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Matth. Allyn, John Moore.
The outcome of this matter is shown in the following "Act of the General Assembly of Connecticut incorporating the West Division Parish":
The General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut, holden at Hartford the 10th day of May, 1711, upon consideration of the petition of the West Division farmers in the town of Hartford presented to this Assembly in October last and referred to this time, and of the report of the committee then appointed to consider their case which was now laid before this Assembly, and also of the objections made against the said petition by the said town of Hartford, this Assembly do now grant to the said farmers the liberty and privilege of being one entire parish and society by and of themselves within the said town of Hartford, for the settling, upholding and maintaining of the public worship of God amongst them with all such liberties, powers and privileges as
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
other societies and congregations in this colony generally have and do enjoy by law; and that the bounds of said parish or society shall be the town of Windsor on the north, the town of Farming- ton on the west, the town of Wethersfield on the south and the east end of the said West Division lots on the east, provided always that no person that is owner of any land within said bounds and doth not dwell there shall or may be taxed or rated for his said land for or towards defraying the charge of the said Society.
Thus began the corporate organic existence of the community known at first as the West Division Parish and in these later years as West Hartford. Its subsequent development and worthy history justify the assertion that the act of the General Assembly in 1711 was wise and beneficent.
In 1712 the people erected their first "meeting-house." It was a very plain, moderate-sized structure, with a steep roof and without steeple or tower, in accord with the general character of the church buildings in New England communities at that time. No representation or description of it has been preserved. Doubtless it was built to a large extent by voluntary contributions from the people of material and labor, and as they were able to make them from time to time, consistent with their home duties and labors; and so several months must have passed before it was ready for occupancy. It was located on the section originally known as the Pantry Lot in the central part of the West Division, and on the west side of the road which extended through the di- vision from north to south, now known as West Hartford Main Street. In the action taken in respect to the laying out of that road it was stated that a wider space should be allowed at that point. This first church building stood just east of the present location of our Town Office Building.
On the twenty-fourth day of February, 1713, a church was organized with twenty-nine members as follows:
David Ensign, Sr.
Mrs. Abraham Merrill
Thomas Olmstead, Sr. John Peck
Samuel Kellogg
William Parsons
Mrs. Samuel Kellogg
Mrs. William Parsons
Samuel Sedgwick John Adams
Mrs. Samuel Sedgwick Thomas Cadwell
Mrs. John Adams
John Watson, Jr.
Mrs. Thomas Cadwell
David Ensign, Jr.
Mrs. David Ensign, Jr.
Thomas Shepherd William Gaylord Mrs. William Gaylord
John Webster
Jacob Merrill
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
Joseph Gillet Nathaniel Arnold Mrs. Nathaniel Arnold
Mrs. Jacob Merrill
Mrs. Consider Hopkins
Widow Bull
Abraham Merrill
This was called the Fourth Church of Christ in Hartford. It is now known as the First Church of Christ in West Hartford.
The boundary lines of the West Division Parish as it was in the beginning were not in all respects those of the West Hart- ford of today. As early as 1732 some of the residents of Farming- ton who lived in the northeastern part of that town and west of Mountain Road petitioned the General Assembly asking to be set off to Hartford. They gave as reasons for making this request that the distance from their homes to Farmington Center was too great and the way over the mountain was difficult, and that they found it more convenient to attend church in the West Division.
Their petition was not granted, and again in 1798 another petition of the same nature met with a similar fate. They were persistent however in their desire and efforts, and in 1830 the › General Assembly acted favorably in response to a similar peti- tion. An act was passed setting off from Farmington to Hartford all the territory now embraced within the limits of West Hartford west of Mountain Road, as far south as the middle of Mountain Spring Road, to the foot of Selden Hill, thence southerly on the west line of Darius Woodruff's farm at the foot of Selden Hill.
This accession of territory for some reason did not include the section known as Selden Hill, but twenty years later, 1859, after West Hartford had become a separate town, this section was included in response to a petition signed by Hezekiah Selden and others, in which the statement was made that the families resid- ing there were closely affiliated with the people of West Hartford in social relations, church privileges, and public school accommo- dations. The General Assembly passed an act setting off from Farmington to West Hartford a tract of about three hundred thirty acres of land with several residences, and the people re- siding there, establishing the western line or boundary to extend southward from a point on the western side of the present Reser- voir Number One, or where the boundary line west of Selden Hill is now.
