwight used to play in the band and could read music and someone else played an organ for the dances making a three piece orchestra. I would sit there spellbound just to hear the music. Later in the evening we were served Oyster Stew for about fifteen cents including coffee. Later on I learned to read music and I played first violin and led an orchestra for about five years. We played in Somerville, Somers, Connecticut, East Longmeadow, Mass., Hazardville and once in Thompsonville, Connect- icut. So I finally arrived as a violin player myself.
Going back to when I was about five years old there was a young man, Frank Hitchcock about twenty who worked on a farm for Uncle Reuben Preston, another young man Ed Miller was going with a girl that Frank wanted so Frank told he was going to lick Ed at first op- portunity and showed the fist he was going to use but Ed came to him one evening and called his bluff. He, Frank really got down on his knees to Ed, begged him not to hurt him. Young as I was I was dis- gusted. Once Frank made me drink some hard cider, said it was good, but I got dizzy and finally laid down in the grass and slept it off.
My orchestra played at East Longmeadow for the Century Ball the night of 1900-1901.
ARTHUR M. ARNOLD.
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MOTHER'S COOKING
Recalling meals cooked by my mother is easy, but describing the compounding in detail for others is beyond me. Writers and authors must "be born not made", as well as cooks.
Bread, cakes, doughnuts, and pies were mothers make: bread from potato yeast. Doughnuts fried in home tried-out lard could not be compared with the greasy sweet rings from most bakeries. Pies, (ap- ple, cream, lemon, raspberry, and other fruits), have left a lasting memory of taste. Fruit and berry pies contained real fruits and juices, no artificial custards and flavor.
Fried ham from home grown pork was not necessarily cause for dyspepsia or nightmare. Perhaps my appetite and taste of fifty years ago are the cause, but my mothers cooking a fricassee of chicken with shortcake was more satisfying than fried chicken a la roadside cafe, gnawed from a tough frame work.
In words from a song, "The Monk" ---
"A wise man has said, a good dinner's the thing,
That most satisfaction to mortals can bring".
and a boy said, "he hated to have Ma die, she was such a darned good cooker".
CHARLES S. JOHNSON.
A bit of descriptive history of the west part of Eastford ending 100 years ago .-
Though I am quite a young man (80), most of my story I learned when a boy by talking with such old people as Reuben Preston (90), Mrs. Chaffee (92) and John Morse for whom I worked 70 years ago.
My story starts at the Floeting farm going north past the Kozey farm and back to the Bigelow river.
In 1847 there were 23 houses standing. Today there are only eight. Seven were destroyed by fire.
In this area were five saw mills, one silk mill and two schools. Mr. Preston told me he had seen 86 children at the Shippey school. They came from as far as Jacobsons' on the East and Lewis and Chapmans west of Bigelow.
Most of the farms kept sheep, made their own clothing, and raised nearly all their food. Some of the farmer women raised silk. It was spun at Sam Chaffee's mill, near the Clifford Walker farm. The pond furnished power for the silk mill and for the grist mill. During the Civil War the women picked bay berries and made tallow for the army. It was used to keep the bullets from sticking.
Whatever meager income was obtained was derived from lumber and charcoal. There was heavy forest land and clearings for farms were small. Mr. John Morse told me he burned charcoal, and drew it to Springfield with oxen. One man came from Rhode Island, making two trips a week with a four horse team. (Mr. Buell told of a contract
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he had with a Fiskdale concern for 5000 bushels at 97/8 cents a bushel in 1882. In one season he would make 1200 bushels in his charcoal pits.)
Mr. Nehemiah Clapp, on the Grippi farm gathered ashes and made soap. There were two places where potash was made by leaching ashes and boiling the lye down. (White ashes from the fireplaces were used for baking soda.)
There were 3 saw mills and a silk mill on Bigelow river, 2 saw mills on Branch Brook. There were 2 grist mills and 2 cider mills. I have never known whether they made axes at the Griggs mill, but that section is still spoken of as the Axe Factory.
Mrs. Holman showed me a book where she earned $600. weaving palm leaves for "shaker bonnets."
There was a blacksmith shop near the Sly Mill and another south of Farnham's. Silas Simmons made hogheads in No. Ashford (M. D. Lewis' old hen house). He split the staves, shaved and fitted them by hand. They were shipped to the West Indies to be returned to the States filled with rum.
Today most of the territory I have described belongs to Yale University.
HENRY B. BUELL.
Dear Mrs. Lewis:
Thinking back through the years these few items may be of in- terest to you.
I think they used to have pretty good times years ago with "sur- prise" and skating parties. We would make pop-corn balls, and have a gay time. There was a dancing school in the upstairs room of the Center School.
The house where William Colburn lives (east of town hall) was built for the Methodist parsonage.
Mr. Lorenzo Whitney made a good many washing machines where Miss Lillian Huntington now lives. (Factory stood on the triangular common).