The eastern boundary of the sections of the West Division as they were laid out in 1674 was the Common. When the Com- mon was later divided into sections or lots, some of those lots became a part of the West Division and others were a part of Hartford. So a new boundary line had to be established between Hartford and the West Division. The description of that bound- ary as it appears in the old records is as follows:
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
"Beginning at a stake and stones in the dividing line of the towns of Hartford and Windsor, thence running a course due south 180 chains, to the south side of the Talcott Mountain Turnpike road, at its intersection with said line, thence running on the same course 54 chains 68 links to a point on the west side of a highway, a few rods north of the dwelling house of Levi Arnold, thence south 20 degrees, west 37 chains, 40 links, to a maple staddle on the north side of the road called Middle Public Road; and on the west side of said dividing line the whole dis- tance from the Talcott Mountain Turnpike to the last mentioned course to the dividing line between the towns of Hartford and Wethersfield."
The stake and stones have been replaced by a more substan- tial monument. The dwelling house of Levi Arnold, which was probably near the northern boundary of Elizabeth Park at Asylum Avenue, is no more, and the maple staddle has disap- peared; but the "ancient highway" still exists as Prospect Avenue, and the boundary line thus established many years ago is practi- cally the line now between Hartford and West Hartford.
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
SEPARATION FROM HARTFORD
The spirit of independence which characterized the early inhabitants of the West Division in seeking for a separate cor- porate existence in 1710 evidently was not fully satisfied when they were granted the right to have an ecclesiastical society.
As the population increased and the public interests of the community became of greater importance, the desire for a more complete separation was manifested. As early as 1792 the people of the West Division were anxious to be a town separate from connection with Hartford. At that time they appointed Noah Webster, Caleb Perkins, and John Whitman to act as a committee to make application to Hartford for permission to be set off as a separate town. They evidently desired, if possible, to secure the approval of the people of Hartford before proceeding to action by the General Assembly of the State.
Their effort was futile, and in 1797 it was unanimously voted by the people of the West Division "to be separated from the city of Hartford and the Town Plot, provided it can be obtained from the General Assembly, together with a certain tier of lots of land with the inhabitants thereon living in the bounds of Farmington belonging to the Society of the West Division for Society pur- poses." Evidently the inhabitants "living in the bounds of Farmington" were those residents of Farmington living west of Mountain Road who attended the church in the West Division and were taxed annually for its financial support. Nathan Whiting, Thomas Goodman, and Timothy Gridley were ap- pointed to serve as a committee to carry a petition to the General Assembly the following October. It was also voted to obtain from Hartford their approbation of this proposed action. By this action they showed a disposition to give Hartford people full opportunity to exercise and manifest a spirit of unselfishness and generosity with reference to the West Division people.
These petitions and efforts on the part of the people of the West Division were unsuccessful until the year 1854. At that time a petition was sent to the General Assembly at its May session in New Haven which resulted in favorable action. The following reasons were given in the petition: It was stated that "the West Division embraced territory six miles in length, and four miles in width, that it had a population of more than twelve hundred persons and taxable property of more than $20,000 in value, and that the community, in all important particulars, ex- celled the census of a large proportion of the towns of the State .*
*There were at that time 150 towns in the State. Of this number, 80 had a population of less than 2,000 each, and 49 had a grand list of less than $20,000 each.
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
The inhabitants were subjected to many inconveniences and embarrassments on account of their present connection with the town and city of Hartford and their property and privileges would be essentially favored by the separation of said Society from the aforesaid town. Therefore they pray Your Honorable Body to set off the Parish of West Hartford as a separate town under the name of West Hartford with the ordinary corporate liabilities and powers of a town and entitled to one Representative in the General Assembly of the State."
This petition was dated at West Hartford April 17, 1854. If the whole truth were to be told in respect to the desire of the people of West Hartford for a separation from Hartford, it should be stated that there were ambitious politicians who felt that the West Division was not properly recognized in the choice of town officers and in the selection of candidates for representatives in the General Assembly.
The petition was signed by the following named residents of the West Division:
Solomon S. Flagg
Lyman Hotchkiss
Roderick Colton
David Selden
Chester Faxon
Oliver E. Barnes
Orin H. Dudley
Johnathan Butler
George Butler
Nathan Butler
Alfred Bunker
Samuel Whiting
Elihu Barber
Thomas Lamb
Joel E. Rood
Eber Gridley Orin Elmer
George Flagg
Lucius Elmer
Austin Flagg
John H. Steele
John Flagg
James Flagg
George D. Gates
Milton Braman
J. G. Webster
Elizur Roberts
Elliott Millard
Chester Francis
James Whitman
Samuel Whiting, Jr.