I remember when the creamery was built. A man used to go around and collect the cream from the farmers.
A Cracker wagon came from Webster. It was a covered wagon. drawn by a pair of horses, and went to the stores the same as the bread trucks of today.
I saw Burnham's two-storied building when it burned. It stood where Barrett's Store is now. In a long building east of this store, men worked making shoes, using wooden pegs. Many others worked on shoes in their homes for Mr. Burnham. In the old Fitts House (Kenneth Walker's) shoes were made also.
Eastford had a Village Improvement Society during the Centennial Year. (July 4, 1876) Sidewalks were made, street lamps put up - one at the chapel and others on the corners in the center of the town. (Mrs.
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Kennedy has one on the Inn property). The Elm trees were set out along the main roads to improve the looks of the town.
I was 78 in February. It didn't seem when a girl, that I was living so near the time when Eastford was a part of Ashford. The night before I was 78, I dreamed I was 178. Quite a relief when I woke up.
Sincerely,
MRS. MARY GREEN.
I have many pleasant and treasured memories of Eastford partly because it was my girlhood home and also because it was my father's birthplace and always dear to him.
Father joined the Congregational Church here when he was twelve years old. His mother's dearest hope was that he should be a clergy- man; when he was a little boy he and his mother would walk to a large rock in a certain field on the farm which father called his "pulpit" and standing there he loved to preach with impressive gestures while grandmother was his attentive, and perhaps amused, audience.
Father prepared for college at Ashford and Norwich Academies. Grandmother's ambition for him seemed not to be realized for he chose Yale Shiffield Scientific School where he was graduated as a Civil Engineer and was sent out west as a surveyor. Ohio was the "out west" of those days. While there, Destiny stepped in and led him back to Yale Divinity School where he was graduated in 1874.
In my father's last illness, he said to me; "I have been fifty con- secutive years in the active ministry. It has been a good life. I have enjoyed it and have no regrets".
He was twice pastor of the Congregational Church here.
It may interest you to know that in his later years he educated a young parishener in Massachusetts for the ministry, and he has had a very successful career. Father lived to baptize his first child who was named for him John Trowbridge, and now, grown to manhood, he is studying for the ministry. And so the life-work of the Eastford boy goes on through two generations.
I remember so many friends of my parents who made their life in Eastford a happy one: Mr. and Mrs. Steven Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Warren (our good neighbors on the hill), Mr. and Mrs. Tatem, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Warren, Rev. and Mrs. Jones and many others.
It has been a long time since I visited the town and I know there are many changes there. It is a satisfaction to me that my cousins make it their home and so the Trowbridge name is still identified with Eastford.
One of my earlier memories is my introduction to the telephone. I rode with my father to the store and was held up to the wall instru- ment while Mr. Isaac Warren put thro the call to my mother who was visiting in Putnam. It was a thrilling experience for me.
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My parents enjoyed restoring the old home which they named "The Heritage". Long and handsome stone walls were laid, trees planted and many changes made in the house. Their good right-hand in all these operations was Mr. Elisha Sherman.
I recall the annual oyster-supper which the men of the parish cook- ed and served every winter. On other occasions, the ladies took over the responsibility. The Church suppers were almost our only social life in those days. After we made the dangerous descent of the dark and narrow stairway in the Chapel, two long lines of tables greated us. sumptiously laden with food that proved the culnary art of East- ford house wives. The ladies worked all afternoon to prepare the sup- per wearing long, white aprons (lace trimmed) to officiently protect their best dresses. After our appetites were satisfied we gathered in the main hall for visiting and perhaps a "Sing" before we disbanded at the late hour of nine-thirty!
To the friends of those long ago years, their children and grand- children, I send my sincere greetings on this Centennial celebration. I congratulate you upon the worthy history which you commemorate. The country villages of New England have made many splendid con- tributions to our nation and Eastford has done her share.
ESTHER TROWBRIDGE CATLIN
In looking back at Eastford, to the time when, as a small boy, I began to take some interest in the people and things outside my home. I can see many changes have taken place.
Eastford was, in my early years., like the rest of the country, endeavoring to recover from a general business depression. Until this time Eastford had been quite a manufacturing community, but the building of railroads together with the business depression was caus- ing the gradual removal of manufacturing to points with better trans- portation facilities. The H. B. Burnham Shoe shop building on the site now Barrett's Store burned and was never rebuilt. The Arnold Brothers saw mill and wood working shop, located where the Tatem Manufacturing Company now stands, was closed in bankruptcy.
The Skinner cotton mill on the left side of the street running east from the center and then owned by J. M. Keith was gradually dis- continuing the manufacture of cotton products. Mr. Keith later did wood working and also, there was a grist mill in this building.
In the south part of the town, in Phoenixville, the Harris mill which is still standing and now owned by Mrs. Edith W. Smith and two others, owned by the Latham family also were gradually discontinu- ing operations.