Amos Braman
Charles Malona
John Selden
Edward Stanley
Josiah W. Griswold
Charles Ramsay
Truman Stanley
Oliver S. Elmer
Elam L. Tuttle
Chauncey Reed Asa Goodman
Joseph Bishop
Ralph Flagg
Roswell Hurlburt
Luther Harris
William H. Seymour James Talcott
Joseph Talcott
John B. Griswold
Emerson A. Whiting
George Wells
Frederick J. Butler G. A. Hollister Sylvanus Moody
Winthrop Callendar
Sherman Goodwin
Gurdon Flagg
Virgil Woodford
Theron Millard
HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
11
Samuel Benedict Willard Gladding Edwin Roberts Asaph Deming
Eunice Olmsted M. N. Morris Frederick Hubbard Thomas Belden
John M. Belden
Josiah Raymond
Patrick McCabe
Myron W. Luddington
Elizur Keney John Whitman
Rufus Keney Samuel Whitman
Chester C. Goodman
James B. Deming
Frederick Brace
Julius W. Deming
Henry E. French
Allan S. Griswold
Henry A. King
Milo Bissell
F. L. Olmsted
Charles F. Rathbun
B. S. Bishop
Benjamin Bishop
Edmund Dart, Jr.
Jedediah W. Mills
Charles S. Mills
John C. Mills
R. G. H. Cone
George W. Buckley Daniel Spaulding Samuel Root
Silas Hurlburt William Capron
William Dickinson John Brady
Zephaniah Alden
Samuel Huntington Nelson Sperry
Joseph Elmer
Benjamin Hodge
George A. Brace
James W. Gladding
Amos Hurlburt
John Benham
Orson S. Cadwell
Solomon Dunham
Benjamin Dart Chester Griswold
Childs Goodman
Lucius Gaylord
Patrick Martin
Homer Wells
B. Frank Bissell Thomas Brace Allyn Burr
Orange C. Butler Blinn Francis
Oliver S. Deming Sherman Steele
John Reynolds Chester Elmer John C. Parsons Allen Whiting
Justis Elmer
John McLean Jason G. Shepard
Henry Kimberly
George N. Whiting Dan L. Woodford George North H. D. Rice H. E. Billings Thomas O. Goodwin Josiah Briggs Charles W. Goodwin
Leander Smith
Robert Holburn
Chester Colton Joseph F. Hillhouse Samuel Hurlburt Hezekiah Cadwell Andrew Hale Asher Isham Henry Foster
Benjamin Withey George Flagg, Jr. Edmund Dart David Stoddard
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
While this long list of names represented prominent families residing in all parts of the town, it appears that there were other residents who were not in favor of the movement for a separate town. A remonstrance to this petition was presented to the General Assembly stating "that every additional town in the State increases membership in an already overgrown House of Repre- sentatives; that the number of inhabitants in the proposed new town is not sufficiently large to warrant the granting of the petit- ion; that the business intercourse of the inhabitants of said town territory with the present center of business of the town of Hart- ford is so constant and regular that it is much more convenient to transact town business as at present than under any other ar- rangement; that the necessary indebtedness for roads, bridges, and other town charges in the new proposed town would greatly increase the taxes of the people therein. For the foregoing, and many other reasons, the undersigned pray that the petition be not granted."
(Signed)
Benjamin Gilbert
Charles G. Arnold
Henry Hastings
Benjamin B. Hastings
Sherman Kimberly
John Seavey
Horace K. Seymour
Mason Seymour
B. W. Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
P. G. Parsons
Ebenezer R. Hall
Pollard Merrills, Jr.
Perry Case
Daniel Hubbard
Henry Mix
Ebenezer Bevans
Oliver Stanley
Austin Cadwell
Oliver Cadwell
Walter Cadwell
Moses Smith
George Steele
Edward Steele
L. G. Harrinton
Morgan Goodwin
Edwin Brace
Thomas Montgomery
William H. Cone
Timothy Stevens
Emerson Burr
Franklin Sisson
Thomas Wells
George W. Cadwell
Seth Kenyon
Charles Wells
Sidney Wadsworth
Daniel H. Teft
M. B. Griswold
Samuel Root
Henry Buckland
George Wells
John Tuohey
Timothy Sedgwick
Philip Corbin
James M. Cadwell
Griswold Francis
Rufus Wells
Henry K. Moore
Edward Kelsey
John Cannon
Aralgie Newton
Goodwin Steele
Alfred Whiting
Edward Brace
Festus Higley
Lemuel Caswell
Hiram Webster
W. B. Crane
Revillo Hubbard
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
Harvey Goodwin
James B. Hurlburt
Joseph Davenport J. F. Phelps
Edwin H. Arnold
Edgar H. Seymour
Nathan Gilbert
Augustus Hamilton
O. A. Palmer
George S. Merrils
George H. Mix
George Cadwell
Elizur Cadwell
Julius Steele
Joseph B. Wheeler
Owen Goodwin
Philo Smith
E. W. Caswell
Joseph Sisson
John H. Seymour
Caleb Teft
Edwin Caswell
Uriah T. Cadwell
Reuben Hamlin
Philo Pardee
Warren S. Crane
F. G. Huntington
Anson Francis Levi Mitchell
John Fish
James Riley
George Giddings
Ralph G. Wells
Stephen Sedgwick
The petition was favorably considered by the General As- sembly, and on the first Wednesday of May (May 3) 1854, an act was passed declaring that "all that part of Hartford which is now included within the bounds of the Ecclesiastical Society of West Hartford with the inhabitants residing therein be, and the same is hereby incorporated into a separate town and by the name of West Hartford with all the privileges and immunities, and sub- ject to all the duties and liabilities of other towns in the State, with the right to send one representative to the General Assemb- ly; and said town shall be a part of the probate district of Hart- ford and of the First Senatorial District of the State."
My home at that time was on Farmington Avenue (then called Farmington Turnpike) at the point which is now the corner of Sherman Street. I chanced to be in the yard in front of the house with my father in the afternoon when some of the citi- zens of West Hartford, who had been in New Haven anxiously waiting for a decision by that body in regard to their petition, passed the house on their way to their homes in West Hartford, and I heard them shout as they waved their hands, "We've got it ! We've got it !"
As soon as the people of West Hartford had received the good news, they gathered in goodly numbers on Goodman Park and proceeded to celebrate the event by marching through the princi- pal streets, bearing banners and under the leadership and inspira- tion of a drum and fife corps.
The act of The Connecticut General Assembly incorporating West Hartford as a separate town in 1854 authorized Solomon S. Flagg, whose name appeared first on the petition of West Hart- ford people which had been presented to the Assembly, to issue
Nathaniel H. Whiting
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
a call for the first town meeting, to be held in June of that year.
The meeting was held at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of June 19th in the old Vestry located on the southeast corner of Farming- ton Turnpike and West Hartford Main Street. Col. Solomon S. Flagg was the moderator. The usual officers of a Connecticut town were elected, including selectmen, town clerk, town treasur- er, tax collector, assessors, board of relief, grand jurors, con- stables, sealer of weights and measures, fence viewers, pound keepers, haywards, etc. The first business to be transacted in addition to the election of the officers was to provide for the erec- tion of sign-posts in different sections of the town as follows: near Capt. George Flagg's house, at the corner near the house of Horace K. Seymour, and near the residence of Seth Talcott. The first mentioned location was at the corner of Albany Turn- pike and West Hartford Main Street, the second at the corner of East Street (now South Quaker Lane) and Park Road, and the third at the corner of East Street, or South Quaker Lane, at New Britain Avenue.
The officers elected at that June meeting were to serve until the following December, when the plan for inaugurating a regu- lar annual town meeting to be held in October was introduced. Col. Solomon Flagg was the first selectman, John Whitman the first town clerk, and Samuel Whitman the first town treasurer.
North
T. R. Perkins
Mrs. Gridley
Hotel
Church
T. Brace
A. Isham
Parsonage
Post Office
Vestry
TURNPIKE
School
S. Brace
E. Olmstead
WEST HARTFORD CENTER June 4-1838
Henry Talcott County Surveyor
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
THE WEST HARTFORD OF EARLIER DAYS
The Center - The contrast between West Hartford Center as it appeared eighty years ago and as it is today is of interest.