Until about 1880 Eastford had a Savings Bank, which was housed in a small building located just north of the Burnham Shoe Shop site.
There were six general stores, four of which were at Eastford Center, owned respectively by A. M. Bowen and situated at the site
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of O. D. Bowen's Garage - the second owned by Isaac Warren, in the building now owned by E. H. French, and still used by him as a general store. The third in the north part of the house in the rear of what was then the Methodist Church, now Eastford's Town Hall. This store was conducted by Dwight E. Lyon, and was discontinued with the removal of Mr. Lyon to North Windham. The fourth was located in a building which stood where the Eastford Fire Company has now started work on their fire house. This was owned by Foster Deans. This building was torn down and moved to Putnam and erected on Bridge Street. At this same time the house on the site now occupied by Oliver D. Bowen's residence was also removed to Putnam and re- built on Grove Street, Eastford's fifth general store was in Phoenixville and was owned by Simon A. Wheaton. This was located in the large building on the left of the highway running from Phoenixville to East- ford. This building was destroyed by fire several years ago. The sixth, was at North Ashford owned by George Olds, and was in part of what is now the home of M. Darwin Lewis.
J. D. Barrows and Son also conducted a tannery in what is now Ellery M. Bartlett's blacksmith shop building. This establishment also discontinued operations within a few years.
The loss of these manufacturing plants caused Eastford to become largely an agricultural community with products of the virgin forests of the town furnishing material for the manufacture of building ma- terial of all kinds.
There were at least five of these water power mills in operation- one at Phoenixville owned by the late Monroe Latham. This also had a flour and grain mill connected, which also did a thriving business grinding grain and also producing flour for the community. Another of the mills was located about one mile west of Phoenixville on the Bigelow River. This was operated by the late George Walker and his family. The building housing this business has been gone for many years.
Another, all trace of which has now disappeared was also on the Bigelow River on the Westford Road and was owned and operated by A. G. Cheney and Sons. A fourth was about one mile west of North Ashford on Branch Brook and was owned by Ira Morse and later by his son Andrew G. Morse. This mill was on the property now owned by Yale University. A fifth was further west on the Bigelow River on the Ashford-Eastford town lines. This was run by the Griggs Family.
Portable steam mills owned locally by George A. Keach and Maro E. Lewis, together with several out of town mills manufactured large quantities of lumber and railroad ties. Most of the products of these mills were hauled by horse or mule teams to some eastward point. This also furnished employment for many of the town people.
On the agricultural side of the picture, the Eastford Creamery Company was organized and erected the building just south of the Center (on the Phoenixville Road) now owned and occupied by Ro- bert Froelich. This Creamery did a good business, manufacturing butter and cheese, until about 1900 at which time the Boston milk
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market had taken so much milk from this section that the Creamery discontinued operations.
Except for the first year of its life the Eastford Creamery was managed by Ira B. Cushman, who also had his brothers, Walter and John Cushman associated with him. These men were all expert creamery operators and contributed much to the success of the enter- prise. About 1890 there was the prospect of an electric railroad from Willimantic to Southbridge. This would have run through Eastford and hopes were high that this might restore some of Eastford's lost manufacturing. However, this project was abandoned after some sur- veying had been done.
Some time after this J. B. Tatem and Sons purchased the Arnold Mill property and moved their handle and picker stick manufacturing from Woodstock to Eastford. This brought several families into town filling some of the vacant houses and adding much to general business activities of the town.
This business has expanded through the years until the present Tatem Manufacturing Company is our principal industrial business in town.
During this period the general conditions of the town have greatly improved both homes and other property which are in the best shape in my remembrance. The town has also become free from debt. We have a town hall, a fine Public Library and are now laying aside money each year creating a fund for the erection of a Public School Building.
Our highways, which in my boyhood days were badly rutted and very muddy much of the year are now nearly all hard surfaced and are kept clear of snow in winter so as to be in use every day in the year.
I recall that following the Blizzard of 1888, Eastford was without mail for four days before the roads were cleared enough to allow a horse team to reach Putnam.
The coming of the Motor car and truck with our state systems of improved roads has made great changes in transportation. Any place fifteen to twenty miles distant, and return was about as far as it was possible to travel by horse drawn vehicles, the trip usually taking the whole day. At present this same distance is accomplished in a fraction of time by motor car or in still shorter time by airplane.
The making of electricity available to so many rural communities in our state has brought into rural homes many conveniences, which a comparatively short time ago were available only to larger com- munities. All these conditions make possible the present trend to both business and families back to the country.
This movement is sure to make the rural town like Eastford con- tinue to improve during the coming years.
Wm. S. WARREN.
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Dear Mrs. Latham :-
Here is a family which left Eastford (or what was then Ashford) about a century ago; I mean those bearing the name Havens.
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