Some of the buildings located there at that earlier date still remain, but in changed form and condition. The oldest of these is the rectory of St. James Episcopal Church, which was built in 1758 for Rev. Nathaniel Hooker, the second pastor of the (Con- gregational) Fourth Church of Christ. It originally stood nearer to the street, and had a fine old-fashioned double front door. It has been remodeled twice but still retains, in general, its original features. The brick house north of the Masonic Temple, on the west side of Goodman Park, is also one of the old buildings at the Center. It was originally a single-family dwelling house, and has undergone many changes in the course of the passing years.
The large building on the north side of Farmington Avenue and the west side of Main Street now known as the Town Hall was built as a church in 1834 and was used for that purpose until 1882. Its exterior form and appearance are much the same as when it was used as a church, except that the tower is not as high as formerly. The grounds were originally enclosed on the south and east by an ornamental fence with gateways and along the
ST. JAMES CHURCH RECTORY
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
line of this fence in the yard were fine old maple trees which Mr. Mark Gridley, a farmer residing on Selden Hill, planted about the time the church was built. One of those trees, at the northeast corner of the yard, is still standing and in good condition.
The house on the east side of Main Street owned by Mrs.Susie B. Andrews, which was recently moved to the north to make room for the Bank building, is also old. It was built in 1832 by Elihu Olmsted, the second postmaster of West Hartford, for his residence. The post office was kept in a small, gambrel-roofed building which stood in the corner in front of Mr. Olmsted's house and well out in the street.
Just north of Mr. Olmsted's house, close to the road, was the old gambrel-roofed brick Center schoolhouse, probably one of the three built by the Ecclesiastical Society in 1745, and used for public school purposes until 1865.
OLD VESTRY AND FIRST TOWN HALL
On the southeast corner of Farmington Turnpike and Main Street, opposite the post office and standing on a high bank, was a building known as the Vestry. It was built on the northwest corner of the farm land of Samuel Whitman, grandfather of former Town Clerk Henry C. Whitman, and was practically given by him in 1833 to the Ecclesiastical Society as a site for the Ves- try. The following is a copy of the lease given by Mr. Whitman. "To the persons it doth or may concern - Know ye that I Samuel Whitman of Hartford in the County of Hartford and State of Connecticut for the consideration of fifty cents a year do lease for eight years to John Belden, Ralph Wells, J. W. Mills, Al-
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HISTORY OF WEST HARTFORD
bigence Scarborough and others, the present standing Commit- tee of the Congregational Church in Hartford West Society and their successors in office so much of the northwest corner of my lot near the meeting house in said society as shall be necessary for the erection and convenience of a building to be used for a vestry and other purposes under the direction of said Commit- tee."
This plain, one-story building was used by the church for holding the sessions of the Sunday school, the weekly prayer meetings, and the business meetings of the Society. Occasional- ly it was rented for other purposes of a public nature. When West Hartford became a town in 1854, the selectmen made ar- rangements with the Society for its use for town meetings, cau- cuses, political rallies, etc. In 1863 the town purchased the build- ing, and it became the first Town Hall in West Hartford. It was continued as such until 1881 when it became the property of the Ecclesiastical Society again and, with adjoining land, the site of the new stone church building.
South and east of the Vestry were the horse sheds, where the teams in which the people from different parts of the town came to church on Sunday were housed during the services. Each shed was divided into sections or stalls, and each section was owned by some individual or family. As these sheds were not always kept in good condition, and as tall burdocks and other weeds were allowed to grow around them and around the Vestry, that corner at the Center did not add to the attractiveness of the locality. On the eastern end of the southern row of horse sheds and a little south of it was a small building with double doors in front, where the one-horse, plain, sombre black town hearse was kept. There were other horse sheds south of the church at its west end and in the back yards of Elihu Olmsted and Thomas Brace. For the use of those who did not own or rent sheds, there were rows of hitching posts all about.
On the north side of Farmington Turnpike just east of where the Baptist Church is now located was a tavern. When Farming- ton Turnpike was opened in 1800, it ran through the farm of Walter Deming west of the Center. Mr. Deming built the tavern on the northeast corner of his land soon after the road was opened. At a later date the tavern came into the possession of a man who was a degenerate descendant of one of the early families of the town, and under his management it became a disreputable place. Some of the good citizens of the town, desiring to preserve the moral character and condition of the community, raised a fund and commissioned John Whitman to act as their represen- tative and purchase the tavern. This was done. The premises were sold a little later for á private residence and continued as such until sold in 1857 to the Baptist Church as a site for a church building. For about a year the public services of the church
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